Borrowing terminology from track and coaches, most field and court sport athletes rarely get to maximum velocity. Most field and court sport athletes do not get the chance to run in a straight line for 40-60 meters to get to maximum velocity. This means that a lot of our sprint training should be focused around getting athletes fast at short distances. This post will present some ideas for doing that, future posts will expand on these.
Some area tools for developing short distance speed are:
1. Short sprints: IF YOU WANT TO GET FASTER AT SPRINTING THEN YOU HAVE TO SPRINT. There is no substitute for this, it is the most important component of your speed work. For court and field sport athletes we’re talking about mainly 5-20 yard sprints with some 30-40 yard ones thrown in.
2. Resisted starts: This helps to reinforce making the first step explosive. Resisted starts could be with a partner in front of you applying pressure to your shoulders, a partner behind you with a towel around your waist, all the way to using belts or sleds.
3. Resisted sprints: Applying strength training to sprinting. To a point this will improve speed, but too much resistance creates bad habits and is counter productive. Could be done using a sled, a tire, running uphill, running with a partner connected via a belt, and even using a parachute.
4. Bounds: When we are trying to improve short distance sprinting, bounds should focus on horizontal distance – not height. So, how many foot contacts over x distance? Great, now let’s try to reduce the number of foot contacts covering that distance.
5. Horizontal jumps: Standing long jumps, triple jumps, and hops are a great supplement. Sprinting is about exerting force in a horizontal direction, horizontal jumps teach this!
6. Medicine ball throws: The forward toss and exercises like this also help to teach the horizontal application of force, so they are great exercises to include.
7. Maximum strength and power: Strength and power are important foundational abilities for just about everything in sports, so it’s important to develop both.
Wait, where are the technique drills? These drills are great for warm ups, but your focus needs to be on the seven things covered above. The truth of the matter is that the most effective program will address each.
