Lee Taft is founder and owner of LT Athletic Consulting. He is considered one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. In the business more than 30 years, he has devoted most of his time to training multidirectional speed in athletes of all ages and abilities. Taft is a sought-after speaker and has produced numerous instructional videos and courses in the area of multidirectional speed and movement training. In addition, he has written several e-books specifically on movement techniques and speed development.
Coach Taft is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA), a certified USATF Level 1 track coach, and a certified Sports Performance Specialist with USA Weightlifting. He has earned a Master of Science degree in Sport Coaching from the United States Sports Academy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education and Coaching from the State University of New York at Cortland. Coach Taft spent the first five years of his professional career teaching physical education and coaching football and track at the high school level.
Lee compares the key differences in training between a track and field athlete, team sport athlete, and court sport athlete. He discusses speed development and how it changes as an athlete matures in their sport. There is great insight into training speed and reactive abilities in multiple sport athletes.
In this podcast, Coach Lee Taft and Joel discuss:
- Training the movement patterns of court and field sport athletes.
- The training age of athletes best suited for sport-specific speed work vs. general prep focus.
- Programming to develop reactive abilities in athletes.
- Games that build reactive abilities.
- Using reactive drills early in the session to make decisions on the direction of training.
- The importance of correct hip height in movement efficiency.
Podcast total run time is 1:00:04.
Lee can be found online at leetaft.com, and he has written several articles for SimpliFaster.
Keywords: speed development, change of direction, reactive ability, multiple sport athlete
