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The social media landscape today is crowded with a bevy of accounts that complicate youth development and training. Whether their young clients are on the pitch, on the rink, in the outfield, on the court, or on the course, their skill work is far from simple. Youth soccer players tap their feet through ladders while dribbling the ball. Youth lacrosse players juke through agility rings while tied to a resisted cable. Embellished with fancy equipment, an assembly of cones, ladders, hurdles, and bands, and hype music as the backdrop, the content makes followers “ooh” and “ahh.”

Gone are the days when we see a trainer break down the intricacies of pitching form over and over again, so a young athlete truly learns the motor skills behind it. Gone are the days when we see a trainer break down soccer shooting technique with repetitions on both the dominant and non-dominant foot. Gone are the days when people are out there in the trenches, coaching their tails off and being instructors of skills. While there are many coaches who still do this, we simply do not see it. What we see is a circus, and instead of making kids players of their sports, people are making them puppets of social media.

The beautiful simplicity of sports is waning, the good old-fashioned art of coaching is being lost, and the craft of teaching is becoming the art of marketing. While everyone provides an exuberant and electric atmosphere in their training sessions, they fail to develop the physical and technical piece for their players. Kids are becoming worse at their sport and more susceptible to overuse and compensatory movement patterns due to social media sensationalism.

For youth development and training on social media, I do not want to see something sensational—I want to see something applicable, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

To that end, I do not want to see something sensational. I want to see something applicable. I urge people to sit back and observe, to ask questions, and to inquire why kids are being put through certain drills. This is not to say that everything you see on social media is “wrong,” but it is fair to ask what the purpose of a training session is, and what skill is being taught to a child athlete.

None of this is to say that complex skills training is not valuable. To progress athletes, skills training does have to be done in a spontaneous and uncertain environment, especially under defensive pressure. When kids progress to higher levels, fancy, creative, and sharp moves become paramount, but we need to allow kids to focus on just the skill first so their nervous system learns it, can apply it, and can execute it in a game setting. This means the added noise of the gym equipment has to go.

Alas, coaches and parents who truly want their kids to learn the game, and optimize the physical and technical pieces, should know that it is critical to separate the two. Truly, the physical component is also a skill, and it takes a trainer to break it down with painstaking detail in a separate gym environment.

What does physical training encompass?

• Speed
• Acceleration and deceleration
• Change of direction
• Strength
• Power
• Mobility
• Stability
• Flexibility

More often than not, the physical components happen off the ball, and these are some of the most magical moments of sports. This could be making a diagonal run onto a through ball, jumping for a header and scoring off of a corner kick, transitioning up the court as fast as possible, performing a rapid cut to get open for a teammate, or making a fast crossover step to steal a base.

Even when the ball, puck, bat, or club are involved, the technical skills are not optimized unless the athlete has the strength and power beneath them. Not only does this allow for a cleaner and smoother execution of the skill, but also a more powerful and explosive one.

Shooting in soccer, for example, is part technique, part leg power and strength. If the athlete cannot use the hip flexor muscles through their full range of motion, stabilize their core, extend their posterior chain, or balance the plant foot, then technique will suffer. It does not matter how many shooting clinics a young athlete signs up for, how many repetitions they do on their net in the front yard, or whether they have the best shooting trainer in their area, they need the strength to give all of this a boost.

Having a strong follow-through for a shot in lacrosse is similar. Without the chest and shoulder strength, the shot won’t be the strongest it can be, and if the hips are not tied together with the anterior core and upper body, a lacrosse player does a disservice to their technical follow-through on the shot.

Pitching in baseball is another one for which people exclaim, “You just need more pitching training!” While we cannot discount pitching technique, as it is one of the most meticulous skills that needs coaching, we have to remember that pitching speed does not increase from constant wear and tear due to endless repetitions. Rather, the speed is a result of shoulder mobility, arm strength, and rotational power through the core.

Video 1. Rather than athletes repeatedly practicing sport-specific skills, they benefit from strength work such as these med ball slams, which help develop rotational power through the core.

Too many are still not convinced and will say that athletes need to load their sport-specific skills to a faster pitch, a stronger shot, or a more powerful swing. Whether this is tying a resistance band to a pitcher, giving a soccer player a weighted soccer ball, or making a tennis player play with a heavier racket, this all becomes problematic for motor learning.

The issue with adding load to skill-specific work is it trains the neuromuscular system to not go through full range of motion and technique, and it can cause the compensatory movement patterns that lead to the overuse injuries in young athletes today.

Adding load to skill-specific work trains the neuromuscular system to not go through full range of motion and can cause the compensatory movement patterns that lead to overuse injuries. Share on X

Please spare the kids the resisted shooting drills and get them in the gym to work on strength, power, balance, and mobility as a separate piece. For starters, exercises like single leg deadlifts, Pallof presses, medicine ball throws, and split squats will ensure kids develop their kicking power, and polish technique as a nice by-product.

Video 2. Exercises such as the goblet split squat help athletes develop their kicking power, and they also help polish technique.

Video 3. For a skill like lateral power, athletes need to develop the foundation of frontal plane strength with proper posture, core stability, and hip mobility in the gym.

An athlete can’t home in on any of this if the ball or skill work are in the picture. Truly, strength and power training are pieces that must be hammered home with attention to detail and form. Once gym work is done, over time the skill piece organically becomes more robust.

Video 4. This is an example of how lateral strength and power contribute to the soccer-specific skill of 1v1 jukes and fake

Building strength requires loading the body over time and progressing under a plan that tweaks sets and reps each week, so kids raise the intensity over time. To that end, a youth athlete can only perform lateral plyometrics over and over again until the volume is too much wear and tear on their body. A young athlete can only perform ladder drills over and over again until the repetitive movement of small steps is not enough to really teach acceleration and sprinting mechanics.

Taking the conversation further, what about skills like speed and acceleration? People are right when they say kids must learn these with sports skills because these do happen with the ball, and this is something we should be cognizant of when programming training sessions. Even beyond speed and acceleration, game-specific conditioning is important if we want to add the cognitive piece to training. This can be done through the programming of small-sided and large-sided games, various pitch dimensions, and work-to-rest ratios to elicit a game-like conditioning effect.

People are right when they say kids must learn speed and acceleration with sports skills because they do happen with the ball, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

However, speed and acceleration without the ball are totally separate skills than with the ball, and we must be aware of this, too. In team sports, players do work both on and off the ball, so we have to address both separately.

For something like acceleration, without the ball, players drive their knees up higher for a more explosive “first step,” extend their rear leg further for aggressive steps, and throw their arms back aggressively for optimal acceleration to occur. If you are still skeptical, Video 5 showcases the vast difference between acceleration with and without the ball:

Video 5. Acceleration with and without a ball are two totally separate skills for an athlete to learn.

My guess is that coaches of team sports want their players to move fast off the ball, too. In soccer, players have the ball at their feet for a major percentage of the game, so it is these moments we want to prepare our athlete for. Wins are decided by these dynamic actions, and these are the plays off the ball that make team sports so exciting.

A skill like acceleration can only be optimized if worked on as its own piece—from the technique to posture, arm action to foot placement, total body strength to force production.

Take one of my middle school athletes on her first day of training, for example. She had never been in a physical training environment in her life. For her first session, we went through a detailed session on acceleration form, and I had to break down all facets of the skills. All I accomplished with her that day was teaching her how to coordinate her body properly. If I had thrown her into a multitude of fancy drills with extra balls and equipment, it would have been a disservice to what I was trying to teach, and it would have elicited an awkward neuromuscular response from her with ipsilateral movement patterns.

Video 6. This middle school athlete’s first day of training focused solely on acceleration form so she could learn proper body coordination. I did not confuse her by adding in balls or extra equipment, or even by introducing technique and posture.

Expounding further, we did not even get to the acceleration technique and things like posture, knee drive, or rear leg position. If this does not show how detailed coaching this skill must be, I do not know what does. Throwing the ball in a session like this would have taken away from truly teaching her contralateral coordination, arm position, and how to move her body in a smooth manner.

Eventually, for a skill as meticulous as acceleration, I would take it further once coordination is mastered, and begin to work on posture, ball-of-the-feet loading, and arm placement. And of course, underneath all of the acceleration technique is a strength training program that progresses posterior chain strength in the hamstrings and gluteals.

It is important for coaches to be clear about the purpose of their sessions, what skill they are training, and what type. Is it physical or technical? Is it fast dribbling? Is it first touch? Is it shooting? Is it throwing? If physical, is it strength? Is it linear change of direction? Is it acceleration? Is it athletic stance and change of direction?

Simply telling an athlete how to get into athletic stance will not necessarily fix the skill if they do not have the strength to move into the position, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

Athletic stance is another physical component that, once nailed down, only boosts sport-specific skills, like cutting, jumping, and landing. Alas, just like the other physical parts, it needs to be taught with painstaking cues, and built in the gym with quadriceps, gluteal, hamstring, and transverse abdominus strengthening movements. Simply telling an athlete how to get into athletic stance will not necessarily fix the skill if they do not have the strength to move into the position. As an example, a teenage female athlete with “knock knees” will need to strengthen her gluteus medius, hamstring, and quadricep muscles to get into a better ankle, knee, and hip position.

Video 7. Players can translate an athletic stance within their sport to be able to absorb force (for injury reduction) and produce force (for speed and acceleration production).

Once athletic stance is taught, athletes can learn the “hip turn” for better retreating and changing of direction to recover from a play. Learning dissociation of the hips is a complex skill that requires full attention and focus from the athlete—awareness of their body, their directional step, and their stance and posture to produce an efficient and fast outcome. Adding on, it requires separate gym training to build their core stability so that their hips have more mobility. Defenders especially benefit from learning a skill like this because they do not have the ball on them, and they need to learn how to retreat as fast as possible when someone blows by them.

Another skill to teach with the underpinnings of athletic stance is lateral acceleration and deceleration—skills that, if not taught properly, can increase the risk factor for an ACL tear. To ensure athletes have stability in their knee, are coaches breaking down form so the ankle, knee and hip joint are together? Are they loading and recruiting the posterior chain enough? And please get rid of the skill work, the added equipment and bells and whistles, so you can address all this with painstaking observation and instruction.

Video 8. Shuffling is a fundamental skill that translates to lateral acceleration and deceleration in team sports.

Coming back to acceleration, doing this in a totally separate session not only allows for the proper breakdown of the skill, but also the proper dynamic warm-up and enhancement of the athlete’s movement quality during the session. This requires an extensive, yet quality, session, instead of a tossed-together session with no purpose.

I urge players, parents, and coaches to continue to ask questions when it comes to player development and to question the idea of “sport-specific” skills training.

The best way for players to get better at their skills is to play more of their sport, spend more time with just the ball and some pressure, focus in on skill work and master it with repetition, and have a coach who breaks down technique into detail.

True mastery comes from tuning into the skill, owning it, and avoiding the distractions. This is possible with an instructor who says no to the social media flash and glitter and simply coaches because they know that is why they are there. Good old-fashioned coaching is one of the best ways to provide our young athletes with the development they need in the technical and physical aspects of a sport.

It is worth reiterating that these are optimized if done separately and, truthfully, by coaches in their respected areas of expertise. Dribbling at speed with the ball is a totally different skill to be taught by the team or technical coach. On the other hand, sprinting at maximal speed on the balls of the feet, knee drive, and fast ground contact are to be taught by the strength and conditioning professional. In order for kids to acquire a skill, specialty teaching is critical, as well as repetition. Sessions do not need to be all over the place for the sake of variety and novelty.

It serves us well to ask these questions if we truly want to work on physical development and skill development:

• What is the purpose of the training?
• What skill am I teaching?
• What is the best drill to accomplish all of this?
• What is the best progression to this drill once my player masters this skill?
• What does my young athlete need?

The last question is an important one because, at the end of the day, we have to give our young athletes what they need—not what the social media world needs nor what our followers need, but what the kid needs to be their most robust and resilient self.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

When tasked with delivering a plyometric plan for athletes, it can be easy for us to slip into a progressive way of programming. The desire today for bigger, better, and more extreme movements in dynamic training is leading us down the route toward a constant need for some sort of statistical progression. Whether that’s the height of a box, hurdle, or jump, we now yearn to continually raise the bar in jumps training (pun 100% intended).

Movements that lack an instant measure of progression often get pushed aside in favor of exercises that are pleasing to the eye and more likely to get engagement on Instagram. Coaches who understand the intricacies of performance in sport know that progression and the constant need for it can have a detrimental effect on athletes.

Movements that lack an instant measure of progression often get pushed aside in favor of exercises that are pleasing to the eye and more likely to get engagement on Instagram. Share on X

Whether your athletes compete in track and field or team sports, you know that a developmental program that spans the playing/competing year can set up an athlete for success. If we enter the year with certain movements and continually progress them until the competitive season, the likelihood is that injury risks will increase, and adaptations will hit a plateau. So why do we repeatedly see plyometrics on this progressive continuum of athletes trying to leap 3 1/2-foot hurdles? In my opinion, this is all due to a misinterpretation of Verkhoshansky and Siff’s Supertraining and a lack of education around locomotive plyometrics.

The Truth About Plyometrics

The name “plyometrics” has always had a slight folklore to it, with rumors about a background in Russian-style shock methods with 3-meter depth jumps and hundreds of meters of hopping and bounding. But from day 1, Verkhoshansky’s “Fundamental Theory of Plyometrics” followed five simple phases that determined an athlete has to land to then take off for the movement to be considered plyometric.

1. Initial Momentum Phase: The body moves due to the kinetic energy produced from a preceding action.
2. Electromechanical Delay Phase: Coined to mean the start of the electrical signal to the start of the mechanical contraction in a muscle. Some may define this phase to include the lengthening of the series elastic component (SEC) of the muscle complex.
3. Amortization Phase: When kinetic energy produces a powerful myotatic stretch reflex. This phase bridges the eccentric and concentric phases of a landing and takeoff.
4. Rebound Phase: This phase marks the release of elastic energy from the SEC, together with the involuntary concentric muscle contraction.
5. Final Momentum Phase: When the concentric contraction is complete, and the body continues to move by means of kinetic energy from the Rebound Phase. This phase will then restart the cycle in preparation for the next movement.

Despite this, there is a lingering fear and assumption that we require a stimulus (i.e., a hurdle) or a selected height to fall from (i.e., a box) to stimulate tissue for an adaptation. Or an altogether incorrect format of jumping—learning how to lift your knees—with static box jumping.

As a high jumper, I spent at least 3–4 years doing plyometrics and never needed a hurdle or platform to create the violent eccentric lengthening that comes with this form of training. Yet, at a similar time during my undergrad, lecturers and coaches were telling me that youngsters weren’t allowed to do any plyos until they reached a certain age due to high injury risks and dangers. Since then, I have always countered this with what I term “locomotive plyometrics” (meaning, any form of dynamic movement that cycles through a landing to takeoff action in under 0.25 seconds).

Locomotive plyometrics allow for an infinite number of movements that create adaptations for the KPIs needed in dynamic sport, says @mcinneswatson. Share on X

I took the term “locomotive plyometrics” from my old coach and mentor, Erik Little, who devised this developmental system for plyometrics over the past 40 years. The system allows for an infinite number of movements that create adaptations for the KPIs needed in dynamic sport, including movements that teach athletes how to deal with overload, velocity, stability, and even mobility. Little designed original categories for plyometrics, and I have developed upon them. These tiers of locomotive plyometrics, along with categories of slower jumping methods, support the adaptational growth between the murky grounds of weightlifting and high-speed training.

Looking back at equipment, I’d be wrong to totally condemn the use of hurdles and boxes for plyometrics. There is a time and place for these types of movements, and it’s at the more elite level. (Although, do not assume that any elite sportsperson can depth jump or leap hurdles, because there is a very small minority that can execute these well.) Our typical human inclination to copy the elite often leaves athletes making many mistakes.

Some common problems are:

1. When trying to leap hurdles, priority #1 is usually to clear the obstacle. In my opinion, landing mechanics should always be your #1 concern, and if you wish to elicit a certain type of landing, then cue it.
2. If you’re going to use hurdles, mini hurdles, or boxes, then create a system that spaces them accurately. Again, this is a huge issue with destroying any specific cue you may want as a coach. Using numerical sequences like the Fibonacci sequence can help to space things with a natural growth of distance. (Note: Use your feet to pigeon-step out obstacles.) Nine times out of 10, obstacles are spaced in such a way that they destroy landing mechanics.

Remedies for issues:

1. Removing obstacles allows much more freedom for movement. This form of training is to teach athletes to move with grace, and gracefulness doesn’t flow in a constraint-based environment.
2. Doing simple things, like asking your athletes to lift their knees as if to leap through hurdles, takes away the dangers of using obstacles, but at the same time can create the potential dynamic landings you may get from hurdle leaps.
3. Finally, the beauty of locomotion-based plyometrics is that they allow athletes to self-select their falling heights—i.e., if I am to leap roughly 30 centimeters into the air, my next landing will have roughly the eccentric landing forces of a 30-centimeter depth jump. This takes away the fear of the unknown and uses a much more natural muscular sequence.

Developmental Tiers of Plyometrics

As mentioned before, the idea that plyos have to be shock-based is a myth. The use of submaximal and lighter versions allows for a greater scope of variation to help with accommodating the diverse needs of multiple sports.

The idea that plyometrics have to be shock-based is a myth. Submaximal and lighter versions allow for greater variation to help with the diverse needs of multiple sports, says @mcinneswatson. Share on X

Categorizing plyos over my years as both an athlete and a coach has allowed me to organize movements into more of a hierarchy for developmental learning. Much like Bondarchuk’s periodization principles, there are foundational general prep movements that realistically never leave your program. The competitive year is then focused on becoming more specific toward the sport—in this case, the specificity from the plyos is the velocity and force of the movements.

Reasoning Behind the Tiers

Note: Using locomotive plyometrics and leg dynamics as part of your programming is a great way to teach athletes how to move, deal with overload, stabilize, and continue the direction of kinetic energy and velocity with grace.

Each tier can range from 1–10 movements (it could even be 50 if you had the reasoning), depending on the level, experience, and phase of the year. These can be a mixture of any of the plyometric movements listed in the key. Think about varying a hop (unilateral—one-legged to the same leg) followed by a leap (two-legged to two-legged) to perhaps give the legs a slight rest and bring variation to the tier. You can determine all variables based on the athlete’s needs, but I note suggested distances to cover below.

Disclaimer: The distances suggested are just recommendations, and coaches are responsible for athlete prescription. You should monitor the volume and intensity of movements for each athlete. As soon as landings become heavy and flat, it’s a case of diminishing returns, and injury risks will start to increase exponentially.

Footwork/Light Tier: 5–15m distance, due to the high number of small landings.

The lighter tiers (or, as I call them, “footwork” movements) are a great starter and introduction to load. They aim to keep GCT short and joints relatively stiff, and the eccentric loading remains low due to them not being maximal. The idea is to create a nice compliant bounce to the movements to enable strong neuromuscular learning to take place. You can prescribe this tier in high volumes, due to its reduced loading. You can also use it as a tool to increase joint stiffness of the lower extremities when the volume of landings is high.

Video 1. Leg Exchanges Plyo. This light tier of “footwork” plyometrics is perfect as a starter to activate for further dynamic work and a great reintroduction to landings when returning from injury. They’re also valuable for learning neural patterns of movements—try these barefoot on grass or on mats to get a good feel.

Keys: Short GCT, low GRF, neuromuscular control, rhythmical landing-takeoff patterns. Stiff joint, little compression, light sensational landing.

Medium Tier: 10–40m, greater distances for bigger movements like hopping and bounding

If anything, our medium tier is the bread and butter of locomotive plyometrics. Although not necessarily maximal, medium tier plyos are still violent due to the velocity of active limb striking. Eccentric GRFs are within the range of hitting over 4–5x BW, while GCT remains very fast.

With the locomotive properties of medium tier plyos, there should be a natural flow and relaxed state to airborne movement, covering ground gracefully. High loading and fast GCT mean that volumes can’t be too high, but they have a place year-round in a program and should be a staple part of keeping general prep fitness up. This tier is a good teacher of typically cyclical movements, with loading and unloading patterns that utilize the SSC.

Video 2. Med Bounds Plyo. Depending on the phase, athletes can perform the medium tier plyometrics on hard tracks/courts or soft grass and mats. If the movement doesn’t flow well, take a step back and slow down the traveling velocity of the movement.

Keys: High speed = short GCT, submaximal GRF, cyclical rhythm. Athletes should seek to cover ground efficiently.

Dynamic/Ping: 5–20m, shorter distances due to fewer landings

The phrase “Ping” is part of the cued terminology used for locomotive plyometrics. It asks for exactly that—a movement where you ping off the floor, being highly reactive and dynamic. You could relate Ping movements with depth jump landings. They are maximal, shock-based, fast GCT, high GRF, and as stiff as possible.

Due to high intensity levels, the volume of Ping work can’t be too high, but a small number of landings can produce good adaptations. When cued for, coaches can ask for maximal heights, distances, and speeds. (Note: This should only be done if the athlete’s landings remain within the Ping parameters. If the GCT is too long or the joint stiffness is decreasing, then regress as necessary.)

Video 3. Ping Leaps Plyo. Use only hard surfaces for this type of work to keep GCT down. Even if jump height and/or distance aren’t great, make sure the emphasis is on being as dynamic as possible (minimal joint distortion—reactive pop to the action).

Keys: High speed = short GCT, high GRF, as reactive and dynamic as possible.

Supporting Methods

Deep: 5–20m, often shorter distances, due to slower-moving velocities.

The Deep tier is exactly as it sounds—movements are much deeper in ROM and joints absorb and flex much more. This is not to say that eccentric GRF can’t be high, but GCTs are likely to be outside of what’s seen as the plyometric realms of less than 0.25 seconds. With this, the coupling of the eccentric and concentric phases is somewhat less effective, and there is an obvious isometric period to deep movements. The series elastic component is not utilized, as is seen in true plyometrics, so the movements become more muscular-focused and the concentric phase is a more obvious push. High levels of stability, through greater ROM, are needed to control posture and alignment when absorbing force in deep movements.

Video 4. Deep Leg Exchange Plyo. This tier is a great tool for recognizing imbalance and a lack of range at a joint. Having an athlete do deep leaps will straightaway test the positive shin angle and mobility around the ankle. This sort of information can collectively help remedy issues that may arise at much faster speeds.

Keys: More shock-absorbing = longer GCT, high stability, greater mobility = deeper ROM, greater postural control.

Locomotive plyometrics can help build a more dynamic and athletic individual and enable coaches to develop a more holistic program, says @mcinneswatson. Share on X

Develop a More Complete Athlete, and Program

This system of tiers for plyometrics has enabled me, as a coach, to employ these types of dynamic movements for all levels and types of athletes. The use of a developmental system provides a platform for athletes to grow year on year and avoid plateaus at certain stages. The capacity for locomotive plyometrics to build an overall more dynamic and athletic individual enables you to develop a more holistic program that hits critical KPIs for dynamic sports.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

For the past three years, I have posted a list of messages that our track and field staff uses to get athletes of other sports to consider joining our program. My friend Tony Holler once told me, “Every high school has a good track team.” I think this is true, but coaches have various obstacles that may make it difficult to form the best track team possible. No matter what our situation is, WE need to be champions of promoting what our sport has to offer.

No matter what our situation is, as track and field staff we need to be champions of promoting what our sport has to offer, says @HFJumps. Share on X

My hope is this article gets shared with as many current non-track athletes as possible. Ideally, one or more points will resonate with them, and they will choose to give track and field a chance. I know athletes who choose to become part of the program at Homewood-Flossmoor High School will reap a lifetime of rewards for their choice, and I feel it would be the same at many programs throughout the world. Here are 11 ways that joining track and field will benefit athletes, no matter what their sport.

Track and field will help you improve the measurable that matters most—speed.

I played football for 11 years. I coached it for five. I never heard a coach say, “Great tackle, but next time, please get to the ball carrier slower.” In the world of high performance, speed is king. Smart track coaches realize the vast majority of events are speed-based (14 of 18 in Illinois) and design training to ensure speed is maximized. This means that, outside of competitions, training is designed around short (60 meters or less) but maximum sprint efforts followed by full recovery.

If your school’s track program has an electronic timing system to time short sprints in practice, there is a high probability the coaching staff values and cultivates speed. Furthermore, when you improve your maximum speed, your ability to accelerate will improve as well. Wouldn’t you like your first few steps in your primary sport to be faster? Get out on the track and fly!

Track and field also improves other important measurables, such as strength.

Are you worried that being on the track will not allow you to get stronger? You shouldn’t be. Knowledgeable track coaches recognize the importance of strength, and they devote time to addressing it both inside and outside of the weight room.

One of my favorite stories which addresses this deals with a former football player at our school. During his freshman and sophomore years, he trained with our football team in the weight room in the off-season. I was able to convince him to come out for track his junior year. About midway through our season, he told me, “Coach, I haven’t been squatting as often as I did during football lifting, but I am able to squat more weight.” I asked him what he was doing more of since he joined track. His one-word answer: “Sprinting.”

One of the most overlooked advantages of sprinting is that it is an incredible strength exercise, says @HFJumps. Share on X

One of the most overlooked advantages of sprinting is that it is an incredible strength exercise. Forces put into the ground when sprinting are between two and five times body weight, on one foot, in a tenth of a second. For a 200-pound athlete, that is between 400 and 1,000 pounds of force! Former NFL strength coach Buddy Morris may have said it best: “Sprinting drives up your weights. Weights don’t necessarily drive up your sprinting.”¹

The reality for most athletes at the high school level is the best strength and speed improvements will come from a program that includes sprinting, jumping, throwing, and resistance training. This will make you a more explosive athlete, which transfers to all sports. Your high school track team has all of this, at a low cost, in a competitive atmosphere!

Your track coaches are the best people in the school to help you improve the most important measurable (speed).

Track coaches have the luxury of not having to worry about game-play strategy, in comparison with a field or court sport coach. Because of this, we get to focus our professional development time on researching how to get people to run faster, jump farther and higher, and throw farther. This not only includes training system design, but also the study of the technique, which allows for better performance in these general athletic movements. Joining track and field will give you the opportunity to become a better-moving human, which you can apply to all land-based sports.

In an effort to keep things real, I will say something that may ruffle some feathers. There are coaches of field and court sports who have every right to discourage athletes from going out for their school’s track team. If I coached football, and I knew the track coach had every athlete start and finish every practice with a 2-mile jog, it would be hard for me to endorse that program.

Joining track and field will give you the opportunity to become a better-moving human, which you can apply to all land-based sports, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Unfortunately, like any other sport at the high school level, there are track coaches with questionable methods. The reasons for this vary, but some items to look for and avoid can be found at the end of Tony Holler’s “Can Your Kid Sprint?” article. I’m proud to say I am part of a program that coaches of other sports should endorse, and I feel that, through the educational efforts of many, fewer and fewer track programs fall in the “discouraged” category.

We don’t just get people faster. Everything we do is tied to enhancing overall athleticism. Higher athleticism leads to greater adaptability.

Yes, you will get faster by joining track and field, and that alone will make you a better athlete. However, another part of this journey involves challenging your coordination. Every. Single. Day. The coordination challenge you will face will be different than in field and court sports. The environment may be less dynamic, but the demand for precision is higher. This will cause you to develop an awareness of your body that you’ve never had before.

In field/court sports, your teammate(s) can bail you out. This doesn’t exist in track and field, and because of that, you will become a better competitor.

You can’t just pass the basketball to your best player and get out of the way. Touchdowns still occur even when a block is missed. Relays are seldom won in track and field if a baton is dropped. When you step up to the starting line, you control your destiny. When your name is called at the long jump runway or shot put ring, you control your destiny. No one else can step in and compete for you. It is you against the world, and this is a big challenge. However, it can bring out the competitor within. Your inner warrior. Not your Instagram persona or your video game avatar—your real-world inner beast mode.

Digging a little deeper into this, the inability to be bailed out either terrifies or excites you. If it excites you, it only makes sense to feed your desire to compete. If this scenario terrifies you, you need track and field to learn how to execute under pressure. It is, without a question, a skill you can develop with practice.

Most track & field events are solo, so when you step up to the starting line, you control your destiny. If this terrifies you, you need track & field to learn how to execute under pressure. Share on X

I know this because I am a person who falls on the terrified end of the spectrum. My genetic make-up lends me to getting overstimulated in high-pressure situations. Growing up, I played whichever sport was in season. There is no question that exposure to situations that demanded execution on the field of play transferred to my ability to execute in the real world.

During the first speech I gave in my freshman year of high school, I shook so badly the audience may have thought I was having a seizure. Now I speak in front of people every day as a teacher and have presented numerous times in front of my peers. I would not have had the courage to do this without the experiences I had in athletics. These types of experiences do not happen in an off-season weight room program—they happen in competition.

There is no substitute for competition, and every event of every meet you compete in is similar to a game-winning drive/possession.

High school football games average 150 plays (including special teams). While there is pressure to perform on every play, there are situations that are more pressure-packed than others. If an offense runs 60 plays during a game, my guess is about 30% carry more weight than others (3rd downs, drives at the end of half/regulation, etc.). However, if the score is not close, the pressure in some of these situations will decrease.

In track and field, every event in which you compete is pressure-packed (event competition opportunities range from 50–200, depending on event participation). Part of this is because you are responsible for your results, as mentioned in the previous point. The other is that your main competition is not an opponent—it’s the stopwatch or tape measure. While you may win some battles against them along the way, you can always make improvements, so your competitor will always win the war. This can be frustrating and humbling, but it’s also an incredible opportunity because it can get you to achieve results you didn’t think were possible!

Many college coaches prefer multisport athletes.

I don’t make it through more than a couple of days without seeing a piece of information that promotes youth athlete participation in multiple sports. This does not mean playing multiple sports at once, but playing different sports throughout the course of the year (think soccer season, basketball season, track season). Creating a broad range of coordinative abilities, which comes from playing different sports, allows for athletes to reach a higher athletic ceiling—a clear desire of college coaches.

Possessing a broad range of coordinative abilities, which comes from playing different sports, allows for athletes to reach a higher athletic ceiling—a clear desire of college coaches. Share on X

Services such as Tracking Football are at the forefront of using data to define athleticism. They put out graphics on a regular basis, such as the one below that shows their athleticism metric (PAI) along with the amount of multisport participation each team has.

Athleticism is important to college coaches, but the intangible it seems most coaches like about multisport athletes is their exposure to competition. College coaches want to know if they are recruiting elite competitors. Playing more than one sport creates more opportunity to compete. An individual sport with a team component like track is a great place for this exposure. Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell summed this up wonderfully at a press conference in 2019:

“You can’t compete in a weight room. You can’t go and compete with a trainer, even though everybody is telling you to go do that. But you can’t. When you’re competing is when you’re winning and losing, and you’re figuring out a way to win. That’s what track teaches. It’s what wrestling teaches you. It’s what basketball teaches you. It’s what baseball teaches you. So, to me, that is a huge piece to our recruiting process because it gives us at least one answer to the intangible that’s really important: How do you compete? How do you act when things don’t go well? How do you respond to adversity? We get to see it live and in color, and those things are really, really important to our staff, at least in our evaluation of a young person coming here.”

By playing another sport, you will have more people in your corner helping you achieve your goals. In this world, there is always room for more support.

Most coaches love interacting with athletes, and when a solid coach-athlete bond is created, it is special. I’ve cried countless tears of joy and happiness with the athletes I’ve had the privilege of coaching. Coaches will do anything to help their athletes in the game of life. Heck, I recently spent a sizable chunk of change on a set of knives I didn’t need to support a former athlete.

Coaches will hold you accountable for your effort on the field/classroom, will provide you with emotional support when you need it, and can be a lifelong resource after you graduate. Don’t we all need another person like this in our life?

You will be coached by the same people during the time of your participation.

Track and field is one of a handful of high school sports that allows you to be coached by the same people each year. Most field and court sports are split into different levels with different coaches. Track tends to be divided by event area. For instance, I work with all of our long/triple/high jumpers, freshmen through seniors.

Track and field is one of the few high school sports where your coach is often the same each year. This creates consistency in your athletic development, says @HFJumps. Share on X

Because of the additional time you will spend with your coach, there is a better chance of a stronger relationship developing. It also creates consistency in your athletic development. The first year is a learning experience for both coach and athlete, but after that, the track coach knows your strengths and weaknesses and can identify the best route to take for you to reach your potential.

You get to practice with freshmen through seniors. This provides numerous opportunities to learn and lead!

One consistent occurrence each year is the current crop of seniors talking about “These freshmen _____.”

• “These freshmen don’t pay attention.”
• “These freshmen are immature.”
• “These freshmen disappear during tough workouts.”

This is always an entertaining situation because it gives our coaches an opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane when the current seniors were “These freshmen.” After a few stories, the importance of being quality role models (the way former upperclassmen were for them) is reemphasized.

As a coaching staff, we constantly remind our young athletes to learn from our veterans. There is also an expectation for our veteran athletes to serve our underclassmen. The first step to this mentorship is treating the underclassmen like gold. Servant leadership is lifelong, and any chance to practice it is a great opportunity.

There is something special about wearing your school’s uniform.

I had the fortune of being able to participate in football (one year) and track and field (four years) at the collegiate level (NCAA Division 3). I really enjoyed the experience, but it just was not the same as the experience I had in high school.

Donning the high school uniform is a culmination of the 10 years of athletic competition you experienced in your community prior to high school. You know everyone on your team. You know a lot of the athletes you compete against. It is a sacred time. I am not saying the college experience won’t be great—it very well can be—but I can say with certainty that it will be different.

Take the Chance and Don’t Look Back

A quote often credited to both Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan is, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” When I was 16, my high school football coach told me, “I want you out on the track running 100s….FAST.” That was all he needed to say.

Little did I know track would end up being the sport I competed in through college, and the sport that I am now about to begin my 17th year coaching. I find it hard to imagine a life where I am not coaching track and field. If I hadn’t been willing to give it a shot in high school, I strongly doubt it would still be a huge part of my life today.

However, this is not about me. It is about you. YOU are the person in charge of defining YOUR high school experience. The best piece of advice I can offer you is to maximize your experience because you do not want to look back and think, “What if?”

Please share this article with anyone who is not involved in track and field. Hopefully, it will get them to consider participating!

Special thanks to Nate Beebe and John Hunter for their assistance in constructing this list and the content within. The same goes to Keith Whitman for his dialogue via social media and specifically point #11.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

References

Morris, Buddy (via @StuartMcMillan1). “Sprinting drives up your weights. Weights don’t necessarily drive up your sprinting.” 3:54 p.m.; 11 Nov. 2016.

Campbell, Matt. “The importance of multi-sport athletes.” Iowa State University. 9 Oct. 2019.

Back when I was in college and studying physical education, I learned a lot about the various forms of locomotion and movement patterns and how to use these patterns to develop movement coordination and capacity. One of the movement patterns was backpedaling. Recently, there has been more discussion about backpedaling, but a lot is getting left on the table, so I want to show you where the gold in backpedaling really lies.

There are three areas I would like to cover in this article. The first is how to train backpedaling in the sagittal plane, or in a straight linear process. The second area consists of adding a transverse or rotational component to going and coming out of the backpedal. The third and final area is how we can redirect or change directions from a backpedal into a forward propulsive or acceleration gait.

Sagittal Backpedal Techniques

I’d like to start off by listing many of the areas that backpedaling improves through its unique biomechanical qualities. While doing so, let me share with you the different strategies of using backpedaling. The first two techniques fall under the sagittal, or linear, backpedal methods.

Compact Backpedal

The compact backpedal is most used in the sport of American football, especially by defensive backs. I call these compact backpedals because the athlete compresses the body downward to lower their center of mass and shorten and quicken their stride pattern in order to redirect the body in an instant.

When an athlete uses a compact-style backpedal, where the hips are low and hinged back, the spine pitches forward so the shoulders and head are over the feet, and the knees and ankles are in a very flexed state, the loading for motion is quite different than forward propulsion.

Video 1. A simple way to see efficient backpedaling is by looking at the feet. Observe how the heel cycles behind the athlete.

This position creates a unique communication of the quadriceps with the Achilles-ankle joint complex. You see, as the knees flex, they force themselves to travel sagittal over the toes, and this requires the ankle to also flex a considerable amount. Okay, stay with me here. Because the athlete is moving backward, the uniqueness of how the backpedal gait organizes itself requires the quads to push the front leg knee into extension (not so different from forward acceleration yet), therefore moving the athlete’s body backward.

The difference in forward propulsion and backward propulsion is in the design of the human leg. When moving forward, the shin angle can push down and back while the knee stays in front of the shin based on the direction of travel. Not so in the backpedal…

When the athlete pushes off with the front leg, because the shin points backward at the start, there is actually more of a pulling action until the shin becomes vertical and all the way through the knee extension as the foot travels in front of the body to finish the push off. It is the quads that are highly active in this pull-to-push action during the compact backpedal.

Video 2. Looking from straight on the torso and head give clues to coaches. Focus on how the athlete is able to balance their body as they travel backward.

So why do I say the quads communicate so well with the ankle and Achilles complex? Well, when the back leg—the one moving behind the body in the direction of travel—goes behind the hips, the ball of the foot touches down, forcing a high degree of ankle dorsiflexion as the body rolls over that foot. The quads are very active in eccentrically and somewhat isometrically controlling the flexion of the knee, so the athlete doesn’t collapse their weight down onto the back foot. This interplay of the ankle being so dorsiflexed and the knee being very flexed creates a big support system of the quads and ankle complex working together. The Achilles senses all of this stress and gives valuable feedback to the CNS on how to stabilize this action.

There is a different communication between the muscle and joint complexes with the other style of backpedal. Let me explain.

Extended Backpedal

The second style of backpedal is what I call the extended backpedal. Its name comes from the fact the athlete stands in a tall posture and, therefore, has more extended joints. Although rarely practiced by coaches other than in backward sprinting, the extended backpedal deserves respect for what it can offer the athlete in critical sporting moments.

Although rarely practiced by coaches other than in backward sprinting, the extended backpedal deserves respect for what it can offer the athlete in critical sporting moments, says @leetaft. Share on X

First, let’s review the mechanics of the extended backpedal.

The athlete starts in a much taller posture, therefore using much longer strides in the gait cycle. Coaches mostly only train this technique as a way to improve posterior chain loading for sprinting, as the action of the hip extension loads the lumbar, glutes, and hamstrings in a unique way. But in reality, athletes often use this tall extended backpedal as a strategy in sporting events.

When an athlete transitions from offense to defense, they immediately change ends of the court or field. If they are one of the first defenders back, they typically take a couple forward acceleration steps to get their momentum started and be in good defensive positioning so the opponent’s fast break doesn’t beat them. Once they know they do not have to sprint to chase the opponent down, they typically perform a 180 and continue moving backward with a tall extended pedal. This strategy allows them to gain valuable information on what their opponents are doing and where they may need to shift their position in order to defend more effectively. Staying tall allows for more speed and keeps their eyesight focused much higher to read the opponent.

Regarding the technique of this tall extended backpedal, there is one very important aspect that athletes must honor to be safe and effective during this backpedal. It is what I call “staying in front of the vertical axis.” So, what does this mean?

Video 3. A natural head is one that looks like it’s part of the entire body and is in concert with the hips. Good mechanics look clean and coordinated, with nothing forced or robotic.

When we backpedal, we do more than just move backward. We rely on our ability to modify our normal running gait mechanics, which is a challenge in and of itself. We create an environment where body awareness and spatial awareness are heightened. And we put our vestibular system on check to keep us oriented in a functional position because we can’t see what’s behind us.

In order to maintain balance while moving, and while possibly accelerating backward, we need to keep our head and shoulders in front of the vertical axis running from the ground up through our body and out to the sky. If we allow our upper body to tilt backward behind this vertical axis line in the direction of the backpedal, we have a difficult time orienting our balance. But if we can keep our head and shoulders slightly in front of the this vertical axis and lead more with our hips—kind of like the compact backpedal does but just not quite as much—we can avoid the feeling of falling backward and maintain our focus on the play in front of us. Also, by keeping our head and shoulders slightly oriented in front of the vertical axis line, we can have better lower body mechanics while striding backward.

When I talk about how the quads and Achilles ankle complex communicate during the compact backpedal, well, the anterior hip and gastrocnemius like to communicate during the taller extended style of backpedal.

If you understand how the knee joint angles affect the activity level of the gastroc’s involvement, you can start to see how the gastroc becomes much more involved in this extended leg style backpedal. On the other end of the leg, and much more proximal, we notice that the anterior hip, or should we say hip flexors, gets placed on a great stretch as the leg moves into hip extension while striding backward. If the hip flexor is being placed on a fairly high stretch because the leg is fairly straight, and there is a fair amount of knee extension upon ground contact, this tells us the gastroc is being stressed to support the stability of the knee along with the hip-quad complex.

From a bottom-up approach, if we have a gastroc muscle lacking flexibility (unable to create adequate dorsiflexion) during foot contact, then the range of motion of the stride will decrease. Additionally, the hip flexors and quads will have not been placed on much stretch, reducing their stability of the knee joint during the ground contact phase.

Regardless of whether the athlete performs a compact or extended-style backpedal, there are always joints and muscle structures that communicate with one another to execute proper mobility and stability.

Training athletes with both compact and extended backpedal styles develops general human movement qualities that will benefit the athlete regardless of sport, says @leetaft. Share on X

I guess we could say that training athletes with both styles of backpedal (compact and extended) develops general human movement qualities that will benefit the athlete regardless of sport.

180 Series – Backpedaling with a Rotation

The second approach to backpedal training I like to employ is my “180 Series.” This consists of the transverse or rotational style of challenging body awareness and spatial awareness.

Although I have many exercises based on goals and specific application to the athlete and/or sport, I will share the two cornerstone patterns in the 180 Series.

Forward to Backward

In this first strategy, the athlete begins by slowly running forward (I train these patterns in a submaximal effort to establish efficiency of patterns) for anywhere between 5 and 10 yards. Once they hit this mark, they quickly perform a 180-degree turn in order to continue moving in the same direction, but now with an extended backpedal technique. So, run straight, hit appropriate distance, perform 180, continue backpedaling…

Video 4. A delayed head turn is part of athletic development for all levels. Delaying the head turn isn’t an excuse to move slowly, it’s more about patient timing.

In order to perform this sequence properly and safely, the athlete needs to keep their head and shoulders slightly in front of the vertical axis upon the turn and into the backpedal. I mention this early as a protective strategy against falling backward or losing control. The athlete also needs to be able to quickly rotate the hips and legs so the heel of the contact leg points as close to backward as possible.

I do not want my athletes contacting with the heel pointing 45 degrees away from the backward direction, for example, as this places torque at the Achilles/ankle, knee, and hip. Certainly, I understand this won’t happen perfectly all the time. I just aim for perfection knowing imperfection will have to suffice much of the time.

Video 5. A full 180 is needed in sports, so it’s important to rehearse a rapid change of direction that is fluid and natural. Athletes need to be able to change their body position while moving in the same direction as well.

Another important mechanical factor to consider is the “clearing out” of the front arm to aid in quickly rotating the body. If the arm delays or “blocks,” the thorax isn’t able to rotate effectively, and this then delays the rest of the chain from the hips down to the legs. To clarify: If I run forward and begin my 180-degree turn to the right, my right arm must “swing back” to open my body to the right, and the left arm follows closely behind to push the thorax around. As this occurs, I now have stability via a stretch/tension of the core musculature to quickly turn the hips and lower body around.

In a moment, I will write about how I use early and delayed head turns to manipulate the turning capacity of the body.

Video 6. A quick head turn is vital in situations that demand a play on the ball or on an opponent. An early head turn is not natural for everyone, but many athletes are able to do it with great mechanics.

Backward to Forward

For the second technique of the 180 Series, we begin the athletes with a submaximal backpedal. At the designated distance—again, 5–10 yards usually starts the turning—the athlete quickly turns and begins moving forward with a slow run.

Moving backward and then rotating or turning to transition into forward moving has different possibilities in the sequencing of upper and lower body turning. It has a lot to do with how the head and eyes are positioned and focused. If the athlete quickly turns their head to locate a ball or opponent that has passed them, it is common to see the upper body rotate slightly quicker than the lower body. Conversely, if the athlete’s head and eyes stay focused behind them—let’s say in the case of a softball outfielder or tennis player moving backward yet focusing on a ball that is still in front of them—the lower body tends to open up first, while the upper body lags behind to help keep athletes focused on the ball. Seeing that I’ve opened this can of worms about head and eye position, let’s continue down the rabbit hole.

Video 7. Many cornerbacks or defensive backs are excellent transition athletes. Those that can move backward into a forward run are excellent defenders in other sports as well, including soccer and basketball.

We know athletes’ movements are driven by task and by the environment they are in. When a player must catch a ball, the footwork is simply the vehicle that allows them to accomplish this task. A small out-of-bounds area near the stadium is the environment they must negotiate to accomplish the task. When training the backpedal via these 180 Series exercises, it’s important we change the stimuli, thereby changing the environment and challenging the task differently.

I use a progression to help athletes learn the difference in how the body gets driven to turn more quickly or slowly based on the position of the head and eyes, says @leetaft. Share on X

To do this, I use a progression to allow the athlete to learn the difference in how the body gets driven to turn more quickly or slowly based on the position of the head and eyes. Here is a simple chart with progression ideas.

In this table there are four different possibilities for turning. The first two are what I described earlier: forward to backward and backward to forward running. The second two teach the athlete to negotiate the “unwinding” of the pattern first performed. So, if the athlete performed a forward run to a turn into backpedal, after a few strides they would turn back the same way (this way they undo the 180 rather than complete a 360) and finish the submaximal run with a forward run. Conversely, they could do the backward to forward and then backward again.

The table has four column headings. The first is “Exercise,” which is self-explanatory. The second is “Natural Action,” which means the athlete should perform the exercise without consciously thinking about how to move the head and eyes—just let it happen. We typically see an athlete turn the head and eyes naturally to orient the eyes so they see where they are going.

Video 8. Timing the head motion while backpedaling is sometimes a matter of trial and error. Allow athletes to experiment when necessary.

The third column title, “Delayed Head Turn,” is often called “Delayed Action.” This is when the athlete performs the exercise but keeps the head and eyes focused on the initial direction of travel until they perform a couple steps once the rotation has occurred. For example, the athlete performs a forward run to a backward turn. As the athlete begins to turn the body into the backward run, the head and eyes stay focused where they started, which is straight ahead. Or the athlete could move backward and rotate to a forward run, but they delay turning the head and eyes until they take a couple steps forward—this is common for outfielders, tennis players, and cornerbacks.

The fourth header, “Early Head Turn,” is pretty much what it says—turn the head early in the rotating process of the body, going from forward to backward or vice versa. This typically occurs when an athlete is beat and trying to recover and close on the opponent or ball.

Video 9. The head is the rudder to the body, and fast turns usually encourage a fast motion later. Use early head turns to drive a change of positioning.

The delayed and early head turn methods force a different reaction in the body. The delayed action puts more stress on the cervical and thoracic spine as the lower body attempts to pull the head and spine around. I find athletes with a limited range of motion in the cervical and thoracic spine struggle to disassociate the upper and lower body with this delayed head action, so it’s a great way to assess an athlete.

The early head turn action feels awesome for the athlete, as it virtually “whips” the athlete’s upper and lower body around quickly. As the saying goes, “the body follows the head.” The discovery of balance resulting from staying on a straight path gets challenged during this early head turn strategy. Once again, it’s a great assessment of an athlete’s needs.

Going back to the table above, I randomly placed a check in the boxes. In the early stages, the athlete should allow the natural head turn to take place while performing all the exercises. This builds the patterning of the rotation. But, once comfortable, they can implement the delayed and early head turns to challenge the general development of these head turn patterns with the body rotating. These head turns also be used specifically to help the athlete attain coordination for a sport.

Backpedal Change of Direction

The third approach when teaching backpedal strategies is to challenge mass and momentum control via change of direction. This is an interesting topic, and it tends to light some coaches’ hair on fire. Let’s get after it!

Regardless of whether the athlete performs a compact or extended backpedal technique, they often read the play breakdown in front of them and must quickly get out of the backpedal and begin to accelerate forward. Some examples of change of direction during a backpedal are a pop fly being shorter than originally perceived or a quarterback scrambling and deciding to run instead of pass, which makes the cornerback break out of his backpedal.

The question that always come up—and let me tell you, there are coaches who dig their feet in on why they feel their strategy is best—is should the athlete perform a “vertical heel” plant or a “T-step” plant. The coaches who dig their feet in for one strategy or the other are both wrong.

Video 10. The T-step is, literally, a pivotal movement strategy for athletes. Here from the side, you can see a great view of the back hip in action.

Let’s go back to a statement I made earlier on how athletes make movements based on the task and the environment. They use both perception of what they see and predictability to recall stored patterns that they have used before in similar situations—this is why experienced athletes move more efficiently in certain situations. Okay, hear me out. The athletes are not consciously thinking of the way they want to position their feet during the change of direction from backpedal to forward or angular acceleration. It just occurs based on perception of speed, angles, task, and ability….

An athlete typically uses a vertical heel position, which means they are strictly on the ball of the foot and the heel is straight up, more in a short, quick backpedal distance where there isn’t much mass and momentum to manage. When an athlete has built up higher speeds, and the momentum is great, it is common to see the athlete use a T-step, which is far more stable and safer due to full foot contact and loading of the hip and core to aid in the stability. I always say that the ankle and hip bones turn together to safely load during the T-step.

Video 11. Viewing from the front, the T-step is a clear movement strategy to generate power with the rear leg. A combination of movement work and weight room strength is needed to redirect speed.

The funny thing is that some athletes use a T-step all the time, while others, but not nearly as many, use the vertical heel nearly all the time. My point is that athletes load and unload the moving human system based on their innate control of their own biomechanical system. We can’t put athletes into a box and say; “You can only do this.” It is a mistake to take this approach.

When we get right down to it, managing a backpedal is about controlling angles, says @leetaft. Share on X

When we get right down to it, managing a backpedal is about controlling angles. We have angles of force application into the ground of the back plant leg. We have angles of the spine and shoulders to control the orientation of posture going in and coming out of the plant. And we have angles of acceleration once we come out of the backpedal break.

The footwork we use is not always a teachable skill, but rather a reaction to the body’s kinesthetic reaction to the moment. This is very important to understand so we don’t train something that isn’t trainable. I don’t mean that we can’t train some of this. I have seen football coaches train cornerbacks by only allowing them to use the vertical heel concept in their controlled drills during practice, yet on game day these same cornerbacks instantly use a T-step to break out of the backpedal to make a play.

Video 12. The final video shows the differences between stepping back and planting a T-step. Notice the difference between a quick backward step and opening up the hip for power.

When coaches don’t understand the interplay of task, biomechanics, range of motion restrictions, strength and elastic capacities of an athlete, and a host of other variables, it forces them to dig their heels into the ground with unfounded information.

What we can teach and emphasize to our athletes during the backpedal is setup, posture, position, and the mechanics of the arm and leg, based on the style of backpedal being used. The backpedal isn’t a skill that most athletes use for long intervals during a single play, but it might mean the difference for being successful throughout the competition.

The backpedal isn’t a skill that most athletes use for long intervals during a single play, but it might mean the difference for being successful throughout the competition, says @leetaft. Share on X

A Strategy for Training and Competing

It’s important to realize that the development of the backpedal isn’t so linear. There are many factors we must consider when building a stable backpedal pattern through various postures and drivers. An example of a driver is the rotational patterns just described in the 180 Series, along with delayed and early head turns. Backpedaling is a strategy to help athletes compete better in their sport, but also a training strategy to bring about various levels of coordination, mobility, stability, and general movement qualities.

I hope this article and the backpedal strategies within it give you a different view on utilizing backpedal training to improve the performance of your athletes.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF