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How does an athlete go about increasing their speed and improving their sprint technique? The most common answer is drills, drills, drills, and then—guess what—more drills! But is spending an arduous amount of time at training, and even in the warm-up before a race, constantly drilling, really the best or only way to improve speed and technique?

Drilling is a genuine endeavor, and indeed, some drills have an effective influence on a sprinter’s max velocity and running form. However, I propose that dedicating a copious chunk of training time and the pre-competition warm-up to drilling is overrated and an over-allocation of time and energy. There are more effective remedies to improving the flaws of one’s speed and technique.

I propose that dedicating a copious chunk of training time and the pre-competition warm-up to drilling is overrated and an over-allocation of time and energy. Share on X

I am a 20-year-old student-athlete from Melbourne, Australia, who has focused on and competed in the 400m as a junior. My biggest junior achievements:

• Making the State U16 400m final at the Victorian All Schools Track and Field Championships, placing seventh in 2019.
• Winning the 400m at the Stawell Gift in 2022—a professional handicapped athletics meet that occurs every Easter in northwest country Victoria.

For the next few years, I am making the 200m my primary focus, with the endeavor of improving my pure speed and speed endurance, eventually making the move back to 400m with my newfound speed.

Now, at the beginning of 2024, with the goal of pure speed in mind and, thus, experimenting in different ways—including doing a copious number of drills—I have developed the personal opinion that drills are not always the golden solution to improving speed and technique they are often portrayed to be, given a lack of transference.

This isn’t meant to demonize all drills, as I do think some can provide a direct transference to max velocity sprinting. When done with high quality, they can directly influence a sprinter’s max speed-associated technique.

Training Movement Quality vs. Going Through the Motions

Drills are thought of as the best elixir for the problems of speed and technique that any athlete—amateur or professional, beginner or advanced—faces when aiming to improve. The general consensus is that “slowing things down” and isolating the necessary areas of improvement via a specific drill will be the best solution to highlight, amend, and eventually put the athlete in a new movement pattern and on the correct course for improvement.

Some examples:

• An athlete may be planting their foot too early pre-ground contact. A variety of dribbling drills—i.e., ankle/knee dribbles—are administered, guiding them away from early plantar flexion and encouraging a more neutral and active foot strike, with the ultimate aim of utilizing the huge elastic qualities of the calf complex.
• Similarly, if an athlete has lagging backside mechanics, “butt kicks” are administered to develop a more efficient leg recovery, improving leg cycle and increasing stride frequency.

Although drills are indeed effective and wonderful for putting specific areas of sprinting into context to improve the athlete’s comprehension of the necessary areas of improvement, athletes and coaches spend too long on drills. Consequently, they do not make the most of training and slow down their rate of improvement.

Athletes and coaches spend too long on drills. Consequently, they do not make the most of training and slow down their rate of improvement. Share on X

Too often, with beginners—or even high-level sprinters already progressed in their careers—coaches point out flaws in their technique when striding or sprinting at 100% max velocity. A quick fix? A long list of drills. For most athletes, these drills are too general, often done either in their training warm-up or before a competition.

Unfortunately, the athlete just goes through the motions with the drills, never having the presence of mind to focus on the necessary areas of improvement. What does it mean for an athlete to go through the motions? It simply means that they complete their warm-up, which remains the same (however necessary to modify a warm-up in training, given a change in the necessary areas of improvement), as if it is a checklist. They view their drills as something they have to do and not something they get to do.

Therefore, it is as if they resent having to do their drills, diverting their attention to the birds in the sky or other people on the track, as opposed to locking in, feeling the movement pattern of the drill, understanding it, and when done, asking themselves how they could have completed the drill better. As such, new athletes do not develop and become rather stagnant and unmotivated to keep persevering in an already frustrating sport. Higher-level sprinters, meanwhile, do not continue their improvement, being unable to conquer the plateau on which they find themselves.

Furthermore, as a consequence of athletes being too conscious of executing the drill correctly and simply going through the motions, drills are simply not effective and influential enough to translate their benefit into 100% max velocity sprinting, where the athlete is not (and should not be) thinking about technique cues and their running flaws. Therefore, it is logical to deduce that drills, especially the universal drills all coaches can easily chuck at athletes (A-skip, B-skip, C-skip, etc.), are not powerful enough to exert real, visible, and tangible changes to an athlete’s running technique and, thus, their speed, which is reflected in an improvement in their running times.

Remember, speed is a skill, and it can absolutely be manipulated for the better, regardless of an athlete’s ‘’natural talent” (which is useless if they are not willing to work), as well as the profound ability of their muscles and tendons—and most importantly for sprinting, their central nervous system—to respond greatly to the training stimulus placed upon it.

Two Drills That Move the Needle

Drilling can be effective at putting specific technique cues into context, but they are not the only solution. Therefore, due to the sheer adaptability of the human body, brain, and nervous system, what are productive remedies to improve an athlete’s technique and speed? Well, there are two solutions: one path is “modified” running, and the other is very specific running drills that closely simulate special areas of max velocity sprinting. When done correctly, these drills are executed at a high enough level of intensity for a true transference to take place, where an athlete will absolutely see and feel an improvement in their performance.

The two drills that have the best chance to transfer benefit are straight leg bounds and the single *fast leg* drill. Share on X

The two drills that have the best chance to transfer benefit are straight leg bounds and the single *fast leg* drill. Why? Well, they most closely resemble the running cycle at maximum velocity and, when performed correctly, are close enough in intensity to 100% sprinting.

So, what are the benefits of these two drills?

1. Straight Leg Bounds

This exercise puts into context arguably the most crucial aspect of max velocity sprinting: at top speed, the majority of the forces produced by the sprinter are vertical, not horizontal; an athlete must exert a huge amount of vertical force under their center of mass, in as little time as possible; and there is almost no horizontal force or pushing at all. So, what does this look like?

When performing straight leg bounds, an athlete learns when to apply force and push (vertically) and when to take their leg off the ground or “ease off.” If aiming to go for distance by trying to “brush” the ground like one would if they were trying to speed up on a scooter, the athlete would lose a significant amount of vertical force, as they would have begun pushing horizontally, putting in too much effort to produce speed for distance. Moreover, they would lose their leg stiffness (the knee should be almost locked out, and the leg movement should come from the hip). Also, braking forces would occur, where the athlete would stumble or even fall over.

I have certainly experienced this myself. Refer back to image 6 of the straight leg bound, the toe-off phase, where, if overstriding continued, the foot would remain flat on the ground, continuing to apply force behind the center of mass, spending too much time on the ground and acting as an anchor, which will limit the athlete’s horizontal velocity. Remember, for the drill to transfer, the athlete must maintain leg stiffness, delivering a huge amount of vertical force in a punch-like manner in as little time as possible.

The athlete should keep in mind that straight leg bounds are most closely related to a modified form of running and not bounds for horizontal distance. Although classified as a drill, the athlete must carry out the drill with max speed velocity and, moreover, quick and powerful vertical force application in mind, as opposed to just trying to cover as much ground as possible with each foot strike.

Furthermore, straight leg bounds are amazingly effective at putting the athlete in the correct foot strike position—maintaining the dorsiflexion position (toes pointed up) right until the very last minute, where the athlete plants their foot to produce a huge amount of vertical force in the first half of ground contact. The best sprinters look like they are almost running flat-footed, as they are extremely good at applying force via a very last-minute plantar flexion. Straight leg bounds rely on the athlete’s elastic qualities, which are more important than the muscular qualities of an athlete at top speed and, therefore, are highly beneficial for improving an athlete’s elasticity in a practical manner that most closely resembles max velocity sprinting.

Lastly, straight leg bounds are the most practical drill given that it is possible to start bounding and then instantly transition into max velocity sprinting, with the aim of maintaining the elastic forces produced from the bounds and correct running technique cues, i.e., correct foot strike and leg stiffness, for genuine transference.

2. Single Fast Leg

The isolation of one leg is extremely beneficial for athletes because it forces them to focus on quickly picking the leg up and ripping the leg back down efficiently while the swing leg is performing a supporting mini straight leg bound. Some of the ways athletes can perform it are:

• 3×6 each leg
• 2×9 each leg

And either:

• a focus on backside mechanics: quick and high leg recovery/fast leg turnover

or

• a focus on frontside mechanics: fast negative foot speed, vertical force application under COM.

Many athletes struggle with a fast, high heel recovery, which limits their potential to have both knees together at initial ground contact (the bare minimum to be able to sprint at a high level). Optimally, the athlete should have their leg recovery straight through under their body and effectively into the “killer” high knee position, where hip, knee, and ankle joints are at a 90-degree angle.

From there, while performing the drill, the athlete can practice the concept of “whip from the hip.” For this, the athlete rips/swings their leg backward, attempting to apply a huge amount of force under their center of mass, where inevitably, the vertical force produced will translate into horizontal velocity. The single fast leg drill is really a “two birds, one stone” scenario, allowing the athlete to practice a fast and high leg recovery—ideally heel to glutes, with the recovery ankle being higher than the stance leg knee—as well as apply a considerable amount of force when the leg is out in front.

Specifically, single fast leg also allows the athlete to develop their elastic qualities, which will enhance top speed and improve neuromuscular coordination with regard to being better able to switch on the extensor and flexor muscles (i.e., knowing when to utilize the hip flexors to raise the leg into the high knee position quickly). Additionally, the drill helps develop the sense of when to utilize the hamstrings and glutes to create negative foot speed to produce vertical force.

An increase in neuromuscular coordination will gradually and inevitably translate into better technique and a higher max velocity. Like straight leg bounds, it is also possible to do single fast leg drilling and transition into upright max velocity sprinting while keeping and maintaining the desired running technique, allowing a transference of proper technique and amendment of technique flaws.

Taking It to the Track with No Arms?

After the execution of both drills, gradual transference is necessary. The most effective avenue to take would be to first do straight leg bounds, then single fast leg, and then follow those with no arms running. The name obviously implies that the athlete sprints without the use of their arms (ideally, hands on hips) at a high intensity.

These two drills have provided the most benefit and transference, especially when done in this order: straight leg bounds, single fast leg, then straight into no arms running. Share on X

What this does is build a bridge between the recently completed drills and the eventually undertaken faster strides and the actual session. No-arms running is extremely effective and beneficial, given that it grabs the benefits from both drills and enables the athlete to enhance them into one single exercise/form of running:

• High heel recovery, high knee lift, vertical force application, knees just past each other at touchdown, and high stride frequency are made all the more familiar for the athlete while undertaking no arms running (ideally 3–4 reps over 30m–50m).
• Later, faster strides should be completed to feel and see improvement in their technique execution and, eventually, top speed.

As a young athlete endeavoring to improve my speed and power, and through much exploration and experimentation, I have found the two drills have provided the most benefit and transference, especially when done in this order: straight leg bounds, single fast leg, then straight into no arms running.

The benefits have been exponential, seeing and feeling plenty of improvement in a short amount of time. Many athletes hit plateaus in their training, and many cannot pull themselves out of the hole. I hope this article and some of the proposed solutions can encourage and help athletes who are finding it challenging to improve and those who feel stagnant.

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

About a year ago, I wrote an article here titled “Redefining Strength: High Force Does Not Equal High Load.” Little did I know then, but that would be the tip of the iceberg for what has ballooned into an entire system that I decided to name the Force System. This system is a compilation of years of learning from various resources and many people much smarter than me. Many of these individuals I’ve worked for or with and communicate with weekly; however, some of this knowledge has been gained from individuals I’ve never spoken to. This is possible because of the ease of access to information on social media and platforms like SimpliFaster.

Another percentage of this system has been born from self-experimentation, asking questions, trying to find answers, and challenging tradition. I’d like to put the disclaimer early in this article that I am not trying to reinvent the wheel; however, I do believe that the elements within this system complement each other in a very powerful way. Allow the Force System to reimagine how we look at sports performance without the reliance on powerlifting, Olympic lifting, or bodybuilding. Elements from each are present, but at a much smaller scale than the average program.

I also believe plenty of elements within this program have been around but are often not utilized to their full potential. Depth drops and overcoming isometrics (isos) have seemed to get the most buzz within this system, but there are many more important aspects that I am excited to dig into in this article. To introduce the Force System, in its totality, it consists of four pillars:

• High Force
• Fast Force
• Slow Force
• Human Force

Each carries its own power to create the highest-performing and most robust athlete possible.

High Force

Tradition says that progression within a training program typically includes an increase in volume or intensity (e.g., total weight). While that creates beneficial physiological adaptations, I always felt that it didn’t best prepare athletes for the physical stressors they encounter in sport. Movements in sport, such as a rapid deceleration, change of direction, or maximal jump, create extremely high ground reaction forces, and you obviously don’t perform these movements on the playing field with a barbell on your back or a dumbbell in your hands.

While typical progressions include an increase in volume or intensity, I always felt that didn’t best prepare athletes for the physical stressors they encounter in sport. Share on X

This led me to a series of experiments. Do traditional movements (squats, deadlifts, etc.) loaded at near maximal intensities produce high forces, or can you manipulate components of the Force equation (Force = Mass x Acceleration) to expose athletes to higher peak ground reaction forces?

Ideally, my goal with this is to increase the magnitude of an athlete’s force production and build resiliency against these high forces they experience in sport. That led me to depth drops, overcoming isos, and drop catches. The initial “Redefining Strength” article focused on this High Force portion of the system (before I even knew there was going to be a system). If you’d like to hear more about my early thoughts and the creation of the High Force pillar, be sure to check out that article.

The first thing I’ll say is there’s a portion of that first article that I now believe to be wrong. I stated: “I believe a belt squat overcoming iso to be the highest force-producing exercise an athlete can perform.” A year later, I’ve found it’s not first or even second in regard to peak force.

To start, the second-best exercise I’ve found when it comes to producing the highest peak force is actually a harness overcoming iso. The harness I use, which I believe to be most comfortable, is the Exxentric Squat Harness. The ultimate High Force exercise—number one on my list—is a depth drop. Since releasing that first article, I have had more time to experiment with the power of depth drops and also collaborate with other practitioners who use them at a very high level.

At Furman University, Matt Aldred has seen his guys hit more than 12,000 Newtons in depth drops: more than 12 times body weight. I can confirm that I have seen the same with athletes and myself. For this reason, depth drops are the king of High Force exercises. While I’ve changed my tune on overcoming isos in terms of their place on the High Force podium, I still utilize them, and they remain a staple of this portion of the system.

The last primary exercise variation is drop catches. Drop catches involve holding a weight (dumbbell, barbell, trap bar, etc.) at the top of the range of motion and dropping and catching the weight at a lower position. This exposes the body to much higher forces than the traditional version of any exercise because of the change in acceleration of the movement. Remember, Force = Mass x Acceleration.

Instead of more weight, the progression is done by increasing force. Share on X

Depth drops, overcoming isos, and drop catches continue to be the backbone of High Force days. They are implemented through a progression that is much different from traditional progressions—instead of more weight, the progression is done by increasing force.

Video 1. Depth drops are the king of High Force. Landing rigid like a statue will increase peak force much more than a compliant, “melting” strategy. If you have access to force plates, try some drops from increasing heights and track your peak force.

It’s also impossible to talk about High Force without including the work that should be done outside the weight room. Damian Harper is one of the leading researchers in the realm of deceleration training. He has shown that, between max acceleration, max velocity, and max deceleration, decelerations produce the highest forces (more than six times body weight). Because of this, the development of deceleration outside of the weight room is vitally important within the High Force framework.

The development of deceleration outside of the weight room is vitally important within the High Force framework. Share on X

While I believe deceleration qualities can be developed within the weight room, putting athletes in positions to actually feel high-level deceleration is essential to realize the adaptations that have taken place in the weight room and to build capacity and performance in this area. I think there is value in the “deceleration drills” that you see plastered all over social media, including a medball chop or a band around an athlete’s waist as they are pulled into a deceleration. However, I don’t believe these touch the GRFs present in the max decelerations athletes experience on the field/court.

I understand there isn’t an objective way to evaluate what I’m about to say; however, I think a game as simple as tag can allow athletes to experience high deceleration forces, and they’ll probably have fun doing it. Fun = intent = higher forces.

Video 2. Tag game with basketball players. There are countless variations that you can introduce, including 1 v 1, 3 v 1, Team Tag, and Sharks & Minnows.

I’ve been asked why this matters. Why is it important to expose athletes to high forces as opposed to just high loads, like in traditional training programs? I have a few thoughts on this.

The first is a disclaimer: I am not throwing out traditional exercises or progressions through increasing intensities. Instead, I am offering a progression from them when an athlete becomes “strong enough”—which, in my opinion, is much sooner than most think. If you’re looking for standards and objective numbers to determine these things, I don’t have them…yet…as it pertains to the Force System. However, individuals like Matt Rhea of the New Orleans Saints have put out some interesting “strong enough” standards in relation to contributions to speed.

My other reason for the importance of High Force training is that it’s what sports demand. While plenty of sports involve trying to move or control another individual’s mass (lineman in American football, MMA, etc.), a lot of the force that athletes experience has to do with ground reaction forces (GRF). Research has shown that triple jumpers can experience up to 22 times body weight on a single limb! (Hay, 1993).

To a lesser degree, I’ve watched my basketball athletes move at full speed on a fast break and slam on the brakes, hit a Euro step, and launch themselves into the air to dunk on an oncoming defender. This in-game action may be impossible to quantify in terms of GRF at this point in time. While different from a triple jump, it’s similar enough to assume extremely high forces that aren’t even touched by traditional movement. I want to use these higher-force exercises to build the capacity to tolerate these high forces in competition and also, when appropriate, move the needle in terms of an athlete’s ability to express even higher forces.

These two things, in theory, should help reduce the likelihood of injury and improve performance. Again, do you replace every movement in your program with a depth drop? No. However, there is absolutely a time and a place and a growing argument that these elements should at least be included if you want to best prepare athletes.

Fast Force

As I began to develop the High Force section of this system, I realized that expansion was needed to encompass all of the aspects of physical development that I find most important. While deceleration fits well into the High Force theme, for the reasons stated in the last section, acceleration and max velocity development fit well in the Fast Force theme.

I would like to mention that I think acceleration AND max velocity speed should be trained, regardless of the sport. I see coaches shy away from max velocity sprinting because it’s not “present in their sport,” but from a general perspective, as my close friend and co-business owner Mike Sullivan says, max velocity sprinting is the most prolific combination of coordination, force, and short ground contacts possible in movement. And, as you’ll come to realize, the Fast Force theme is constructed around these things, along with elasticity.

To most, the concept of elasticity sounds like a cool buzzword to draw attention on social media, but to me, it is much more. Along with linear speed, the other pillar of Fast Force training centers around this ability to build more elastic athletes. This seems, at first glance, to be subjective; however, after digging through force plate data for years, I’ve begun to create models of what depicts elasticity. This involves looking at the change in certain metrics, including time to takeoff, countermovement depth, and braking forces, and noticing the shape of the force-time curve.

From a developmental perspective, I believe elasticity starts at the feet by getting athletes out of their shoes and exposing the soles of their feet to sensation. Share on X

From a developmental perspective, I believe elasticity starts at the feet by getting athletes out of their shoes and exposing the soles of their feet to sensation. I love walking outside on various surfaces and/or using neurospike balls (available on Amazon) to drive tactile stimulation through the soles of the feet. Often, feet that are labeled “weak” are actually just lying “dormant” from a lack of tactile stimulation. Next, I think exposing the body to high volumes of extensive plyometrics begins to transition it away from muscular-driven movement to a reliance on the power of connective tissue.

“Oscillatory” exercises are a staple of Fast Force days. Not only are these a unique and powerful training stimulus, but I believe they complement the development of both important aspects of Fast Force training: speed and elasticity. Traditional training turns muscles on and keeps them on…and on…and on. The power of oscillatory movement is found in training the ability to turn muscles off and, with certain variations, rely on and force the connective tissue to produce a larger percentage of the movement. The three main oscillatory variations I like to use are categorized into three Rs:

1. Rhythm
2. Rapid
3. Relaxation

Video 3. Oscillatory variations—for visual learners, here’s a demo of the three Rs in action.

Key takeaways from this section of the article are that Fast Force training’s two main focuses are speed and elasticity. Some of the ways you get there are:

• Sprinting
• Going barefoot
• Doing extensive plyometrics
• Engaging in oscillatory movements (along with a few other elements not included in this article)

Fast Force training will probably look the most unique compared to most traditional strength and conditioning programs. You may spend more than half of a session outside: sprinting, jumping, being athletes! And once you transition to the weight room, you won’t see heavy barbells and horizontal pulls, vertical pushes, etc., but a much more unique training style. A style of training that all contributes back to speed and elasticity.

Slow Force

While High Force and Fast Force training fall in the realm of go, go, go, training this way can beat an athlete up—especially if that athlete is also playing their sport. This is not to say that these training means are unsafe, but any intense style of training will take a toll. And, to a certain extent, that’s what we want!

We need to disrupt homeostasis to create adaptation. However, after developing these first two themes, I realized I needed a more restorative, “therapeutic” stimulus that works to restore tissue quality at the muscular and connective tissue levels. And that is precisely what I wanted Slow Force to be: therapeutic, with a dose of development.

The first element of Slow Force training involves the goal of improving tissue quality—specifically, tendons. While I’ve worked in a multitude of sports in my career, basketball has been a focus throughout, especially in my most recent positions. Because of this, I have become hyper-focused on the ability to prevent tendonous injuries or take a tendon that is beat up and painful and contribute to improving its health.

While overcoming isos have their own contribution to tendon adaptations, the ability to create high forces lends to them fitting in on High Force days. However, there is another isometric variation that leads to proven improvement in tendons: yielding isometrics.

While overcoming isometrics involve pushing against an immovable object, yielding isometrics involve holding a static position against additional load (either gravity or weights). The power of yielding isometrics has been extensively researched by individuals like Keith Barr, Ebonie Rio, and many more. What I’ve come to hold as true is their ability to effectively negate stress shielding and contribute to stress relaxation. These things allow them to effectively work to heal damaged collagen found in painful tendons. For this reason, Slow Force days include high amounts of yielding isometrics. Typically, early in a Slow Force training session, I program global exercises with this yielding isometric theme, such as rear-foot elevated split squat (RFESS) isos or push-up isos.

Video 4. Rear-foot elevated split squat yielding isometric.

From a muscular perspective, I include all higher-volume hypertrophy training within Slow Force. I think that not only is hypertrophy obviously an important quality to improve from an “armor” development and potential force-producing perspective, but higher volume training can bring more blood flow to certain areas of the body, which can aid in recovery and also expansion. This expansion occurs from the inside out through acute “swelling” of the musculature, offsetting the fact that most sports and High Force and Fast Force training require high amounts of internal compression.

The last detail of Slow Force training I’ll include in this article is the use of local tissue prep (LTP). This is a concept I took from my time with the Sacramento Kings, working for Jesse Green and Jas Randhawa. To keep things simple, specific attention is given to tissues and structures within the body that are under the most stress during competition. You may focus on different tissues, depending on the sport. Yielding isometrics can be applied here and often should!

Allow Slow Force days to be the ‘therapy’ for your athlete’s body so they leave the weight room feeling better than when they entered. Share on X

While the RFESS yielding iso mentioned earlier uses a global approach to apply this training method, something like a leg extension yielding iso would be a local application specifically for the patellar and quad tendons. High Force and Fast Force training are powerful, stimulating, and potent. Slow Force training includes those same attributes but in an opposite fashion. Allow Slow Force days to be the “therapy” for your athlete’s body so they leave the weight room feeling better than when they entered.

Human Force

The last pillar of the Force System is Human Force. The most subjective of the four, this fills the gaps within the system beautifully. Human Force is highlighted by innate movement patterns. No, not squat, hinge, push, pull—but crawl, climb, hang, roll, throw, gymnastics, partner combatives, carry, etc. I say “etc.” because I see things daily that fit within this theme, and it is constantly evolving.

Anything that allows athletes to move in innate, foundational, and early developmental patterns is the perfect fit for Human Force. Honestly, go to a playground and play lava tag, and you’ll probably have the best Human Force stimuli possible. Because the other three themes within this system are more rigid, structured, and objective in nature, I program Human Force training with more freedom. For example, my athletes may complete three rounds of:

1. Lizard crawls
2. Alternating hang
3. Forward roll to SL squat
4. Medball lateral rotational throw
5. Cartwheel
6. Lateral shoulder push partner combative
7. MB hug carry

Video 5. Human Force exercises—there are endless possibilities within Human Force training, and this allows for creativity.

While I believe High, Fast, and Slow training cover a multitude of qualities, movements, speeds, forces, etc., there was still something missing. Allow Human Force training to complement these other three days to create the most holistic and complete system there is. While Human Force training can be a stand-alone day, I often program a Human Force warm-up to be completed before another one of the Force System days. I think including daily Human Force warm-ups can be especially impactful in-season: during times of hyper-specificity, there is a need for the most general of stimuli.

While I believed High, Fast, and Slow training covered a multitude of qualities, movements, speeds, forces, etc., there was still something missing. Human Force training is that missing piece. Share on X

Learn More About the Force System

This system is a product of multiple years’ worth of learning, asking questions, and experimenting. It is not a finished product yet, and to be honest, I hope I never feel as if it is. I want to constantly evolve and improve, adding layers of complexity as often as possible to create the best possible way of preparing athletes.

If you’ve liked, disliked, agreed, or disagreed with anything I discuss here, please feel free to reach out. Challenge my thoughts and ideas; this allows the system to grow and improve. If you think you like the system, you can head over to the linktree in my Instagram bio (@huntereis_sp) or follow the link and try a Force System program on Trainheroic. Also, stay tuned for more elaborate and in-depth information on the Force System coming in the near future.

I hope this article at least helps you look at performance through a different lens—a lens not jaded by powerlifting, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, etc. I’ve always said the phrase “because we’ve always done it this way” is a dangerous trap. There’s nothing wrong with challenging tradition, and I understand some may think that’s exactly what this system does. You have to continue to try and move the needle in this industry, and I hope the Force System does just that.

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

Reference

James G. Hay. “Citius, altius, longius (faster, higher, longer): The biomechanics of jumping for distance.” Journal of Biomechanics. 1993;26(1):7–21, ISSN 0021-9290, https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9290(93)90076-Q.

In the realm of sports and athletics, the significance of an athlete’s body weight (BW) cannot be overstated. A good example of this is basketball players looking to increase their muscle mass or improve body composition. While both of these scenarios present important goals for the athlete, we must make sure that working toward those goals has a positive outcome for performance. In this article, we explore the concept of the body-weight-to-performance ratio—a metric that offers a nuanced understanding of how weight fluctuations influence athletic performance.

Body Weight’s Crucial Role

Athletes across various disciplines recognize the pivotal role that body weight plays in their respective sports. However, the perspective on body weight is often polarized—seen as detrimental in terms of fat gain or advantageous in terms of muscle gain. Any experienced coach understands how multifactorial weight fluctuations become, especially with college and younger professional athletes. Weight also becomes a touchy subject for athletes, coaches, and administration.

To expand on this issue before exploring the ratio, the discussion of weight in the context of sports is often characterized by its sensitivity, with athletes, coaches, and administration grappling for a delicate balance between optimizing performance and safeguarding the mental well-being of individuals. Athletes face external pressures and expectations related to their physique, particularly in sports that emphasize specific body types. This can give rise to heightened awareness and potential body scrutiny, contributing to a culture where weight becomes an uncomfortable subject.

The pursuit of an optimal body weight—for performance reasons—may inadvertently lead to mental health challenges, such as stress and anxiety, and could even result in the development of eating disorders among athletes. Coaches and administrators play a crucial role in navigating this landscape by fostering an environment that prioritizes both physical and mental health. We must understand this issue before incorporating bodyweight data collection and involve every individual in the department who works with the athlete.

Coaches and administrators play a crucial role in navigating this landscape of ‘optimal body weight’ by fostering an environment that prioritizes both physical and mental health. Share on X

To name just two of the steps that I have taken in the past to prevent these issues:

1. Every athlete must give consent to the coach before collecting bodyweight data—addressing this individually and not as a group is important to allow each athlete to be comfortable with their decision.
2. Data must be collected individually and privately, with only the athlete and coach allowed to see and analyze the data. No one else must have access to the data unless the athlete gave consent or it is for medical purposes.

In many cases, negative or positive connotations are added to fluctuations that, even when subtle, we tend to classify as one or the other without really knowing their effect on performance. We all understand what is actually good or bad for health, but in this case, I am trying to focus on pure athletic performance and seasonal or subtle weight fluctuations.

Relative Strength Ratios in Question

Traditionally, relative strength ratios have been considered a valid metric for assessing athletic performance, or at least to establish baselines of “strength needs” for athletes (in many cases associating “strength numbers” in the weight room to the ability of athletes to perform plyometrics or athletic actions). This, however, is a flawed perspective—weight room “strength” and an athletic action’s “strength” are not the same. They might complement each other in a way and even be related to the athlete’s overall athletic ability, but they will never depend on one another.

The demands of sports are rooted in speed and power rather than absolute strength. Therefore, it becomes imperative to reevaluate the metrics used to measure performance in these domains. This is not to say that slow strength in the weight room is not an important aspect for health and performance; however, it can’t be “required” or expected for a lot of athletes to hit certain numbers when it comes to weight room strength, especially once we understand that the expression of force is completely different in both scenarios.

So, although these strength ratios I just mentioned might not have much to do with the BW of the athlete, they are ratios that have been used to evaluate performance, and they serve the purpose for an example.

Athletic performance is highly dependent on body weight. It is a good idea to track body weight in coordination with KPIs. Share on X

In this article, I am more interested in understanding in a more insightful way how the fluctuations of athlete’s BW can impact their performance. The BW/performance ratio is a metric designed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the intricate relationship between an athlete’s weight and their performance. This ratio involves dividing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as countermovement jump height (CMJh), Reactive Strength Index modified (RSImod), etc., by the athlete’s body weight in pounds or kilograms.

Ex: CMJh÷ BW (kg/lbs)

The first consideration when using this ratio is that, initially, it will not serve the purpose of classifying athletes since we don’t have a pool of data to compare to; instead, it will provide an understanding of how an athlete’s BW changes affect performance at a more detailed level.

Who Is This Useful For?

If you have a pair of force plates, this might not be as useful for you since you can track relative metrics to get the same monitoring concept—although you could still use it to have a broader picture of what is happening with performance by using outcome metrics (take-off speed, RSImod, etc.) instead of raw metrics (peak force, impulse, etc.). If your only access to technology is a contact mat, a Vertec, or even speed gates, this can be a perfect situation to apply the BW-to-performance ratio with your athletes.

Now, let’s discuss five potential scenarios that we can find in real life (using CMJh for the ratio):

1. Increase in Performance and Body Weight:

The chart above shows a positive change in ratio, which indicates a positive change—we can assume here that if the athlete is trying to gain muscle, we are on the right path with our strategy. This can also be useful when an athlete gains weight with no desire behind that increase (this can happen with female athletes, in particular, or certain sports that see weight gain as a negative thing). In this case, this ratio can be used to prove to that athlete and coach that this weight gain is having a positive impact on their performance and is something they can take pride in.

2. Increase in Performance and Decrease in Body Weight:

In this chart, we can also see a positive change in the ratio, which indicates that the athlete’s weight loss isn’t having a negative impact but is actually helping performance. This scenario can be found with athletes looking to improve body composition and needing to monitor that weight loss is being done correctly. It can also be helpful in situations where athletes lose weight unintentionally, and this triggers an alarm with coaches. An athletic trainer tracking changes in this ratio can help the high-performance team and coaches identify whether such weight loss is concerning.

3. Decrease in Performance and Increase in Body Weight:

In the scenario of weight gain and performance loss, the change in ratio will be negative. Although this can be a normal reaction to weight gain—and in some cases, it might be something that coaches and athletes are willing to sacrifice for a greater benefit—in a majority of cases, where the goal is rate of force development and relative force, this will indicate that the weight gain for that given athlete might not be necessary or desired.

4. Decrease in Performance and Decrease in Body Weight:

In the case of weight loss and performance loss, we can find a negative situation, contrary to Scenario 2, where the weight loss was paired with an increase in performance. In this case, the weight loss comes with a decrease in performance, which could indicate that the athlete is losing muscle mass or the weight loss is putting that athlete under excessive stress. In either case, this can help coaches monitor athletes who might have weight loss tendencies during the season and help the nutrition and medical staff in the monitoring process.

5. Maintenance in Performance and Changes in Body Weight

In the scenario of performance not improving in the presence of body weight changes, we can find two different situations for either gain or loss. If performance is not climbing, we can probably assume that our training is not producing the desired outcomes; however, it is worth mentioning that performance will not always increase, especially when we are training highly experienced athletes. This can be a very likely scenario, which is also why tracking different performance metrics might be a good idea to monitor different athletic actions.

In the two cases shown in the graphs, the first represents an increase in BW with no changes in performance. As indicated, this can be a good or a bad thing; in the case of an athlete gaining weight for purely speed performance purposes, this is a negative result; however, in the case of an athlete who needs to increase weight for contact sports, this might be an expected outcome (not good, but expected).

The second graph shows a decrease in BW with a maintenance in performance; once again, every case is its own world, but in most cases, a desired reduction in BW is expected to come with an increase in most performance parameters that depend on the total mass of the athlete. In the case that the weight loss was undesired, and there was a health concern, this would also be bad news, as the “overall performance” is technically decreasing if the athlete can’t perform better at a lower body weight—which could mean that the weight loss is linked to underlying health issues or causing them.

Applying the Ratio

Body weight is key in all sports; in this case, we cover its importance in athletic actions dependent on the athlete’s mass. As sports performance coaches, we often look to track metrics to understand how to classify our athletes and how to modify their training to help their athletic performance. The BW-to-performance ratio bridges a connection between performance, well-being, and health and facilitates the collaboration between the sports performance and athletic training departments. It also serves as a resource for team doctors to look into when needed.

The BW-to-performance ratio bridges athlete performance, well-being, and health and facilitates the collaboration between the sports performance and athletic training departments. Share on X

Let’s apply this in context. I’ve had a very common situation arise with several of my athletes—in this case, after a summer break of 30 days, an athlete came back with a 20-pound drop in body weight, which raised the concerns of the coaching staff and the medical team. We evaluated previous data and closely monitored new data during the first weeks of training. The data is below:

As you can see, there are negative trends in the ratio; however, this real situation becomes much more challenging to analyze than the previous examples. Starting with the overall change in ratio, it is clear that there is a downward trend, which means a negative impact on performance. However, if we take a closer look at the ratio changes before and after summer break, it is clear that the significant drop in BW did not negatively influence performance as much as we expected. This could be taken as a good sign for the medical team, although more observations would need to be made by the rest of the staff.

To wrap it up, let’s review the key points:

• Athletic performance is highly dependent on body weight. It is a good idea to track body weight in coordination with KPIs.
• Strength ratios are for athletic performance what the BMI is for health monitoring: they miss too much information to be used accurately.
• The BW-to-performance ratio bridges testing for performance and health.
• Compare this ratio to outcome metrics if you have force plates. Use relative metrics for a more detailed perspective on force production.
• A performance increase is always a good scenario; weight fluctuations are the reason to monitor this metric.
• Implement this metric in conjunction with sports performance and sports medicine.

I have a full video reviewing this topic on my YouTube channel for those interested in further elaboration and context.

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

Castillo M, Martínez-Sanz JM, Penichet-Tomás A, et al. “Relationship between Body Composition and Performance Profile Characteristics in Female Futsal Players.” Applied Sciences. 2022;12(22):11492.

Esco M, Fedewa M, Cicone Z, Sinelnikov O, Sekulic D, and Holmes C. “Field-Based Performance Tests Are Related to Body Fat Percentage and Fat-Free Mass, But Not Body Mass Index, in Youth Soccer Players.” Sports. 2018;6(4):105.

Sansone P, Makivic B, Csapo R, Hume P, Martínez-Rodríguez A, and Bauer P. “Body Fat of Basketball Players: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Sports Medicine – Open. 2022;8(1).

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

Before the age of professional strength coaches, considerable attention was devoted to overhead lifting. The standing press was contested in the Olympics, and many competitive bodybuilders hoisted impressive poundages in overhead pressing exercises, making them as strong as they looked. That was then—this is now.

Except in endurance sports such as cross-country and high-skill games such as golf, the bench press has become the go-to upper body strength exercise for athletes. There is no doubt the bench press will pack on slabs of muscle and strengthen the chest, shoulders, and triceps. What is puzzling is why an exercise performed while lying on your back has replaced standing overhead movements, especially dynamic ones such as split jerks and push jerks.

(Lead photo by Tim Scott, LiftingLife.com)
What is puzzling is why an exercise performed while lying on your back has replaced standing overhead movements, especially dynamic ones such as split jerks and push jerks. Share on X

Perhaps there are peer-reviewed studies proving the benefits of the bench press for developing athletic superiority. Perhaps, as popular strength coach and internet influencer Mark Rippetoe suggests, many strength coaches are too lazy to teach overhead movements. Or maybe, to present a moderately outrageous opinion, perhaps the reason the bench press gets so much attention is due to “gang culture,” a social phenomenon where everyone follows what everyone else is doing without considering the consequences.

Let’s get to the bottom of this!

The Bench Press De-Evolution

About 30 years ago, the strength coach of a D1 college football powerhouse told me he only had one player on his team who bench-pressed 400 pounds in high school. Now, a 400-pound bench is commonplace among five-star high school recruits, along with 500-pound benchers in college. To reach these levels, considerable time must be devoted to bench pressing, at the expense of other athletic fitness qualities. Again, the question is, “Why?”

I sought to answer this question when I was a strength coach for the Air Force Academy football team in the ’80s and ’90s. I compared three years of data on our core lifts to the top three rankings for each position on the depth chart. I found no significant correlation between the bench press and playing ability for the “skill” players, such as quarterbacks and cornerbacks. The bench press correlation was higher for linemen, but not by much. The Falcons were a running team; our guards and tackles needed exceptional lateral quickness to pull, so we favored agility and explosiveness over brute strength.

The NFL Combine doesn’t test 1-rep maxes but rather max reps with 225 pounds. Stephen Paea played for four NFL teams and holds the official record with 49 reps, although undrafted Justin Ernest did 51. Impressive, but the number of reps changes the test from measuring absolute strength to muscular endurance. From a sports-specificity perspective, this makes no sense to me.

The average play in the NFL is about four seconds, which translates into a work:rest ratio of 1:10. Further, one peer-reviewed study examined the results of 1,155 athletes who participated in the NFL Combine between 2005 and 2009. The researchers concluded: “Using correlation analysis, we find no consistent statistical relationship between combine tests and professional football performance, with the notable exception of sprint tests for running backs.”

Expanding to other sports, about 30 years ago, Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin shared with me the following table comparing the bench press results for elite male athletes in various sports. These athletes competed in the ’80s, and among them were World and Olympic champions. For several sports, bench press results were unremarkable. (Of course, the chart is a bit misleading, as the sprinter referenced was Ben Johnson, whose strength results were the exception and, as far as I know, never equaled.)

Regarding the throwing events, the incline press may be a better predictor lift for the upper body. Estimates vary, but the optimal release angles for these events are 45 degrees for the hammer, 37–39 degrees for the shot, and 35–44 degrees for the discus. According to strength coach Bill Starr, author of one of the most popular books on athletic fitness training, The Strongest Shall Survive, many throwers achieved exceptional results in the incline bench press.

At this point, a better question is not if the bench press has value in athletics but if overemphasizing the lift does more harm than good. Share on X

Starr said many track and field throwing legends, including world record holders Parry O’Brien, Dallas Long, Randy Matson (shot put), Al Oerter (discus), and Harold Connolly (hammer), “handled well over 400 pounds on the incline.” Al Feuerbach was a world record holder in the shot put, and I talked to him briefly back in the ’80s. He said the dumbbell incline press was the best upper-body exercise for the shot put. This makes sense, not just because of the release angle of the shot but because you put the shot with one arm.

At this point, a better question is not if the bench press has value in athletics but if overemphasizing the lift does more harm than good.

A Balance of Power

Giving credit where it’s due, it was Bill Starr who first got me questioning the value of the bench press. “What most people don’t recall is that before the bench press became the primary upper-body exercise, there were few, if any, rotator cuff injuries. That’s because the overhead press, which was at one time the main upper-body movement, actually helps to strengthen the area known as the rotator cuff, mostly by having you support heavy weights overhead.” Starr was on to something.

One meta-analysis found that 36% of documented injuries and disorders associated with resistance training involved the shoulder. The researchers concluded that one of the primary risk factors for shoulder injuries was flexibility restrictions, particularly with internal rotation of the shoulder. Expanding on this topic, physical therapist Brian Schiff pointed out these five concerns he had with excessive focus on the bench press:

1. Poor posture via rounded shoulders and increased internal rotation caused by pec tightness.
2. Repetitive friction between the rotator cuff and labrum, particularly in a deeper range of motion.
3. Acquired capsular laxity in the anterior shoulder joint over time.
4. Arthritis in the acromioclavicular joint (known as weightlifter’s shoulder).
5. Risk of pectorals major rupture.

Regarding flexibility issues, this is usually not an issue with weightlifters due to the large amplitude of the competition lifts (snatch, clean and jerk). I can’t say the same for those who only practice partial lifts, the so-called “weightlifting derivatives.”

There is also the inherent high-risk nature of the bench press, particularly when it’s not performed inside a power rack or with an “attentive” spotter—note the quotation marks around the word “attentive.” On this topic, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the U.S. said that 3,820 injuries were sustained in connection with the bench press in 2002. The breakdown had 53% of the injuries to the face or neck and 42% to the chest. Several deaths were also reported.

Elite bodybuilders perform the bench press but apparently do not emphasize it as much as you might think because it’s not a full-range exercise. I’ve worked for many popular newsstand bodybuilding magazines, including Flex and Iron Man, and the consensus among pro bodybuilders appears to be that dumbbells are better for overall chest development.

Dumbbells permit the arms to come together at the top of the movement, allowing for a longer range of motion of the pectorals. I’ve also seen a recurring theme with top bodybuilders that it’s essential to hit the muscles from all angles with a variety of exercises for more balanced development.

I’ll let Coach Poliquin have the final word on this subject, citing a conversation I had with him 30 years ago. “Eighty percent of your presses should be performed from different angles, such as with an incline or military press. Further, at least 50 percent of pressing exercises should be performed with dumbbells, as they offer a more natural movement pattern and provide a more challenging workout for the muscles that stabilize the shoulder.”

The Overhead Solution

The overhead movements have always been a mainstay of the training for throwers in track and field (well, except for javelin throwers—I have yet to make sense of their workouts). Two shot putters who also excelled in weightlifting were Al Feuerbach and Brian Oldfield.

Feuerbach is a three-time Olympian who broke the world record in the shot put in 1973 with a put of 71-7. Feuerbach also excelled in overhead lifting. His best official lifts were 341 pounds in the snatch and 418 in the clean and jerk, which won him the 242-pound bodyweight division in the 1974 Senior National Weightlifting Championships.

Oldfield was a 1976 Olympian in the shot put who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Oldfield broke one official world record (72 feet 6 ½ inches) and two unofficial ones, with a best result of 75 feet. In 1976, he appeared in a unique televised competition called Superstars that pitted the world’s best athletes against each other in events other than theirs.

One event was weightlifting, where athletes removed a weight from squat stands and had to thrust it overhead to extended arms. In the preliminary competition, Oldfield broke the Superstars record with 300 pounds, which was so easy that he did it for five reps. In the finals, he faced Lou “The Incredible Hulk” Ferrigno, a 6’5” bodybuilder whose body weight often exceeded 300 pounds in the off-season.

Ferrigno lifted 290 pounds using an (extremely awkward) split jerk technique, missing 310, whereas Oldfield made that same weight easily for another record and called it a day. It’s not surprising. A photo of Oldfield appeared in Strength and Health magazine in 1973, clean and jerking 350 pounds, and he reportedly lifted considerably more overhead from squat stands in training.

I contend that the bench press should be de-emphasized in athletic training and complemented by dynamic overhead movements, particularly the push jerk. I would only recommend the split jerk (as performed in weightlifting competitions) if taught by a qualified weightlifting coach, not just a strength coach who passed a weekend certification. And with good reason.

I contend that the bench press should be de-emphasized in athletic training and complemented by dynamic overhead movements, particularly the push jerk. Share on X

The split jerk is arguably the most technical part of weightlifting and the most missed portion of the lifts in competition. Attend a weightlifting competition at any level, and you’ll see that it’s rare for an athlete to miss a clean. This is despite less power being needed to jerk a weight than to clean it—but don’t take my word for it.

In researching this topic at the elite level, weightlifting sports scientist Bud Charniga looked at the success/failure rate for the snatch and clean and jerk at 16 major international competitions, including the Olympic Games. He found the success rate for final attempts in the clean and jerk ranged from 23% to 46%. “Consequently, it is reasonable for a coach or athlete, in the midst of the heat of competition, to assume that at least 60% of the 3rd attempt jerk weights selected will be failures; it is even a fair bet to assume as many as 70% will fail.”

A Balance of Power

The squat jerk is another form of jerking. Rather than splitting the legs after thrusting the bar overhead, the athlete descends into a full squat. Generally, the athlete catches the bar in a half squat and rides it down into a full squat before rising (image 4).

Besides requiring exceptional flexibility, the squat jerk is a far more complex lift, as the narrower base of support and the deep squat position associated with this technique offer a small margin of error (video 1). However, world records have been broken with the squat jerk, usually by Asian lifters (who often have a lower center of gravity and are thus more stable in a low squat).

Video 1. Two high-level weightlifters performed the squat jerk to show the lift from the front and the side, and one performed the split jerk. The male athlete, coached by the author, is shown split-jerking double body weight. (Snethen video courtesy Heather Snethen, Snethen photo by Bruce Klemens.)

A push jerk (also called a power jerk) is a better option. The push jerk involves a powerful leg drive with the arms and shoulders being used to push the body under the bar aggressively. Rather than splitting the legs forward and backward, they move laterally while bending slightly to receive the weight. This action is more associated with the movements involved in dynamic sports. Let me expand on this comment.

The push jerk involves a countermovement sequence found in sports: fast eccentric/brief isometric/fast concentric—this is followed by a second eccentric contraction when the lifter drives their body under the bar. During the upright sprint phase, the knee bends quickly after the swing phase when the front foot touches the ground (fast eccentric); there is minimal ground contact time (brief isometric), followed by a rapid strengthening of the leg (fast concentric).

For most weightlifters, less weight can be lifted with the push jerk than with a split jerk (if the trainee is well-coached). One reason is that the bar does not have to be raised as high, and the split landing produces more upward force on the bar. However, impressive lifts have been performed in this style.

Shown in image 5 are two of the best push jerkers in the history of weightlifting, Yurik Yardanyan and Viktor Sots. Yardanyan was an Olympic champion and push jerked 485 pounds at a body weight of 181 pounds, taking the bar from stands. Viktor Sots was a World Champion who reportedly push jerked 589 pounds at 220 pounds body weight, also taking the bar from stands, and made two clean and jerk world records using the split jerk. (Fun fact: Sots reportedly military pressed 413 pounds from a full squat position!)

What about the push press, or a variation called the muscle snatch that is performed with a snatch (wide) grip? Yes, these lifts check off several boxes for athletic fitness training, being performed from a standing position and involving a countermovement of the legs that incorporates the elastic properties of the tissues. However, the problem is that the push jerk is an extension in one direction—there is no rebending of the legs after the athlete drives the bar.

“A weightlifter learns to consciously straighten the legs fully to execute the push press,” says Charniga. “This is an incorrect habit because a weightlifter should have begun switching directions from lifting to descending while the knees are still flexed. There is no instantaneous switching of directions from lifting to descending in the push press. Consequently, the arms and shoulders “press” the barbell up with the assistance of the leg drive instead of pushing the trunk away from the barbell.” The result is that the arms extend slower, and less weight can be lifted.

Charniga says these technical differences adversely affected the performance of the competition jerk, and for this reason, “the push jerk became a popular assistance exercise.” It also suggests that the push press is more of a bodybuilding/general strength exercise rather than an explosive exercise such as the push jerk. (I would add that the muscle-building effect of a push press can be enhanced by attempting to lower the bar to the shoulders slowly, increasing the mechanical tension on the arms and shoulders.)

Although the shoulders and triceps are used in the push jerk, it should be considered more of a dynamic leg exercise, like a vertical jump. When I was 17, I jerked 335 pounds overhead from stands in front and jerked 330 pounds behind the neck. The same day I lifted 335, I missed a 205-pound bench press. One more story.

Although the shoulders and triceps are used in the push jerk, it should be considered more of a dynamic leg exercise, like a vertical jump. Share on X

In 1979, on the flight home from the Senior National Weightlifting Championships, I sat next to the winner of the 148-pound bodyweight division, David Jones. He told me that he severely injured a pectoral muscle the week before the competition, which suggests that pectoral strength, and, indirectly, bench-pressing ability, has little relevance to weightlifting.

One weightlifting coach who often has his athletes push jerk rather than split or squat jerk is Ciro Ibañez. Taking the bar from squat stands, his 16-year-old son Brayan push jerked 451 pounds at a body weight of 176 pounds, and his 12-year-old daughter Emily push jerked 264 pounds at 121 pounds body weight. I should mention that his daughter is coached by Coach Ibañez’s wife, Abigail Guerrero. They are shown in video 2 lifting in competitions using the push jerk style.

Video 2. Emily Ibañez Guerrero is shown clean and push jerking 242 pounds at 130 pounds body weight, and her brother Brayan is shown clean and push jerking 368 pounds at 176 pounds body weight. Emily was 12 at the time, and Brayan was 16.

In track and field, I’ve found that many coaches do not want their sprinters and jumpers to perform any exercises from the floor to keep their legs fresh—I beg to differ, but it is what it is. Many are also not open to having their athletes use lighter weights through a full range of motion. So, instead of power cleans, they will have their athletes perform hang power cleans or power cleans from boxes. Because the range of motion of the legs is small and these lifts are explosive, the push jerk should be an easier sell for the strength coaches who work with track athletes.

Because the range of motion of the legs is small and these lifts are explosive, the push jerk should be an easier sell for the strength coaches who work with track athletes. Share on X

One final advantage of the push jerk is that it is relatively safe, especially compared to the bench press. If you miss the weight, you drop it. However, consider that you may miss a weight behind. For this reason, a strength coach should teach their athlete how to miss a push jerk safely (basically, “open your hands and step forward as fast as humanly possible!”).

The number of exercises an athlete can do to improve their athletic ability is seemingly endless, but careful consideration must be taken to find the best ones for their sport. The bench press is here to stay, but the push jerk should be one exercise to consider adding to any strength training toolbox.

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

Rippetoe, Mark. Personal Communication, February 3, 2024.

Weis, Dennis B. “Bill Pearl’s Training Strategies.” Dennisbweis.com. ND

Fragoza, James. “NFL Combine Records: 40 Times, Bench Press, Vertical Jump, and More.” Profootballnetwork.com. March 3, 2023.

Biderman, David. “11 Minutes of Action.” The Wall Street Journal. January 15, 2010.

Letzlter & Letzlter (1986), modified by Poliquin, Charles (1986). RE: Strength levels of elite athletes.

Poliquin, Charles. Personal Communication, 1992.

Kumitz, Frank E. and Adams, Arthur J. “The NFL Combine: Does It Predict Performance in the National Football League.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2008;22(6):1721–1727.

Starr, Bill. “Powerful Shoulders & Chest Without Bench Presses.” (1993 version available on ditillo2.blogspot)

Starr, Bill. “Stabilizing the Shoulder Girdle.” Billstarrarticles.wordpress.com. January 11, 2016 (reprint, original publishing date unknown).

Kolber MJ, Beekhuizen KS, Cheng M-S S, and Hellman MA. “Shoulder injuries attributed to resistance training: a brief review.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2010;24(6):1696–1704.

Schiff, Brian. “Is Bench Press Bad for My Shoulders?” Raleigh Orthopaedic Performance Center, apcraleigh.com. November 29, 2021.

Stevenson, T. “Denial of Petition Requesting Labeling of Weightlifting Bench Press Benches to Reduce or Prevent Deaths Due to Asphyxia/Anoxia” (Petition no. CP 03-3) [Letter]; United States Consumer Product Safety Commission: Bethesda, MD, USA, 2004.

Davis, Dave. “Move Over World…Here Comes Brian Oldfield.” Strength and Health. May 1973.

Charniga, Andrew, Jr. “Power, Equilibrium and the Struggle with Horizontal Gravity,” Sportinvypress.com. July 11, 2020.

Charniga, Andrew, Jr. “More About the Jerk,” Sportinvypress.com. April 29, 2014 (reprint from 2005).

Ibañez, Ciro, Personal Communication, December 2023.

Do you have someone you respect even if you don’t agree with everything they say, do, or believe? I suggest you seek those people out and engage with them regularly, with deference.

I consider Tony Holler to be one of these people, and I’ll tell you what I have learned from Tony and his presence.

For those who don’t know him, Tony has set fire to long-held traditions for training sprinters by questioning or downright rejecting methods considered holy by other sprint practitioners. He coined the phrase “Feed the Cats” for his philosophy. When I first heard this program on the World Speed Summit, it made me uncomfortable because it is so foreign to what I have used to develop my athletes for decades.

Through the years, I have found value in interacting with Tony and other such “thought outliers.” Building these relationships has helped reshape my perspective on how we can learn, inspire, and disagree while not becoming (or staying) enemies. Finding clarity not through agreement but through an understanding of how others do things differently can be empowering for perspective, context, and growth.

Finding clarity not through agreement but through an understanding of how others do things differently can be empowering for perspective, context, and growth, says @SprintersCompen. Share on X

It is important to build bridges, or at least doorways, not walls. Through dialogue—and even, at times, criticism—you will be forced to be clearer in your purpose and mission.

This defense and explanation can help you create a brand of your own and a fully fleshed-out identity. Over time, when someone makes strong points, there can be value in shifting your point of view for the benefit of others instead of holding on to beliefs that are antiquated in their original form. Finally, when you commit yourself to becoming a lifelong learner and staying curious, it helps influence those around you to do the same, enabling your athletes and colleagues to have a life of growth to stay relevant in the field.

1. Clarity Is Important

In 2020, Tony and I had a four-hour debate on Zoom about our training methods and philosophies. In many respects, this came about through a combination of factors. First, Tony and I seemed to be following one another at coaching clinics. Because our training systems were so different, it drew people into different camps. In our polarized world, this sets us up as rivals when, in fact, we are friends and peers with different contexts in which we try to accomplish a similar task: providing joy for young people through sport.

The debate was heralded as a prize fight. Like many heavyweight bouts, people hoped to see blood or a vicious knockout. Instead, something very different came out of the lengthy online talk. Tony leveled a critique of my system as being too complex. While I didn’t enjoy that comment and believed my system was not overly complicated, I realized that I certainly wasn’t making it as consumable as it could be for the masses.

I recognized that I needed to create entry points to my philosophy—not only for buy-in but so I could clearly teach others what I believe. The critique led me to narrow down the fundamental principles in the Critical Mass System to those I find the most valuable. I learned that I need to start with my key principles of training based around:

• The race distance.
• The intensity.
• The demands of the key competition of the year.

Those three things needed to be clear, as they were the keys to my entire strategy as a coach. From there, I could add more detail, but first, I needed to give coaches a clear path to explore the galaxy of options.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. As many of you know, Tony and I are both very feisty. While we kept the debate respectful, at times, we were certainly uncomfortable as well. However, many people would avoid exposing themselves to criticism or even allowing someone to question their methods publicly. I believe that conversation shaped how other hot-button topics should and could be handled in the future!

2. Go on a Mission

Tony once told me, “You’re a centrist.” He later said that only radicals make history. While I agree with the sentiment, I also believe that centrists can help radicals create a consensus to move forward together to something better.

His statement led to a bit of a moral dilemma. I am a person who loves to build consensus on moving forward with a unified front. A centrist is certainly not, on their face, considered “radical,” but in our polarized society, maybe I could become a radical centrist, or better yet, a synergist.

I liked how Bruce Lee did this with his martial art, Jeet Kune Do. His martial art avoided ideas that were intellectual silos, instead taking the best of many styles of fighting, almost like a precursor to MMA as we see it today. So, instead of responding with an open-ended “it all depends,” I believe a more evolved response should be, “It all depends, but due to your particular situation, you should try this and explore options here.”

Don’t close yourself off to ideas; be clear in what you value. If I appreciate exploration and open consideration, then I darn well better be a radical in my willingness to create dialogue. Share on X

Don’t close yourself off to ideas; be clear in what you value. If I appreciate exploration and open consideration, then I darn well better be a radical in my willingness to create dialogue and be a vessel to disseminate knowledge for others who may be radically apart from one another. I want to constantly bridge-build where I can and dig my heels in the ground with things I actually believe.

3. Build an Identity You and Others Can Believe In

Much is made of Tony’s cult of personality. While some may malign that as silly or a religion without a deity, I find it to be a significant point of strength. If you want to influence others, you need to be respected and have a brand that drives intrigue to shape their world. More importantly, if you are altruistic, people must rally behind you to create the change you feel has sweeping value.

Tony’s value can be measured in a multitude of ways—first (but not limited to) by bringing non-track nerds like me back into the sport: not only athletes but others in the strength and conditioning space who come from a field sport mentality. Additionally, the idea of how to brand and make money through our value is unprecedented. While making money is not our core purpose, it does provide us with a means to financially support the principle of making practice the best part of our student-athlete’s day.

Too many of us starve while we make riches for others. Absolutely, you should help others! However, there should be an exchange. This doesn’t have to be cash, but it could be a meal, a coffee, a review, or even a professional speaking engagement.

You have value, and more so if you have a brand. What’s your brand? Mine, the Critical Mass System, has made me a lot of connections and helped pay some of my family’s bills.

That brand wouldn’t have a lot of value if it weren’t for the counterpoint of Tony’s philosophy with which I could contrast it. Thus, my support of longer intervals, tempo training, and more voluminous training sessions is different than Tony’s method; however, due to our discussions and defense of our approaches, they now hold up better to critique, allowing for more effective adoption of techniques based on what your circumstance may need.

4. Be Willing to Change

Many of you who have come across Tony recently might think this doesn’t apply, but if you would humor me, you might see value in this perspective. Many of you know Tony as the Feed the Cats guy, “Mr. Fly 10s,” and absolute speed over everything else. He could be dismissed by coaches who believe in different roads to success or by the off-putting attitude of the messenger. However, ask yourself, “How did Tony come to this?”

In large part, it was an epiphany resulting from observing his exhausted athletes and having a son who said, “Track sucks, Dad.” Realize that this man won numerous state titles with a method that resembled a long-to-short system. Now imagine you are on the cusp of a Hall of Fame career and decide to throw out large parts of your program for a new and radical idea. While Tony and I have things we disagree on now, who knows how our systems will continue to evolve before we decide to hang it all up?

More importantly, we have more in common than we don’t have in common. For example, we want our kids to enjoy their sports, learn life lessons, and certainly achieve success compared to their competition. Ultimately, the job is not about being the smartest person holding a stopwatch. It is instead about being a vessel for our athletes’ joy in the pursuit of a challenging task. But, of course, in the world of Twitter (X) and “hot takes,” that’s no fun!

Tony’s work has made me reevaluate what I do through my system—especially with particular kids that I feel have the physical makeup or supportive needs that might flourish more with a Feed the Cats template. While I might not adjust my entire system and replace it wholesale with a long-to-short system, block method, triphasic training, or Feed the Cats, I am inspired never to think I have everything figured out and am in a lifelong search for enlightenment and nuance to evolve into a better coach. Tony’s complete metamorphosis shows the impact of what can happen if you are willing to change, even in the latter stages of your career.

5. Help Others Who Help You

Tony is an Amplifier. In some respects (and if you know Tony’s politics, you know he might not like this characterization), he is a sort of Joe Rogan. If you are at his conferences, mentioned in his podcasts, or brought on as someone he thinks is noteworthy, it can change your trajectory and impact you on a national level. In many respects, he is a kingmaker.

I find this to be one of his most outstanding contributions to the world of athletic performance. Many of you now know who Brad Dixon, Brian Kula, JT Ayers, and even “yours truly” are because we’ve had our signals boosted by the relationship. In turn, we do that for him and others as well. That ability represents a power few have, especially on social media in the sports performance field.

Due to this, I try to broadcast good work and amplify people where I can. In many ways, with the encouragement of my friend Mike Cunningham and his “Gill Connections” podcast, that was the reason I started the “Companions of the Compendium” podcast: to turn up the volume on the voices of people who I believe have many things to contribute to our world of health, fitness, and performance.

The Intellectual Post-Game Handshake

Make sure you have a proper perspective on rivals and competition. They are often our best teachers, forcing us to reflect on our practices and strengthen our original convictions.

Make sure you have a proper perspective on rivals and competition. They are often our best teachers, forcing us to reflect on our practices and strengthen our original convictions. Share on X

Not every rival deserves respect, and some are more than cantankerous. I would argue these people are opponents and not rivals, though, and there’s a difference. However, over time, you can appreciate rivalry based on mutual respect or at least the fact that they push to improve. It is essential to keep that in perspective.

Thankfully, we are past the age of life-or-death duels and gladiatorial games. While we contest one another intellectually or physically, once out of the arena, these people are not your mortal enemies. Instead, they are the vehicle by which to learn and better ourselves through the crucible of competition.

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

Speed development tools, ranging from traditional stopwatches to timing gates to GPS devices, have evolved and proliferated over time. Recently, the next evolution of toolsets has emerged—phone-based 2D kinematics powered by computer vision. These tools initially sprang up in areas such as baseball and golf (swing and throwing analysis) but are now making their way into the speed ecosystem to help provide kinematic analysis.

The next evolution of toolsets has emerged—phone-based 2D kinematics powered by computer vision—making their way into the speed ecosystem to help provide kinematic analysis, says @hi_c88. Share on X

Today, if a coach is interested in the underpinnings of how their athlete generates their speed or time, there are a few options. The first and most timeless option is the simple combination of video and a coach’s eye/intuition. While this approach is enduring for a reason, it relies on years of experience and does not generate objective data.

The second option is for a coach to invest significant time and money in a multi-camera 3D-markered or markerless solution and find people/companies to help process that data. While this option does provide the highest quality of data (it is essentially “lab-grade”), the cost for equipment alone can be more than $50,000, and the barriers to processing that data are high—requiring at least one person with a graduate-level degree in biomechanics and a person with significant computer programming experience. Additionally, the setup time and portability of this type of system are quite cumbersome, limiting its practicality.

The third option, and probably the most prevalent for those trying to generate objective data, is to use “enhanced video” capture tools like Kinovea or Dartfish. These tools allow coaches to capture video and generate data by manually tagging events throughout the video, providing the building blocks to calculate the desired metrics. The downside of this option is that it’s a manual, drudgery-filled process—meaning that for most coaches, it truly can’t be scaled for use with an entire population, rendering it more of a “one-off” type of activity than something that can be routinely incorporated into a practice, like timing gates or GPS devices can.

With the recent advancement of computer vision, there is now a fourth option for coaches that provides its own set of advantages and disadvantages—single-camera 2D kinematics tools. This past September, I helped build and launch one of the first of these tools: BreakAway Speed, an iPhone-based, 2D, markerless biomechanics capture system. The general setup concept is table-stakes among the various solutions—videos of athletes are captured at 240 fps to ensure the highest fidelity, and distances are calibrated using either cones or football field lines. Users can perform multiple types of tests—flys, accelerations, or changes of direction—and receive their results back in just a few minutes.

There are multiple benefits to incorporating this type of solution into your coaching toolkit (or paired with existing technology, i.e., timing gates) that I want to share here, chief among them being:

1. Automated kinematic analysis.
2. Ease of data-sharing with athletes.
3. Ease of use with a software solution.

Automated Kinematic Analysis

As discussed, for most coaches, kinematic analysis has simply not been accessible due to significant barriers to entry—namely, the expensive financial costs of hardware or untenable time investment needed to get data at scale. Coaches can invest in expensive 3D capture systems such as Vicon, Qualisys, and Theia, which provide gold-standard data but are typically impractical cost-wise—not to mention they present significant constraints operationally. I’ve used fantastic software like Kinovea to create kinematic data manually; however, from experience, doing that at any level of scale becomes a significant time investment.

Kinematic analysis has not been accessible due to pricy hardware costs or untenable time needed to get data at scale. A simpler choice is beginning to appear, led by products like BreakAway Speed. Share on X

A new third choice is beginning to appear—headlined by products like VueMotion, Ochy, and my product, BreakAway Speed. These products offer a simpler version of the expensive 3D setup mentioned above.

With one camera view, AI tracks each point on the body (heel, toe, knee, elbow, etc.) for each video frame. These points are then turned into sprint-specific kinematic metrics (like stride length) using biomechanical calculations. While this single-camera setup will never be as accurate as eight-camera marker-based pose detection, proponents of these solutions feel that the slight decrease in kinematic accuracy is outweighed by the dramatic decrease (more than 100x less) in price and accessibility. Detractors of these solutions may argue differently.

However, coaches now have access to an entirely new set of ways to quantify how their coaching is impacting a runner. By leveraging this new, objective information, they can optimize sprint techniques and monitor the effectiveness of coaching interventions. Coaches can receive metrics they currently get from timing gates/GPS devices (things like max speed and time), along with new metrics such as stride length, contact time, thigh angle separation, and more.

We’ve even seen customers utilize both technologies simultaneously; using timing gates for that truly instant feedback (<1 second) in conjunction with BreakAway Speed allows for instantaneous feedback in addition to metrics explaining how that time occurred just a few minutes later. Because tools like BreakAway Speed cannot capture a sprint distance greater than 20 yards due to AI limitations, users can still truly capture an entire 40-yard dash with timing gates while setting up a tool like BreakAway Speed to only maybe capture the 20- to 30-yard split or the 0–10 start, giving a more detailed window into how that 40-yard dash time occurred.

Additionally, asymmetry metrics are included to better help with return to play and rehab scenarios. These metrics generally take a few minutes to generate, so while they don’t have the immediacy you would get from a timing gate solution, they are typically processed quickly enough to still allow for on-field feedback.

Lastly, because these solutions are video-based, coaches can blend what they see with their eye from video analysis with the objective data generated by the AI, fusing the time-honored tradition of video review with more novel, data-driven approaches.

Facilitating Data Delivery to Athletes and Education

A significant benefit of these types of solutions is that a coach only needs their phone to record and receive data. This makes life easier during the “data capture” part of a coach’s workflow. Another benefit is that, by being phone-based, the distribution of this data to their athletes can also be enormously simplified. With these solutions, coaches can simply assign videos to their athletes on the application and enter their phone numbers to have their data automatically delivered to the athlete.

When data is processed, it is then delivered to the coach and the athlete simultaneously! Athletes receive all their data and a social-media-friendly video to show off how fast they ran.

Video 1. Example of BreakAway clip sent to an athlete.

With this type of automated coach-to-athlete connection, data delivery doesn’t just go from coach to athlete but also from athlete to coach, enabling scenarios for remote coaching or digital evaluations to be much more efficient. Because this data is rather complex for anyone to digest fully, these tools can incorporate simple AI-powered explanations of their data to better help athletes (and coaches) with the education process on how to apply this data.

Data delivery doesn’t just go from coach to athlete but also from athlete to coach, enabling scenarios for remote coaching or digital evaluations to be much more efficient, says @hi_c88. Share on X

Software, Not Hardware

One challenge with solutions such as GPS devices and even timing gates is the simple fact that they are hardware. Especially with GPS devices, they require non-trivial operational work such as tagging, charging, setting up, and distributing devices, in addition to dealing with vests. To be clear, these tools certainly have their place, drive significant value, and can be used in conjunction with 2D kinematic tools.

The simplicity of an iPhone-based app enables easy supplementation of these tools—athletes can be assessed while wearing a GPS device or by using Freelap cones as the markers. Having multiple layers of applied data can then give a more holistic evaluation.

Lastly, because these tools only require your existing iPhone or iPad, they can be offered at a more affordable price, comparable to having a Netflix subscription rather than purchasing an appliance.

While still early, automated 2D kinematic analysis tools for fundamental athleticism are here and ready for utilization by coaches. As AI and computer vision continue to improve, these tools will only get more accurate, improving the quality of data generated and steadily closing the gap between single-camera and multi-camera solutions.

Additionally, as the technology and businesses based on this technology evolve, the scope of movements that can be analyzed will also increase. Currently, most solutions focus on linear running, but in the near future, users will be able to analyze hurdle jumps, triple jumps, broad jumps, and vertical/drop jumps, just to name a few. The template is built—and as it progresses, it will go both deeper (increased accuracy) and wider (more movement types).

Today, though, by unlocking kinematic analysis, facilitating data sharing, and being an easy-to-deploy/purchase software, a tool like this can drive significant value for coaches looking to make their first investment or add on to their existing technology stack.

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

We’ve entered an era in sports performance where the concept that speed is trainable is not only accepted, but often heavily promoted. The thought process has transitioned from “you’re either fast or you’re not” and “speed can’t be taught” to an entire speed-based industry in and of itself. This is not a hot take, as I’ve personally benefited from a coaching background that is heavily focused on speed training, which I now consider one of my competitive edges. But that’s not the purpose of writing this article; the purpose is to highlight how to do it at a high level.

However, speed training is still administered through the same method as all other training: coaching. Because of this, the challenges lie in the same age-old problems experienced in any coaching scenario: working with large numbers of athletes and having a limited amount of space and/or equipment. I’ve coached in the private sector with one athlete for an hour with $20,000 of equipment, and on the flip side I’ve had 100 athletes on a turf football field in the middle of July with no equipment and 35 athletes in a weight room with a strict 15-minute time limit. It would be very easy to lean into the limitations and abandon speed training altogether, deferring to simpler and more traditional training methods (such as lifting) to check off the box of helping your athletes become better. Put succinctly, I’ll be addressing solutions for:

1. Challenges with large numbers.
2. Issues with space limitations.
3. Problems due to lack of equipment.

Video 1. Here’s a video of my athletes performing a “Banded A-Run to Sprint.” This is a great drill because it only requires 10 yards of space, involves twice the number of athletes at once, and one band only costs $30 (something I’ve written about before).

I’m not suggesting I have a few magic tips that will make speed training with 100 athletes as simple as coaching a one-on-one session—let’s be honest. But what I am saying is that with a mindset shift and a few creative ideas, you can significantly level up your speed training and get even better results for your athletes despite functional limitations. I can summarize this in a simple alliterative phrase: compromises and complexes. Let’s get into the solutions by addressing these challenges.

With a mindset shift and a few creative ideas, you can significantly level up your speed training and get even better results for your athletes despite functional limitations, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Compromises & Complexes

The first and most foundational concept here is understanding that coaching speed training sessions and working around these limitations is not always going to be ideal. Taking a 100% perfect speed training session and turning it into 75% or even 50% as effective will do significantly more for your athletes—short and long-term—as opposed to the alternative of it being a 0% effective session (not doing it at all). You’ll have to make compromises when programming, structuring, and running your speed training sessions to ensure completion, which is one of the most important variables when getting your athletes faster. With this in mind, let’s get into our first challenge, as well as possible solutions.

1. Speed Training for Large Groups of Athletes

Although not a unique limitation to speed training, one of the keys to effective training sessions with large groups of athletes is to keep everyone moving. This increases athlete engagement, makes the sport coaches happy (if they’re watching), and minimizes the opportunities for athletes to lose focus/become distracted.

This can create a conflict in true speed training, however, because athletes need to be recovered enough (rested between reps) to run fast enough to actually make speed gains (+95% of their fastest speed, which I’ve written about ad nauseam at this point). So, needlessly moving around just for the sake of moving around can potentially defeat the purpose of the session.

The general rule of thumb for this is 1 minute of rest for every 10 yards sprinted. Now, what happens when you’re doing flying 10-yard sprints with a 30-yard build? Three to four minutes rest? And here’s another question: does rest have to be standing around?

Another rule of thumb (to make it a rule of thumb-thumb): rest time per sprint ends up being about the same time as a slow walk back from that distance of sprint. A hard 10-yard sprint and 10 to 15 yards of a controlled deceleration turns into 20 to 25 yards of slow walking back, which ends up being around a minute.

Another rule of thumb: rest time per sprint ends up being about the same time as a slow walk back from that distance of sprint, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

“But Matt, they can still get distracted walking back with their friends.”

You’re absolutely correct, reader. But you can mitigate this by setting the expectation from the beginning: “We’re doing sprints of X yards, decelerate and slowly walk back. However, I’m giving you the responsibility to find the line to focus during your sprint, relax and talk on the way back, and lock back in for the next rep.”

Video 2. Here’s an example of athletes running in “waves.” I had my athletes in lines of five to perform our Flying 10’s.

The next compromise is simply just being creative in trying to incorporate most (if not all) athletes at once. This can be dividing the group into X number of “waves” and having the waves take turns instead of having one athlete run at a time. If you have 20 athletes, divide them into four groups of five. If you have 100 athletes, divide them into 10 groups of 10. If you have 50 athletes and the space, divide them into 25 groups of 2 for “partner races.” That way, once the round is complete and you’re into the flow of the workout, all the athletes are either sprinting or walking back.

Although this does make it a little harder for you as a coach to actually coach—because there are significantly more athletes to watch at once—the output given by the athletes can be significantly increased. You can coach it like this: “Make groups of three. Within your group, find people you want to beat in a race and also talk some trash to. Line up in your groups.” Boom, effort levels just increased by 100%.

Another option is “waterfall starts:” have athletes go one after the other with a one- to two-second delay. This keeps them focused so they know when their turn is and allows you to coach them one at a time. Yes, watching 10 to 30+ athletes basically in a single-file line is a skill. But that’s where the compromise is: fewer athletes allows for more detailed coaching and more athletes limits you to less-detailed coaching. The waterfall start allows for quick feedback for each athlete, so coaching can be as simple as “more knee drive, good rep, stay smooth, big arms, more knee drive, good rep.”

Fewer athletes allows for more detailed coaching and more athletes limits you to less-detailed coaching, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Video 3. An example of a “waterfall” start with my athletes performing Banded Bounding. This has athletes go one-by-one down the line.

Last, almost anything can be made into a partner drill. A great example would be a multi-direction agility series with one-steps and crossovers—instead of having 3 groups of 10 with me doing all the pointing, I had all my athletes partner up. One partner is reacting and one partner is pointing. This is actually more beneficial to me as a coach because instead of pointing and organizing the drills, I say: “Let’s get two rounds of six points per partner. I’ll be walking around and coaching.”

This does create a little bit of (controlled) chaos, which isn’t for every coach, but gives you another tool to do better speed training for your athletes.

2. Speed Training with Limited Space

The foundational question you must ask yourself when dealing with limited space is: “How do I maximize not having a lot of space in order to set myself up for success during the times when I will have a lot of space?” The type of speed that requires the most space is top speed, as acceleration and change of direction can be easily done in 10 to 20 yards.

The type of speed that requires the most space is top speed, as acceleration and change of direction can be easily done in 10 to 20 yards, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

First, let’s break down what goes into effective top-speed running and whether you need space for it: 1) actually running at top speed—needs space; 2) good top-speed mechanics—does not need space; and 3) the qualities that make someone fast, such as lower body stiffness—does not need space. Only one of the three components of top speed, albeit the most important one, needs space.

Using the dribble series as an example, here’s a great way to groove smooth and upright top speed cycling that only requires 5 to 10 yards of space. Although it doesn’t take forever to learn, it’s boring and there are only so many variations of this you can do. But that’s the compromise: becoming a “dribble warrior” and perfecting those drills during winter might be boring, but it will set you up for significantly more success than starting your top speed technique from ground zero on the first day of spring.

Lower body stiffness is a necessary quality to run a fast top speed, as athletes experience multiple times their body weight in force during ground contacts of around 100 milliseconds. Plyometrics are a fantastic way to develop that quality—building up stiffness of the ankles, knees, and hips requires little space and is a great foundation to ensure your athletes can handle top speed forces when they do get space.

Video 4. Here’s an example of my athletes doing drills in limited space to improve their top speed sprinting. This includes the dribble series and straight leg bounds.

Bonus: fast hip flexors are an underrated piece of good top speed mechanics that can also be developed with zero space.

3. Speed Training with Limited Equipment

I’m extremely excited to add onto my “c” alliteration from above and expand from “compromises and complexes” to “complexes and controlled chaos.” Controlled chaos with complexes can be the answer to limited equipment because it eliminates the bottleneck on training sessions. Instead of long lines forming to use equipment, athletes losing focus, and the flow of the session being disrupted, complexes both utilize equipment and keep all the athletes moving.

The foundational concept of this lesson isn’t a question, but rather a statement: just because you have a thing (equipment) in your training doesn’t mean it has to be the only thing. Equipment doesn’t have to be used by all the athletes all at once, it just has to let the workout be efficient and effective.

Video 5. Here’s an example of a speed complex: a heavy resisted sprint to a medball throw sprint ending with a timed acceleration in timing lasers. Instead of twelve athletes for one piece of equipment if it were to be one exercise at a time, using a complex turned it into four athletes per one piece of equipment.

A complex in speed training is just like super-setting exercises in the weight room: performing one exercise then the next and so on until all the exercises are done once, then going back to the first one. Is this ideal? Sometimes, yes. Complexes can be used for potentiation and higher output when sequencing the exercises in a heavy-medium-light order, where the previous exercise’s feeling makes the next exercise easier. Other times, it’s not ideal. Sometimes athletes need to groove an exercise for three, four, or even five straight reps to receive coaching and feedback, put it into practice, then solidify the improved technique. But again, sometimes speed training requires compromise and won’t always be ideal.

A complex in speed training is just like super-setting exercises in the weight room: performing one exercise then the next and so on until all the exercises are done once, then going back to the first one, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Let’s say you have 5 sleds and 15 athletes—you could definitely have athletes line up in groups of 3 and take turns, but that involves a lot of standing around. Instead, you could have 5 athletes doing a technique drill on the wall, 5 athletes doing a sled sprint, and 5 athletes racing each other, then everyone rotates to the next exercise.

This is where the controlled chaos comes in: you aren’t going to have as much control and you’ll have to give some autonomy to the athletes to navigate through the complex themselves. However, it’s super easy to set the expectations: “There’s a lot of you (athletes) and only five sleds. We have a wall drill, a sled sprint, and a race. Each group of five will rotate to the next exercise together. I’m going to stand in the middle and watch and coach. Let’s get three rounds in. But if we can’t do this appropriately, we won’t use the nice things (the sleds) and we’ll do something boring instead.” This creates a better speed workout than not using the sleds at all.

You aren’t going to have as much control and you’ll have to give some autonomy to the athletes to navigate through the complex themselves, says @CoachBigToe. Share on X

Lastly, keep in mind the number of athletes you’ll be consistently working with. For example, I’ve hugely benefited from using a 1080 Sprint in my career. In my previous job at a private facility, I worked with 1 to 12 athletes at a time, where the 1080 Sprint makes a ton of sense. And although I’m sad I don’t have it at my current job at a university, it doesn’t make the most sense in this type of training with 30+ athletes at once. It makes more sense to have equipment that I can get more of (i.e., is cheaper) that can incorporate more athletes at once, like my favorite double-band set up.

Conclusion

Speed training can be done effectively and at a high level regardless of the number of athletes or amount of space and equipment. The only difference is that it won’t always look the same. Solutions for maximizing an hour of training with one athlete are significantly different than with 100 athletes, although the same principles still apply.

If I had to summarize working around the common challenges in speed training, it would be simple answers to this question: “How do I compromise to help me maximize the current situation (a lot of athletes, limited space/equipment) to move the needle towards helping my athletes get faster?” Be creative! Get more athletes involved and moving at once and incorporate technology as a piece of the puzzle instead of the whole puzzle itself.

Every track season cannot be the best of your career as a coach, but last season was just that for me. As coaches, we want to set lofty goals for our athletes while also setting realistic expectations for their success and achievement. But there were moments as this last season progressed that made me wonder if our goals were high enough.

For example, we used the Freelap timing system last season to time our workouts. I ensured the batteries were fresh in the chips the athletes wore and the towers that would pick up the athletes’ signals and record their times. We had a speed day, and the workout was three 40-yard dashes out of blocks—we’d been working up to this distance, and the kids were looking forward to seeing their 40 times. I took my time measuring 40 yards, had my athletes write their names on the recording sheet in the order they were going to run as usual, and went to the end line to record all their times.

Last season was the best track season in my career as a coach, but there were moments as it progressed that I wondered if our goals were high enough, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

The first athlete to go was our fastest sprinter. Already a state champion in the 100 and 200 the previous year (2022), we knew he was going to have a fantastic senior season. We had worked tirelessly on his block starts, general technique, and mechanics, as well as a yearlong lifting plan that he religiously adhered to. We were all excited to see what he would put down in a 40-yard dash.

He got set, exploded out of the blocks, and accelerated through the finish line, looking as smooth as ever. It was a great-looking rep! But when I looked at my phone for his time, I was upset—I had clearly mis-measured the distance. It had to be too short. The Freelap registered a time of 4.29.

I stood up, looked at the other coach, and said, “Shoot—I was sure I measured it correctly, but it says he just ran a 4.29! I’ll re-measure.” He just looked at me and said, “I don’t know, that looked fast.”

I apologized to the athletes and told them I messed up and had to re-measure. As I pulled the tape closer to the line, I realized I wasn’t going to be short. It was 40 yards, right on the button. I was in disbelief.

His next two reps—using different chips, I might add—were 4.30 and 4.38. But it wasn’t just him—all the athletes were putting down times that both they and I were beyond happy with. It was a day I won’t soon forget and a moment that told me the season was going to be special.

The 2023 season saw school records broken in the 100 (10.58), 200 (21.39), 400 (49.08), and 4×100 (43.00); it also resulted in a 100- and 200-meter state championship to top it off, as well as our 4×100 relay taking third in the Wisconsin Division 2 finals. 2023 will be challenging to top—not just this year but in all the years to follow.

Before the 2023 season, I published an article outlining my entire season practice plan and my thoughts behind it. Due to the weather and other facility issues we all face in Wisconsin, we had to make on-the-fly adjustments. But the plan as laid out was almost perfectly followed. Here are five takeaways from 2023 and how those impact my plans for the 2024 high school track season in Wisconsin.

1. Prioritize Speed Early and Often

Most of my sprinters are three-sport athletes coming off either a basketball or wrestling season. These sports are inherently more demanding on the cardiovascular side than what we do as sprinters, so they had a good work capacity base built already. This allowed me to focus on speed work (which will also build endurance).

Conversely, these sports don’t touch the velocities I want their bodies to be able to endure come track season. Because of this, I got them sprinting right away to start the acclimation process, with a HUGE focus on proper mechanics. Sprinting at top speed, in my opinion, is asking for trouble if it is not done using proper mechanics. This leads me to my second point.     

2. You Can Only Run as Fast as Your Technique Allows

I despise the term “warm-up,” and you won’t hear me say it at my practices. Instead of a warm-up, we do TECH. This is always the first thing we do. It focuses on preparing the central nervous system to sprint at maximum velocity while engraining proper sprinting patterns and technique into the athletes. This is the most focused portion of practice. TECH serves as technique work, core strength workout, plyometric workout, and isometric workout, and helps my athletes learn how to coach up one another.

TECH serves as technique work, core strength workout, plyometric workout, and isometric workout, and helps my athletes learn how to coach up one another, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

During this time, we will do many common drills you might see at any track practice: A-series drills, bounding, rolling starts, and the like. But you will also see our athletes coach each other like you haven’t seen before. My goal is to teach myself out of a coaching job. This means that I have thoroughly taught my athletes what proper sprinting technique looks like to the point I am confident that if I missed a day of practice, they could coach each other and still come out of the session better.

Secondly, we do a vast array of isometric work. Isometrics strengthen without impact. Many athletes fall victim to shin splints early in the season because the volume of stress on the body—specifically the lower leg—dramatically increases suddenly. Isometrics allow me to specifically target the ankle complex and strengthen it without having to pound my athlete’s legs into the ground.

We do what I call “A iso holds,” where athletes hold the perfect max velocity position, on one foot, then I have them elevate their heel so they are only on their forefoot and hold for 30 seconds at a time. We do ankle iso squats, where we hold a squat a bit above parallel but they have their heels as high off the ground as possible, and a plethora of other isometric movements that help strengthen the positions I want my athletes strong in.

Personally, I think all athletes, regardless of their sport, should do TECH at the start of practice every day, but I digress. Taking the time to truly teach my athletes the proper mechanics early in the season, and then intently working on them every day in new ways that the athletes couldn’t predict, allowed for maximum neural coding to take place between the brain and the body. This resulted in flawless technique by my sprinters without them having to think about it. It was a habit, and it was a difference-maker.

3. Planning Using Time Under Tension

The only thing I care about is how my athletes perform at the state meet. I want my athletes to be the freshest sprinters with the least mileage when they walk into the Wisconsin state meet held at Roger Harring Stadium on the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse Campus. To ensure this, I plan out my season using a time under tension (TUT) method. This has been the biggest game-changer for me in my planning strategy.

I plan out my season using a time under tension (TUT) method. This has been the biggest game-changer for me in my planning strategy, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

I estimate how many seconds my athletes will be at max velocity in a workout, then add up the total time in the week to get weekly TUT. Then, I use that number to create a base, load, peak, de-load, and cycle. In 2023, during the three-month season, my athletes recorded a total of 20 minutes of time under tension, with the heaviest load being 4.25 minutes in one week coming at week 7 of the season. Note: I counted meets as time under tension for the week; I will not be doing that for the 2024 season.

For the 2024 season, we’re cutting the load even more. As of this writing, we are planning for a total of 338.5 seconds of TUT for the season. Here is an example of base, load, peak, and taper weeks for this coming season. Mind you, this is 338 seconds at max velocity, with as close to perfect form as possible.

I provide all the coaches on staff with my “workout plan rationale” each year—the coaches, athletes, and parents all know I have a reason for everything we do. This mitigates coaching conflicts, as well as parental conflicts. Here is my rationale for the 2024 season:

• This training schedule has three cycles, with a focus on coming into the last two weeks of the season as fresh and as fast as possible. The first three weeks of the season will focus on teaching our system of sprint development to the athletes and introducing their bodies to the stimuli we want them to get acclimated to for the rest of the season. We will practice three days a week to ensure no shin splints develop due to a rapid increase in usage that will lead to nagging issues into the late season. The first three weeks will act as the base for the rest of the season.
• Week 4 will see a jump in volume (75 seconds of time under tension) and act as a loading week for the peak volume week we will see in week 5 (80 seconds of time under tension). Eighty seconds, with the bulk of the volume coming on one day (60 seconds), will be the most volume the athletes will experience in practice all week. Following this, the focus will switch from building a base of stimulus to increasing max velocity and power output.
• Weeks 6–9 will act as a taper from the peak of week 5 and will primarily focus on extending the drive phase of athletes and helping them reach max velocity further down the track while also emphasizing staying relaxed late in the race. Weeks 6–9 will see huge tapers ranging from 56%–93% from the peak in week 5. This will help the athletes recover while also eliciting a hormonal response that will hopefully make the next reload phase (weeks 10 and 11) more effective.
• During the reload week, the athletes will only reach 21% of the volume accumulated during the peak week (week 5) of the season. Following the reload week, we enter into tournament time. During these two weeks, we will focus on keeping the athletes fresh while intentionally not letting speed become detrained. We will do this by programming five seconds under tension during week 12 and only 3.5 seconds in the week of the state meet. We want healthy, fresh, and fast athletes going into state.

4. Lift

Our school is beyond blessed to have our strength and conditioning handled and implemented by Three Rivers Performance. Since they took over, football has won three straight state titles (21, 22, and 23), and the playoff depth for every team in the school has increased.

For track, we lift three days a week before practice. Now, ideally, lifting is done after speed work. But because we don’t have a track on our school’s campus, we have to bus our athletes to a track, and they go home from there. Regardless of that, Eddie Hodges (owner of Three Rivers Performance) plans the lifts in a way that will support the speed work we will be doing that day. Lifts take 30 minutes, and they are efficient. Everyone on the track team lifts: sprinters, throwers, distance.

5. Field Events

Field event work will come second to speed work. Even if an athlete is only a jumper, they will always participate in the speed workout that day before working on their field event. The best way to jump farther or higher is to be able to sprint faster. Sprinting is the best plyometric known to man! They will benefit far more from speed work than from event-specific drills in the long run. With that said, on days when no speed work is planned, they can spend all practice after TECH working on their event.

I will also take this time to argue that your throwers should also participate in speed work weekly, says @DillonMartinez. Share on X

Now, I will also take this time to argue that your throwers should also participate in speed work weekly. I outlined my experience working with a Division 1 discus thrower this winter on X. The overall takeaway was that by increasing his max velocity, we were able to increase his maximum power output.

On day one, his max power output was 886N. This number comes from his 10-meter fly time of 1.31. There are some great articles about “truck stick”—check them out. After 10 sessions of speed work, we got his flying 10 meter down to 1.21, which equates to a 964N output. This increase in power output alone theoretically translates to being able to throw a discus 8.8% farther. Increasing velocity increases power, which increases the implement distance thrown. With that said, I will be advocating for our throwers to do speed work with us at least once a week. Speed truly is the tide that raises all ships.

Onward and Forward

With my 2024 practice plan completed, I can only hope that when it’s done, I’ll be able to reflect on the season with as much enthusiasm as the previous year. Putting the time in to meticulously plan will allow you to monitor progress within your program in a detailed manner year to year.

After many seasons, you will clearly be able to see what works and what needs to be added or subtracted for your practice plan based on the data collected over time.

Good luck to all the coaches and athletes this year! May 2024 be your best season yet!

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

At the bottom of the ocean, 12,500 feet down off the southeast coast of Newfoundland, lies what remains of the Titanic. In 1912, the deepest an underwater diver could go without catastrophic disaster—aka death—was 60 feet. At that time, experts claimed a human would NEVER be able to go deeper than 400 feet, even in a submarine, due to the immense pressures of the dark ocean. In 1986, however, Robert Ballard operated the first expedition down to the once-lost Titanic.

Since then, divers have taken scuba gear as deep as 1,090 feet and survived to tell the tale. The trick to them getting out of these depths is how well these professionals manage their approach in and out of the water. A first-time snorkeler would be a fool to think they can immediately try a deep dive without proper acclimation and training. Due to the bends (a decompression sickness), the deepest scuba dive took only 15 minutes to reach the bottom but 13 careful hours to return to the top. Unfortunately, implosion and disaster can occur when details are missed, as with the Titan submersible.

As strength coaches, we find ourselves in a different “depth” debacle.

The History of Motion (Not in the Ocean)

Do you remember the early 2000s, when squatting below parallel was a cardinal sin? Physical therapists and your local high school football coach had one thing in common—they believed deep squats were bad for your knees. After a 2003 study showed that deep dorsiflexed squats put larger stress on the knee, weight rooms across America saw a transformation.¹

An unintended consequence of limited ROM squats was that coaches could slap even more weight on the bar. Instead of a safer weight room, you’d find dozens of teenagers quarter-squatting with their lives on the line and “mysterious” knee pain to follow. But if you look at many college and professional weight rooms today, you’ll see slant boards and nothing but bottomed-out squats—so, what happened?

Researchers re-evaluated the data and made an unfortunate discovery. Our limited range of motion in the weight room did not positively impact the overall health of the knee on the field. For example, rates of ACL tears went from 8.1 out of 1,000 players in 1995 to 11.1 out of 1,000 players in 2012.^2,3

Was something we were doing in the weight room not transferring to the field? As injury rates continued to climb, the infamous study on dorsiflexed squats being bad was challenged, and we found ourselves trying to squat deep again. Eventually, powerlifting depth became the standard, and a lot of ego lifters started hearing “not low enough” from their coaches. Big weights were still moved, but there was a standard that had to be met for a lift to “count.”

However, like all things, this also had its flaws. There were many coaches who believed that “deep” wasn’t “deep enough.” Thus, we entered the EXTREME depth era. Hitting these extreme depths could only be possible by acclimating to the dangers of deeper waters. As squat maxes in the 2010s looked more like bench press maxes in the 1990s, coaches found themselves lacking the “intensity” that came from big weights and camaraderie.

And yet, after 30 years of the squat evolution, we still debate how athletes should perform the double knee bend. Like political parties, we have professionals squaring off on social media platforms and swearing their allegiance to the “one true way” to train while demonizing the other party. But the point of growing the body of research and learning better ways to train was never to adopt dogma and tribalism but rather incorporate everything that did work into a more ideal, holistic training system. The question is not what range of motion (ROM) to train athletes in, but rather, how we should train in ALL OF THESE ranges of motion.

The question is not what range of motion (ROM) to train athletes in, but rather, how we should train in ALL OF THESE ranges of motion, says @endunamoo_sc. Share on X

Many coaches already dabble in many different depths and positions, but for the rest of this article, I want to express how OUR PROGRAM uses the entire ROM to create better and healthier athletes.

1. The Elastic/Power ROM

(Initial quarter of a movement—higher speed and mostly fascial movements)

The next time you watch a sporting event, I want you to look at the depth of each athlete’s movement in a typical play. No matter the event, you will find that the majority of time is spent at the top half of all ranges of motion. This includes explosive jumps, top-speed sprints, football tackles, soccer kicks, swinging a bat, and so much more. These positions encourage a more fascial-dominant movement style, which can be performed at higher speeds with less ground contact time. Pop Warner and tee-ball coaches refer to this range as the “ready position,” but for today’s purpose, we will refer to it as the Elastic ROM.

Many Broccoli Bros at the local gym will load a squat or bench as heavy as possible and then perform a “quarter” rep…and while many coaches demonize this behavior, is it really so bad? It depends on the desired goal. Just like a snorkel can serve a purpose in diving pursuits, so can a partial range of motion exercise. When it comes to the top of a partial range of motion, here are three examples of what I do to manage these components in my programming:

1. Speed of movement – A greater rate of force development can be achieved in a more mechanically advantageous position. Because of this, more speed-intended concentric movements like loaded jumps or dynamic trap bar deadlifts should be performed in this ROM.
2. Potentiating movements – Pairing like ROM movements with their athletic counterparts (for example, loaded jumps with sprints and isometrics with jumps) is a great way to improve performance without exacerbating fatigue. With adequate rest in between, hang power cleans are a great tool to potentiate jumps.
3. Game-specific rapid eccentrics – Although slow eccentric movements are a growing trend among social media coaches, rapid eccentric training is a great way to improve sports performance in athletes.⁴ These can be loaded movements, like a dynamic speed squat, or unloaded plyometrics, like hurdle hops.

Although slow eccentric movements are a growing trend among social media coaches, rapid eccentric training is a great way to improve sports performance in athletes, says @endunamoo_sc. Share on X

Training power-specific qualities requires a more detailed program since velocity is one of the first qualities to fatigue in a training session. The Power ROM is most effectively developed at the beginning of a session, with less total volume than some other components. Depending on the athlete’s work capacity, you can perform up to 10 reps in a set at this ROM at high speeds, or you can break it up over a few sets. Using the reference that most athletes peak at 30–45 effort jumps in a game, we should consider keeping the total reps in this range to encourage higher outputs. Accumulating too many bad reps due to fatigue could negate some of the positive training effects we are looking for.⁵

Another way to reduce fatigue and keep velocity high is by using equipment that naturally decreases the movement an athlete can go through—for example, high handles on a trap bar or resting a bar on the pins during a bench press. This is also a great time to quantify power by using devices that measure speed or watts produced. A lower-cost method to add speed and intent is by timing sets or racing reps between athletes—timing a set of five trap bar speed deadlifts or barbell sprinter squat jumps can increase the effort from athletes.

We can also pair overcoming isometric movements with like-skilled athletic movements to maximize plyometric training at the beginning of a session. Getting an athlete to a tetanic contraction during an isometric takes time, but it’s a great way to freely quantify effort. Unfortunately, fatigue is still the enemy, forcing our overcoming isometrics to be done for five seconds at most.

2. The Muscular/Strength ROM

(Muscular-dominant movements in sports)

Another layman’s term for this ROM would be “powerlifting range,” but it can apply to some of the full Olympic lifts and your typical hypertrophy-focused exercises. This range does a great job at hitting multiple training needs, as it allows for substantial load, can be done relatively explosively, and can introduce a lot of fatigue to an athlete.

For starters, let’s talk about putting some size on your thighs. There are many theories on how to maximally stimulate hypertrophy and neurological stimulation; a formula that some use is:

(weight lifted/intensity) x (reps x sets) x (range of motion)

The Strength ROM is a much greater range than the Power ROM, but it is not so extreme that it cannot be loaded maximally and done for several reps in a row relatively quickly. When you think of a squat (back/front/overhead), this ROM is below parallel (hip crease below top of knee) but not so deep that we lose the amortization phase of movement (isometric point between eccentric and concentric).

Like an exploratory submersible, athletes can spend a lot of time at this depth without running out of energy, allowing them to put in a lot of training volume. In current strength and conditioning, this is the most common ROM used, and if you post a video without hitting “depth,” the powerlift bros will let you know about it. Ideally, this ROM is used for:

1. Ideal strength development ROM – Anecdotally, millions of powerlifters worldwide have shown that significant load can be lifted in this range. Likewise, we periodically see high-level athletes enter this ROM as they perform high-power movements during their sport. Typically, these higher-force movements include larger ground contact times and slower eccentric loading than the aforementioned fascial range. Athletes with concentric-dominant tendencies will do better in this ROM than their more eccentric counterparts. This ROM also greatly develops the amortization phase because the braking occurs in a less mechanically advantageous position (more muscular loading than ligament). This is why traditional power lifts like bench presses, squats, and deadlifts are great. Because we still see a large amount of high-force performance in this ROM, we want to train it effectively with relative load.
2. Optimal hypertrophy stimulating ROM – Since putting on functional size is an important part of many sports—but introducing too much fatigue can result in impaired sports play—we want to spend the least amount of time necessary to encourage muscle protein synthesis. This ROM combines the degrees of movement and possible load lifted to encourage a greater mechanical stimulus for “growth.”

Fatigue is a crucial component to consider when building a training program. If we burn too much energy at the wrong time, we will inhibit the quality of work we can do throughout a session. Training the strength ROM is best done toward the middle or end of a session where speed is no longer the focus, but we have not over-exerted athletes beyond their ability to move heavier weights.

This looks like your more traditional strength training exercises, such as back squats, deadlifts from the bar or hex handles, or barbell or DB bench presses to the shirt. This can also include more power-specific drills like kneeling or half-kneeling medball throws. The overall volume needs to be dictated by the athlete’s max recoverable volume, but the sets will have reps of 1–10 with only a few working sets per day per exercise.

As much as some in the S&C community want to abandon the idea of lifting heavier loads in favor of higher speeds or alternative styles of training, there are arguments to keep bending bars and getting PRs. Neurological adaptations to heavier weights seem to be unique and valuable, and we should still include them in sports training, thus why I have called this the “Strength” ROM.⁶

As much as some in the S&C community want to abandon the idea of lifting heavier loads in favor of higher speeds or alternative training styles, there are arguments to keep bending bars & getting PRs. Share on X

3. The Tissue Capacity ROM

(The extreme range of motion a tissue can currently support)

I would call this the “modern” ROM, but there have been guys like Charles Poliquin preaching the importance of this for years. This ROM laughs at the coaches and PTs from yore who claimed performing deeper squats would implode your knee like a mismanaged submarine on the ocean floor. Without proper acclimation and a great plan, these depths can mean disaster for the unwitting. Range of motion goes beyond “traditional” depths and focuses on the individual’s max capacity of a joint and its surrounding tissues. We can also call this the End Range of Motion (EROM), but most individuals will have a current capacity they are limited to and a true capacity they can work toward.

This end ROM is much harder to achieve any substantial load in and lacks the speed potential of other ROMS, but it plays a crucial role in preparing soft tissue for the EXTREMES of sports and life. Share on X

Although this EROM is much harder to achieve any substantial load in and lacks the speed potential of other ROMS, it plays a crucial role in preparing soft tissue for the EXTREMES of what might happen in sports and life. When an athlete experiences tendonitis or even tears/trauma to connective tissue, it is always because the demands of the moment supersede the preparedness of the structure. Ideally, we would use this EROM for:

1. Improving connective tissues’ durability – Large ranges of motion put greater stretch and load on connective tissues like tendons and ligaments. Many athletes struggle with bouts of tendonitis, and “prehab” should be considered for hotspot areas within specific sports. Large ROM training should be included as a holistic approach to improving the health of athletes.
2. Enhancing proprioception at extreme ranges of motion – If you’ve never managed this challenging range, you won’t move efficiently in it. Like transitioning from a snorkel to a scuba tank, more details have to be managed in order to come out unscathed. We want athletes to have cognitively been in this range (even if at lower speeds and loads) to help them manage that situation better.
3. Increasing overall “flexibility” – We are learning that flexibility is a very neurological response. An athlete’s nervous system will inhibit them from entering a space if it is deemed “unsafe.” By using load and frequency, we can encourage our nervous system to trust a range of motion without just putting the brakes on. Although our bodies are just trying to protect us, something as simple as reduced ankle dorsiflexion can increase the risk of an ACL tear.⁷

It wasn’t that long ago that doctors couldn’t confirm the ability of ligaments like the ACL to thicken/hypertrophy due to training. Traditional, partial ROM lower-load training did not seem to cause a positive change that could be recognized with any confidence. However, when researchers looked at athletes whose sport demanded maximum EROM-loaded movements, they were able to see significant ligament thickening.⁸

It would seem that the greater the ROM and stress placed on connective tissue is, the greater the adaptation and, thus, resilience. Large ROM movements can affect not only the structure but also the stability of the limbs they are associated with. Many cruciate ligaments have morphologically different sensory nerve endings, turning them into a large contributor to proprioception.⁹

This training range is unique because its application varies depending on the individual or training goal. It can be done at the beginning of a session with lighter loads and longer times under tension—almost as a warm-up—or at the end as a capstone to a tough session with more weight, faster speeds, or higher volumes. Just like an athlete’s ability to generate speed or power in the first ROM or the amount of weight they can lift in the strength ROM, the abilities of athletes to move in this ROM greatly vary. Because of this, it is important to mediate load, understand it’s more fatiguing for some than others, and possibly use devices like slant boards or assisted straps for larger movements at specific joints.

As with all movements, we want to stay within an athlete’s current capacity and expand that over time, but since this has the most degrees of movement, it is more likely to cause a problem if your athletes are moving “poorly.” A great way to teach movement quality in this space with VERY LOW risk or irritation is with yielding isometrics. By performing longer-duration active holds (30 seconds or greater), not only will athletes build confidence, but their connective tissues will also get a greater response to the stress.

If absolute strength in this ROM is the goal, performing submaximal and higher-rep movements at the end of the session can also be done. By finishing a session with controlled sets of 10 or working sets that last longer than 30 seconds, athletes can “restore” some movement qualities that might have been inhibited by faster or harder training. For many older athletes who have not engaged in this type of training from an earlier age, you will need to lower their movement expectations at first or provide them with assisted devices to create flexion in some of the joints.

Working at Depth

Not every coach is trying to discover treasure in the Titanic, but that doesn’t mean our athletes shouldn’t be prepared for the extremes that each depth can bring in sports. There isn’t always time or energy in every training session to develop each position properly, but any coach can program to include all of these ROMS over the course of a week with all of their athletes.

You wouldn’t send a scuba diver to the Mariana Trench in a 1912 suit, and you probably shouldn’t send someone to the pitch, field, or court without the proper preparation, either.

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

1. Fry AC, Smith JC, and Schilling BK. “Effect of knee position on hip and knee torques during the barbell squat.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2003 Nov;17(4):629–33. doi: 10.1519/15334287(2003)017<0629:eokpoh>2.0.co;2. PMID: 14636100.

2. Powell JW and Barber-Foss KD. “Injury patterns in Selected High School Sports: A Review of the 1995–1997 Seasons.” Journal of Athletic Training. 1999;34(3):277–284.

3. Joseph AM, Collins CL, Henke NM, Yard EE, Fields SK, and Comstock RD. “A multisport epidemiologic comparison of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in high school athletics.” Journal of Athletic Training. 2013;48(6):810–817.

4. Hernandez JL, Sabido R, and Blazevich AJ. “High-speed stretch-shortening cycle exercises as a strategy to provide eccentric overload during resistance training.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. 2021;31(12):2211–2220.

5. Ben Abdelkrim N, El Fazaa S, and El Ati J. “Time-motion analysis and physiological data of elite under-19-year-old basketball players during competition.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2007 Feb;41(2):69–75; discussion 75. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2006.032318. Epub 2006 Nov 30. PMID: 17138630; PMCID: PMC2658931.

6. Jenkins NDM, Miramonti AA, Hill EC, et al. “Greater Neural Adaptations following High- vs. Low-Load Resistance Training.” Frontiers in Physiology. 2017:8.

7. Fong CM, Blackburn JT, Norcross MF, McGrath M, and Padua DA. “Ankle-dorsiflexion range of motion and landing biomechanics.” Journal of Athletic Training. 2011 Jan-Feb;46(1):5–10. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-46.1.5. PMID: 21214345; PMCID: PMC3017488.

8. Grzelak P, Podgorski M, Stefanczyk L, Krochmalski M, and Domzalski M. “Hypertrophied cruciate ligament in high performance weightlifters observed in magnetic resonance imaging.” International Orthopaedics. 2012 Aug;36(8):1715–1719. doi: 10.1007/s00264-012-1528-3. Epub 2012 Mar 25. PMID: 22447073; PMCID: PMC3535026.

9. Johansson H, Sjölander P, and Sojka P. “A sensory role for the cruciate ligaments.” Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. 1991 Jul;(268):161–178. PMID: 2060205.

As one of the co-founders of the RockDaisy Athlete Management System, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with a wide range of organizations, from high school to professional teams to everything in between. During my interactions with coaches and athletes, I’ve consistently observed a shared aspiration: the pursuit of peak performance.

One valuable tool in this journey toward excellence is the baseline athlete performance test. This assessment provides a snapshot of an athlete’s current abilities and offers numerous benefits that can lead to better training, performance, and overall success.

A baseline athlete performance test provides a snapshot of an athlete’s current abilities and offers numerous benefits that can lead to better training, performance, and overall success. Share on X

What Is a Baseline Athlete Performance Test?

A baseline athlete performance test is an evaluation designed to measure an athlete’s physical and functional capabilities at a specific time. This test serves as a reference point or starting point for assessing an athlete’s performance and progress. It typically involves one or more physical assessments and measurements, including strength, speed, endurance, agility, flexibility, and more.

In Figure 1 above:

• The Baseline** score (first column in blue) would be the first test within the selected date range.
• The Most Recent column displays (40 Yard Sprint) values for each athlete.
• The Most Recent column also displays colored arrows to indicate improvement from the Most Recent score as compared to the Baseline

**Note: You can perform a baseline comparison for any metric you store in RockDaisy AMS.

What Period Should You Use for a Baseline Athlete Performance Test?

The period for a baseline athlete performance assessment can vary depending on the specific goals, circumstances, and testing frequency. Two of the most common baseline time frames I’ve observed are:

1. 1. Short-Term Baseline: Preparing for a single event or competition. For this purpose, a baseline assessment may remain relevant for a few weeks or months leading up to the specific event.

 

1. Seasonal Baseline: In many sports, athletes undergo baseline assessments at the beginning of each season (e.g., pre-season). These assessments help establish a starting point for the season and guide training programs. They typically remain relevant for the duration of that season, which may range from a few months to several months.

Configure your baseline report by selecting the following:

1. Baseline Date Range
2. Metric To Compare
3. Conditional Format

**Note: The Baseline test score is the first test within the selected Baseline Date Range.

Seven Benefits of Baseline Athlete Performance Tests

How can you and your athletes benefit from baseline athlete performance assessments?

1. Personalized Training Programs

One of the primary advantages of baseline athlete performance tests is the ability to tailor training programs to an individual’s specific needs. By identifying an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses, coaches and trainers can design workouts that address areas requiring improvement. This customized approach enhances training efficiency and effectiveness.

2. Goal Setting and Tracking

Setting clear, measurable goals is essential for any athlete’s development. Baseline tests provide a benchmark against which athletes can set realistic, achievable objectives. As athletes train and retest periodically, they can track their progress and adjust their goals accordingly, boosting motivation and focus.

3. Injury Prevention

Identifying physical weaknesses or imbalances through baseline tests allows coaches and athletes to address potential injury risks. By targeting areas of vulnerability, athletes can incorporate injury-prevention exercises into their training routines. Strengthening these weak points can help reduce the risk of injuries during competition.

4. Performance Optimization

Baseline tests help athletes optimize their performance by pinpointing areas for improvement. Athletes can work on weaknesses, enhance their strengths, and fine-tune their skills to maximize their overall performance potential.

5. Competition Preparation

For athletes preparing for competitions, knowing their baseline performance levels is invaluable. It helps them fine-tune their training regimen to peak at the right time, ensuring they are in the best possible shape when it matters most.

6. Objective Feedback

Baseline tests provide athletes with objective feedback about their abilities. This information can be beneficial for athletes looking to secure scholarships, join competitive teams, or advance their careers. Objective data can serve as evidence of an athlete’s capabilities.

7. Motivation and Accountability

Knowing they are being assessed and measured can motivate athletes to give their best effort in training. Baseline tests create a sense of accountability and a competitive edge that can push athletes to strive for excellence.

Baseline tests create a sense of accountability and a competitive edge that can push athletes to strive for excellence. Share on X

Realize Your Potential

In the world of sports and athletics, where small improvements can make a significant difference, baseline athlete performance tests have become indispensable. These assessments offer personalized insights, goal-setting capabilities, and injury prevention strategies. Whether you’re a high school athlete, a college player, or a professional competing at the highest level, embracing baseline tests can help you unlock your true athletic potential.

RockDaisy has worked with numerous organizations, from high school to the pros. Our Athlete Baseline report is one of many reports that are ready to use and/or customizable to your needs. With our unique data visualization tools, we provide insight into your data outside of just the raw numbers.

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