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Taste is a weird thing. Defined as “a homeostatic function that aids in deciding what to eat,” it can vary quite substantially among people. For example, I find marmite, the often-polarizing food, absolutely repulsive; meanwhile, my wife enjoys it on toast. Conversely, she has a strong dislike for parsnips, while I like nothing better than a couple roasted up and eaten along with a side of beef. The ability to detect different tastants—chemicals that drive flavor—can also differ in the magnitude by which it occurs, leading some people to be labeled as supertasters (and tending to dislike coffee and Brussel sprouts). What we taste is subject to a variety of different influences, including smell and visual stimuli, and also social and cultural factors.

In recent years, those involved in sport have become increasingly interested in the effects a variety of tastes can have on performance. A couple of years ago, I wrote a post for SimpliFaster about how strong spicy flavors might act as a treatment for muscle cramps. Other research demonstrates how both sweet and bitter tastes, as well as cooling sensations mediated through taste, may help improve performance.

Based on this research, I recently co-authored a really interesting paper published in the European Journal of Nutrition, which asked, “Can taste be ergogenic?” We explored the influences of sweet and bitter tastants on performance, how thermal tastants (both hot and cold) can influence our capacity to exercise, and whether these performance-enhancing effects were due to taste itself or placebo or expectancy mechanisms. Here, I’ll share the key points with you.

Sweet and Bitter Tastes

In day-to-day life, the main sweet taste we’re exposed to comes from simple carbohydrates—essentially, sugar. We’ve long known that carbohydrates positively influence exercise performance, especially in endurance activities where athletes often consume carbohydrate-containing drinks, gels, and bars during competitions. Over the last couple of decades, however, researchers have started to notice something interesting: we see an improvement in performance when we consume carbohydrates during exercise, but only around 25% of the carbohydrate consumed during exercise enters our bloodstream to be used as energy.

This is much less than expected, given the performance-boost carbohydrate delivers. The finding led other researchers to speculate that—when consumed during exercise—carbohydrates might stimulate pathways within the brain and central nervous system. Two main proposed pathways are thought to be activated:

• Those associated with reward
• Those associated with feelings of energy availability

On the latter point, when we exercise, our brain consistently makes calculations between how much energy we have left and how long the exercise is due to carry on and uses the results of these calculations to regulate effort. When our brain senses that our energy stores are running low, it subconsciously drives us to slow down. When we consume carbohydrates during exercise, the sweetness activates taste receptors that tell our brain “energy is coming,” allowing it to modify the effort we’re putting in.

When we consume carbohydrates during exercise, our brain loans us the energy we're expecting to digest soon, says @craig100m. Share on X

Essentially, we’re loaning the energy from the carbohydrate we expect to digest in the next short period of time. We know this happens because we can trick the brain into thinking energy is coming by rinsing a carbohydrate around the mouth and spitting it out; when we do this, exercise performance is still enhanced.

The relationship between carbohydrates, sweet taste, and performance is somewhat complicated. Carbohydrates that don’t have a strong sweet taste, such as maltodextrin, have performance-enhancing effects when rinsed around the mouth. In contrast, very sweet flavors that have no energetic value—such as artificial sweeteners—don’t exhibit an ergogenic effect. Overall, this suggests that taste per se does not enhance performance. Instead, the carbohydrate molecules bind to some as-of-yet-unidentified receptors in the mouth. A further important area to consider here is that carbohydrate mouth rinses could lead to oral health issues, which commonly affect athletes and have important impacts on performance—something we should consider before using them.

Bitter tastes appear to activate similar regions of the brain as sweet tastes, leading researchers to wonder whether they could enhance performance similar to carbohydrate mouth rinses. The idea has been most well-explored by an Australian research group. In one study, the authors gave a group of male cyclists a solution made to taste bitter by adding quinine—the compound that gives tonic water its bitter taste. When the cyclists rinsed the solution around their mouths and then ingested it, they experienced an almost 4% performance improvement compared to when they rinsed and swallowed water. When a similar bitter solution was swilled around the mouth and not ingested, performance did not improve—which suggests that ingesting the bitter solution is what’s important. The researchers proposed this reason: there are a large number of bitter taste receptors situated in the upper gastrointestinal tract, and swallowing the solution activates these receptors and, hence, performance enhancement.

Like quinine, caffeine is a bitter tastant that activates bitter taste receptors in the mouth. Caffeine is also exceptionally well-established as an ergogenic aid, which begs the question: Are some of caffeine’s ergogenic effects due to its bitter taste? I explored this in detail in a separate paper published in 2019; a key difficulty with this suggestion is that caffeine mouth rinses don’t seem to enhance performance when the caffeine is not swallowed.

Thermal Tastants

As anyone who enjoys a tasty curry will know, humans have used spices in their diet for years, including those that cause sensations of heat. The main chemical compound that drives these feelings is capsicum, which we find in foods such as chili. Creams and ointments that contain capsicum give a sensation of heat when rubbed on the skin, demonstrating the potentially broad use of this compound. Using capsicum as an oral pre-exercise supplement has received increased attention over the last couple of years, with a few studies exploring capsicum’s effects on exercise performance. Capsicum supplementation improved 1500m time trial performance, total reps in a reps-to-failure protocol carried out at 70% 1RM in the back squat exercise, and time to exhaustion in a repeated treadmill running exercise. Importantly, capsicum consumed as part of a meal doesn’t appear to elicit the same effects, so it’s likely that specific, targeted capsicum consumption in tablets is required.

However, before we all rush off and start purchasing—and taking—capsicum supplements, it’s important to consider that side effects are very common. The most common of these is gastrointestinal (GI) distress. Consuming this very spicy compound is associated with GI pain and diarrhea, as many people can attest to from experience. These effects have the very real potential to limit performance, which presents the main limitation of capsicum supplementation.

Conversely, menthol—a common flavor in toothpaste and mouthwash—elicits a cooling sensation. These sensations can have important implications when it comes to exercise performance, as feelings of overheating are linked to reduced performance. Early studies have demonstrated the somewhat minor effectiveness of menthol mouth rinses on endurance performance, which appear to be largely mediated through improvements in thermal comfort. However, no change in body temperature occurs.

The Important Role of Placebo

The placebo effect refers to the “desirable outcome resulting from a person’s expected and/or learned response to a treatment or situation.” This is crucial from a taste perspective; if an athlete consumes an ergogenic aid with a strong taste, and then sees a performance improvement, they will associate that taste with the improvement. And when they consume the same supplement on a different occasion, they will expect their performance to improve. Given that the effects of placebos on exercise performance are real and replicable, there is the potential that some of the ergogenic effects of any supplement are due partly to the athlete recognizing a taste they expect will improve performance and perform better as a result.

If this sounds implausible, consider the results of this case study, in which a child with an autoimmune disease received medication along with a strong taste and smell. After a period of time, the medication was removed from the cocktail, with only the taste and smell remaining; after consumption, the new “medicine” improved the patient’s symptoms. This isn’t to say the placebo effect exclusively mediates the potential ergogenic effects of taste but that it’s at least a contributor.

Summary

In summary, we found that taste has the potential to improve performance. It can be difficult, however, to separate the effects of taste per se and the stimulation of specific receptors in the mouth and gastrointestinal tract that provide signals to the brain regarding aspects such as energy availability. At present, it appears that carbohydrate and menthol mouth rinses have the potential to enhance performance. And ingesting bitter tastants and capsicum may also improve performance, although not because they stimulate the taste receptors.

Carbohydrate & menthol mouth rinses as well as bitter tastants and capsicum may enhance performance, though the mechanisms by which they work differ. Share on X

As the research in this area expands, we should get a better idea of how strong tastes enhance performance, and how we can harness this knowledge for athletes. An important part of using any ergogenic aid is that of placebo and expectancy; if the athlete believes something will improve performance, it likely will, and so strong, recognizable tastes form a part of this—and might be something for supplement manufacturers to consider in the future!

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

A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We have transitioned in this country from static stretching to dynamic mobility for our warm-up, and I was right there as most coaches balked at the dynamic warm-up. The change reduced soft tissue injuries, but we still faced an abnormal amount of odd injuries—non-contact injuries in particular. Often, return-to-play protocols look fantastic on paper but ultimately fail as athletes go on to get hurt again.

We’ve developed all kinds of programs that help athletes get stronger and faster with the hopes of becoming bulletproof.  When we enter the robust, unpredictable world of sport, we tend to fall short in keeping our athletes in the game, on the field, or on the track, and we keep doing the same things we’ve done in the past. We haven’t learned our lesson. More strength! More mobility! More power! More and more does not equal a more resilient athlete. It may be part of the performance puzzle, but major pieces are missing.

Neurology and Performance

A long time ago, I heard a famous strength coach talk about asking each athlete how they had trained prior to working with him. After they completed a form listing what they’d done, he tried everything they hadn’t done yet to get them better. If we want changes, we may have to look at what we are not doing. We train muscles. We train fast-twitch explosive capabilities. We do the best soft tissue therapies and the best conditioning, yet we still don’t always get the results we want.

In recent years, neurology (addressing your brain) has evolved to take a place at the forefront of our training world. What was once considered voodoo or pseudoscience now leads the way for the most “in the know” movement-based practices. The days of neglecting an athlete’s neurology are over. I hope. If you haven’t started implementing neural-based movement protocols in your warm-up, you’re missing major pieces of the performance puzzle.

If you haven't implemented neural-based movement protocols in your warm-up, you're missing major pieces of the performance puzzle, says @WGF1. Share on X

Neural warm-ups are a great way to stimulate all of your body’s major subsystems quickly and efficiently. These major subsystems include—but are not limited to—the vestibular system and the visual system. As John Iams would say, “Changes happen at the speed of the nervous system.”

Addressing these subsystems in sports performance is important because most of these pathways are under-stimulated with conventional training means. Complexity and novelty drive brain function. The more novel the stimulus, the more the brain pays attention to what you are doing—and you can’t go broke paying attention. As these subsystems begin to provide accurate and improved signals, they allow the athlete to create optimal movement strategies. In other words, we create more robustness in the performance world.

Most athletes have a sub-clinical vestibular or visual issue and addressing it can pay huge dividends in reflexive movement patterns, says @WGF1. Share on X

When I say the word neural, I’m talking about sensory avenues that the brain uses to feel, see, and predict where you are in space and how to navigate through it without hitting your head.  Most athletes will present with some type of sub-clinical vestibular or visual issue that—when addressed in a general way—will pay huge dividends in reflexive movement patterns. Improving the parts of the brain involved in spatial awareness, vision, balance, and coordination allows athletes to see more of what’s coming at them and increases awareness of their surroundings. This is paramount in sport not only for preventing concussions (head trauma) but also for preventing accidents that may cause other injuries in general.

In the real world, the brain is wired for survival. Read that again: wired for survival, not for performance. Your brain is constantly working on, against, and with gravity every second of every day. In future articles, we’ll discuss the many modes the brain uses to serve and protect our noggins. This article tells you three reasons not to neglect your neurology. These are non-negotiables! I explain very easy ways to access these parts of your brain to free tissue, increase mobility, potentiate movement, reduce potential injury stressors, work on coordination, and just become a better mover. And it ain’t hard. You probably haven’t been doing it, so this would be a good time to start.

1. “You Cannot Move What You Cannot Feel”

In the world of neurology, tactile sensation and cortical body maps are critical pieces of improved high functioning neurology. If we are truly movement experts—or at least wish to be­­—we have to address each area of real estate in the brain. If you want to move it, feel it. Know where the heck it is.

If we are truly movement experts—or at least wish to be—we have to address each area of real estate in the brain, says @WGF1. Share on X

We take information from the body, and we implement a plan. These maps, which are built based on specific information that’s constantly provided by the three important subsystems, continue to interact to make intelligent decisions and predictions on your next move (proprioceptive, visual, and vestibular). If the athlete’s map or spatial awareness is off due to an issue within one or multiple subsystems, many potential problems could arise (and certainly, we won’t be at our highest state of preparedness).

2. Train Your Eyes—Not Just to See Clearly

The peripheral vision fields close down as threat increases. You read it right. Want to move better? Train your eyes. Too often, we look straight ahead in training and develop lazy peripheral fields.

Video 1. Football players incorporate a visual component in their warm-up.

As movement compensations creep into our everyday training life, so goes our peripheral vision. If we overlook the visual system, many imbalances throughout the body can become increasingly less than optimal.

3. Rocking and Rolling

Rocking and rolling should take the place of your core training. Your inner ear is the single most important sensory function that your brain and body need to function at a high level. If your vestibular system is compromised, it becomes a major threat to your movement world. When there is a threat, your vision changes, and the wheels begin to focus more on not crashing than on robust athletic movement.

Video 2. Rocking and rolling movements to warm-up the vestibular system.

Please don’t neglect the vestibular system. After all, if you don’t know which way is up—or where you are—it will be tough to express anything that resembles elite athletic ability. By stimulating this major system, you’ll quickly realize changes in postural recruitment strategies.

The part of the brain that is getting the most hits on Twitter and Instagram seems to be the cerebellum. Why is that? The cerebellum is responsible for maintenance of balance and posture/postural adjustment—and has a great working relationship with the vestibular system. So all the aspects of the above “what not to neglect” can be reached through training the cerebellum. In multiple videos and lectures, I’ve laid out how we can impact this area of the brain and get what I call motor returns: cleaned up movement, better accuracy, and better timing.

After all, isn’t this the essence of all sports? Notice I didn’t mention squatting, sprinting, fast twitch or slow twitch, eccentric or concentric. Let’s not neglect what helps those muscles contract, what creates that movement, and how we may do it more efficiently without pain: your brain.

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

Sprinting is unique because it’s the greatest plyometric and motor skill around. I often see plyometrics and motor skill learning rushed or abandoned in favor of just running fast. Doing so cheats athletes of valuable time to train their nervous system and muscles to crave proper technique and speed. No doubt, an athlete must frequently run fast to lay the framework for moving swiftly. Still, motor learning is a necessary support that provides context and allows athletes to self-organize all movement. Sprinting is, after all, a hind-brain activity that occurs very quickly.

The more good movements we expose our athletes to, the more experience their brain has to draw from. Researchers at McGill University found that:

To learn a new motor skill, the brain makes an estimate of the expected sensory inflow that it should get from your sensory system, and the cerebellum uses this prediction to compute the difference between what you intended to do and what you actually did. Elite athletes are not only better at coordinating their movements, their brains are also better at making these kinds of rapid predictions and readjustments.

Two exercises we use a lot in our program that go a long way in helping our athletes learn are prancing and galloping.  While admittedly funny looking, the variety and long term development they provide build robust athletes and sprinters alike.

Prancing Benefits

So what is prancing? Prancing is an exercise that requires tremendous amounts of coordination, rhythm, and ability to use the lower limbs and feet reflexively. It functions as a low level plyometric than can be used as an extensive option to build a base not just in volume but also in an athlete’s general motor skill learning. This movement is a needed precursor to true plyometrics and gives athletes a fighting chance to run well at peak velocity.

Prancing gives a reference point for plyometrics & teaches rhythm in upright sprinting to support running well at peak velocity, says @grahamsprints. Share on X
Prancing is a fun movement that appeals to athletes of all ages. However, it is not just fluff. It serves as a reference point for plyometrics and teaching rhythm in upright sprinting. Using prancing with my developmental athletes, I’ve seen marked improvements in all of the following:

1. Exploring and Finding Optimal Forward Lean with Great Posture

Studies have shown that the body’s lean while sprinting is between 2-4 degrees (Bruce, 1994; Hoskisson and Korchemny, 1991). Simply put, if an athlete is too upright or inclined too far forward, they will lack vertical force and appropriate dorsiflexion.

Try it: Stand upright. Now lean forward until you feel your Achilles get an elastic loading sensation. That’s how I cue my athletes. If you lean too far forward, you fall off-balance. Such is the balance of posture. It’s also a nice submax rehearsal of head position and gaze. If an athlete is not popping away from the ground, perhaps their posture is the issue, and it is much easier to correct here than at top speed. Make them feel the why behind “Posture, posture, posture.”

2. Teaching the Body Proper Co-Contractions and SSC Strategies

The prance is also great for allowing an athlete to find the sweet spot for proper foot strike with good GRF and loading ankles and Achilles like a spring for future plyometrics. Prancing creates enough air time for the athlete to prepare for the next ground contact. Using it in this manner makes it a great extensive plyometric with a maximum velocity theme. I call this pre-tensing, although I’m not sure if this is the correct terminology. When an athlete is having trouble with plyometrics, most times it’s not just a strength issue. They often have not learned how to load and unload properly.

3. Arms that Work Together and Contribute to Rhythm and Vertical Forces

My stance on arm action has always been that good arms help less than bad arm action hurts. Arms contribute about 10% to vertical force during sprinting. Not insignificant even in professionals. We often see high school athletes doing an array of things with their arms that often work against them.

When doing the prance, it’s critical that the timing of the arms is on point. Again, the elbow flexion, etc. of a prance is not the same as a max speed sprint. It is not as fast. What matters is that they’re optimizing it to learn and apply. I’ve had the best success cueing arms by saying, “elbows down and back.” This seems to create a contralateral action, or cross-extensor reflex with the leg to deliver an effective ground strike. The prance is a tremendous entry point for this. I often tell my prancing athletes to focus on “arms up” on one rep. On the next rep, “arms down.” What feels better? Whether the athlete is a pusher or puller, they get feedback here.

4. Acceleration Context

While having enough strength is important for acceleration, so is the ability to contract and relax (psoas and quads) and flex and extend opposite sides of the body. Even though prancing is done upright, it teaches general timing and provides context on thigh switching seen during a start with low heel recovery. Using the ground as a reference system, you can see the similarities in timing, but the differences in foot strike and horizontal projection don’t make this a guarantee.

How to Prance

The prance mixes a thigh drive with a “pogo bounce” off the ground as the reset position. The athlete must use each powerful thigh drive with the simultaneous pogo to be ready for the next ground contact before they get there.  Some athletes can pick this up right away, and this may tell you something during the early season about who has lots of general movement experience to pull from. Doing a tough drill motivates young athletes, and prancing is something novel you can use in many ways during a practice. For the initial introduction, it’s best to teach it as part of a warmup, and within a week they should be ready to prance at a moment’s notice.

The following is a progression plan I usually roll with to push my athletes to prancing proficiency safely.

1. Fence Drill Foot Pop/Assisted Pogo

The athlete should land stiff and aim for where the back row of spikes would be to maximize the reflexes of the feet and ankles. This is the landing position when prancing. The ankle and Achilles must load and unload.

Video 1. Mastering the basics allows coaches the freedom to use variations later. Don’t skip the boring and simple but be confident to allow athletes to move quicker through progressions.

2. Unassisted Pogo

Same thing as above but now without the fence to help control the downward velocity. They must do the same thing as #1, but quicker. If an athlete does not dorsiflex or get their ankle to a neutral position, it’s not possible to prance.

Video 2. Pogos and Prancing go hand and hand. Learn to bounce first, then add alternating switches.

3. Paused Standing Thigh Drive with Double-Foot Pogo Landing

Drive one thigh up aggressively using the arms to split and rip. Immediately relax and get the ankles and feet in position for a stiff pogo position landing that includes an elastic rebound.

Video 3. The leg drive of prancing is moving quickly from relaxing what needs to shut off quickly. Prancing is quickness, not power, so don’t have athletes punch their knee too forcefully.

4. In-Place Prance

It gets harder here. Now we begin driving the thigh and executing a double-leg pogo upon landing into another thigh drive on the opposite leg. It has to occur simultaneously. I usually have my athletes focus on landing with both feet together. Getting the arms down and back is key for delivering enough force to pop away from the ground.

5. Alternating Prance (Rhythm)

Same thing as #4, but the thigh drive has to come up closer to parallel. This will start the horizontal locomotion. Place the premium on rhythm, slight forward lean, and good hard double-foot contacts close to midfoot. Feel the elastic reflex contribution.

Video 4. Rhythm is tricky, as you want to be even to the flow of the exercise but not get tight from being too strict. Use a beat that works for your athletes and foster rhythms that develop good positioning.

6. Alternate Prance (Quick + Long)

The thigh drive and arms control the length of time on the ground. To go quickly, the athlete will use short coupling times, small leg drive, and quick arm action at the expense of GRF. To prance long, the athlete will use a longer coupling time and slightly more horizontal orientation with powerful arms and thigh drive.

This progression could have huge value for field athletes and athletes who specialize in multiple events. Discovering how to manipulate ground contact length for quickness and power is a terrific learning experience.

Video 5. Experimenting with speed encourages athletes to find a landing pattern that suits them. Due to the low impact of the exercise, risks are low so feel free to push athletes to uncomfortable rates of speed.

Other Variations

1. Lateral 45-Degree Prance

This is performed like a traditional prance, but the leg closest to the dividing line drives out at a 45-degree angle. Again, both feet land together. The same variations of quick and long are possible here.

Video 6. Lateral prancing is awesome as it takes a simple exercise and makes it more exploratory without resorting to being silly. Lateral hops and lateral prancing are very similar, and should be mastered by all athletes.

2. Big and Small Asymmetrical Prance

This is the same as a regular prance, but I cue the athlete to go big on one side and use a smaller setup bounce on the other. The knee drive and arm action are more aggressive when going “big.” This helps you see imbalances.

3. Single-Leg Prance

This variation probably has the most aggressive thigh drive and knee punch of all. The power arm action contributes to the jump and is a great option for teaching “violence” during acceleration.

Video 7. Single-leg prancing sometimes is a rehab or regression, depending on the athlete. Coach Valle is a huge prancing fan for athletes who need to work on recovery mechanics (and actually commissioned this article).

Benefits of Galloping

The gallop is another staple movement in our track program. It’s essentially a series of repeated single-leg jumps using rolling or flat foot contacts. Like the prance, there are endless variations and applications if coaches don’t limit their imagination. There are many benefits to galloping, and it’s great to see coaches I respect like John Garrish, Rob Assise, and Carl Valle lobby for including gallops in programs.

1. Gallops Are Fun

Gallops might be one of the most fun motor skill activities to teach and progress. Gallops have an air of harmlessness about them that other drills, jumps, and plyos simply don’t have. If feeling elated were an exercise, this would be it. Often kids are afraid of being wrong or looking silly when sprinting or jumping, but this creates an atmosphere where fun movement is the foundation.

2. Perfect for Single-Leg Jumpers

Long jumpers, high jumpers, and athletes whose goal it is to dunk will have a lot of options here. The experimentation alone will make them more aware of their bodies. When I discuss variations in the upcoming section, you’ll see why. This is a great way to give athletes extensive submaximal repetitions. Single-leg jumping requires more horizontal braking than bounding, which has more of a vertical braking component. I think all jumpers have different solutions for expressing and redirecting force via speed (faster run, shorter GCT) or power jumping (slower run, longer GCT). Although the cliché “self-organization” feels like a lazy buzzword, gallops can help athletes and coaches decide how to maximize the single-leg takeoff and support with other plyometrics. The gallop checks a lot of boxes for the multi-event athlete, including some hurdling.

3. Training Maximum Velocity Postures

In examining two stills from one of my gallop videos, I can’t help but draw some similarities between the “toe-off” and “full support” positions of maximum velocity running. In the second image, the swing leg recovers high and tight to the glute and steps over the opposite knee while the stance leg lands close to under the center of mass. The posture involves a slight forward lean that allows for a fluid transition to the next gallop. I would say that the “figure 4” position without a gap between the knees slowly gives the athlete feedback on how to best position their limbs.

4. Varied and Easy to Teach in Large Groups

The best part is that you can do these anywhere. I can get kids galloping in one practice, and we can even do them on a grass field. I can have high jumpers do curvilinear gallops while long jumpers do distance gallops and hurdlers do hurdle gallops over wickets spaced 10 feet apart on the turf as a warmup before their main practice. You can gallop high, far, in a rhythm, and use single or double arms. 

How to Gallop

In some videos below, I’m galloping on the track, which is not optimal because grass or turf limits pounding. I was merely using the facility available to me on a given day. Some of the progressions are slow and quite easy, and it’s up to you to decide where to start. I’ve started at the beginning with some, and some athletes can progress quite rapidly. I’m a single-arm galloper, but double arms can be used as well in any of the exercises.

1. Walking Rolling Contacts with and Without Arms

I start by teaching an athlete to walk while rolling through the heel and pushing off with the big toe joint. I then add arms and ask them to imagine a lifting sensation while getting one arm down and the other up simultaneously.

Video 8. Walking and rolling contacts are excellent for fundamental galloping and other locomotive methods. The speed of walking is much slower than running, so understand that much of the remedial drills don’t transfer until later variants are prescribed.

2. Horse Gallop

This is pretty silly. You can use a hurdle top or PVC. I have the athlete imagine they are a kid pretending to be a cowboy or cowgirl. I often add a “baddum, baddum…” noise for a rhythm. They execute with small, flat foot contacts. Occasionally with gallops, kids will perform an alternating left-right skip for distance. If they do this, I remind them to focus on one leg at a time and only to express force with that leg. The other leg is effectively a dummy, setup leg.

Video 9. Galloping is inspired by horses, so spend some time observing equine sports and nature. Galloping is not just used to add variety, it helps athletes problem-solve foreign motions that are sometimes improvements in movement quality.

3. Quick Gallop

I like starting with a quick gallop because it’s an easy way to let athletes feel the contributions of their arms. When galloping quickly, the elbows flex more, close less on the backswing, and block below the head level. I find it helpful to have the athletes pop their arm down and focus on that to set a quick rhythm. The low height of a quick gallop lets you do a more extensive volume of reps. I typically use more of a flat takeoff myself, since the takeoff is quick, and the shin drops less—like when preparing for a big horizontal displacement.

Video 10. Galloping quick is excellent for athletes who need to explore frontside mechanics. Teaching galloping doesn’t promise excellent frontside mechanics directly, but it could help athletes be aware of their frontside mechanics in general.

4. Gallop Buildup

I love using this variation to see who is ready for more intensive galloping and is beginning to change their speed and direction of force. I’m not what I’d call a speed jumper, so I typically start flat-footed with short contacts on the first gallop and progress to heel-toe takeoffs with longer ground contact. My arm blocks at about chest height on the first rep, and by the fifth rep, it’s up by my eyes and head.

Video 11. Building up speed or motion in different ways is valuable for LTAD and teaching. This video is useful for sprinting and other athletic tasks.

5. Gallop for Distance

Once the athlete has the quickness and rhythm down, we begin talking about going for distance. I cue them to be heel-toe or flat and experiment, ultimately paying attention to what feels better. I like them to think about accelerating and pushing off the joint under the big toe. When doing these, lots of athletes will begin to gather and rock and drop their hips excessively rather than patiently rolling through the foot. They need to keep their posture, which will put them in a better position for the next jump. I’m beginning to think about tracking galloping distances over five hurdles. In one of the videos, I’ve spaced five wickets at 12 feet. With any distance further than that, I was not able to complete the last wicket.

Video 12. Galloping for distance can turn ugly if you don’t look at landing positions, since technically it’s not similar to sprinting. Make sure the athlete is graceful, feels light, and doesn’t overwork their hamstrings.

6. Randomly Spaced Gallops

These are the holy grail of galloping. On each rep, I remove a wicket, adding or playing around with the distance of each. There is definitely an agility component here since every rep is a different set of distances, and the athlete has to organize on the fly to best complete the row of wickets via gallops. In one of the reps below, I have wickets spaced as close as five feet and as far as 15 feet. In another spacing, I gallop more like a hurdler who is one-stepping. The randomness leads to awesome results, especially when an athlete blows out of a quick gallop with a powerful gallop. Slowing it down on slow-motion video, you can see how an athlete uses varied foot contacts and arm blocks to get the job done.

Randomly spaced gallops have huge value for field sport & multi-event track athletes who need a variety of movement solutions to execute successfully. Share on X

I’ve never had an athlete who could not do a successful rep as long as they were ready for this variation, and the spacings were not too ambitious. This holds tremendous value for field sport and multi-event track athletes (especially athletes who do all three jumps or hurdles) who will need a variety of movement solutions to execute successfully.

Video 13. Galloping with broken rhythms are necessary to improve the ability to create rhythms due to transition patterns. Here is a common example of the exercise used for all sports.

Other Variations

1. Hurdle Gallops

These essentially are an imaginary “one-step” hurdle drill. I cue the athletes with the traditional, “check the wallet and watch” cue, with the trailing arm stopping on the hip, and the lead arm blocking in front. I have them keep the slight downward lean (not just flexing at the waist) that would be seen over the top of the hurdle throughout the entire rep. This is an excellent way to teach an active lead leg that craves being back on the track without any interruption of flow between each push-off. Once they have a rhythm, I ask them to think about making their parabola slightly higher and more arced to clear a higher imaginary hurdle. This is great prep for a novice hurdler and provides more context as to why we don’t jump hurdles. They can take this with them as they progress to less hurdling discounts in both height and distance.

Video 14. Gallop hurdles are not just for long jumpers, they are for everyone who is on their feet. In addition to speeds, learn to play with spacings and heights to explore movement strategies.

2. Curve Gallops

Let me start by saying that turf fields have way too many curved lines and circles to not take advantage of them. Running and jumping on a curve is different than doing them linearly. The circle run is a high jump staple, but I don’t see many people doing curved gallops. It does feel a little awkward when using two arms since there is no actual bar to clear, and the body wants to rotate as such. This drill is a must to let the athlete understand that the lean during the “J” in the high jump comes from the inward rotation of the ankles and the feet using crossover steps. It’s important to cue the athlete to stay on the line during a curved gallop.

Video 15. Adding a curve to galloping breaks the monotony of linear galloping and creates variety with a purpose. Curved running is a skill that is great for enhancing other motor skills down the road.

3. Run-Run-Jumps/ Long Jump Gallops

We’ve all seen athletes barrel down the runway and throw their arms forward or leave them behind at take off. The run-run-jump with windmill arms helps athletes who use a “run in the air” to land with better orientation. Perhaps a run-run-jump with a conventional two-armed takeoff would be more suitable for a hang jumper. Either way, variability is a good thing. Adding the two runs between jumps adds a layer of complexity to the penultimate step, forcing the athlete to keep their posture through the two runs while rocking through the heel to the toe.

Video 16. The “Run-Run-Jump” drill is timeless. Coaches who use it will see improvements in jumping technique and reacceleration if coached properly.

Endless Options

Between prancing and galloping, a coach has many options when trying to help their athletes learn. On maximum velocity days, powerful prances with a big pop are more suited as a warmup tool or as an entry-level plyometric. Quick prances function almost as dribbles with a reduced ground reactive force to get reps in without the fatigue. As a whole, prancing goes a long way with teaching foot strike and proper postures.

Gallops help teach hurdling, jumping, and maximum velocity postures to large groups of athletes, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Likewise, gallops are a means to teach hurdling, jumping, and maximum velocity postures to large groups of athletes. My head is already swimming with ideas on how to use hurdle gallops as a part of a completion run rep with long hurdlers. Or maybe as a complex with a hurdler’s reduced spacing acceleration work between hurdles. I envision using gallops for distance as part of a jump complex with full approaches and gallop buildups on short approach days. The random-spaced gallops can shift motor learning into high gear by letting athletes, such as hurdlers, figure out where to be and how to get there.

Prancing & galloping, two funny looking exercises, can help shift focus back to long-term athletic development in the speed world, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

We see lots of jump testing, but I wonder if tracking gallop distance would be a refreshing way to motivate athletes without getting overly specific this summer. The athlete could use both static start reps in which they have to overcome inertia on acceleration-themed days and use a 5- to 10-yard run on maximum velocity days. Moving forward, I’ll be playing around with this. These two funny named and looking exercises are a way to shift the focus back to long-term athletic development in the speed world.

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Despite some variances depending on the state in which you live, we are getting close to football season…of some kind. As coaches, we will have limited time with our athletes to get them ready. So, we need to get our athletes fast as soon as possible.

Here are my top four techniques on how to get faster at running and to improve speed in football.

Technique #1: Max Velocity Running

It may seem strange that this would be a “technique” to improve speed, but during my 30 years of coaching, I’ve seen that the average football player who has been in the weight room for months often has a hard time sprinting. On more occasions than I hoped to witness, I’ve had athletes come to me for a filmed running assessment, and when I asked them to sprint, they fell, tripped, or stumbled as they tried to get to top end speed. Their form was usually a leaned-forward position as they tried to squat their way down the track.

Video 1. Analysis of sprint mechanics for an athlete leaning too far forward with their torso.

This mechanical flaw is usually the result of an athlete doing months of bilateral movement under strain without ever having to move their limbs rapidly. Unfortunately, this is what we ask our athletes to do on the first day of practice: Run as fast as you can without ever practicing the most neurologically demanding movement our body knows.

There is a simple fix. Sprint as fast as you can for a short duration, frequently and fresh. The fear of falling is one of our greatest fears (think caveman days: falling when sprinting usually resulted in you being dinner for some terrifying predator). The body will adjust itself to not fall over within a few reps. One of the shortcomings is that the body will at first slow down to relearn how to sprint, so it will take more than a few workouts to get to that max speed.

Tip #1: Keep the Distance Short

Coaches tend to use longer distances so they can kill two birds with one stone—speed work and conditioning. The problem with this is that combining the two trains the athlete’s nervous system to run slow in a fatigued state; it never learns to open all the way up, and it creates a lower neural ceiling. Max velocity tends to develop better in a fresh, well-rested state.

Max velocity needs to be coaxed by starting with a short distance. When timing 10-meter splits from longer sprints, very few sprinters are able to hold max velocity for a full 30 meters. Few high school sprinters can hold 20 meters. Novice runners can’t hold for 10 meters. They are good for two strides and start to slow down. Master the 10 meters and when improvements stop, add 5 meters more.

Max velocity needs to be coaxed by starting with a short distance…Sprint as fast as you can for a short duration, frequently and fresh, says @korfist. Share on X

This workout would be 4-5 reps of a fly 10-meter run with a 5- to 8-minute rest to allow for ATP/creatine replenishment.

Why is max velocity important if players never reach it in a game?

Some people may ask, why do we need to get to max velocity? The average speed run during a game is 14 miles an hour. Well, say you have two cars: a Porsche and a Ford. Both cars can get to 60 mph, but because of the Porsche’s higher ceiling, it will get there faster. It will have a much higher rate of acceleration due to its higher horsepower or max velocity.

Tip #2: Use a Timer

Having a target is always the best training cue for athletic development. One way to expedite the nervous system reaching max velocity is by using an electronic timer and targeting a time. Having an electronic timer gets rid of the “coach’s clock” syndrome. And once you have legitimate times, you can post them. Nothing will motivate an athlete more than seeing their name in the middle of the pack and wanting to move up.

It’s also a great motivational tool because they can see themselves improve every week. And because we have a short period of time (and many athletes haven’t done much over the last couple months), they will certainly get faster with the sprints that they do. A great program to follow is “Feed the Cats” by Tony Holler. SimpliFaster also offers a great selection of timers. For beginners, it is easy to start with a Freelap System, and they now have a very reasonably priced option.

Tip #3: Incorporate Mini Hurdles

If running form is a concern, using mini hurdles is a great way to take care of the problem. Once again, we will tap into the fear of falling and place mini hurdles on the field. The hurdles should be between 3 and 5 inches tall and anywhere from 5 to 6 1/2 feet apart. The faster the athlete, the farther the distance.

There is a benefit for faster athletes to go through shorter hurdle spacing. The hurdles usually clean up most running flaws, says @korfist. Share on X

However, there is a benefit for faster athletes to go through shorter hurdle spacing. The hurdles usually clean up most running flaws. I straddle the hurdle placement on a line, and my coaching tips for the hurdles are to go through as fast as the athlete can, keeping the right foot on the right side of the line and left foot on the left side of the line.

Video 2. Athlete performing a short assisted sprint over mini hurdles towed by the 1080 Sprint.

Tip #4: Program Drills to Help Sprinting

I employ a series of drills that help improve sprinting as well. One of the aspects of fast running is the scissoring action of the knees during a sprint, and this is universal, whether in accelerating, sprinting, or agility. I call these drills booms. They are really abbreviated high knees, but they incorporate hip stability and body tension. For an entire progression of the drills, you can purchase this video.

Video 3. Athlete performing one of the switches in the “booms” progression.

Another drill series I use develops the hip. Most athletes, especially those who have had a heavy dose of bilateral movements, tend to lose their lateral stability when they stand on one leg. You can see this when they run. One leg will cross the body to the other side.

This will not only actually force the athlete to decelerate because the foot is too far in front of the body, but also cause too much rotation in the upper body to compensate for the hips swerving too much—not that different from an axle having a bend in it. As mentioned above, mini hurdles down a line or mini hurdles with hands over the head tend to help quite a bit. A full progression of lateral chain hip development is available here.

Video 4. Lateral chain development targeting the hips.

Technique #2: Practice Running Separating the Upper and Lower Body

As much as one-third of the game of football is played with the torso or head not completely square on the hips. This could be a WR looking back for a fade, a linebacker watching a running back while sprinting toward the side line, a tackle turning outside to pick up an edge rusher, or the same edge rusher getting turned while pursuing the QB. Some coaches call this “football speed” and use it as a reason to say that track doesn’t develop football speed. We don’t want the WR to be overthrown because he can’t keep his speed once he turns back to find the football. Similar problems could occur for all the above-mentioned positions as well.

Let’s learn to be “football fast” by training for these scenarios and getting accustomed to performing while the upper and lower body are separated.

Video 5. Athlete performing assisted sprints with the upper and lower body separated.

It is really quite simple: Run your flys with different body positions—either head back or adjusted or torso adjusted. If you have an electronic timer, look at the huge speed difference between normal running and departed running. What is even cooler is if you watch the difference shrink with the practice of different types of runs—now you are “football fast.”

Video 6. Sprinting while looking the opposite direction, working on keeping full speed while making visual contact with an offset target.

Technique #3: Running Circles

Agility training for football usually consists of ladders and cone runs. In game situations, however, players run some form of a circle more than they plant and cut, but we never really train for it. If you train near a basketball court, the tipoff circle, free throw circle, and three-point arc all make great circles to sprint around. Hula hoops work great as well. Someone who does not efficiently and quickly run a circle never advances their outside hip, and it looks like they hop around the circle, which means it takes two steps where it should only take one. A really efficient athlete can bring their outside hip forward and lead with their outside shoulder, so the outside leg advances the body.

Running a figure eight (Infinity Run) while focusing on a target may very well be a top exercise for football training, says @korfist. Share on X

To make it an even better movement, use two hula hoops and make a figure eight. Now you are incorporating hip movement. Most coaches say their athletes need better hips. To make the exercise even more football-friendly, have the athletes focus on a target while running the figure eights (also known as an Infinity Run). This integrates their vestibular system with running, and it may very well be a top exercise for football training.

Video 7. Running a figure eight pattern (or Infinity Run) for football-specific footwork and agility.

Technique #4: First Step Shin Angle/Foot Stiffness

None of the movements mentioned above will be as effective without a good first step. There isn’t a coach out there who doesn’t want a better first step. The problem is that most don’t know what parts go into a first step. The first step is going to rely on two things:

 

• • The most important is the direction of the force.

 

• • The second is the displacement of the hips, or how far the athlete’s body travels before their first foot hits the ground.

 

The direction of force is the key element. Say we take two athletes who can create 500N of force, which usually translates into a squat of two times an athlete’s body weight (generally). Athlete A has a shin drop that is more horizontal in nature, and Athlete B has a more vertical drop. Who travels farther on their first step? Of course, Athlete A. In fact, the more powerful Athlete B becomes, the more vertical he pushes and does not improve his first step quickness.

The direction of force is the key element for a good first step…We need to use resistance to hold the body so it can find that shin-down position, says @korfist. Share on X

What are some drills to do to be more like Athlete A? I rely on one concept: We need to use resistance to hold the body so it can find that shin-down position.

Video 8. Horizontal shin drop that helps deliver force in the right direction for acceleration.

Video 9. An example of a march, where the athlete is trying to roll over the top of the foot.

Video 10. Here is a video that shows how to move laterally.

With not much time to work with your athletes in some states, use the above tips, techniques, and drills to get the most out of the small amount of time you do have.

I didn’t want to have to write this. When I wrote my first four-week speed training plan, I was hopeful that by now you athletes would be back with your coaches, working to get better and make up for lost time. Instead, it’s June. Restrictions are starting to be lifted, but it’s entirely possible that you’re going to have to keep training on your own for a little while.

The goal for these workouts is to get faster and more athletic, not to “get in shape.” This isn’t conditioning. Science tells us that your aerobic fitness—the thing coaches are really talking about when they talk about “getting in shape”—deteriorates much, much slower than your pure speed and power. Take a look.

If you’re pretty well conditioned, you can take around a month off before your aerobic conditioning falls apart too much, but you have a week or less before speed gains start to slip. Unless you’re a cross country runner, your coaches don’t need you out running endless miles in the summer heat. If they think they do, have them come talk to me.

If you’re pretty well conditioned, you can take around a month off before your aerobic conditioning falls apart too much, but you have a week or less before speed gains start to slip. Share on X

What I have for you is four more weeks of speed training that you can do on your own. You can also do this with a friend or with a small group, depending on your state’s guidelines for social distancing. If you train with other people, make sure to be safe and stay far enough apart from one another that you’re not breathing in each other’s faces or swapping sweat. Bring your own water bottle. Be smart. Nobody wants to see fall sports canceled because people were irresponsible as soon as they returned to the real world.

Sprint Drills

Here are the sprint drills I posted way back in March. There’s nothing new here, but I’m sharing them again in case you need a refresher. All of the links are videos, so watch those if you need to see examples.

SPRINT DRILLS – A DAY	SPRINT DRILLS – B DAY
A-march	Walk over knees
A-skip	A-skip
B-skip	B-skip
High knees	Backward high knees
Lunge walkovers	Skip for height
Butt kicks	Pogo jumps for height
Five box jump	Backward run (butt kick and reach)
Straight-leg bounds	Boom-booms
Wall drills	3×30 meter accelerations

I do have to emphasize one thing, based on a few videos I’ve seen athletes and coaches post from their solo workouts. These drills need to be done at a high intensity with lots of attention to detail. These are meant to teach your body the posture, shapes, and movements required to sprint, so if you’re doing these slowly or going through the motions, you’re missing the point. This isn’t a warm-up. It’s all about quality, improving performance, and getting your body ready for speed.

The Workouts

For this four-week segment, you’ll train three times per week. Some of you will want to train daily, but you have to give your body a chance to recover if you want to see growth. Think of it this way: If you were in the weight room and you maxed out on Monday, you wouldn’t try to max out again on Tuesday. Sprinting is kind of like that. You should be “maxing out” with these workouts by pushing maximum velocity on every rep. You can’t do that every day without putting yourself at serious risk of injury. Recovery is important. Take days off.

Some of you will want to train daily, but you have to give your body a chance to recover if you want to see growth, says @TrackCoachTG. Share on X

Speaking of recovery, you’re going to need to get comfortable with standing around in between reps during these workouts. The goal is not to be tired. It’s to be fast and explosive—to max out —on every sprint. In order to perform at its fullest potential, the body has to be fresh. Be patient. You’ll be better for it in the end.

Just like in the table of sprint drills, I sprinkled links throughout the rest of this article so you can see the drills and exercises demonstrated. I highly recommend clicking those links and watching the videos. Let’s get to it.

Week 1, Monday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

3x 40-Yard Dash

The 40-yard dash is a staple of lots of speed training programs because it touches on both acceleration and maximum velocity. It’s the standard for football testing, but it’s also really relevant for every other team sport. Think about it: How often will you ever sprint more than 40 yards at once in any team-sport situation? The answer is not very often. Most of what we do in field and court sports falls under the umbrella of acceleration (and deceleration and changing directions, but that’s a different conversation).

But if that’s true, then why not sprint even shorter distances? Well, you will. But to answer your question, you’re going to sprint 40 yards because when you increase your maximum speed, you also increase your ability to accelerate. The weird thing is that the opposite isn’t true: You can’t increase your maximum speed by working only on acceleration. The 40 allows you to work on both, which is what makes it a great training option.

If you have access to a track, use the boys’ hurdle marks (which are 10 yards apart) to measure 40 yards. If you don’t have access to a track, but you do happen to have a tape measure, measure off 120 feet. I went ahead and did the math for you because I know you’ve been out of school for a while. If you don’t have either of those things, do your best to get close to 40 yards by walking off 40 big steps anywhere you can find room—the sidewalk, an empty parking lot, a field, a country road. You get the idea.

Sprint 40 yards as fast as you possibly can. If you’re working with a partner, have them time you with a stopwatch or a smartphone. Timing is always better than not timing, because it gives you instant feedback and something to shoot for. In fact, now seems like a good time to remind you that, if possible, you should time every single sprint you do in any of these workouts.

Timing is always better than not timing, because it gives you instant feedback and something to shoot for, says @TrackCoachTG. Share on X

After you sprint, rest for at least five minutes before you sprint again. Do three reps total and call it a day.

Week 1, Wednesday

Sprint Drills (B Day)

5x Wickets

5x Single-Leg Drop Jumps (each leg)

5x Depth Jump for Height

5x Depth Jump + Broad Jump

We talked about wickets back in March, but if several months of taking classes on Zoom has turned your brain to mush, then go ahead and watch this video to refresh your memory. Basically, wickets are a sprinting drill that teaches proper posture and stride patterns for max-speed sprinting. That means you have to perform these drills as fast as you can, that you should focus on running tall with your hips in front, and that you should rest enough between each run-through to be able to run fast again the next time.

Drop jumps are great because they teach your body how to absorb force. And the more force you can absorb, the more you can produce. This won’t make you short of breath, and you might feel silly doing it if you’ve never done it before, but I promise you that each time you land, your fast-twitch fibers are firing instantaneously to keep your body from collapsing and falling over. Find a raised surface that’s a couple feet high, jump off the surface, and land on one foot. That’s it. It’s important that you stick your landing and find your balance rather than walking out of the drill the second you hit the ground.

A depth jump for height is just like a drop jump, except that instead of sticking the initial landing, you immediately perform a second jump from the ground. From a raised surface, like the porch steps, a park bench, or a picnic table, jump down and land with two feet. As soon as you land, immediately jump as high as you can and land with two feet again, sticking your second landing. It’s really important that you do not spend a lot of time on the ground between jumps. There’s a fancy word for this (it’s “amortization phase”), and that’s all well and good, but what it means for you is that you want to absorb the force of your landing and then immediately produce explosive force with your jump as quickly as possible.

For the depth jump + broad jump movement, keep everything exactly the same as your depth jump for height. The only difference is that instead of landing and jumping as high as you can, you’ll be landing and jumping as far as you can. Sometimes it helps to have a visual target (like a chalk line or a stick) to reach for and hold yourself accountable for maximum intent on each rep. Whatever you do, make sure each jump is of the utmost quality and effort.

Week 1, Friday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

4x 20-Yard Dash

Remember when I said you’d sprint short distances, too? That’s what you’re going to do today. By definition, there’s basically no way you will achieve your maximum velocity over the course of 20 yards. That’s okay, because you’re still going to get a chance to work on your acceleration mechanics and on using big, powerful steps to generate speed.

Lots of people think you need quick feet to accelerate, but that’s not really true. You need to be able to push down and back with enough power to propel you forward, then do it again and again until you’ve reached full speed. Short, choppy steps won’t do that for you.

For these sprints, I’d recommend starting in a three- or four-point position, but you can play around to start in a way that most closely mimics your sport. If you’re a wide receiver, you could use a standing start. If you’re a prolific base-stealer on your baseball team, you could start facing sideways like you would if you were leading off from first base. No matter what, remember to think of your steps as powerful, not quick.

You won’t need quite as much recovery as you would for a longer sprint, but I’d still recommend at least three minutes between each rep. I know you get bored easily and have a short attention span. You can do it. Sprint 20 yards, listen to an entire song on your earbuds (or AirPods if you’re fancy), and then sprint again.

Week 2, Monday

Sprint Drills (B Day)

5x 30-Yard Hill Sprints

Today you’re going to continue to work on the acceleration mechanics that you practiced on Friday of last week by doing hill sprints. There are two reasons why hill sprints count as acceleration. First, they’re only 30 yards, which means you probably aren’t touching top speed. Second, because of the incline of the hill, a forward body lean is necessary for balance. You can’t stand straight up and down while sprinting uphill.

Here’s a tip for choosing a hill for hill sprints: If it’s a good sledding hill, it’s a terrible sprinting hill, says @TrackCoachTG. Share on X

Here’s a tip for choosing a hill: If it’s a good sledding hill, it’s a terrible sprinting hill. What I mean is that if a hill is too steep, you’ll be much too slow and your mechanics will turn to garbage really quickly. You’ll be practicing bad habits, and we don’t want that. The hill has to be gradual enough that you can still sprint at a relatively high speed and maintain proper mechanics. Try to find an incline that’s around 30 degrees. I know you don’t have a protractor, but you do have eyeballs. 30 degrees. Terrible for sledding, perfect for sprinting.

Sprint. Walk back. Rest for five minutes. Sprint again. Do it five times. Go home.

Week 2, Wednesday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

2×10 Hurdle Hops

5x PAP Jumps

3×5 Single-Leg Deadlifts (each leg)

You don’t have to have hurdles to do hurdle hops. You could use cones, pieces of scrap wood, sticks you found in the yard, or your imagination. For this drill, focus on ankle stiffness by contacting the ground and immediately bouncing back up. When we let our ankles, knees, or hips collapse too much, we spend too long on the ground. The most force you can apply in the least amount of time is the goal.

Post activation potentiation, or PAP, is another fancy training concept that isn’t actually all that fancy. What it means is this: When you lift something heavy, there’s about a 30-second window of time immediately after the heavy lift where your body can produce more explosive force than it could have if you hadn’t just lifted something heavy. So, in order to do this, you need something heavy.

Weights are good, but so are cinder blocks or 5-gallon buckets filled with dirt. Use the heavy thing you found and do two full squats with it (or, alternately, deadlifts if a better choice given the weight). Then, after you set it down, perform 1-2 two-footed vertical jumps as high as you possibly can. This isn’t a bounce drill, so you can regain your balance and rest for a couple seconds after each jump. As long as you perform both jumps within the 30-second window, you should be good. Take a break, and then do it again until you’ve done five rounds.

Single-leg deadlifts aren’t all that complicated. Watch the video. If you don’t have weights, it’s okay. If you do, it’s even better. Use what you have.

Week 2, Friday

Sprint Drills (B Day)

2x 60-Yard Dash

You get it. Mark off 60 yards in the most accurate way you can, and sprint your little heart out. You’ll need 6-8 minutes of rest between reps.

Week 3, Monday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

3x 40-Yard Dash

Sound familiar? If not, I have serious questions about your short-term memory. Scroll back up if you need to.

Week 3, Wednesday

Sprint Drills (B Day)

5x Wickets

2×10 Leg Exchange Plyos (see video below)

10x Rear Foot Elevated Split Jumps (each leg)

5x Consecutive Broad Jumps for Distance

For all of the jumps today, you should once again be aiming to minimize ground contact time. On the leg exchange plyos, you’re working on ankle stiffness and bounce.

On the elevated split jumps, it will be harder to bounce in the same way due to a flat-footed landing, but you should still try to get back off the ground as quickly as you can.

You already know how to do a broad jump, because we talked about it during Week 1. What I want you to do here is to get as far as you possibly can in five jumps, and I want you to measure how far you made it. Write your distance down somewhere, because you can take this exercise with you into the future and try to beat your distance next time. You don’t have to wait for some guy on the internet to prescribe these movements to you. Learn them, master them, and hang on to them forever.

Video 1. Leg Exchanges Plyos demonstrated by Coach Matthew Watson from his article “Plyometric Training Systems: Developmental vs. Progressive.”

Week 3, Friday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

1x 20-Yard Dash

1x 30-Yard Dash

1x 40-Yard Dash

1x 50-Yard Dash

Really spicing things up here, aren’t we? For these, your rest will vary. Take one full minute of rest for every 10 yards of the previous rep. That means you’ll sprint 20 yards, then rest for two minutes. Sprint 30 yards, then rest for three. Sprint 40 yards, then rest for four. After you sprint 50 yards, you can rest for the next couple days.

Week 4, Monday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

3x 30-Yard Dash

Measure your distance. Sprint. Time yourself if you can. Rest. Repeat.

Week 4, Wednesday

Sprint Drills (B Day)

5x Single-Leg Drop Jump + Hurdle Hop (each leg)

5x Stair Sprints

3×6 Bounds for Distance

The first movement sounds more complicated than it is. You already know how to do both individual parts of the exercise, so you just have to put them together. You’ll need a raised surface and something to hop over, like a mini-hurdle, cone, or stick. From the raised surface, drop down and land on one foot. Then, immediately bounce off the ground and hop over the hurdle, cone, or stick, and land with the same foot again. Do five on each leg.

For stair sprints, you need a flight of around 15 steps. If you can’t find this anywhere, you could substitute the hill workout you did last week. Sprint to the top of the stairs as fast as you possibly can, walk back down, rest at least three minutes, and do it again. If you have someone who can time you, that would be awesome.

A fantastic jumps coach from Illinois named Rob Assise recently wrote an article about bounding. If you have time, read the whole thing. But if you don’t, at least watch the videos in the article to see what it looks like when athletic high schoolers such as yourself bound correctly.

From a standing start, bound six times and see how far you can get. Rest for three minutes or so and do it again, and try to beat your previous distance. Every time you do this, try to get a little farther than the time before.

Week 4, Friday

Sprint Drills (A Day)

3x 20-Yard Fly

For these, you need a friend and a couple cones or other objects to use as visual markers for the 20-yard distance. Back up another 15 or 20 yards from there and start sprinting. Your friend should start the stopwatch when you cross the first cone, and stop the stopwatch when you cross the second cone. That’s a 20-yard fly.

You ran 20-yard dashes way back in Week 1, but those were from a standstill. These use a flying start to tell you how fast you can cover that distance when you’re already moving fast to start with. All in all, you’ll cover around 40 yards or so of ground, but you’ll only be timing the fastest part of that distance.

The Return

If the best-case scenario plays out, fall sports will go off in your state without a hitch. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to show up to practice the first day looking like someone who didn’t just play video games and eat Hot Cheetos all summer? And don’t act like you don’t have time. Each one of these workouts should take you around 40 minutes, start to finish. All told, that’s a grand total of two hours per week. It’s not like we’re training for a marathon here. Prioritizing speed is always a good use of your time, and it shows that you’re committed to your own athletic development, your coaches, and your teammates.

Prioritizing speed is always a good use of your time, and it shows that you’re committed to your own athletic development, your coaches, and your teammates, says @TrackCoachTG. Share on X

Finally, let me say this. Your coaches love to know that you’re putting in work. Take videos of yourself. Analyze your technique. Share your workouts on social media. If you want some feedback, you should absolutely feel free to tag me on Twitter or send me a DM. I might not be a coach at your school, but I’d still be happy to give you some pointers. After all, I’m having speed-coaching withdrawal since track and field season was canceled this spring.

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

“Long-term athletic development” is a phrase that has gained a tremendous amount of traction in the past few years. It highlights the importance of a gradual and meticulous journey for physical growth and performance gains in speed, strength, and power with youth athletes.

Coaches need to have some degree of knowledge about child development so they can learn how to help their athletes during these dynamic times of growth, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

Many sports coaches see their players starting at a young age all the way until high school or college, which is an extensive period of time to be caring for a human. Through growth spurts, maturation, coordination disturbances, speed hindrances, and so much more, coaches need to have some degree of knowledge about child development so they can learn how to help their athletes during these dynamic times.

They need to know when to cut back on the training load, when to work on stability, when to home in on deceleration mechanics, when to optimize recovery, when to progress difficulty, and when to build strength, speed, and power in a safe and progressive manner.

Being a youth sports coach is a rewarding career for any adult who finds joy in guiding, teaching, and inspiring kids. There is nothing better than running an exuberant practice that leaves kids with beaming smiles on their faces. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a young athlete proud of themselves for scoring a goal. There is nothing more exciting than high-fiving your players after a hard-fought game. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing your young athletes blossom as they grow up.

While the work coaches do is fulfilling, it also comes with immense responsibility—the care of a human being through all of its physical and mental growth processes. Here are 10 things youth coaches must know about child development to set their athletes up for a successful and healthy career.

1. Everyone Is on a Different Schedule

This much I know: You can’t rush physical development. Every child is on their own biological clock, so one 11-year-old kid might be slower than the 11-year-old kid next door.

Of course, it’s frustrating for a parent to see their kid at a physical disadvantage, but coaches have to remember to educate parents to meet kids where they are in their development journey. Constantly berating them for their size, strength, body composition, speed, or awkward coordination won’t solve anything, especially during a time that is uncontrollable. It is best for coaches to be fully transparent with parents, as well as their young athletes, on what to expect during this time.

It’s frustrating for a parent to see their kid at a physical disadvantage, but coaches should educate parents to meet kids where they are in their development journey, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

Child development is a natural process—one that we must be patient with and forgiving of at times.

So, what is the solution here?

For the late-maturing child who is waiting to develop speed, strength, and power, continue to focus on coordination, technical skills, and the other beautiful gems inside of them. Is this kid a good striker? Can they read the game well? Can they play aggressively? Focus on what a child can do during this sensitive time.

2. Speed Can Slow Down During the Growth Spurt

A child may be the fastest kid on the team from ages 7–11, then all of a sudden, their speed stagnates, or worse yet, decreases.

The growth spurt can be a tough time for young athletes, as accelerated growth leads to whacky coordination and can impact performance negatively (Quatman-Yates, Quatman, Meszaros, et al., 2012). It is a period when bones grow at a faster rate than muscles, coordination is disrupted, and body composition changes drastically. These can all cause a significant decrease in performance, leaving the child frustrated.

The one thing I hear the most from parents is that their team coach tells their child they need to improve speed. This is always the pressure put on kids during the growth spurt. This is upsetting, to say the least.

Coaches need to understand that this time is hard enough for kids to go through, physically and mentally, so the last thing they want is to have pressure put on them for something they cannot control. To that end, speed can rapidly slow down, so coaches should know what to say that does not leave the young, maturing kid devastated.

Some empowering things to say during this time could include:

• “Your one-on-one skills against defenders are out of this world!”
• “You have a great ability to read the game and anticipate play.”
• “You are so awesome at scanning and being aware of your opponent!”
• “You have a powerful shot!”
• “You are the best communicator and leader on our team.”

Again, focus on their strengths during this time, and let speed catch up as they mature into their bodies.

One more thing: During this time, it helps to reinforce coordination so their sprinting mechanics clean up, and they can move efficiently. Here are some coordination and stability drills to bring to your team practices:

Video 1. Crawling in all planes is an excellent way for kids to explore movement while improving core stability and total body strength against bodyweight resistance.

Video 2. Bird Dogs are one of the best exercises for reinforcing contralateral coordination of the opposite arm and leg and crossing the mid-line of the body to connect the brain hemispheres.

3. A Female Athlete’s Menstrual Cycle Impacts Performance

There have been numerous times when coaches have run pre-adolescent and adolescent female athletes into the ground, whether with full field sprints, frog jumps, burpees, endless laps around the pitch, or sprinting stadium steps on concrete. Why is this a problem? Athletes on their menstrual cycle are more susceptible to fatigue and sleep disturbances, so it is much more helpful to promote adequate recovery, nutrition, and proper load monitoring during this time.

Dawn Scott, former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team sport scientist, determined when the players were on the phase of their cycle where sleep quality declined the most and provided them with education on how to improve their sleep, whether with nutrition or hydration. Of course, young female athletes do not have Dawn Scott as their performance coach, but I highly recommend following her work on the topic and becoming aware of why it’s a risk factor for injury.

If young female athletes look bogged down at practice, keep in mind they could be on their cycle, so it is best to provide them with solutions, not criticism for their fatigue.

4. Stability Is a Requirement for Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Core Training

Stop with the endless crunches. For core work, coaches need to keep in mind that it must cover stabilizing all of the muscles of the trunk—from the gluteals to the abdominals to the psoas. The tying together of these muscle groups allows for kids to change direction efficiently, absorb force and stay balanced for injury reduction, and sprint with good posture.

Are the gluteals, abdominals, obliques, and psoas co-contracting during the exercises you prescribe? Intermuscular coordination is critical for young athletes to be able to perform movement in a balanced manner and to help stabilize the spine without pain.

According to the Journal of Coaching Education, traditional exercises such as sit-ups and crunches are insufficient as preventatives for injury because very few athletic movements are performed with weighted trunk flexion. Sport coaches should focus on dynamic isometric training, which improves balance and strength and might decrease the occurrence of low-back pain (Brock and Huckleberry, 2013).

Here are some stability movements to sprinkle into practice sessions:

Video 3. If coaches are crunched for time, the Pallof Press is an excellent movement to get in on the pitch to improve pelvic stability.

Video 4. The Plank Bird Dog is a nice progression of the conventional plank that challenges reflexive stability while raising the opposite arm and leg.

5. Young Athletes Need Behavior Change

When it comes to changing things like improper nutrition and hydration, young athletes do not want to be lectured. Kids are smart and know that fried chicken is worse for them than a bowl of vegetables. They can also Google what foods are healthiest and do not need an adult telling them what to do. Rather, they need adults to lead the way and set the example, as they are the sharpest observers of behavior.

What is in your pantry? How are you talking about food at practices? Are you placing the behavior change in front of them and providing them with healthy snack examples? If you truly want to change a young athlete’s behavior, walk the walk yourself.

But behavior and habit change should also be a staple of your program. Building a culture of accountability outside the gym and off the field ensures that young athletes grow mentally, socially, and academically.

Building a culture of accountability outside the gym and off the field ensures that young athletes grow mentally, socially, and academically, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

Having athletes reflect on their improvements reminds them how far they have come and pushes them to analyze what actionable steps they took daily to achieve their goals. Journaling progress like this, as well as setting new goals, is an excellent way to train their minds and encourage behavior change.

6. Training Age Must Be Considered

Training age is important to keep in mind because an athlete may be further along than someone the same age as them because they have been training longer. As an example, a strength training program will look vastly different for a 13-year-old with a novice training age (first few months) than it would for a 13-year-old with an advanced training age (more than 1–2 years).

Video 5. The Single Leg Deadlift is a movement pattern that young athletes must master with body weight first, as it is a heavy proprioceptive movement that takes time to nail down.

Video 6. This progression is for an athlete with a higher training age who has successfully engaged in motor skill learning for several months.

Training age is a big factor in a performance program, and everyone must have the movement patterns customized to where they are.

Training age is also an indicator of when to expect performance results. Beware of expecting vast changes in speed, agility, and strength in just a few months. Just like a flower, wait for the child to bloom. Human physiology has not changed, so it is best to meet kids where they are and ensure they put in the work for the long haul with their athletic development.

As an example, here are the results of performance improvements for three athletes who trained consistently under a strength and conditioning program for a year, 2–3 times a week:

Athlete 1
Broad Jump: 5’5” (2019); 6’8” (2020)
10-Yard Sprint: 1.85 (2019); 1.81 (2020)
20-Yard Sprint: 3.48 (2019); 3.12 (2020)
Vertical: 19.1 (2019); 20.2 (2020)
Pull-Up: 0 (2019); 3 (2020)

Athlete 2:
Broad Jump: 6’5” (2019); 7’4” (2020)
10-Yard Sprint: 1.82 (2019); 1.80 (2020)
20-Yard Sprint: 3.39 (2019); 3.10 (2020)
Vertical: 19.3 (2019); 21.6 (2020)
Pull-Up: 3 (2019); 7 (2020)

Athlete 3:
Broad Jump: 6’4” (2019); 7’0” (2020)
10-Yard Sprint: 1.92 (2019); 1.81 (2020)
20-Yard Sprint: 3.32 (2019); 3.12 (2020)
Vertical: 19.5 (2019); 20.5 (2020)
Pull-Up: 0 (2019); 2 with weight (2020)

Video 7. Consistency year-round is key for drastic strength and performance gains. Young athletes must make the time to work on physical goals for the long run.

Looking at the video feedback, here is a novice high school freshman on the first day of training:

Video 8. The toe of the outside leg could be more squared up for a better reacceleration in the other direction; there is some collapsing of the trunk and falling toward the wrong direction.

Here is an advanced athlete of the same age in their second year of training:

Video 9. Notice the nice positioning of the outside leg for a more efficient reacceleration in the other direction, the stable trunk, and the minimal collapsing.

7. Training Must Be Different for 7- to 8-Year-Olds Than It Is for Adolescents

It is comical when coaches run their 7- to 8-year-olds the same as they would run their high schoolers. First and foremost, coaches should pay attention to the extreme physical differences between elementary, middle, and high school athletes.

For the elementary school athlete, a variety of movement is optimal, as they are in a critical period of optimizing motor skill learning and building brain connections.

Video 10. This is a great game for young athletes to work on various aspects of performance, including coordination, strength, and object manipulation.

Expounding further, there is a plethora of mental differences as well. The last thing younger kids want is to be instructed with wall drills, agility rings, ladders, and monotonous drills where the coach barks a running commentary. Younger kids thrive on fun and energy within a practice session, as well as the opportunity to problem-solve without the help of an adult figure.

Younger kids thrive on fun and energy within a practice session, as well as the opportunity to problem-solve without the help of an adult figure, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

For the older athletes who are in the performance phase, the components of mechanics, speed, and strength need more dialed-in focus within a session. Mentally, older athletes are also in a mindset where they are ready to receive structured feedback on technique.

Video 11. A skill like acceleration, for example, takes months and years of reinforcing, as well as teaching forward lean posture and the ability for athletes to “chase their shoulders” to propel their force forward.

8. All Age Groups Benefit from Free Play and a Variety of Movements

As detailed and structured we want to be with our older athletes, free play serves its purpose for this age group, too. From a nervous system standpoint, play relaxes kids and brings them joy because stakes are low, and error has no cost. Of course, the young ones love to be given a task-oriented game, where the coach exits stage right and lets the problem-solving occur organically.

Video 12. “Doors” is a fun reactive agility game that is transferrable to team sports and teaches reacting and cutting based on an external stimulus.

The older kids also benefit from play amidst the busy structure of year-round sports. Sometimes it is a nice escape for them to return back to the childhood days of tag and fun.

Video 13. Tag is a small-sided game that forces athletes to react, dodge, and anticipate, and then get in their speed work to the finish line after all players are tagged.

9. Plyometrics Should Be About Quality, Not Quantity

Full-field frog jumps, jump squats for time, and endless burpees all confuse me. This begs the question, what are coaches trying to get out of high-volume plyometric training? If it is to fatigue the child athlete, then they are on the right track.

However, causing chronic soreness and nervous system depletion should not be the goal of plyometrics. Quality form from teaching landing mechanics, optimizing the concentric and eccentric muscle actions, and focusing on properly pumping the brakes in all planes of motion are all key here for kids who are growing into their bodies.

Video 14. It serves the maturing female athlete to work on stability when pumping the brakes.

Plyometrics are not about fatiguing the athlete; they are about ensuring the athlete produces force into the ground, says @fitsoccerqueen. Share on X

It is important to teach athletes how to absorb force from an injury reduction standpoint, but producing force is just as critical when programming plyometrics. Again, plyometrics are not about fatiguing the athlete; they are about ensuring the athlete produces force into the ground.

Video 15. Plyometrics that focus on force production help to improve an athlete’s speed and are incredibly taxing on the nervous system. Keep reps at a minimum (4–6 contacts) with quality explosiveness.

10. Overuse Injuries Can Increase During the Growth Spurt

With the growing system of year-round organized sports, youth athletes become more susceptible to overuse injuries. Arguably, the volume of games kids play is exponentially higher than adult and professional athletes. What’s scary is that kids going through rapid growth spurts, or the time of peak height velocity (PHV), suffer overuse injuries even more.

Osgood-Schlatters, Sever’s disease, stress fractures, and chronic muscle soreness are all overuse injuries that cannot be ignored pre, during, and post PHV.

It is not wise to run your team of teenagers as punishment after they lose a weekend game. It is not wise to ignore active recovery at practices. It is not wise to push them through a drill when they have knee pain. Load monitoring becomes a necessity for the maturing athlete to safeguard them from injury.

Some things for coaches to keep in mind as they plan their practice week:

• How many minutes did this athlete play?
• How did they sleep for the past week?
• Are they hydrated and nourishing their bodies?
• What is their rating of perceived exertion (RPE), based on intensity and number of runs and changes of direction they made in a game?

Open communication, especially for youth clubs that do not have the monitoring technology, helps coaches understand the physiological and mental needs of the athlete for the upcoming training week.

Remember, it is essential to nurture and care for young athletes, especially as year-round sports continues to spiral out of control with a high volume of practices and games. Moreover, understanding how children develop physically and mentally through growth spurts and maturation ensures they develop in performance at their pace and stay resilient to injury as much as possible.

Understanding how children develop physically & mentally through growth spurts & maturation ensures they develop in performance at their pace & stay resilient to injury as much as possible. Share on X

The human component of coaching is one that we cannot ignore. After all, coaches are caretakers for kids just as much as parents are.

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

Brock, M. and Huckleberry, S. “Guidelines for sport coaches on core-strengthening techniques for athletes: improving performance and decreasing occurrence of back pain.” Journal of Coaching Education. 2013;6(2):135–147.

Forcada, C., Pons, A., Seijas, R., et al. “Risk factors and prevention strategies of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in young female athletes.” International Journal of Orthopaedics. 2017;4(3):734–739.

Quatman-Yates, C.C., Quatman, C.E., Meszaros, A.J., et al. “A systematic review of sensorimotor function during adolescence: A developmental stage of increased motor awkwardness?” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2012;46(9):649–655.