OUR PROGRAM BELIEVES in the old saying that, “Speed wins football games.” To that end, we’ve developed a 4-part program for speed development that’s used throughout the year — not just to condition our athletes, but to make them faster. This program weaves some common threads that serve as principles for all parts of the speed program.
- Principle 1: Stretching. We’re not a big supporter of what’s called “stagnant stretching.” We utilize a method called “dynamic stretching” instead. Stagnant stretching is a process whereby the athlete stretches while cold (not active) by standing and touching his toes or sitting on the ground to stretch without first warming up. Unfortunately, most teams stretch before practice by having the team line up and perform stagnant stretches — before their muscles are warm. Muscles are like salt-water taffy; when they’re cold they don’t stretch very far. But if they warm up, they stretch much more quickly and more easily.
Dynamic stretching is done by exaggerating an athlete’s running motion through a series of stretches designed to both warm up and stretch at the same time. To dynamic stretch, we have our players do a low-and-slow walk, a low-and-slow backpedal, a low-and-slow shuffle (both directions), a march and some form of running, followed by agilities (such as carioca, high-knees, full-speed backpedals, etc.) This type of stretching targets hamstrings, quads, the groin and other muscles.
The dynamic stretching principle has dramatically reduced our team’s muscle pulls and injuries.
- Principle 2: Position-Specific Speed Training. Each athlete must perform speed exercises that specifically relate to his particular position. For a wide receiver, for example, who is trying to increase his speed and explosiveness off the line of scrimmage, a backpedal is going to be of little use. Muscles learn through repetition and the best way for a WR to become faster is to repeatedly run those pass routes that he uses during games.
I’m often asked by players and parents the best methods for becoming faster in the 40-yard dash. Well, the best way to do this is to practice running the 40-yard dash. An athlete must teach his body to run fast. Borrowing from that same logic, if a player repeats the skills he needs in the games, then his speed workouts must become more specific.
- Principle 3: Conditioning Vs. Speed Development. Too often, coaches equate speed development with conditioning. We think that if we have players run consecutive sprints with little rest in-between that we’re conditioning our players and helping them to become faster. This is not true. When players become tired, they build “tired habits.” The best way to improve pure speed is to do your speed work with enough rest time built into it to get your players recovery rate back to full strength (or at least 90-percent recovered).
This way, players will be repeating speed drills with maximum effort.
Conditioning and speed training can be combined, but there will be limited improvement when both are done simultaneously. Something is always better than nothing though, and if practice time has placed limits on what you can have your players do, then try to split the conditioning and speed training into two separate segments where speed is first targeted, followed by a period for conditioning.
In-Season Speed Training
Most teams place an emphasis on conditioning during the regular season and abandon speed and strength development. While conditioning is important, neglecting speed creates a situation where your athletes are at their peak speeds early on in the regular season, but from then on struggle just to maintain speed. This line of thinking could be equated to a quarterback coach who only had his QBs work on throwing in the preseason and then never practiced it during the season. In this scenario, he shouldn’t expect to see much improvement.
Our program realizes the importance of conditioning and we dedicate Mondays and Tuesdays to it. On Wednesdays. the emphasis becomes less focused on conditioning and more on developing position-specific speed. We divide our team up by position and do drills that relate to those speed skills which are needed in the game for that position. WRs, for example, repeatedly run vertical or post-routes against defensive backs. QB’s work on such things as dropping back or sprinting out to make throws.
We try to maximize our repetitions, but the emphasis is not the number of repetitions, but rather the quality of repetitions. If we have 5 to 8 players at WR, then the DB lines get quality reps without sacrificing the conditioning benefits of the drill. We’ll also do this drill for RBs and TEs against inside LBs. Here, the players must run shorter routes, but the emphasis is the same. Offensive linemen work on getting downfield on running plays and the defensive linemen work on pass rushing. These drills are something you probably already do during your practices, but now the emphasis is on speed and not just technique.
Off-Season Speed Training
We usually start spring practice around the first of February; so when we start the new school semester, we have 8 to 12 workouts that run between 6:00 am and 7:00 am. During these workouts, our players try to achieve two things: speed development and an increased conditioning level. This is done by separating the workout into three phases. The entire workout is done in position groups, so that we can also develop a spirit of competition, leadership and unity.
- Phase 1. Is a 9-minute period of dynamic stretching which includes a low walk, a low backpedal, a low shuffle, march, form run and agilities. Allot 1 1/2 minutes for each exercise and work in six extended position groups: 1. DBs. 2. WRs and QBs. 3. OL. 4. DL. 5. LBs. 6. RBs, TEs and Kickers.
- Phase 2. This phase works on position-specific speed development. Each position coach works on specific speed skills with his assigned position. Here, the emphasis is purely on speed development and not dependent on the quantity of repetitions, but rather the quality of repetitions. A DB coach, for example, can work on such things as a backpedal at 10 yards and another one at 13 yards followed by a brief break. The possibilities are endless. (We don’t use any footballs or equipment in this work, so a coach has to be creative.) This phase teaches players to run faster and with more confidence at their position. This period usually takes around 21 minutes to compete.
- Phase 3. Players return to their six extended position groups to work on explosion and conditioning. In this phase, players still work on speed skills but now are going for intense, high numbers of repetitions, shifting the emphasis to conditioning. The 6 stations include the W-drill, the speed ladder, a 25-yard sprint, acceleration (with tennis balls), L-runs and 10-yard starts. Players work at each station for 4 minutes and then rotate (24 minutes total).
l W-Drill. Set up a W pattern with cones set about 10-yards apart. Work on sprints, backpedaling or shuffling.
l Speed Ladder. Work any foot quickness drills such as a foot in each rung, 2-feet, hop, 1-legged runs,
etc.
l 25-Yard Sprint. A full-speed sprint. Look for good mechanical form and how long it takes to get to full speed.
l Acceleration. Use tennis balls to give the athlete a point to accelerate to. Bounce the tennis ball and the player must get it before it hits the ground again after the first bounce. Try to place the ball just out of the reach of the athlete so that he must really extend to get it. Next, toss the ball upward and the player must get it before it hits the ground. Or have the player face you and when you throw the ball, he must turn and run to get it. Or have the player stand next to you and when you throw it, he must sprint to get underneath the ball before it hits.
l L-Runs. Have the athletes run a 15-yard sprint and then cut on a cone. Again, you may backpedal or shuffle.
l 10-Yard Starts. Here we look at their stance and see if there is any wasted movement in the start. Look for strong, powerful starts.
Strength-And-Conditioning Period
Our strength-coach does a great job integrating flexibility programs with our strength and speed program. If our players lift 3 times a week for 90 minutes, then 25 to 30 minutes is spent on speed and flexibility. We also have small-group speed sessions where we work on a target area for speed development. Twice a week for 30 minutes we’ll do speed sessions with small groups of 10 to 15 players. Here, we emphasize a different target area for speed development such as starts, acceleration, change-of-direction or some other area that’s applicable to football. We offer several sessions during the day and try to fit them around their class schedules. We also like to time 40- and 20-yard dashes, frequently, so that we can monitor improvement.
I teach a class called “Speed Training” where we explore speed development. The class is designed to teach students how to run faster and evaluate good form. We encourage all our freshmen players to take this class.
Summer Workouts
In the summer workout period, we’ve put together a workout book that outlines our strength, speed and conditioning program. Our players lift 3 times a week, condition 5 days a week and work on speed twice a week.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays players lift and then do an interval running program. The program involves some 200-, 400- and 800-yard runs. The goal is overall conditioning. We start light, early in the summer and by the time players report for camp, the rest periods and overall time for each has been significantly reduced. We place a high level of importance on recovery rate, so that players can get a good picture of what kind of shape they’re in.
Tuesdays and Thursdays focus on speed and the metabolic program. We list different drills for different days, so that it targets different areas such as acceleration, power, quickness, flexibility, etc. After working speed, the players work the metabolic sprint program. The metabolic program is a series of 10-consecutive sprints with 15 seconds of rest between each one. They then have a 3-minute rest, do 10 more sprints, rest and finish with 6 sprints. Each position has different sprints based on how much a player at that position would run. WRs, for example, may run 30, 40, 18, 20, 50, 13, 30, 40, 40 and 25 yards for their first 10 sprints; while lineman may do 10-, 12-, 8-, 4-, 20-, 15-, 25-, 7-, 16- and 30-yard sprints. Linemen run far less because those are the kinds of sprints they’ll run during a game. Each position has its own specific set of sprints.
We start the summer with running to equal one quarter of a game (we’ve figured that 26 sprints equal about 1 quarter of game-like running) and by the end of summer when they report to camp, our players are in shape for all 4 quarters.
While at heart, this metabolic program is conditioning, there is speed relevance, because the sprints are position-oriented. Occasionally, we’ll supplement this workout with sprints related to each position. Receivers may run 10 routes of varying distance or a DB may backpedal-turn-and-run 10 times at varying distances.
This workout is more time consuming, but it’s the next step in position-related speed development. The 10 sprints with 15-seconds of rest between should take no more than 3 minutes to perform and a whole quarter of 26 sprints with two 3-minute rest periods should — all together —take about 15 minutes to perform.
David Needs can be reached by e-mail at: dneeds@cn.edu