Be Careful How You Manipulate The....

Effective Body Position- and therefor speed

I am going to get to the point. You have to understand the influence external loading has on the body position when training multi-directional speed.

I am preparing to do a Bonus video for my Speed Insiders members to show them the detrimental effects of pure multi-directional speed when external loading is improperly used (If you want to get your hands on this video go to http://www.speedinsiders.com/).

I just recently viewed a clip of a video of a coach doing lateral speed work holding a medicine ball out in front of the body with arms fully extended. The effect on the athletes body position was glaring. The weight of the medicine ball creates a counter-balance situation. The athlete had to straighten up the spine and shoulders in order to hold the m-ball up. This creates a chain reaction that is devastating to lateral speed; here is what I mean...

1. When the shoulders and spine are too erect the hips have to suck under the shoulders.

2. This causes the important mechanical advantage of stretching the posterior and lateral chain to lessen, causing a weaker body.

3. The athlete tend to get pushed too high on the balls of the feet reducing the dorsi-flexion of the ankle therefore reducing stretch reflex of the lower leg.

4. The athlete is no longer in a great position to quickly change directions and accelerate forwards out of the stance.

I could go on and on. If you want to train shoulder strength and endurance in posture do it another way. But don't manipulate the important multi-directional speed mechanics- especially for lateral speed.

Having said that. If you completely understand what the effects are and can re-establish proper lateral posture after doing the above mentioned drill then go ahead. But if you don't understand the effects you need to be careful.

I have said it before and will continue to say it; multi-directional speed is a skill. There are learnable techniques. If you treat it this way you will increase performance immensely.

When you understand the innate abilities the human body brings the "game" and can attach the programmable skills to it, you have one powerful machine.

Action Steps:

Take one day and look at the exercises you use for coaching Multi-directional speed and see if they positively or negatively effect the positions of the body to produce explosive, quick, and controllable speed. This will allow you to make adjustments so you can help your athletes even more.

I am always studying how the body reacts to it's environment so I can make sound decisions regarding training. I hope this information helps you to do the same.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

PS: Hey if you are more of a basketball person. Maybe you play it, coach it, or train for it, I want let you in on a fast moving program that might be perfect for you. Plus if you want to get in on the ground floor and get the advantages of being a charter member go to http://www.basketballspeedinsiders.com/ now.