Why The Heck Are You Running???

It has been a long running argument and it will continue on for many more years. Why are coaches having their explosive sport athletes pounding the pavement doing miles? Why are basketball teams, football teams, sprinters, volleyball teams, and any other court or field sport team running long slow distance? I have written and spoken about this before and will continue in the future- but many do not want to listen. Let me outline what we should be doing rather than spending time in the argument...

If the reason for distance running is to build a base the only base being built is a base for running long slow distance- not much else.

Let me show you how I design a program to "build a base" for explosive sport athletes:

I prefer to use a combination of many training components together through out the year. I am not a fan of always working on just one area. For example: I will not simply work on speed for several weeks, then conditioning, then.... First off, I will work on what is needed based on an assessment. Secondly, I will develop the components together...the way the sport uses them. Here is an example of a monthly program broken down into weeks/days:

Week #1 Speed focused, endurance secondary

Day#1 Speed and agility skill based training. Drills are at a highly intense effort with adequate rest and recovery between drills. The focus on day one is linear and lateral acceleration.

Day #2 Endurance based training. The speed and agility drills are going to be focused around interval and short rest period station training. Shuttle runs with a 1:1 work to rest ratio. Obstacle based races lasting 30-45 seconds to complete, and true short burst intervals (30 yard acceleration with job back- 6-10 reps)

Day #3 Speed and agility focus. Resisted and deceleration/change of direction drills. Drills can be lateral shuffle and crossover change of direction drills reacting to coach's signal or partner mirror, Box 4 corner cone drills, resisted agility drills focusing on cutting and change of direction.

Week #2 Endurance focus, speed and agility secondary

Day #1 would be the same as day #2 in week #1. Use appropriate drills for athletes.

Day #2 All Random reactionary speed and agility drills. Tag games, coach lead directional games, mirror drills, all the drills are 100% effort with an emphasis on using learned speed and agility techniques in a random setting. Coach can really teach and correct during these drills

Day #3 Endurance focused but only linear drills. forward and backward shuttles and intervals, short hill interval runs, stay away from hard cutting on this day but push the endurance hard.

Week #3 Speed and agility focus, endurance secondary

Day #1 Sport Specific agility drills. Example; 6-10 reps of fielding footwork for softball/baseball or tight cutting drills for soccer or retreating shuffle for basketball. Make the drill specific to your athletes- be explosive with effort though.

Day #2 Metabolic drill- mark off a 50 yard area in 5 yard increments. set 1-4 quarters as the length time the drills will be done. CAUTION! you will have to build up to more quarters as the athletes get better conditioned. First quarter consists of 10 reps- each rep is a sprint to a yard mark (looks like; 10 yrd, 25 yrd, 5 yrd, 35 yrd, 5 yrd, 20 yrd, 15 yrd, 50 yrd, 25 yrd, 15 yrd- rest for 2:00 minute and repeat) One quarter consists of two 10 rep cycles. This can be done using different movement patterns- angled take offs, crossover runs, backpedal... each sprint can be a different movement. tough drill!

Day #3 Random Speed and agility. All drills are based off the coaches signal. This will allow the athletes to really focus on the coach and it allows the coach to teach and correct mistakes. Example of drills; random 5-10-5 drill, multi-directional random drill (shuffle, backpedal, forward, jump...)

Week #4 Endurance focused, speed and agility secondary

Day #1 Resistance based endurance work. Sled drags, partner tubing resisted runs/shuffles/cutting. All the drills are using power and or quickness but are resisted and for 30-60 seconds. In other words the athletes will go full out pulling the sled displaying power but must work hard for a longer duration than most power drills. Example drill: Sled sprint for 25 yard- quickly reverse and pull sled back to start backpedaling hard, then finish with a 25 yard sled sprint. You can use many different drills but make the athlete work with good technique so injury potential is reduced.

Day #2 Speed and agility. Timed drills. This is a great time to have the athletes compete and challenge their times during timed speed and agility drills. Examples; 5-10-5 shuttle, 4 corner X drill, W-drill, T-drill, 60 yard shuttle... Great motivational day and coaches can still teach proper movement technique.

Day #4 Endurance challenge day. Have the athletes compete on the 300 yard shuttle. Each athlete must perform the shuttle 3 times but all 3 shuttle are set up differently. Example; first shuttle is 25 yard up and back 6 times. Second shuttle is 50 yrds up and back 3 times. Third shuttle is 4 up back at 25 yrds and 1 up and back at 50 yards. Give the athletes 5-6 minutes between each one. This is a great drill to pair athletes up with comparable talent and make them compete.

This format will get your athletes in shape and keep them fast and quick. Plus, you will develop the "base" you were looking for in a much more effective way than long slow distance running (which accomplished little toward the goal of making more skilled athletes.

Yours in Speed,
Lee

PS: If you are looking for great speed and agility exercises and skills check out the DVD's at http://www.sportsspeedetc.com/. Ground Breaking 2 and Low Box Training are hot items that coaches use all the time.