Principles of Speed

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Principles of Speed Agility Development

• University of Massachusetts Boston
• Strength Conditioning
• Timothy R. Morgan, DC

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Speed Agility

• Speed the ability to achieve high velocity
• Agility - the ability to explosively brake,
  change direction, and accelerate again involves
  greater involvement of deceleration and the
  ability to reactively couple it w/ acceleration
  requires rapid, efficient eccentric/concentric
  switching
• Speed is the result of applying explosive force
  to a specific movement or technique.
• The ability to change direction and speed is more
  important than simply achieving or maintaining
  high velocity

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Speed Agility Training

• Speed-Strength force developed rapidly or at
  high velocities functional motor skills
  requiring accelerative as well as decelerative
  speed-strength are the basis of speed and agility
  training
• Speed-Endurance metabolic conditioning needed
  to maintain speed and agility over an extended
  duration (6 seconds) or to achieve maximum
  acceleration or speed during repetitive sprints
• Special Endurance application
• of speed-endurance for activities w/
• exercise relief patterns, specific to
• practice or competition considers
• Work Rest ratio of the sport
• or exercise

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Impulse

• Running is the basis of many sports and has a
  ballistic quality intrinsic to other movements
• Most athletic activities require rapid force
  generation over a 0.1 to 0.2 sec interval
  however absolute max force production requires up
  to 0.6 to 0.8 sec
• Even in non-ballistic sports (skating, cycling,
  rowing, swimming), performance is usually
  determined by the ability to develop force
  quickly and achieve a critical power output
• Creating greater force per given
• time is a basic objective in
• speed agility training
• Impulse Force x Time
• A force multiplied by the
• time over which it acts

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SSC

• Stretch-Shortening Cycle (SSC)
  eccentric-concentric switching
• SSC occurs as a pre-load of some magnitude is
  placed onto the muscle resulting in an eccentric
  contraction and increased passive length tension
  followed almost instantaneously with a
  switching from eccentric to concentric force
  production
• SSC is independent of maximum strength in highly
  trained athletes highlighting the importance of
  the neurological phenomenon of Eccentric/Concentri
  c switching
• A goal of Speed Agility training is to improve
  eccentric reactive qualities of strength

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Functional Movement Speed

• Isometric or low velocity movement strength is
  primarily a function of muscle cross-sectional
  area this type of movement strength is less
  common in sport and does not necessarily
  correlate with athletic performance in
  intermittent, speed and power sports
• Power and high speed force output movement is
  determined in large part by the percentage of
  Type II motor units the ability to produce large
  forces quickly is of great benefit to the speed
  and power athlete and may more directly transfer
  to the athletic field

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Reactive Ability vs. Reaction Time

• Reaction Time the minimum time needed to
  respond to a stimulus this is largely
  genetically determined and untrainable, it is a
  neurological processing time
• Reactive Ability the athletes ability to react
  through the generation of force quickly,
  explosively this attribute can be trained in the
  athlete
• The old adage You cant train speed is not
  necessarily true it may be more true that you
  can train speed by targeting the athletes
  reactive ability and ability to generate force
  explosively and efficiently.

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Running Speed

• Sprinting is a series of ballistic strides in
  which the body is repeatedly launched forward as
  a projectile
• Running Speed the interaction between Stride
  Frequency Stride Length
• As running speed approaches max, frequency
  changes more than length
• Stride Length related to limb length and body
  height also related to impulse (FT) generated at
  ground strike
• Stride Frequency has the greatest influence on
  max velocity and is more trainable vs. stride
  length
• As stride frequency increases, ground contact
  time decreases highly dependent on the ability
  to produce explosive ground reaction force
• If stride length is accentuated, running
  mechanics may be negatively affected as optimal
  position at ground contact may not be attained
• Explosive contralateral arm action serves to
  counteract angular momentum produced by leg
  movement, and is driven by neuromuscular
  innervation patterns

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Novice vs. Elite Sprinter
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Agility

• Agility places greater emphasis on deceleration
  and coupled acceleration as compared to linear
  sprinting
• Closed or Programmed Agility optimization of
  motor stereotype or technique test is
  pre-programmed and known to the athlete
• i.e. T-test, Hexagon Test, Edgren Side Step
  Test
• Open or Non-programmed Agility reaction and
  adaptation of a trained motor pattern to new or
  unforeseen situations Read React drills

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Speed Development Techniques

• Assisted Sprinting uses methods to artificially
  increase speed attempts to train the athlete to
  increase and optimize stride frequency
• Exceeds full speed by no more than 10 (2-3 mph)
• In order to avoid negative compensatory methods
  by the athlete, it is important to emphasize
• Arm leg turnover rate
• Foot plant beneath the hips
• Aggressively exploding through
• the movement, trying to find
• fifth gear

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Speed Development Techniques (cont.)

• Resisted Sprinting uses resistance to improve
  speed strength and stride length the applied
  overload is applied without arresting the
  athletes running mechanics
• A 10 or greater change in external resistance
  has a detrimental effect on movement kinetics,
  kinematics and technique

• In order to prevent the athlete from
• attempting to muscle through the
• drill (which can result in technique
• changes), the strength professional
• should emphasize explosive arm and
• knee punching action and explosive leg
• drive off the ground

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References

• Baechle, TR. Earle, RW. Essentials of Strength
  Training and Conditioning, 2nd Ed. 2000. Human
  Kinetics.