If you have ever read my articles or listened to my audio interviews on speed training and the young athlete, you will have already heard my stance on technical improvements over adjunct training. Does adjunct training (i.e. strength training, power training etc) serve to improve the relative power or speed of a young athlete? Sure. Kids and adolescents can have general adaptations to various stimulus not unlike adults. Of course, there is an assumption that this adjunct training is being developed and implemented by a qualified professional with both theoretical/academic as well as practical experience working with young athletes. I have personally beaten this point into the ground, but will happily keep bringing it up until the state of this industry changes for the better - There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to training a young athlete, nor does adult-based exercise prescription belong in a program created for a pre-adolescent/adolescent athlete. Furthermore, high speed treadmill usage, time/count based plyometric drills and fitness machine-based strength training ALL fit into the category of ‘trendy’ and ‘easy’ exercises that will likely improve a youngster over a typical 6-week training cycle, but lack any degree of long-term forecasting or development. The early years of a young athlete’s life MUST be spent on exposure and eventual mastery of multi-directional and multi-planar movements (and therefore motor skill development). Additionally, as with my point regarding the uselessness of high speed treadmills, speed development and increases should come in the form of technical running ability improvements, in which the youngster is learning how to effectively push off of the ground and utilize his or her own strength via force production. Sprinting on the ground (in which YOU are producing the force and driving yourself forward) is significantly different than running on a treadmill (in which the ground is coming at you). The force production implications are different - so much so that treadmill speed training for young athletes should be considered a waste of time.
Now, once you have decided to conduct speed training where it belongs - on a field, track or grass - there are a couple of key points to consider. I have outlined the specific points regarding proper running form in the past, but just so we are all on the same page -
Proper Sprinting Technique
•Head and neck should be aligned with body, not forward.
•Arms should be relaxed and flexed to 90̊ at the elbow.
•Arm swing should come from the shoulder and should be linear, not crossing the body.
•Let the body lean, but do not bend. The body should have a slight forward tilt from the ground, not a bend at the hips.
•Run on the balls of the feet, not the toes.
•The foot should land directly underneath the sprinter. An over-stride results in the foot landing in front of the center of gravity, which causes braking. Under-striding causes a lot of fast movement and energy expenditure without covering enough ground.
•Keep the head and trunk still and the entire body relaxed.
These are extremely crucial biomechanical aspects of speed production and should be reinforced through fun games and exercises with kids. The key is to get young athletes to a point at which they no longer revert back to their old running styles when they are in ‘game’ situations (i.e., they have adopted this new style of running wholeheartedly).
In our discussion regarding motor development, you may remember that with young athletes, the plasticity of the nervous system is high and therefore prone to accept biomechanical changes in movement.
As the athlete ages, however, the plasticity levels begin to close and the prospects for successful change becomes limited. Yet ANOTHER reason to address biomechanics and movement ability with younger athletes, and get them away from treadmills, fitness machines and plyometric drills in which the number of reps is more important to the training than the quality of the reps.
Part Two, coming soon...
- Brian
Now, once you have decided to conduct speed training where it belongs - on a field, track or grass - there are a couple of key points to consider. I have outlined the specific points regarding proper running form in the past, but just so we are all on the same page -
Proper Sprinting Technique
•Head and neck should be aligned with body, not forward.
•Arms should be relaxed and flexed to 90̊ at the elbow.
•Arm swing should come from the shoulder and should be linear, not crossing the body.
•Let the body lean, but do not bend. The body should have a slight forward tilt from the ground, not a bend at the hips.
•Run on the balls of the feet, not the toes.
•The foot should land directly underneath the sprinter. An over-stride results in the foot landing in front of the center of gravity, which causes braking. Under-striding causes a lot of fast movement and energy expenditure without covering enough ground.
•Keep the head and trunk still and the entire body relaxed.
These are extremely crucial biomechanical aspects of speed production and should be reinforced through fun games and exercises with kids. The key is to get young athletes to a point at which they no longer revert back to their old running styles when they are in ‘game’ situations (i.e., they have adopted this new style of running wholeheartedly).
In our discussion regarding motor development, you may remember that with young athletes, the plasticity of the nervous system is high and therefore prone to accept biomechanical changes in movement.
As the athlete ages, however, the plasticity levels begin to close and the prospects for successful change becomes limited. Yet ANOTHER reason to address biomechanics and movement ability with younger athletes, and get them away from treadmills, fitness machines and plyometric drills in which the number of reps is more important to the training than the quality of the reps.
Part Two, coming soon...
- Brian