Woodway Speedboard

I have long been a fan of the Woodway FORCE treadmill.  It is a self propelled treadmill. This has been for several reasons;

• Encourages FOOT CONTACT under COG
• Encourages HORIZONTAL PROPULSIVE FORCES
• Allows VIDEO ANALYSIS of multiple strides easily
• Provides easier accel bounding learning and resisted bounds
• ...and in the case of a FORCE 2.0 or 3.0 provides data on actual forces and gait analysis between left and right legs

Last year Woodway introduced the SPEEDBOARD.  We  had the chance to recently evaluate it with athletes of different calibers and experience. 

Another self propelled treadmill, this one uses a low friction belt, and curved surface so that no harness is needed.  A bit scary for many when first stepping on, it ends up being very easy to get used to.

We have done some rudimentary video analysis comparing athletes over ground and on the Speedboard.  Although  not complete, I can say that differences in most kinematics are minimal.  Below are some comparison shots.  Although limited by using 60 frames of video, their was not difference in stride frequency in this analysis.

TOE OFF

THIGH BLOCKING

GROUND PREP

GROUND CONTACT

MID STANCE

TOE OFF 2 

Our coaches have generally found that athletes feel like it "makes them go faster."  In our trials and observations, it seems to encourage better recovery and step over mechanics.   This has been consistent among many different athletes.  Put them on their and we have seen residual phase get cut dramatically and a better step over action.  The step over may be encouraged by the slight angle of the tread in front, encouraging them to step up to it. 

One area where we have found we had to really coach well and watch is ground contact.  I encourage dorsi-flexed ground contact and this becomes even more important on the Speedboard.  When coached and executed, ground contact is good and many athletes have actually felt increased gastroc soreness after sessions.  This makes sense as they are making contact with slight angle and therefore potentially loading in a more stretched position.  This would also be something to consider if an athlete is returning from a foot/lower leg injury or has problems there. 

If an athlete tends to overstride and does not understand to try and footstrike under the COG they may be encouraged to overstride or even heel strike in lower level athletes.  The key was coaching.  It is very easy to hear the difference and we found even more than on the ground that if given as a cue, athletes could hear the difference themselves.

These are a bit in contrast to the FORCE treadmill.  I have found it encourages better ground prep and footstrike mechanics by its nature to require additional force production.  Any overstriding on it will not drive the belt backward. 

All in all we are finding it extremely useful. 

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  Takes up a lot less space than 60-100 yards of track/turf. 
• 
  
  It allows us to provide video feedback and analysis over multiple strides. 
• 
  
  Encourages good recovery mechanics.
• 
  
  Allows a natural running motion.
• 
  
  Allows IN/Outs indoors
• 
  
  Useful for repeat sprint intervals with active running recovery between.

Training Your Coaching Eye

A key skill for a sports performance coach is being able to analyze movements.  You have to watch an athlete move and make a mental comparison to the technical model in your head.  To do this effectively you have to develop your ability to watch for certain types of detail in relatively high speed movements.

So how do you develop this skill?  Your Coaching Eye.  You deliberately watch sports movements.  Not casual watching of the movement, but focused, and analytical observation.

Just as there is the concept of 10,000 hours in mastering a skill, the same applies here.  You have to watch movements tens of thousands of times.  If you are a performance coach this may means thousands of starts, accelerations, max velocity runs, cuts, jumps, stops to start.  Then add cleans, squats, snatches, Bulgarian split squats and on and on.  It's a long list.

It's easy to be disheartened by the volume. Don't be.

The good news is that developing your eye in one helps with the others.  Part of doing this is actual visual skill, much is cognitive processing, and part is learning that specific movement.  The dist two, visual and cognitive, carry over to other movements to some degree. 

Where do you get your reps?  First of all coaching your own athletes.  Then while observing others coaching.  Still, this might take a while to get to a master level.  plus, what if you don't get to see all the movements in your setting?

How about when watching sports? Instead of watching the game, pick a player and watch their movement whether in the play or off the ball.  Watch it with a critical eye and analyze what you see.

Hows your video collection?  DVDs of elite sports events are a great source to develop your eye.  Video clips abound on the Internet, good and bad.  If you have access to Dartfish or similar software, you can increase your learning even more.

By using Dartfish, our coaches get to watch the same movement more than once.  They can slow it down, or go frame by frame.  This allows them to see the details.  Then they can go back to full speed and try to see it in the action.

The question is; are you developing your coaching eye?

When Feedback is Too Much

Feedback to athletes on their performance is very important to facilitate motor learning. They are always getting some feedback from their kinestethic sense. Whether that feedback is well tuned is an entirely different story.


We give feedback to coaches as to the quality of performance as well. Often this is just verbal, but we also use additional means.


To augment this as coaches we use methods such as video analysis, timing and more. When working on start and acceleration technique, a common scenario we may use is to utilize timers or stopwatch to time a start. Now this can occur in a few ways. One is to provide OUTCOME feedback. Did you run that short distance faster?

This is useful because it may be a specific goal that is a measuring stick for overall performance. For instance, we set 10yd goals for our NFL Combine athletes that are statistically related to their targeted 40yd dash time. We use this to get data on training progress and readiness.

Another reason we may time a start is for more PROCESS oriented goals. While experienced track athletes become very aware of differences in their performances, team sport athletes like football players seldom do. Individual sport athletes are taught to have a better awareness of the body and attention to movement detail. Its inherent in their events.

A football player is conditioned to the exact opposite. Ignore the pain, don't pay attention to the aches and pains. The is some practicality to this if your are going to play at a high level. Unfortunately it gets in the way of players training well. They don't know what their body needs and can't grade performance.

So using some feedback on reps can help this process. In the start example with our NFL Combine guys, we may do a technical drill like a wall drill. Then a few starts. Some of our guys will then be doing release starts, while others are doing bounds, and still others are doing sled pulls. After a number of reps, they will go and do a start or two.

Now here's the key. If I want them focusing on the PROCESS, how that rep felt relative to the time, I probably don't use 10yds. The reason is since they have goals for 10yds, they instantly throw how they FEEL out the window and focus on the result. They are under tremendous stress about this ultimate job interview that is the combine. They can become far to caught up in the outcome instead of getting quality training in.

Feedback is an important tool, just keep in mind what it will lead the athlete to focus on. Times and video are great tools in your coaching toolbelt, just be sure to wield it well.

Does Sprint Technique Matter?

This was the topic of my presentation at the National Strength & Conditioning Associations Sport Specific Conference. Instead of a presentation that just gave coaches a bunch of speed drills, I looked at the path I have gone trough as a coach and how I view the importance and application of sprint technique to team sports. We have a number of different camps today although these are stereotypes we all have seen them (and I've been in all of them at one point)
1 - Pure Strength Coach - "technique doesn't matter wothout strength"
2 - Classic Track Coach - perfecting technique is essential.
3 - Sports Performance coach - do it. "the athlete will figure it out if you work them hard in the drills"
As I have grown through the years I can see there is some degree of truth in all of these. The key is what you take from each, and how you apply it. We'll get much more indepth in this in the February webinar, but lets focus on one question for now.

DOES SPRINT TECHNIQUE MATTER IN TEAM SPORTS?
Of Course It Does! If we want to really break it down, there is no coach out there who is going to same that an athlete take 15 steps to cover 10yds, who is up on a planter flexed ankle or on their heels, with a frontal plane arm action, is using the optimum technique. Now thats an extreme example, but haven't we all seen that athlete?

A better question would be, "Can We DO Anything About It?"

Can we change technique?
Of Course!In the video below we have a visually subtle difference, but one that makes a world of difference. This athlete is preparing for the NFL Combine and Draft. This was part of a Max velocity mechanics coaching session.

In the second part you can see the blocking angle of the leg in front is slightly higher and the angle between the lead and trail leg is also slightly greater. Whether this is good or bad is irrelevant for this discussion. Its changed. And it changed because of different cueing and focus by the athlete.

There are some that argue about whether technique changes matter or whether its just about ground reaction forces. Silly question because how do you seperate the two? This particular treadmill is self propelled and it measures both the vertical and horizontal forces produced.

So now we can quickly answer the question; did changing the technique change the forces into the ground?
YES!
This athletes forces changed a little vertically, but a lot horizontally. This in turn led to greater power output and higher top speed.

So YES, we can change technique and alter ground reaction forces, the the question becomes "Can We Make the Change Last?"

Technique problem?

Today we did initial evaluations for 6 new athletes in our NFL Draft prep program. Part of this process is the video analysis of their sprinting technique, which is coupled with the battery of screening and physiological tests.

In one case, Ihave a realtively powerful athlete, but his 10 yd split is slower than expected. As I look at the video analysis I can see he is not getting enough flexion in the hip to drive his thigh so that its atleast 90 degrees from the torso. Is this a technique problem? Maybe he has developed a very short choppy stride and thats his movement pattern.

Maybe, but on further review, I find his hip flexors are very tight along with his hamstrings. By getting hip extension when pushing back, he has tilted the pelvis forward because of the tight hip flexors. That with the lack of range in his hamstrings, along with only OK core stability, put us in a situation of an athlete who is not getting the stride length he should.

Having seen this many times before, I have prescribed so specific hip mobility and core stability drills. In this athletes case, this alone may improve his speed. Its a case where changing some of the physiological parameters, will impact the technique.

Developing Your Coaching Eye

One of the biggest challenges I see new coaches have is seeing whats in front of them. I mean literally. Watching and athlete move in real time and analyzing their technique is a highly refined skill. Its your coaching eye.

Over time, I have looked back on that process for myself and recognized how long it took. I want to speed it up. I want my coaches to be able to do it now! So I thought long and hard about what the keys were and how we could accelerate the process.

First, I watched lots of movement. I was a strength coach before a speed coach. I first learned to watch slower motions like squats, deadlifts, etc… Then I learned how to watch the Olympic lifts. They are faster. Then I could watch acceleration, before maximum velocity. So the first lesson is progressive development from slow to fast movements.

Next, like most things, I found mentors who were better than me and learned from them. I stood in the gym and on the track and watched the same movements them, and tried to see what they saw. Often times, I was entirely lost as they picked out technique details, and I saw nothing near the level of detail. They gave me feedback and pointed me in the right direction. The next lesson is to compare yourself with a more trained eye who can guide you.

I have studied the movements using video (yes it includes many vcr tapes and dare I admit a little film). A big part of this is studying expert movement. Skilled performers. Watching them again and again. Getting my hands on everything I could. I distinctly remember when I first got access to a vcr with slow motion and a thumb wheel control. It was heaven! The lesson is that you have to watch and study the movement over and over. You need to have a proper technical model in your head if you are going to compare what you see.

An easy to overlook element is that I have watched thousands upon thousands of movements. Not “looked at” or “saw”, but watched. Its an active process. You can go to the track meet and see the race, or you can watch the movement of an athlete. In the weight room, or out on the track and field, I watch movements. This may be the most important lesson of all, WATCH ACTIVELY.

In coming posts I’ll talk more about each of these steps, but if you want to be a great movement coach, ask yourself; “which are you doing?”