Game plan and Adjustments

One of the things my athletes experience every year is the adjustment to my programming and coaching in the weightroom. We have 23 athletes preparing for the draft, and not one of them has the same strength program. There are many elements that may be the same on a given day, but we fit a program to each athlete, not the make the athlete fit into our program.

That means for an explosive exercise to develop Rate of Force Development we may have some guys doing hang power cleans, others using the Vertimax, and still others doing heavy medball throws or plyos.

This alone throws off many of the guys. They are probably used to coming into a weightroom with a “weight program”. The same exercises, #of sets, # of reps, what weight or percentage, etc… When guys don’t see this they can become a little unsure about whats going on. “Are these guys organized, do they know what they are doing?” goes through some minds.

We then throw them another curveball by not using a set number of sets or exact weights. BLASPHEMY! How can a good strength program not have an exact periodized program with a specific volume and intensity? As we explain to our players, IT’S CALLED COACHING.

A simple, consistent, and very organized program is important when in a setting like college where you have a lot of athletes, limited staff, and different priorities. We have the luxury to do it more individually in this setting.

To help them understand, we relate it back to their sport. You always go into a football game with a gameplan right? Yes. Do the coaches make adjustments based on what they see happening? Yes. They are coaching during the game. SO ARE WE. When we get in there for a strength & power session it’s our game time. Blindly following some plan written out days, weeks or months ago, without adjusting to the athlete, is ridiculous.



We have a plan. We go into the session with a focus, specific goals, and a planned means to achieve it. However, we individualize and adjust according to the state of the athlete. No matter how hard we plan, we can not control the athletes state. Did they eat right, sleep well? Did they stretch and foam roll as advised at home? Was it hotter outside today and the position coach did extra reps? Did they get a call from home and have a family issue? The list goes on and on. We try to manage what we can and help them overcome, but we can’t always control or predict.

If you were to look at my plan it might have 4-6 sets and an 85% intensity listed for an exercise. This is a target range. It means I want about an 85% OF THEIR CURRENT CAPABILITY TODAY intensity. Knowing what they can do helps, but on any given day that 85% is a different number. If everything is on, we strike when the iron is hot and don’t stop at a weight because a chart says that it’s 85%. Conversely, if the weights are heavy that day, we might achieve an 85% effort with less.

The number of sets can work the same way. By having a range, there is a volume I would like to achieve, but I have room to adjust. If that bar is still moving with good speed and technical proficiency, or the athlete is maintaining a low ground contact time and high height with each jump, I might keep doing sets. His results are telling me his system is ready to keep training.



This was the case the other day when USC linebacker Clay Matthews was smoking through his hang power clean reps. We worked up to the right weight, but he wasn’t dropping off set to set. . West Virginia quarterback Pat White was using heavy Vertimax jumps as his explosive that day. After each jump and a 2:00 rest, he did 2 jumps on the Vertec. Through his early sets his Vertec jump kept increasing, up to a 3 inch PR. While it maintained, he kept doing his loading sets on the Vertimax. When it dropped about 5%, we stopped. Both of these athletes did higher than the planned number of sets since the next day was a recovery day

This takes good communication with your athletes, and coaching tools to measure that intensity. Good communication means athletes have to understand how they feel. Most team sport athletes don’t. Football players have probably been conditioned to ignore how their body is feeling. So we have to teach them by asking, making them answer with a number scale, and then re-asking as they continue to work. That re-asking is important because what at first they thought was an 8 ½ ends up a 7 after the 3rd set.

Your coaching eye is the first and most important tool. Watching quality of movement and speed of movement are critical. For Olympic lifts, speed work, and plyos, your ears are just as critical since they give you important feedback about ground contact times and impulse.



The external tools can be basic or high tech. Using the vertec for jump height tells me about both the neuro and contractile systems fatigue. I also may use contact mats, accelerometers, tether-devices for bar speed, and video. Each has its place.

The bottom line is we don’t go into a workout with a sheet of exercises and numbers and follow it blindly. We have our game plan, but when its time we coach!

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?"

Acceleration bounds

I have always been a big fan of acceleration bounds. In this drill we get to help the athlete focus on developing a big force, emphasize driving in the proper direction, and can help reinforce the development of an optimal range of motion.



We did this today with our athletes getting ready for the NFL combine. This athlete is a defensive back and is very fast on his maximum velocity. However, since he is also so quick he often takes a lot of fast steps with no force production in his first 10. This drill is particulary good for him because it helps him reinforce an emphasis on power production instead of just fast. In this case he is doing a bound for a few strides and transitions into a sprint.



He actually does this drill in contrast with a 3pt stance start where he tries to carryover the longer stride and greater force production. Using it in contrast really helps to reinforce the focus into the applied motion.

Doing this helped him instantly drop his 10yd time by 0.11 seconds. He changed the entire rythmn of his first 10. Not only is this time better, its setting up a better progression through the entire 40. Now we just have to continue to train and reinforce so he does it at the NFL Combine when the pressure is on.

Ground Reaction Forces

Ground Reaction Forces are a key component to consider in improving an athletes speed. Today in the track world there are some big arguements in this realm. They can become oversimplified and end as technique training vs. force training. Using the Woodway FORCE treadmill, we actually get to see whats happening in terms of ground reaction forces.

One of the things that surprised me as we started research with this several years ago, was that the horizontal forces are more sensitive to differences than the verical. Coming from the strength side of coaching and having been a weightlifting coach, I had an early bias (and still do at times) towards the "force" side of things. "Build more of the right strength qualitites to improve impulse and they will run faster" My thinking and understanding have evolved dramatically over the last 16 years, but there is still a lot of truth in this.

This ia typical horizontal GRF graph during an unloaded sprint on the FORCE treadmill. It Shows some variability as expected from prior reserach, but no consistent pattern. The athlete is not displaying a significant difference between the left and right legs.
An interesting note is that this athlete had an injury to the knee about a year ago. They rehabbed and played the season. On intake, they reported no pain or problems in this knee. As they were doing the test. this one was bad enough that we could here it before we could see it. However we find this differences even when they are visible or audible.

However, what we often see is below. It doesn't take a Master's degree in biomechanics or motor control to understand there is a problem here. We have an athlete that is generating a fraction of the force on one leg versus the other. This athlete was getting ready for the NFL COmbine where 40yd dash is critical to his draft position and making money. Obviously this can't be optimal. This also has to lead to some seriously unbalanced force through the kinetic chain and may lead to problems in the hips or lumbar spine.



The real key step to any assessment however is how do you use the information to help the athlete. Research is great to help us learn and grow, but for each athlete the questions is "What Now?"

Some we do a number of things. First we will use this data with data from functional movement assessments, joint rom and testing, other performance tests. Then we address the specific strength, stability and range of motion issues on this leg. We will also probably do some additional work on this leg with drills like fast leg, gallops and bounds when appropriate.