Hey Friends,
If you care about speed development in-season, you will want to continue reading below.
Early in my career, I never imagined training speed in-season.
I thought the demands of the season were too great to get any benefit out of speed work.
A majority of our in-season training was spent lifting, thinking that would be enough to improve or at least maintain speed.
I WAS DEAD WRONG
To improve speed, you must train speed.
Even in-season.
The speed stimulus only lasts for 2-8 days.
And I learned the hard way that practice isn't enough to improve speed.
We all know that speed development is critical to onfield success, but why should we train it?
Here are the 3 reasons I train speed in-season with all my athletes (and why you should too):
1) HIGH CNS (Central Nervous System) IMPACT
Sprinting has extremely high motor unit recruitment, having an enormous impact on the firing rate of the central nervous system.
2) STIMULUS LIKE NO OTHER
When we sprint at top speeds, we are putting anywhere from 2-5x our bodyweight of force per step. This can not be mimicked by anything we do in the weight room.
3) REDUCE INCIDENCE OF INJURY
Sprinting at max effort exposes the body to full speed, which the body will have to be prepared to do during competition. If we don't train at max effort, when we are forced to do it in the game, we are at a higher risk for injury.
Speed work needs to be at the foundation of all your in-season speed programs.
Without it, you will lose speed when it matters the most.
Train speed and train it often
P.S. I have 2 openings in my remote training program to help athletes build elite speed both in-season and out-of-season.
If you want to join the program, reply "SPEED" and I'll send you info to get started ASAP.
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