Coach ,

Creating Apex Predators - The Pursuit of Speed and Power

I don’t think I have ever headed into an off-season without thinking about how to make my team faster. Yes, I wanted stronger and bigger, but speed on the field is the game changer when it comes to winning football games.

I had Tony Holler on the Coach and Coordinator Podcast to talk about setting up off-season training to create “Apex Predators.” We talked about these ideas in regard to the pursuit of speed and power for your athletes.

Here are the main tips he shared:

1. Treat all of your players as athletes. This means the big guys as well. He explained that the top 10 offensive tackles in the NFL average 6’5” and 309 and run a laser-timed 4.9-second 40-yard dash. Speed is important in every position!
2. Train speed before you have them lift.  It fires up the nervous system and produces better results in the weight room. More importantly, to get fast you have to train fast, so sprinting after lifting doesn’t allow that.
3. The work-to-recovery ratio is critical. Coach Hollers explained how in the workout they did that afternoon, a 55-minute session with 50 athletes, each athlete had about 90 seconds of work total. That seems counterintuitive, but in order to increase speed, the body needs to recover between sprints.
4. Record, Rank, and Publish. Measuring what matters is the key to understanding the results and where your team is headed. It allows you to ask the right questions about the training you are putting your team through.
5. If you have to “crush them” do it at the end of the week so they have the weekend to recover and so that speed development is not negatively impacted.

Coach Hollers explains that while this may seem the opposite of what typically is done in the offseason, where coaches seek fatigue as a measure of how hard the team worked, the results of doing it differently will show up in the measurables.

He recommended that every coach who is interested in creating a faster team start by attending the Track Football Consortium which begins tomorrow.   

You will want at least one of your coaches to attend this consortium of 9 speed experts who have presentations designed for football coaches.

Warning!!

Many of these concepts will Challenge Everything you know about Speed Training. These will all be recorded and available until Dec 31

Here is the lineup of Speed Experts and Topics:

Clint Martin, Human Performance, University of Texas

The Autonomy Fallacy: Putting together the Training Puzzle

Danny Schaechter Varsity Offensive Coordinator & QB Coach, Libertyville HS (IL)

Applying Feed the Cats to Quarterbacks

JT Ayers, Head Track Coach, Trabuco Hills H.S. (CA)

A Culture of Chasing, Racing, and Winning

Chris Korfist, Sprint Coach, Homewood-Flossmoor H.S. (IL) “Slow Guy Speed School”

Topic 1: Slice, Don’t Stomp: New Max Velocity Drills for Faster Fly Times

Topic 2: Harnessing the Energy of Tendons to Sprint Faster

Les Spellman Spellman Performance

Topic 1: How To Build A Speed Training System

Topic 2: Building A Competitive Speed Community

Steve Jones Keynote Speaker

Growing Greatness

Brendan Thompson, St. Louis, MO, Exceleration LLC

Sprint Profiling: Timing To Inform Training

Tony Holler, Head Track Coach, Plainfield H.S. (IL) “Feed the Cats”

Topic 1: Feeding a Track Team: Programming, Organization, and Creating a Feed the Cats Culture

Topic 2: “Let the Sport Train the Sport” (Building Apex Predators)

Brian Kula Former Track Coach, Kula Sports Performance

The Foundation: Speed Priority Programming

Click Here to Register for FOOTBALL TRACK CONSORTIUM.

One thing about this offseason is undeniable. You can’t go wrong in making your team faster and more explosive. Do not let the opportunity pass!

Always be growing,

Coach Grabowski