When it comes to being a top-tier athlete, the ability to be fast and explosive is imperative if you want the leg-up on your opponents. That explosiveness is built in the weight room.
In this post, I'll be listing out five exercises you need to be doing if you want to be as fast as possible.
Power Clean
When we talk about speed in a team-sport setting, we're not necessarily going to be focusing too much on an athlete's top speed.
Of course this is very much athlete-dependent, but in most cases the biggest factor in an athlete's speed on the field is their ability accelerate rapidly and decelerate and change direction under control.
In comes the power clean! I'm a huge fan of Olympic lifts for athletes. While learning oly-lifts are a skill and take time, the investment will have a massive payoff for athletes of any sport.
A lot of people will say that exercises like loaded squat jumps or trap bar jumps can achieve the same results as the clean and snatch.
While both are similar in their ability to improve an athlete's rate of force development, the clean and snatch set themselves apart in the demand they place on an athlete's ability to decelerate the load under control.
Being able to decelerate a heavy clean or snatch after the catch, will improve and athlete's ability to keep their trunk controlled under dynamic circumstances, just like they would decelerating and changing direction on the field.
Front Squat
Again we're looking at an athlete's ability accelerate as quickly as possible. To make this happen, we're going to be very reliant on the strength of the quadriceps.
Aside from the large amounts of quad strength that front squats build, they'll also transfer over to sprinting for two other reasons.
The first being training control of the core musculature during intense movements due to the need to keep an upright torso during the movement. If my torso collapses forward, the bar will roll off my shoulders.
A strong, controlled core under dynamic circumstances will massively improve deceleration and cutting abilities.
The need for an upright torso leads into the second reason front squats transfer so well to sprinting.
Unlike the acceleration phase of sprinting, where an athlete's torso will be leaned forward, once top speed is reached, an upright torso must be attained for maximum speed.
So, front squats will also improve top-speed mechanics.
Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat
Unilateral training is going to be extremely valuable for sprinters, or athletes who are sprinting in their sport, which is….most athletes, because sprinting itself is unilateral!
So what the RFE Split Squat will do is teach the body to maintain control of the trunk while working to coordinate through the quads, glutes and hamstrings.
Oftentimes, an athlete can be stronger on one side of their body than the other, but it isn’t noticeable if you’re only training with bilateral movements.
But, when you train in a unilateral fashion, these imbalances make themselves very clear, and give you an opportunity to even yourself out.
Sled Sprints
If we’re honing in on our ability to accelerate quickly and create as much force as possible in our first steps of a sprint, one way we can improve that area is to add resistance to our acceleration mechanics!
That’s where sled sprints come into play because what we’re doing is improving the amount of force we can transfer to the ground with each step during our acceleration.
The sled sprint will teach an athlete to drive off the balls of their feet and push the earth behind them.
This is a cue we like to use with our athletes during speed work, to imagine during their acceleration that they’re pushing the earth behind them in their drive forward, and using resistance during this phase will help emphasize that.
Alternating Bounds
Plyometrics are an extremely valuable training asset for athletes, especially those that focus on a fast stretch-shortening cycle.
What alternating bounds will improve is the ability drive maximum force into the ground as fast and as strong as possible, which is exactly what correlates to an explosive acceleration.
One drill you can do is to plot out a certain distance, lets say 30 meters or so.
Then you’ll perform your alternating bounds for that distance. Keep note of how many strides it took you to reach that distance, and work to decrease that number over time.
As you’re decreasing the amount of strides you’re taking, you know you’re improving your ability transfer more force into the ground each time your foot hits the ground.
If you incorporate these five exercises into your training program, you will see huge improvements in your ability to accelerate explosively, decelerate and change direction on a dime, as well as improve your form when at top-end speeds.
Want more information? Check our our full-length video on this subject!
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