So, You Want to Get Faster? Part Two – The Need for SPEED

In this second article, in a series on getting faster for flag football, I am going to break down the most important component of your program – Sprint training.

As I hopefully made clear in the first article, neither jogging or simply practicing / scrimmaging will cut it if your goal is to become a speed demon. To develop the skill of sprinting, speed and increased agility, separate sprinting sessions are required.

So what are you supposed to do? How to get started? Here is a basic template that you could follow that would get you off to a good start.

What You Need for Speed:

1. Increase core temperature – 20-30 minutes

Notice I said core temperature. I mean the internal temperature deep within your body, not just a little surface heat.

The whole “jog a lap or two and then stretch” protocol is old school and insufficient to adequately prepare the muscles, tendons, ligaments and nervous system for the high velocity movements that are about to take place. “Cook the bird to the bone” was my mentors motto, and it is mine as well.

The warm-up should progress like it is being done to the flow of “Stairway to Heaven” – slow to fast, small ranges of motion to full sprinting only at the end of a full 20-30 minute warm-up.  It bears repeating – stretching is not warming up! It might be a small component of a warm-up, but often times if you really get a good internal heat going, that will do more for flexibility than sitting on your *** reaching for your toes for 15 minutes. Typically, dynamic (movement based, as opposed to “sit and hold for 30 seconds”) type flexibility work is preferred prior to training. Save the static, sit and hold stuff for post-workout.

Follow these warm-up guidelines and avoid many unnecessary strains and pains, and have higher quality sprint sessions.

2. Sprint!

I want to be clear about something at this point – sprinting is a high-risk / high-reward training activity. There are no other movements that you will do in your training that will have higher velocity muscular contractions. Because of the high risk, you should either be under the eye of a professional who knows what pace to go at, or you should start conservatively. Because this is an article that is for the masses rather than one individual, I will try to give my best recommendations that will be safe for the most people.

Tenet 1: Short before Long

Generally speaking, sprinting 10 yards is less dangerous than sprinting 100 yards. If you aren’t well conditioned to sprint training, always start with shorter distances and slowly progress to longer distances over weeks and months.

Tenet 2: Incline before Flat

Similar to the above, sprinting up an incline tends to be safer than sprinting on flag ground. I tend to prefer only slight inclines of 10-20 degrees, to help teach the pushing action of the legs and proper arm drive. Steeper hills tend to mess up sprint mechanics too much and have athletes hunch over like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons – not good!

Tenet 3: Full recoveries

Maximal speed is difficult to develop unless you are sprinting at near max velocity (as measured against your best time.) However, it is impossible to be sprinting at max velocities if you aren’t fresh.

A good rule of thumb is one minute rest for every 10m sprint. Remember, this isn’t conditioning – that is later or in a separate session. This session is to train your body to express maximal force in the shortest amount of time, so make sure you have all your energy reserves ready for such an effort!

Wrapping Up

Speed is the most prized quality in any athlete, and this type of sprint work is how it is developed (with diligent work over time.) When all is said and done, a session should last about an hour or slightly longer. Quality of work is what we are aiming for, so don’t think you have to leave the training session dog tired and panting. Aim for 2-3 days of sprinting with some lateral agility work included and you will be well on your way.

In the next installment, we will get into how to turn yourself into a human pogo stick with jump training and plyometrics!

See you on the field!

Shane Dowd, source: www.FlagFit.com