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Being faster or more powerful than an opponent can be the difference between getting open on 3rd and long in football or being able to break away from the last defender and score in injury time in soccer.  The need for speed is crucial in many sports and is often the difference between winning and losing.  Training these components is not always understood by coaches and this is often reflected in the training.

Loren Seagrave founder of Velocity Sports Performance has talked about the difference between intensity and quality.  “That was a quality workout” I am sure many of us have either heard or used those terms when walking off the practice field.  However the words quality and intensity are often used interchangeably when in fact they have very different meanings.  Quality is a percentage measure of 100% where intensity is a measure of effort.  In more simple terms you can train hard but if it is not quality training it may be making you fitter not faster.

When training for speed the body responds differently to different training techniques and it is essential that the individual components, power, running mechanics and flexibility are targeted by the coach. 

When people hear the word conditioning they usually associate it with running around the field.  This can be very misleading as the type of conditioning needed should be very specific to the sport.  Sports like football are very explosive and the typical length of a play is less than 10 seconds.  The goal of conditioning is to prepare athletes to be as explosive in overtime as at the start of the game.  Usually sprints or explosive lifts can be performed in multiple sets with each individual repetition slightly longer in duration than would be executed in a game.  An example of this would be performing 60-100 yard sprints with a controlled rest period or performing high repetition explosive lifts with little rest between sets.  Sports like soccer and basketball where there are less stoppages between plays should have less rest period between drills as it imitates the sport more closely.  It is the job of the coach to understand the type of conditioning that will be most specific and give the greatest enhancements in performance.

Speed training and conditioning are equally important for improved performance.  Coaches need to design their training program with a belief that they can make every one of their athletes faster and more powerful.   If an athlete becomes faster when he is not fatigued then if the same amount of conditioning is done they will be faster when fatigued.  The same principle applies to strength training.  You cannot expect an athlete to squat his heaviest after performing numerous 300 yard shuttles.  To become more powerful an athlete must be able to lift more weight faster and cannot do this when tired.

In conclusion a Strength and Conditioning coach needs to take a broad and scientific approach when trying to develop an athlete.  The days of just putting an athlete through an intense workout are numbered.  If an athlete is to become as fast and as powerful as possible then that individual’s needs must be identified before a specific program can be developed and an increase in the quality of the workout is realized.

Velocity Sports Performance is proud to be the Official Performance Training Provider for the athletes of Gatorade® REPLAY™. In 2009, Gatorade arranged a rematch between archrivals Easton Area High School and Phillipsburg High School 15 years after a game that ended in a 7-7 tie. Velocity trained the 34 year old athletes before they replayed the biggest game of their lives. The results were remarkable, and we’re not just talking about the score….