Speed and Speed Qualities.docx

S&C: Speed and Speed Qualities. ***1.1 Speed Qualities*** - People can be fast in multiple different ways. Some are great with linear speed and others are great with more change of direction and agility speed. - We refer to running data as speed instead of velocity cause it is mea...

S&C: Speed and Speed Qualities. ***1.1 Speed Qualities*** - People can be fast in multiple different ways. Some are great with linear speed and others are great with more change of direction and agility speed. - We refer to running data as speed instead of velocity cause it is measured in km/h - Speed is the distance travelled per unit of time. - Acceleration is the rate of change in speed. It can be positive or negative, but negative is referred to as deceleration. - Interestingly, top 100 m sprinters take a long time to reach their top speed, not hitting their peak of more than 11 m/s until 50-60 metres into the race. Basketball athletes only have a 27 m court so must hit their top speed much quicker but not have to hold it as long. - Acceleration and speed are different things. Acceleration speed IS NOT a thing. - Acceleration is key in sports that rely on running and underpins other things such as COD, response to stimuli and getting to max speed quickly. - For an S&C coach, to train acceleration we need to train muscle elasticity, rate of force development and efficient biomechanics tailored to the athlete. - Speed endurance is the ability to maintain speed. Trained sprinters don't lose top speed once they reach it. - Repeated sprint ability (RSA) involves the capacity to reach and maintain max speed over multiple reps. - COD involves an athlete decelerating, changing their centre of mass and re-accelerating. - COD is different to acceleration and speed cause it involves eccentric strength to decelerate and the ability to control your core. - COD is part fitness (strength and power) and part motor control (technique) - Agility is a sub quality of COD. Involving COD in response to a stimulus. Whilst COD tends to be planned, true agility is in response to an unplanned stimulus. - someone with excellent agility probably not only has excellent change of direction but also excellent ability to read an opponent's body language and process it quickly into movement. Therefore: - While change of direction is a key component of agility, it is a physical ability that lacks much mental component (i.e., game sense). - Responding to flashing light may be strictly speaking "agility" because it is unplanned, it is still not agility in terms of anything that relates to sport, and instead represents general reaction time training. - The only way to train agility in a sport specific way is to add an opponent, a ball, or another relevant external stimulus combined with a sport specific skill. If this is what we need to have a real agility drill, we might as well just leave that to the sport coach to coach on the field. - There is no problem with the S&C coach training change of direction because change of direction is certainly a component of agility, but please stop using the term "agility training". ***4.1: Considerations for Speed*** 1. Primary: Technique. Normally left to track and field coaches. Sustained straight line sprinting is rare in sports. 2. Secondary: neuromuscular. There\'s 2 primary components to running fast: - Stride rate ("foot speed"), the primary component of ***acceleration*** - Stride length, the primary component of ***speed*** - When it comes to speed, max force or max power isn\'t the objective, simply how much force can you generate in the 200 milliseconds that your foot is on the ground.   - Rate of Force Development - The rapid expression of force depicted is what underpins agility and the ability to accelerate, decelerate and change direction. The idea behind all of these is to maximise \'impulse\', generating as much force as possible in as little time as possible - Whilst weightlifters may generate more overall force, sprints will generate a higher force in the beginning due to their ability to generate more force in a shorter burst.   1. Tertiary: Muscular. - Area that most S&C coaches spend their time. - Refers to strength and power. - Gym strength and power help to form the foundation for many sport specific skills. - In an athlete program you focus on building general strength, max strength and power   ***4.2: Training Concepts for Speed Qualities*** Acceleration and Speed - Acceleration and speed requirements differ between sports. - As an S&C coach, maximal straight line speed will likely be trained through maximal strength and power training, or plyometrics. Although a more specific training method for acceleration may be the use of under-speed training (hills or sled towing), which tends to increase forward lean and emphasise the lower limb extensor mechanism, increasing horizontal velocity. - We have already addressed that T&F sprinters both take longer to accelerate to max speed and also maintain that speed for longer than, say a basketball player. As mentioned earlier in this topic, straight line sprinting is dependent primarily on running technique, stride rate and stride length.   Deceleration and Agility - In sports, acceleration needs to be multi directional and needs to occur quickly. - We need rapid force expression - Deceleration needs quick transition being movements in the opposing direction to the athlete\'s velocity. - Training drills focusing on working through the balls of your feet is helpful for agility. Only going for 15 seconds, 30 seconds is too long. - Interestingly, concentric strength and power does not translate well to agility. The strongest correlations with agility are eccentric control, stretch-shortening cycle and rate of force development. Incorporate these components are therefore essential in many S&C programs.   Core - Core control is crucial for being able to stabilise the body and control motion whilst being subject to high forces. - Our core is the anchor that allows us to move and distribute force where needed.   Speed Endurance (metabolic) Speed Endurance vs Repeated Sprint Ability - Many field sports employ applications of speed through intermittent high-intensity (supramaximal) efforts, interspersed with periods of submaximal activity. This requires different training approaches and is underpinned by different bioenergetics than other applications of speed.  - Traditional maximal sprinting relies heavily on anaerobic glycolysis and the phosphocreatine system, whereas repeated sprints compound phosphocreatine depletion with insufficient repletion (meaning less fuel available) and increase muscle lactate concentrations. Ultimately, anaerobic glycolysis and the phosphocreatine system become increasingly less prominent with repeated high-intensity efforts, and greater reliance is placed on aerobic metabolism. In field sports, athletes need the metabolic power to execute in-game tasks at the required intensity, as well as the capacity and recoverability to do so repetitively. - Repeated sprints, or high-intensity interval training is one way to account for this in training. A simplistic example of this may be 6 x 30 seconds maximal sprints with 3 minutes rest between efforts.