I feel that the speed training program I developed is a good one that will definitely get you faster and improve your agility and explosiveness.  But like a lot of good programs, there was much trial and error into developing our proven speed system.  Meaning, I put together what I thought was a good routine, tried it out, found there were some errors, and tried to correct those errors next time.

One of the ways we update our program is through our athlete’s injuries.  Obviously, when we train with athletes, we try to put them in the safest environment possible.  We don’t purposely try to do drills that are high risk with little reward.  Each drill we pick is age appropriate and if done properly (which it is our job to instruct the athlete), should produce a result that is beneficial with little chance of injury.

Unfortunately in athletics, injuries do occur.  Athletes don’t just get injured in the games, but in practice as well.  Just look down an NFL roster of its injured players.  I would say more than half of these players got injured in practice.  Coaches don’t want them to get injured, but sometimes things just happen.  It stinks when you have to say someone twisted their ankle in practice and won’t be able to play in their game, but that injury could have just as easily happened in a game.

Either way, an injury is an injury.  Try as we might to prevent them, some of our athletes have gotten injured during our training.  I always feel awful when it happens, but I do learn from those injuries.  So, what I’m going to do is go through a list of some of the injuries that have occurred at our facility.  I’m not going to reveal the athlete’s name because that really isn’t important.  Some you might find humorous because these weren’t career ending injuries.  The point of this though will be to discuss the situation and what was learned from it.

One of our drills to help you get faster is resistance running.  I’ve had several posts about resistance running, in fact click here to read the recent speed research I read about resistance running.  Anyways, one drill you have a weight belt around an athlete with a towel around the belt for the trainer to grip on.  The athlete runs, you are holding onto the towel running with the athlete for resistance, then you let go.  The athlete uses that extra burst for acceleration to sprint out ten more yards.

One of my assistants with working with an athlete doing the resistance drill and explaining what was happening.  I was spotting one of my athletes standing in front of the athlete and a portion of the track was blocked from my view due to the athlete standing in front of me.  The other athlete took off running with my assistant in tow.  He disappeared from my view and at that time my assistant must have let go, because I saw him reappear falling like a sack of potatoes flat on the ground.

Lesson learned here is that we really prep the athlete for that let go, so they can keep their balance better.  Maybe for the very first one, we don’t let go as abruptly until they get used to the drill.

Sprint cords are another form of resistance and assistance running.  For assistance running, I attach one end of the sprint cord to me and the other end to the athlete.  I walk ahead of the athlete, stretch the cord out, then have the athlete take off.  The cord pulls the athlete down the track forcing the athlete to run faster than he or she is used to.  It can also pull some athletes too fast.

One athlete I used this with was pulled too fast and fell down, rolling down the track toward me.  She wasn’t hurt, but from now on, I only do this drill with older athletes.  I also gauge my athletes better and will start off pulling them not as fast until they get used to the drill.  I haven’t had problems since and it is a great drill to develop that top-end speed.

Those sprint cords though can only be stretched out so much.  You do not want to stretch them out to the maximum distance where there isn’t any more give.  I have had 2 cords snap with 2 different assistants.  Both times, the cords have snapped back at my assistants so fast they didn’t have time to react and got welts all over their body.  Somebody told me it looked like a cobra attacking prey.  So we learn to stretch the cords to a good distance, but not all the way out.

Box jumps are a big part of our program.  You have the athlete jump to a certain height and land on the box.  We usually do a good job pushing the athletes and knowing when to increase the height, but we have had people fall.  One of our athletes fell this past weekend.  It hurts for a second, but he bounced right back and kept going.

I’ve fallen.  I was doing one legged jumps and my foot caught the step and I toppled over.  No one saw me, luckily, but it re-focuses you.  We just try to keep our clients focused on what they are doing each time and progress up accordingly.

Finally, we’ve also had the dreaded twisted ankles at our facility.  These are tough to prevent.  I had one guy sprain his ankle during warm-ups on power skips.  I had another athlete sprain her ankle doing one legged hops and landed perfectly on a step hurdle where it didn’t give and her ankle gave out.  You just have to remind the athlete about any dangers for a particular drill, so they can concentrate on what they’re doing and 99% of the time there are no problems.  You also have to match the right drill with the experience of the athlete.   I’m not going to give a younger or beginning athlete an advanced drill I would give a senior in high school.  Not going to happen.

Our speed program continues to evolve.  If injuries occur, it sucks, but I learn from it and if there is something that could have been done differently we will apply it.  The whole purpose of our training is to get faster, but also prepare your body so it can handle the rigors of your sport and eliminate the chances of you getting injured at all.  If we can keep you healthy, then we have done part of our job.  Now it is time for you to do the rest.