I was training clients this past week and it occurred to me that it might be beneficial for you to understand this whole speed training process. What does it take for us to create the best speed program for each individual? Improving your speed isn’t as simple as having a pitbull chase you down the street. You will probably get faster, but I’ve realized that isn’t the safest method for my clients.

Here’s how it works

If you are on my newsletter list, then every so often you see me mention about signing up for your individual assessment. What are we assessing? This is actually a very important piece of our program. It shows us what an athlete can and cannot do. Not only do we take certain measurables, but we are also looking at running mechanics and how your body is moving.

We are now implementing video not only to help us out, but also to show you what we see. That way we can break it down for you so it is crystal clear what we want to work on.

During the assessment, we are also discussing what your goals are. I never want to assume what I think they might be, so you express those goals to us. Why do you want to improve your speed? Is jumping ability necessary for your sport? What type of explosion are you looking for – horizontal or vertical?

Combining both parts of the assessment, we can then figure out how we will best be able to help you accomplish your goals. Then, we can start planning your speed program.

Mechanics are super important to a speed program. I don’t care how perfect your form is, you are always going to do form drills during your speed program. It is all about repetition. The more you can do these, the better your muscle memory will be of proper form. Soon, it will become second nature.

Next, we try to develop your power. This can be done by a wide-range of drills. Plyometrics are good. These are basically jumping drills. Jumping is a sign of leg power. If you see someone with a high vertical and a long broad jump, chances are they are a fast athlete.

Then we might use resistance and assistance running. These can be pretty physically demanding drills so we always start off with low level exercises and as you become stronger, slowly implement the tougher more demanding drills.

A quick first step is beneficial in just about every sport. The faster your first step is, generally, the faster you will be able to perform your athletic movement. So, we make sure we get some acceleration drills in. Working on your explosiveness with these short drills will definitely get that first step faster.

We then try to mix in some agility, foot quickness drills. After all the work on the mechanics and power, let’s see if it can be put together with some ladder or cone drills. Or we test their quickness by standing 5 feet away from them and throwing a dodgeball at them as hard as we can. How will they react? I’m just kidding. Just seeing if you’re still reading the post.

We want to see everything in real time and take note of what we need to continue to work on. Maybe they completely forget their running mechanics when we unleash them. If that’s the case, we know they aren’t ready for the next phase and we need to continue to work on simple things.

Finally, we put in age-appropriate strengthening drills and corrective exercises we feel are necessary based on what we saw during the assessment. If flexibility is a concern, it is addressed here as well.

This is the general structure, but the final item we consider is the athlete’s age. We might have this general philosophy for all the athletes, but what I do for plyometrics for a younger athlete, might be different for an older athlete. That will affect the athlete’s progression and what we can do to improve certain areas of speed.

But, that’s the gist of it. We keep meticulous notes of each athlete. This way we can see how they responded to the last workout and what we need to do for the coming workout. Following this formula will usually produce great results for an athlete such as yourself. If all this fails though, I do have the pitbull chained up in the back.