“I have 2 boys one is 10 and likes football.Iwant to increase his speed when he runs.  The otherboy is 12 and likes baseball.  I would like to increase his bat speed.Can I do that with the purchase of 1 product.  Also does it explain how long and how many days a week you should train kids at this age.”

The baseball program SWING FASTER will assist both of your sons with their speed. The program contains 20 exercises to increase speed in running, swinging a bat and throwing a baseball. Each program has a detailed schedule located in the Appendix of the training manual.

The exercises are based on isometric resistance, and the amount of exertion involved is relative to a person’s own strength.  We know that many children effectively do the speed and quickness training exercises; although, we normally advise that children younger than 8 years old and adults that are 60 or more years old should consult with their personal physician before beginning any physical exercise or training programs. There are too many potential health problems (e.g., softening of the bones, high blood pressure, et al) that can only be diagnosed and addressed by direct physical examination.

What comes with the program(s)?

All of the training programs we provide INCLUDE an easy-to-understand and well illustrated training manual developed and written by Dr. Larry Van Such, a leading-edge authority about isometric training and how it can be applied to increase speed and quickness.  In addition, we provide the resistance bands that are needed to do the training exercises prescribed in the training manual.

How long do I need to continue doing the training exercises?

Step 4 in the Progress Chart located in the Appendix of the training manual provides instructions for continuing the training exercises to optimize your results:

After you have performed the exercises for at least two weeks it is recommended you continue on with this same schedule for as long as you continue to see improvement and for as long as you plan to stay competitive in in your sport.   After you have been performing these exercises for several months, you may be able to reduce your training down to once a week for each exercise however, you will need to pay close attention as to what effect this has on your athletic performance.

Do your training programs require any special equipment?

No, we provide the resistance bands that are needed to do the training exercises prescribed in the training manual, and no other equipment is needed.  The training exercises can be performed practically any place.

“I purchased the run faster program about 3 years ago in my sophomore season of outdoor track and i am and have been very satisfied with the program. I was just reading some FAQ’s on your web site where the jump higher program was being compared to the run faster program and it stated that the run faster had 10 exercises. Have more exercises been added to the same run faster program i received 3 years ago? The book i received with the bands contained 6 exercises, 3 for straight line speed and two for lateral agility. Please let me know if there have been additions/improvements to the program as i would love to gain even more speed!!”   thank you.

Dear Sirs,

We have made revisions to the RUN FASTER speed training programs back in 2010.  The latest edition is #5. The program now contains 10 exercises to improve running speed. FIVE of the exercises are brand new! The exercises isolate the muscle groups involved in the entire range of motion.

The program also breaks down the running process into three phases: the push phase, the swing phase and the pull phase.  The muscle involved in each phase are identified for you so that you will know exactly where in the body the power to run hard and fast comes from.

You may learn more about the program here:  http://www.athleticquickness.com/

One of the questions that we get asked a lot is if it is okay to incorporate our exercise programs and training methods into other types of training methods such as weight training and plyometric training and cardio training, those would be the three main categories and then if there is perhaps any other training routines and programs that athletes may be involved with, things they have seen on the internet, for example maybe certain basketball shooting drills or dribbling drills, perhaps in football there may be certain defensive skills programs for linebackers and defensive backs as well as those on the offensive side of the ball for receivers and running backs, and different routines that athletes are going to come across throughout their daily and weekly routines.

So to answer that question if you can integrate our programs into these types of routines and the answer is yes. They actually integrate very seamlessly into these other routines for several reasons.

One of them being is simply the amount of time that it takes to complete one of our training programs and which is usually about 20 minutes or less. And this has a lot of value and convenience for the athlete because if you are engaged in a training program or perhaps are practicing on say, a football team, you will most likely be spending upwards of two hours or more developing your conditioning and practicing specific skill relevant to the sport. And finding any extra time to devote to your busy schedule presents a challenge.

And while you may not or even have the time to devote another hour or two to your sport, squeezing in an extra 20 minutes of training, especially knowing that you are going to gain immediate results from it, is a lot more appealing and enticing for an athlete to want to do it than say putting in another 20 minutes of cardio.

The other nice thing about integrating our programs into other training programs or routines is that you do not really need to have any gym equipment to use. We recommend using them only as a means of having a safe place to fasten the resistance bands to but it is not necessary.

In fact, this convenience of being able to do our exercises whenever and wherever you want to is a huge advantage to what I call the next generation of athletes who is always looking for that extra advantage or piece of information that sets him or her apart from their competition.

You know you may be at a friends house and have the urge to workout or perhaps you may be on vacation and have a hard time finding a place or location to workout and with resistance bands in general, not just with our programs, but any resistance band workout that you do, you can take the bands and setup a make shift gym in a hotel room or living room if you had to.

And the exercises are not going to be any less effective by doing them in these types of locations than perhaps in a gym setting because they are all based upon the resistance that you will be pulling and pushing on those bands along with the angles and positions of the exercises. Certainly it may not be in a familiar setting that you might be used to but other than that, the results of doing the exercises would be the same.

It is a huge advantage again to the next generation athlete to take your workouts with you and do them on the fly in these situations here.

The other nice thing about integrating our programs into other programs is that you have to realize that when you are doing weight training, plyometric training and cardio training, those are really strenuous exercises that more often than not you are putting on the whole body or at least the larger muscles of the legs and core and they have incredible value to getting your conditioning up and strength and even speed if you can find a good diet to complement these activities, but they are also very taxing on the body and they require some down time to recover. And you know this because you do not work out the same muscle groups each day with these routines because the muscles get sore and need their rest. You are not going to put in a good squat routine one day and then get back under the rack again the next because you already know in advance how you are going to feel.

Likewise you are probably not going to put yourself through the same plyometric routine every single day, you are going to want to vary which muscles you target.

And so these are very important exercises to do but they are also very taxing on the body.

Now the nice thing about our programs that yes, even though they are strenuous to the body, they are not designed to wipe you out of all of your energy reserves because speed training is a little different. Whenever your muscles are called upon to perform a movement fast, you can really only maintain that burst of speed as in running a 100 meter dash at your highest level for a few seconds before you start to tire.

Another good example of how short of a window an athlete has to execute a specific sports skill quickly would be swinging a golf club, baseball bat or tennis racket. Athletes can get their golf club speed over 100 mph but this occurs over the course of less than a second. Likewise even the best power hitters can only swing the bat 80-90 mph and this still occurs in a split second. So as a result, the training does not always have to focus on exercises that that leave you totally exhausted after having done them either for them to be effective for speed.

And with some of our programs taking a total of 20 minutes to complete, and the reality of this time frame is that half of that is spent resting in between sets. So you are only talking about a solid 10 minute focused and concentrated workout on specific muscles placed in strategic positions to maximize their contraction velocity.

So while the training routines we have will not tax your body to the level that a weight training or cardio program will. They are going to give you something completely different and necessary that you may be missing.

We are going to target a lot of muscles you never even k new existed with different angles and positions that really only the resistance band can do efficiently as you will see and we are going to challenge them at their weak spots and positions that you are going to find that when you improve in these areas, your athletic potential completes itself and there are no more gaps left in your training that makes you vulnerable during game time situations.

So because of the precision of the exercises and the ability to focus your efforts on a particular muscle group or athletic position for a concentrated period of time, as challenging as this is, it is not going to wipe you out and leave you exhausted when you’re finished with the program, so yeah, you have to put your time into it, if it’s a 20 minute routine, its only 10 minutes of actual exercise time, you’ve got to put your time into those exercises, however, it is not going to be to the point where it is like a cardio routine or weight lifting routine where you are physically exhausted afterward.

And again, those are real necessary for your overall conditioning, but the isometric training with the resistance band are specifically designed to increase your speed in running as well as in particular skill sets like swinging a baseball bat, golf club or tennis racket. The exercises also give athletes incredible benefits in improving their kicking such as in soccer as well as punting and placekicking in football as well as helping athletes increase their vertical jumps, long jumps and high jump distances as there is a lot of speed involved in getting their muscles quickly into the best and most dominant positions to push off for these areas to improve.

So the training is a lot different, in fact more often than not, athletes may not even break a sweat with these exercises and that is not to say because they are weak but rather you are not engaging in them long enough for your body to burn out all of your energy reserves and raise your heart rate and so that is a very big advantage and one that allows our programs to be easily introduced into whatever current training you are doing.

So getting back to the point, it does not matter what routine you are doing, our recommendation is to keep doing them if you feel they are benefitting you. Even if you are doing a simple running routine such as running steps at a local high school stadium or perhaps shuttle drills you can still do our programs alongside them.

So, between the amount of time and effort involved with completing our programs along with the convenience of finding a place to do them, feel free to incorporate our training programs right along with your favorite weight training, plyometric training cardio training and any other sport specific program you may currently be doing.

So getting back to the point about integrating our programs into other routines, it really does not matter what routine you are doing, our recommendation is to keep doing them if you feel they are benefitting you. Between the amount of time and effort involved with completing our programs along with the convenience of finding a place to do them, performing multiple training programs with different sport specific goals is what will help you become part of the next generation of athletes.