This is the 7th of 8 in a series about maximizing speed and quickness in your specific sport.
 ————
Ask yourself these three questions about your ‘speed’ training program:
1) Does it require repetitions?
(You already know how repetitions affect muscle speed)
2) Does it take longer than ten minutes to complete?
(Speed training, as the name implies should be fast and not time consuming.)
3) Do I feel tired, heavy, and sluggish afterwards?
(Do you feel slower instead of faster when you’re done?)
If you answer yes to these questions, then you do not have a speed training program. You have a strength and endurance program.
Sometimes these types of programs are sold as ‘speed training programs’ leading to a lot of disappointment among the athletes who try them.
Let’s look at those three questions again:
1) Does it require repetitions?
Many speed training programs require your muscles to perform repetitions, whether it’s running, jumping up, onto and down from boxes or running down a track with a parachute or a weight sled.
Repetitions build strength and endurance within muscles, not speed!
If this all seems a little confusing, consider this: If all you had to do to run faster was go out and run, then each time you ran, you should be a little faster than the previous time. But, we all know this is not true. This is because simply running doesn’t make you faster; but, rather, it improves your strength and endurance to run longer.
Isometric training, as prescribed by the AthleticQuickness.com RUN FASTER speed training program, does not require repetitions in the traditional manner.
Instead, muscles are held or locked into a position for a given short period of time forcing your body to recruit the much needed fast twitch muscle fibers that are almost always ignored for purposes of contraction speed with other types of training such as plyometrics, weight training, etc.
The end result is quicker, faster contracting muscles all the time, without exception.
This means faster running speed, quicker bat speed or tennis racket speed, jumping higher, soccer speed and kicking farther, throwing harder, faster golf swing speed and improved performance in most athletic activities.
2) Does it take longer than ten minutes to complete?
Most speed training programs offered today require 45 to 60 minutes to complete. Our research has shown that fast twitch muscle conditioning takes place within the first 10 minutes of isometric training.
After 10 minutes, your body’s physiologic process begins recruiting slow twitch fibers to complete the training … contrary to speed training! The longer your body involves the slow twitch muscle fibers, the slower your muscles become.
This is perhaps the hardest thing for competitive athletes to understand and accept – that is, to limit the amount of time for speed training to just 10 minutes of actual training exercises!
(3) Do I feel tired, heavy, and sluggish afterwards?
Isometric training, as taught by AthleticQuickness.com is quick and easy, as speed training should be.
By using it, you will feel lighter, faster and more responsive immediately. Compare this with the tired, heavy and sluggish feeling following weight training or plyometric training and you will soon realize the advantages to this remarkable speed training strategy.
The reason being is that weight training and weight lifting strategies strip away any remaining fast twitch response you may have left in your muscles. This is due to their repetitious nature. You’re left with no fine kinesthetic motor ability. I can remember having a hard time raising my arms above my head to wash my hair after a workout. Heavy weightlifting crushes any hopes of being fast.
Review the little known ‘secret formula’ for speeding past your competition by clicking the link below:
AthleticQuickness.com/page.asp?page_id=15
Next Time: How to Train for Speed
Always glad to help!
Dr. Larry Van Such
Jamall, Dr. Van Such has supplied the following answer to your question:
Good question. The lower you are to the ground, as at the start of a sprint or in a three point stance, as a running back, there little to no momentum to take advantage of.
Your leg muscles are also at their weakest position since the joints (hips, knees, ankles) will be at the beginning (or end) of their range of motion, depending on which muscle groups you are focusing on.
Either way, strength is all you have to work with at this point. This is where weight training has the best advantage to help, since you are training your body to overcome weight/gravity.
Once you are moving, in as little as one or two steps, momentum is created that becomes easier to take advantage of as you build speed. Also, your joints start to move away from their initial (or ending) position and this will enable your body to generate more leverage.
With regards to changing directions, unless your change is 180 degrees in the opposite direction, you will be able to take advantage of any momentum you have created. Also, you will probably be in a more upright position, and this enables other muscle groups to come into play to help improve your speed.
Our speed training program will help at the beginning of a sprint or run, but it is most effective when the body is more upright and has generated a little momentum to work with.
Hello Dr. Van Such,
I have a question regarding the difference between “speed” and “power.” Does your training method also affect the initial power application at the beginning of a max effort run? For instance, I am a running back and I’m interested in reducing the time it takes me to accelerate to top speed after a change of direction. I figured that a good way to improve my initial power output was to run weighted sprints, but reading over your studies I guess I’m wrong.
Jody, read the article on this page:
http://athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=91
It will give you some tips on how to continue with your strength training and include your speed training as well. As far as which stance your in, you can best decide that depending on what you anticipate will happen in the play.
Hey man,Question.I am a Linebacker and I want to run a sub 4.5.I need my power in my legs to drive that TB back as wellas push those blocker out of my way.I need my lower body power. I would not be able to sleep at night not including various squats and presses.What do you suggest? Another thing.I tried your one suggestion” How to run a faster 40″.Exellent improvement in the 40.Now,when I get ready to take of from the start,should I be in a 3 or 4 point stance for my blastoff from my set position? Thanks for the info!!
Josh, That’s a fair question. I’ve put an answer at this link:
http://speedtrainingsecrets.com/blog/speed-vs-strength/does-weight-training-have-a-place-when-training-athletes-for-speed.html
In addition, the idea that the “greater the force production into the ground the faster one would be” is widely disputed. It may appear to make sense at first, but on closer examination it begins to not make sense. Here are some conclusions from Harvard research study about the limits of running speed:
“What limits top speed, then, is the minimum time you take to swing your leg into position for the next step,” ….
“These results support the conclusion that running involves little active muscle power. Much of the work of running is done through passive mechanical processes, in which tendons and muscles act through elastic rebound, much like springs uncoiling,” Sternlight comments. “The uncoiling delivers the power to swing your legs.”
These comments support the idea that running speed is more a factor of the speed of your forward moving leg and not the strength of your backward moving leg. Which means that your thigh flexor muscle would be the primary muscle group involved in sprinting faster. (http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=85)
You can read an article about this study here: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.30/StudentSolvesMy.html
Do you feel that a weight trainning aka (strength and endurance program) has no place when trainning athletes for speed. It just goes against alot of information that states the greater the force production into the ground meaning strength the faster one would be . I guess I am a little confused.
Derek, You can find some suggestions on the link below to help incorporate your speed training into your existing strength training program.
http://www.athleticquickness.com/page.asp?page_id=91
If you have any further questions – just send them to support@athleticquickness.com
I play soccer and am 37 with a reasonable level of fitness, I need to do my strength training to run longer, when should I do my speed training before or after or on a separate day?
I am interested in improving the speed of my son. He is 9 and only 65 pounds. I think it may be as much technique as muscle performance. Can this program help a young boy and does it help with technique and running style (he appears too flat footed and running on heels instead of toes).