Top Speed Training Myths Revealed

As a speed coach, I receive questions about training speed. So I've taken those questions that I hear the most and answered them in a slightly different format.

1. Static stretching prepares you to compete/practice

Static stretching actually reduces power output. The best type of stretching that an athlete should utilize before practice is dynamic stretching which warms up the body and prepares and mimics the movement that the athlete’s body will be engaged in doing. The progression of movement should start off from basic, low intensity movements to faster, more explosive movements as the muscles loosen up.

2. Stretch and then do a warm up

You should never stretch a cold muscle because you can cause more harm than good to the muscle belly while the muscle is cold. Instead, athletes should do some small warm up to increase the body temperature so that the muscle is warm and plausible to stretch. Think of the muscle as a rubber band. Would you stretch a cold rubber band that has been in the freezer for days?

3. Strength training makes females too bulky

This is a popular mindset with many female athletes that we have worked with. However, this as far fetched of a myth than any of the ones that I have to debunk. Strength training not only is of injury prevention because it assists with building the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to withstand the stress of the sports. In addition, we know that the female population is more susceptible to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than their male counterparts. Fatigued lower limb muscles can inhibit the ability to control dynamic sports landing movements, increasing the risk of non-contact injury to the knee’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), particularly among females. Prevention and prehabilitation is always better the rehabilitation. Strength training will improve performance and reduce injury if done correctly. If you look at Mia Hamm, Venus and Serna Williams, these athletes train with weights and have a great physique on and off the court.

4. You can’t train speed


For some reason it is a popular belief that you are born with a certain amount of ‘speed’ and you can’t improve it. If that’s the case than the Olympians that participate every four years waste their time throughout training to get better because they have nature born speed that will just come on when the touch foot on the track. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Speed is a skill that can be learned and the problem that I see with most young athletes is they are so physically weak and mechanically out of tune that significant improvements in speed can be made often just by working on technique and form. Athletes at any age and any level can improve speed when implementing a complete speed training program designed to improve and develop the entire athlete.

5. Training slow makes you fast


I don’t think coaches directly believe this way, but their training implies otherwise. I think they understand this when it comes to practicing for their sport for they know that in order for the athletes to get a true feel and understanding of what is required when in competition, the athlete must be put in ‘game speed’ situations so that their bodies are able to react. The same is true for speed training, in order for an athlete to be able to get faster, they must train their fast twitch muscle fibers consistently and properly so that they will be able to translate their training to the competition. Athletes must train how they play or train the way their sports demands of them. For example in sports that involve a higher aerobic element such as soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. I see kids out running mileage and doing long slow intervals of several minutes of continuous running. If their goal is to get faster for the season and want to improve their overall speed and first step quickness to the ball, they must train their muscles to fire and work in the same manner that the demand will be placed on them for the sport. If you want athletes to improve their acceleration and top speed so they can get to the ball faster or get back on defense, then you have to train by running at full speed in practice.

6. You can train hard every day

Most coaches and parents understand this concept when it comes to strength training with training the same body part over and over. However, when it comes to speed training this concept gets thrown out the window for some reason. The workout itself is only a piece of the training puzzle. Just as with strength training, athlete’s muscles aren’t built in the weight room but during the recovery period, so is true with speed training. It is the time between intense workouts, the recovery, where athletes make their improvements. And generally it takes 36-48 hours to recover from high intensity training. If athletes are doing too much, too often they become over trained. Coaches can expect to see an increase in injuries, athletes complaining that they are sore more often, decreased performance, higher levels of fatigue earlier in games, and the BIG ONE—burnout. It’s always better to under train an athlete than over train. Err on the side of caution to get maximal results.

7. Strength training will stunt a young athlete’s growth


This is another myth held over from a different time. With parents having their kids participate in year round sports, strength training can assist with preventing some of the injuries that these athletes may be susceptible to with year round participation. These loads on the body can have a much greater physical impact than a well designed strength training program. Though I don’t usually begin training with weights with pre pubescent athletes, they can benefit from body weight exercises such as push ups, full body squats, pull ups, crunches, sit ups, etc. This will increase muscular efficiency, speed up recovery, improve coordination and overall speed.

8. The harder the workout, the better the result

Some athletes (and coaches) have this mentality that if a workout doesn’t reduce them to complete exhaustion and/or make them vomit, that it wasn’t an effective workout. I hated coaches that thought like this and now that I am a speed/ performance coach, I still hate it. The reasoning behind the vomiting is that the body is trying to buffer the blood due to it being too acidic and the lack of oxygen left for the muscles to use during the workout. Now that young athletes are dying due to myocarditis and other abnormal heart conditions, ‘old school’ coaches that have this mentality need not apply with working with youth athletes period. Also those who have this mentality probably see a lot of injuries and frustrating performances. The purpose of a workout is to stimulate an adaptation by the body. If the body is forced to do too much work in a given time period, it will break down. The skill in coaching is to stimulate the adaptation in the body, without reaching a point of diminishing returns.

9. Interval training is the same as speed training

Running repeat 100s, 200s, etc will not improve top speeds. Even running
repeat 40s with short recovery will not improve acceleration and top speeds. I wish someone had explained this myth and concept to my college coaches when they had us doing repeated 100s and 200s in the hot summer heat to improve our speed! Speed work is defined at 2-8 seconds of maximal intensity running with full recovery. That means at least 2 minutes of light dynamic movement between each effort. This
goes against the experience of some coaches, but simply put, is the only way to improve speed. An athlete must be able to focus on proper form and maintain intensity in order to get faster. If they do not recover properly from each interval, they will not be able to replicate proper mechanics with consistency and they can not improve.

10. Flexibility won’t help you get faster

Both coaches and athletes spend so much time on the skills of their sport, speed training and conditioning that they often forget a fundamental component of success: flexibility. After practice or a game, the muscles are warm and loose. Now is the time to work on increasing flexibility. So many athletes suffer injuries or compete below their capacity because poor flexibility inhibits their range of motion and speed. I see this often in the hips and hip flexors where athletes’ stride length appears conspicuously short. Most often I see this in male athletes who will lift weights, train hard and then skip out on their cool down and flexibility work. Hey I have been guilty of this one myself throughout the years of my high school and collegiate career.


11. Lift your knees

I hear so many parents and coaches yelling to their kids when they want them to run faster or when they are beginning to fatigue, “Lift your knees, Get your knees up”.
This is one of the most backwards cues you can give to athletes. The way to run faster is to apply more force to the ground. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will give
back. So when we cue athletes to lift their knees we’re doing two things incorrectly. One, we’re telling them to use their hip flexors to lift instead of their glutes and hamstrings to drive down. Just think about the size of your hip flexor versus the size of the glutes and hamstrings. Now which muscles do you think can create more force and therefore more speed? Second, we’re cueing them and teaching a movement that is in opposition to what generates speed. If an athlete learns at age 7, to lift their knees when they need a burst of speed, that improper cue will be hardwired into their brain. To unlearn that as a teen and try to do the opposite and drive down, that athlete will have a difficult time coordinating an entirely new way of running and will potentially have to take a step or two backwards. That’s why it is critical to learn proper form early and get an advantage over those who still aren’t getting the best instruction. So cue athletes to step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground, with the foot landing underneath the hip.

Speed/ Performance Coach and Speed Camps in Charlotte, NC

Female Athletes and ACL Injuries

Last week, I wrote about the experience that I had with working with a local high school girls basketball team and the conversation that took place with the head junior varsity coach and myself. I briefly explained the goals that the coach was seeking with working with me; however, I failed to talk about one other issue or topic that came up in the discussion.

Anterior cruciate ligament commonly known as the ACL.

Eight years ago 2.5 million high school girls and 145,000 college girls played some type of competitive sport. No longer are the days that girls are just participating in non-contact sports such as golf or tennis. They are now participating in more violent contact sports like football, basketball, boxing, roller demolition derby, field hockey, and lacrosse to name a few. Each year, females participation in sport has rising substantially in every major market or competitive arena from club sports all the way to collegiate competition. Even though, more females are signing up and participating in sports, more are watching on the sideline rather than playing on the field due to sustaining more injuries like ACL injuries.

ACL injuries are the most common injuries that most females will be faced with while participating in athletics. Each year, 1 out of 100 high school female athletes and 1 out of 10 college female athletes will go down with an ACL injury. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (more commonly known as the NCAA) reports that in a given year, approximately 2200 collegiate females are expected to go down with an ACL injury. These stats suggest that females are 4 to 8 times more likely to sustain this type of injury than males. Also research data shows that on average, an ACL reconstruction surgery costs a family $25,000 a year. In addition, the data from high school and college suggest that they spend over $100 million annually on reconstruction surgeries for females.


The question is why are females more susceptible to ACL injuries than males? And are there exercises that can be done to prevent them from being injured?

Many experts (myself included) think the reason why females are so susceptible is because of the anatomical differences that females have in comparison to males. In addition other common factors are muscle imbalances and variations in movement patterns.


Anatomical Differences

In the knee joint, an intercondylar notch lies between the femoral condyles. The ACL moves within this notch, connecting the femur (more commonly known has the thigh bone) and the tibia(more commonly known as the shin), providing stability to the knee. The ACL prevents the tibia from sliding forward and rotating inward. The majority of women have a small notch, therefore restricting ACL movement. When movement is restricted, the femoral condyles can easily pinch the ACL within the joint, especially during twisting or hyperextended movements. This ultimately can result in a tear or rupture.

The other difference lies in what is called the Q angle or the angle from the hips, femur, and tibia. The femur is affected because it meets the tibia at this angle and if a person has wider hips (which most females do in comparison to their male counterparts) it can have an affect on their ACL. The wider the hips, the larger the Q angle. At this greater angle, forces are concentrated on the ligament for stability each time the knee rotates. This increases the rotational forces on the ACL, raising the probability of a tear. A large Q angle also results in a more pronated foot (a foot that is turned outward), further stressing the knee.

Muscle Imbalance

The balance and relationship between how the quadriceps and hamstrings work together plays a crucial part to knee stability. Research shows that female athletes tend to have quadriceps to hamstrings muscle imbalances -- with the quadriceps as the dominating knee stability muscle. On the other hand, men have a better balance between quadriceps and hamstrings. They engage the hamstrings first when performing a movement, which actually decreases stress on the ACL. Therefore, the stability of the knee is more quadriceps-dominant (an ACL antagonist) in females and more hamstrings-dominant (an ACL agonist) in men.

So let's relate this concept to female involvement in sports. As stated earlier, females are now engaging in similar activities like their male counterparts which place the same demands on their bodies and knee structures with similar intensity (equal twisting and loading forces on the knee joint). Twisting, cutting and landing movements all stress the ACL to provide stability. As the quadriceps contract, additional stress is put on the ACL, increasing the risk of injury. So, if females or more quadriceps dominant, they are more susceptible in putting their ACL in danger of tearing because it is stressed more during the activity.

Variations in Movement Patterns
Contrary to what a lot of you reading this article may think, the majority of ACL injuries come from non-contact incidents on the field or court. These injuries are divided equally among the three main non-contact movements -- planting, cutting and straight-knee landings with hyper-extended knees. For unknown reasons, women tend to perform all these movements with straight legs. Straight-legged activities require the knees to absorb forces equal to four times an individual's body weight as well as encourage hyperextension of the knee joint. Hyperextending the knee is one of the major contributors to non-contact ACL injuries. Also, videos have show that women tend to perform planting, cutting and landing movements by turning the knees inward, further exaggerating the Q angle stress on the ACL and therefore increasing risk of an ACL rupture.

How can the athletic community assist females to decrease the risk of an ACL tear?

Obviously, anatomical characteristics that increase the risk of ACL rupture cannot be changed. As a result, the focus for prevention has been on teaching athletes the correct motor patterns to prevent excessive stress on the ACL through jump training (landing and propelling). Finally, because quadriceps-hamstring strength imbalance appears so important, athletes must also work to maintain flexibility of both of these muscle groups. As muscles are strengthened, flexibility can be lost unless athletes conscientiously cool down and stretch at the end of the workout..

The bottom line is:
• ACL injuries are a big problem
• ACL injuries are a bigger problem for females
• ACL injuries are preventable

Every serious female player (of ANY age) should:
Practice proprioceptive training (a good idea for competitive male soccer players as well)

Strengthen hamstrings by:
• Jump training and/or leg curls
• Avoid turning and landing with straight legs
• Cool down and stretch after exercise
These measures can help prevent serious injury and will almost certainly improve performance to boot. Sorry about the pun. I just couldn’t resist.
Reference:
Stephanie Vlach, M.S., is the Manager, Fitness Education for the Life Fitness Academy.

Personal Trainer in Charlotte, NC

Female Sports Injuries: The Creature from Jekyll Island

Majority of you reading this probably are wondering what is the Creature from Jekyll Island about. Well, yesterday while preparing for my speed camp, I was reading an article entitled The Creature from Jekyll Island, and I thought that since I had posted yesterday about the benefits of sports participation for females, why not talk about some of the injuries that most females sustain from playing sports. Jekyll Island is a real island located off of New York. It was a private island, it was a resort club, it was where the families of the very, very, very wealthy went to escape the cold winter months of New York. There you will find documents where a very small group of billionaires from New York met to establish what we now call the Federal Reserve Bank. But enough about the real Jekyll Island, I thought it would be cool to name this entry The Creature from Jekyll Island. Jekyll and Hyde is a portrayal of a split personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from each other; in mainstream culture the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" has come to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next. So I thought since yesterday I posted about the "Hyde" or benefits of participation of females in sports, it would be rightfully deserving to post about the "Jekyll" or injuries that most females are susceptible to while participating in sports.

Female high school sports has increased 900% which equates to female participation doubling every 10 years. As stated in yesterday's blog post the benefits for female participation are numerous. Some of those benefits are:

female athletes are less likely to:

• Be in abusive relationships
• Teen pregnancy
• Chemical use
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular risks
• Develop breast cancer

however, females who participate in sport are more likely to:

• Finish high school
• Enroll in college
• Have an increase in self confidence
• Have better bone density
• More positive body image
• Learn and implement goal setting skills
• and develop team work capabilities

As discussed in a previous blog post, female athletes are more likely to injure their knees than male athletes. They are 2 to 8 times more likely to sustain an ACL injury. They are 2.5 times more likely to go down with a MCL/ LCL injury. And they are twice as likely to sustain a menisci injury. The mechanisms that causes these types of knee injuries are usually non-contact in nature. They usually come from females trying to change direction or cut on a surface, decelerate, or land from a jump.

Training programs should be designed to include prehabilitation components within it.
Within the program exercises should include:
• Stretching
• Plyometric type of exercises (type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in a specific sport),
• Proprioceptive balancing exercises (the term proprioception refers to a sense of joint position. Proprioceptive training is highly common in rehabilitation of injured athletes, but it can just as easily be used to prevent injury),
• Strengthening
• Flexibility
• Incorporate some hamstring activation type of exercises
• Landing drills with the emphasis on landing on the ball of the toes
• and Deceleration training

Concussions and cervical neck strains are injuries that females sustain while playing sports with soccer having the most incidents reported. Majority of the concussions appear to be from head to head collusion with other female soccer players. At the same rate, more females are suffering worst from post concussion syndrome. Post concussion syndrome or PCS, is a set of symptoms that a person may experience for weeks.
Symptoms include:
• Dizziness
• Lethargy
• Decrease concentration
• Poor sleep
• Decrease appetite
• and Memory deficits

Some girls who play sports or exercise intensely are at risk for a problem called female athlete triad (FAT). Female athlete triad is a combination of three conditions: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. Amenorrrhea is the absence of menstrual period for more than 3 months. A female athlete can have one, two, or all three parts of the triad. In 2007 the American College of Sports Medicine redefined FAT as recognizing the relationships among energy availability, menstrual function and bone mineral density, which may manifest into eating disorders, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis in at-risk female athletes. Triad disorders are thought to be most common among female athletes in sports or activities which emphasize a lean physique or low body weight, such as gymnastics, swimming, or track and field.

Our last group of injuries are shoulder and foot related. Generally females have more joint laxity than males which predispose them to injuries of the shoulder joint. At the same rate, females are 9 times more likely to develop foot disorders from playing sports. The main culprit for foot injuries and disorders are improper fitting of the shoes.

Some of these disorders are:
• Metatarsalgia-general term used to refer to any painful foot condition affecting the metatarsal region of the foot. This is a common problem that can affect the joints and bones of the metatarsals.
• Bunions
Hammertoe-twisting of the toes that are caused by high heels, narrow shoes and wearing improper shoes
• Neuromas-refers to any swelling of a nerve

In conclusion the rate of female participation is outpacing males. Injuries sustained by female athletes are unique in that they are intrinsic and extrinsic in nature. The ultimate goal is to empower female athletes, promote musculoskeletal health, and facilitate a lifelong participation way after their high school and collegiate careers are over.

Reference:
www.naot.org
Personal Trainer in Charlotte, NC

Motivating Female Athletes

Yesterday I was working with one of local high schools in the town and I made an observation. The team is predominantly female with the head coach being a female and her assistance being a male. I usually talk with both coaches after practice just to see how things are going with the team and it's funny to hear them talk about their perception on what they think the girls need to improve upon for the team to get better. Now, both coaches are really experienced in the field of coaching basketball but their approach and methodology are different. The male coach has coached basketball for 30 plus years, with majority of the population that he has coached being males. The head coach, which is a female, is a former basketball center, who coaches female athletes majority of the time. This made me start to wonder about their language and delivery towards the girls and how the female coach gets more positive feedback from the girls and the assistant sometimes runs up against resistance when he instructs them to do different things.

Is there a possibly that there should be a different approach when coaching females? Or should females athletes be coached the same as male athletes? I asked two females for their perspective on the matter. One was an current athlete and another was a former athlete.

My findings showed that female athletes compete for different reasons than boys and require different kinds of stimuli to achieve. WITH THE POPULARITY of women's basketball at an all-time high, hundreds of young female athletes are beginning to dream of playing professional basketball. I can remember when my little sister started put pick up the sport and how excited she was with wanting to become the best possible athlete she could be. Many times females are being coached by individuals who do not understand the many factors involved in motivating and coaching female athletes, and this can lead to much frustration and misunderstanding.

The three basic areas that must be addressed in motivating female athletes are:

camaraderie among the players and between coaches and athletes,
a positive self-perception,
and the realization that female athletes compete for different reasons than males and require different kinds of stimuli to achieve.

The girls' coach must also understand that males look for an action oriented environment for competition, while females prefer a more meditative ambiance which explains why the two coaches approaches were totally different and one gets through to the female athletes and another is received with resistance. They want to be addressed in a friendly and respectful manner and are turned off by yelling, screaming, and the throwing of objects.

Overbearing displays of emotion create a hostile environment that could cause sensitive athletes to drop out.

Coaches who believe in yelling should do it only sparingly and should direct it at the group rather than the individual.
It's possible that winning for winning's sake is less important for the average female and that she is more goal-oriented than the average male. Likewise, girls are also different from boys in their need for nurturing a family-like camaraderie with teammates and coaches which explains the head coach talking about how the girls get excited about buying each other gifts for special occasions. It is important for them to feel comfortable with their teammates and coaches, and they have to be motivated to achieve.

Where male teams predicate enjoyment largely on playing time and winning, the most enjoyable kind of team for a female coach is a group of girls who get along well both on and off the court. The teams who have the best camaraderie are almost always the ones who are the most successful in terms of team unity and seasonal improvement.

Team Chemistry

The role of team chemistry has different shadings in female and male sports. Whereas it is an essential prerequisite for optimal performance in female sports, it is more a by-product of optimal performance among male teams.

Self Perception

Many female athletes tend to have lower levels of confidence than men. Their confidence depends on three things:
1. nature of the task
2. need for clear and positive feedback
3. social acceptance.

To enhance a girl's sell-perception, coaches must make certain she is comfortable with the nature of her task. The sport she is competing in must be gender-role appropriate. She must feel comfortable in it, just as a boy would be comfortable playing football, but feel at ease playing on team.

Feedback

Females also need clear and positive feedback. Ambiguous, negative criticism will likely impair their self-perception. They are much more likely than boys to be disturbed by negative comments. They respond very well to positive feedback as well as praise and encouragement. John Wooden believes that coaches should seek out private opportunities to praise athletes who need it. Too many coaches are too willing to criticize and too reluctant to dole out much-needed compliments (quick to criticize and slow to commend). Many coaches contend that such verbal reinforcement is the key to success in coaching women.

All in all females athletes want to have fun just like their male counterparts. However, team chemistry, self perception, and feedback are areas that need to be addressed and developed in order for females to be motivated and have success in their sport.

Personal Trainer and Sports Psychology Consultant in Charlotte, NC