Speed Grows like Trees
It's the end of July and that means football is right around the corner. The state of Iowa has given the go ahead to start football as scheduled amongst this pandemic. We are lucky. There are many states that are seeing changes or cancelations of sports this fall. We need to make sure we are taking advantage of that and we are practicing what we need to do to ensure our season. I urge following science and the precautions and procedures set forth by the people that do this for a living so that we can have a season. Enough of that. Now the good stuff.
We started speed only workouts back in June. June 15 was the first day we were able to get on the track and do something. From then on we've been implementing sprint based training with minimal effective dose strategies. What that means is we are looking for fewer reps at a higher intensity instead of more reps at a lower intensity. We want our guys to practice and train at 100 mph so when they perform they've trained at the level in which they perform. Historically athletes train longer and less intensity but want to play at a higher level. When you train at 100 mph, 80 mph doesn't feel that bad. When you train at 60 mph, 80 mph is hard to attain. Widely renowned track coach Tony Holler and football Coach Brad Dixon are guys that have helped pioneer this way of thinking. Many of the kids can tell you we call it "Feed the Cats". That idea comes from when you see a cheetah, what is it doing? It's recovering and then when it runs, it sprints at max speed. You never see a cheetah on a jog. That's us, do what we need to do in order to be ready to perform at max speed.
As I said, we started June 15th and we time either a flying 10 or a 40 yd dash on Monday's and Thursdays using an electronic timing device called a Freelap timer. I set an arbitrary goal of having five kids run under a 5 second 40 yard dash. I thought that would be really good for us if we started some speed training and improved it. Today, July 23, we had our 5th guy run under 5 seconds. We've had kids drop .2-.3 from their 40 yd time. That is incredible. They guys that have been showing up consistently have seen a ton of progress. We have guys that are running over 20 mph in their flying 10 as well. Our dedication to speed and speed training is having a positive overall effect on our players. A person can tell that our training is paying off. Our guys are showing better explosion, acceleration, and strength. Sprinting is the best exercise a person can do. It's the best core exercise, plyometric, strength, and agility exercise you can do. We will continue to sprint as we train during the season as well.
Speed grows like a tree, not a weed. Strength grows like a weed. Speed is speed, and we are training it and doing things the right way.
FOR THOSE BEFORE US, THOSE OF US NOW, AND THOSE THAT FOLLOW, WE ARE WMU!
We started speed only workouts back in June. June 15 was the first day we were able to get on the track and do something. From then on we've been implementing sprint based training with minimal effective dose strategies. What that means is we are looking for fewer reps at a higher intensity instead of more reps at a lower intensity. We want our guys to practice and train at 100 mph so when they perform they've trained at the level in which they perform. Historically athletes train longer and less intensity but want to play at a higher level. When you train at 100 mph, 80 mph doesn't feel that bad. When you train at 60 mph, 80 mph is hard to attain. Widely renowned track coach Tony Holler and football Coach Brad Dixon are guys that have helped pioneer this way of thinking. Many of the kids can tell you we call it "Feed the Cats". That idea comes from when you see a cheetah, what is it doing? It's recovering and then when it runs, it sprints at max speed. You never see a cheetah on a jog. That's us, do what we need to do in order to be ready to perform at max speed.
As I said, we started June 15th and we time either a flying 10 or a 40 yd dash on Monday's and Thursdays using an electronic timing device called a Freelap timer. I set an arbitrary goal of having five kids run under a 5 second 40 yard dash. I thought that would be really good for us if we started some speed training and improved it. Today, July 23, we had our 5th guy run under 5 seconds. We've had kids drop .2-.3 from their 40 yd time. That is incredible. They guys that have been showing up consistently have seen a ton of progress. We have guys that are running over 20 mph in their flying 10 as well. Our dedication to speed and speed training is having a positive overall effect on our players. A person can tell that our training is paying off. Our guys are showing better explosion, acceleration, and strength. Sprinting is the best exercise a person can do. It's the best core exercise, plyometric, strength, and agility exercise you can do. We will continue to sprint as we train during the season as well.
Speed grows like a tree, not a weed. Strength grows like a weed. Speed is speed, and we are training it and doing things the right way.
FOR THOSE BEFORE US, THOSE OF US NOW, AND THOSE THAT FOLLOW, WE ARE WMU!