Secrets to Improving Speed

Anyone who knows anything about training athletes knows that improving sprint technique and getting stronger are the keys to improving speed. Bring me a beginner athlete with terrible arm mechanics and no knee drive and I can make them faster instantly. Bring me a kid who squats with their heels off the ground and has never done plyometrics before and in one month I will dramatically make them faster.

But its not always that easy. How about my college football clients who are already really strong and run with pretty good technique? How about the kids who have been in my program for 2 years and have mastered all of our foundational concepts?

One of the key components to my program in the last few years has been exercises that focus on hip HYPEREXTENSION. Squats, deadlifts, box jumps, KB swings and RDL's are all exercises that are important and involve hip EXTENSION. Performing those exercises are extremely important and will get you stronger and faster. But none of those exercises are specific to the motion of sprinting and none of them involve hip hyperextension.

Watch how a great sprinter applies force into the ground - behind their center of mass. Look at the left leg of the sprinter below - that is hip hyperextension. Force is delivered into the ground behind the center of mass.



This first video clip is one of our basic plyometrics - a box blast. This exercise is not a true hip hyperextension exercise. However, it is very specific to how I want my athletes to apply force into the ground. My stronger athletes will perform this exercise with hip hyperextension. The goal is to finish each jump with leg action similar to the sprinter above - just in a vertical plane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-w_RHU0bvM

The next clip is a forward sled march. This sled exercise is very specific to the motion of sprinting and involves hip hyperextension when performed correctly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ON4gSazObU

The final clip is a bent leg, hip dominant exercise that I call a BOB hip extension (BOB standing for Back on Bench). It is also referred to as a hip thrust and does involve hip hyperextenion. It doesn't matter what you call it, the bottom line is that this kind of exercise needs to be in every athlete's strength program. We perform bent leg hip extensions in every warm up and we do them weighted to some degree at least once per week. In article for T - nation, Bret Contreras (The Glute Guy) states that bent leg hip extension exercises such as the one you are about to watch involve twice the glute activation then conventional deadlifts and squats. Read the rest of the article here......

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/dispelling_the_glute_myth


And the video clip of BOB hip extension

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skuEQM4egd8


If you have the need for more speed........and who doesn't? Take a look at your strength training program. Does it include exercises like the ones I have showed you today? If not, it might be time to make some additions to your program.