Before you read part three make sure you go and read part two which is a very interesting read, If you haven’t here is the link. In part two we discuss the importance of agility training. In particular we discussed closed chain agility and open-chained agility. Both of these types of training can be very effective, but they need to be used properly with an understanding of what they do for an athlete’s development, in part two we discuss that.
Acceleration phase: Approximately 80% of most sports are played in this phase, so we spend at least 80% of our time training in this phase. Drills that I like to use include:
- 2-point starts
- 3-point starts
- Band resisted starts: This is one of my favourites! Note: Please make certain you do not apply too much resistance in order to keep the athlete’s mechanics from being altered.
- SpeedSac resisted starts: These are similar to sled sprints, but I have found that the SpeedSac to be more effective for two reasons. We can alter the weight to be more precise compared to the sled. The SpeedSac also has less shifting, as does the sled, thus our mechanics are not altered as much.
So, to answer the question, I like to spend 80% of my time training with open-pattern agility and acceleration exercises with my so-called more experienced athletes!
I follow the 80% rule in most things in life, and in this case, these training modalities provide our athletes with the best bang for their buck!
Speed is a very important aspect of all sports, but it has to be coached and developed in the right way. In this blog we discussed how to train speed and agility through numerous amounts of drills and theories. (Part 2 of 3) Not only is the teaching important but understanding who and how to teach/coach certain drills, will progress your athletes faster. (Part 1 of 3) Hopefully you all enjoyed reading this blog and will bring the principles taught in this blog to your coaching methods allowing you to coach your athletes more effectively and more efficiently.