November 2009
Velocity SP/SCV is offering specialized training for athletes with a series of camps in the coming months. Velocity will have one day camps over the Veterans Day and Thanksgiving holidays as well as a Christmas Break Camp. Their 2nd Annual Football Academy will begin in January.
At Velocity Sports Performance we train athletes to improve their speed and agility, develop explosive power and reduce their likelihood of injury. Clinics are led by degreed and certified Performance Coaches and take place in our 27,000 sq-ft state-of-the-art training center.
Pure Speed - Learn the techniques used by Pro and Olympic athletes to increase your speed. Improve your performance in any sport by increasing your
· First Step Quickness
· Acceleration
· Maximum Velocity
Get faster, stronger, and more explosive. Velocity Sports Performance training is designed to help you.
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Are You Really Training for Speed?
Adam Johnson, VelocitySP (February, 09)
Are you really training for speed? Pretty simple question isn’t it. But unfortunately there are a lot of coaches, parents, and athletes alike that while having the intentions of training for speed are missing the mark. I have talked with numerous coaches and when I asked them what they do for speed training I get answers that range from we do weighted sled work to hill sprints to we run 110s to we run a mile. All of which, depending on your training level and sport, probably have merit to be used at some point in time during the training cycle. The key is however to know when, where and how to place them so that they have the greatest impact on speed development. Below are a few key points to let you know if you are really training for speed or just running to run.
Technique Work
This is a topic that will probably be debated until the end of time. Is running technique important for athletes other than track and field athletes? You are not going to have perfect arm action while you carry that football down the field, so why bother right? The correct answer is yes and no. An understanding of what good technique is will allow an individual to understand how they are supposed to move in the most efficient manner. Moving in the most efficient way will help to maximize performance while preventing wasted movements and energy expenditure. I can also agree with the side that says no. I once worked for a guy who’s philosophy was “I’d rather have a guy run fast and look ugly doing it than have a guy look pretty and run slow.” Now I can agree with this. It is possible for guys to become so focused on how they are running that they actually forget to just run. So I ride the fence on this issue. We work on technique but I am only going to fix a one thing at a time and not fix something if I think it is working for that athlete.
Rest Intervals
If all your sprints are done with only 30 seconds of rest you are not training for speed, you are conditioning and it will limit your ability to get faster. There is a difference between the two and often conditioning is confused with speed training. Those guys that run in the Olympics don’t just go out and do dozens of sprints without resting. If they are truly training for speed they may take upwards of 5 minutes of rest between runs. In that time they may be doing some low intensity drill work, mental imagery, walking around the track, etc. the point being that they are allowing their muscles time to recover from the all out effort they just performed. If you are not allowing yourself to recover at times during your training you are not training for speed.
Resisted Sprints
Depending on your strength and skill level at some point in time you should be adding in some resisted sprints. This can be done with harnesses, sleds, hills, bungees, etc. This could be a whole other article, but the amount of resistance needed will vary on experience and what you are trying to accomplish. Some coaches feel that more than 10% body weight on a sled is too much while others have been known to go upwards of 50% body weight. Other guidelines out there state that the resistance should not drop sprint performance by more than 10% or that hills should not go above a 3-5% grade. It can be very easy to get caught up in percents and grades and not get the work done that is needed. The easiest guideline to follow would be this, if you have decent technique without resistance and when you add the resistance you look like you never ran before then it is probably too heavy and you should take some resistance away.
So there are three simple things to help you determine if you are actually training for speed. If you are incorporating some technique work along with your sprints, taking appropriate rest to fully recover, and when ready adding in resisted work then you are on the right track to training for speed.
Bucky Brooks/Velocity Football Academy Scholarship Winners:
Denley Rodriguez - CCAA Senior Outlaws Black
Matt Heistand - CCAA Outlaws
Multi-Sport Athletes: Where have they gone?
By Adam Johnson, Velocity SP (October 08)
Over the last couple of years I have noticed a pretty disturbing trend among the athletes we train. In more and more cases athletes come to us who are specializing in only one sport at such an early age. Now, I know what some people may be thinking. The longer they play one sport or position the better they will be at it down the road. Unfortunately more often than not this is not the case. Athletes who play only one sport at an early age tend to under-train and over-compete. This can be especially true of athletes that also play club as well as school sports. When on season ends they tend to go straight into the next with little to no rest or down time. With practices numerous days a week and tournaments all weekend long it is no wonder why so many athletes burn-out before they reach their athletic potential.
There are critical time periods throughout an individual’s youth where certain abilities can be more easily learned and retained. If those abilities are not learned and rehearsed at these sensitive time frames they can be lost with little or no chance of regaining them in later years. A young athlete that is learning how to run, jump, throw, kick, catch, swing, hit, etc. will retain more athletic skills than an athlete that is learning only a few skills. For example, a youth football player that is told he is an offensive lineman and never learns the skills required to play another position because he was a little over weight or slower as a child may not be able to move to receiver when he is in high school and turns out to be 6’1” and 185 pounds because he did not learn the art of catching as a young athlete where he could work on it and retain that skill for life. Later in life they could shy away from or not be able to participate in sports that require catching or handling a ball with their hands because they never learned during their skill hungry years.
Aside from learning different skills associated with multiple sports when an athlete plays more than one sport it allows them to take a much needed mental break from their primary sport. While football was always my favorite sport I was thankful for basketball and track and field because they allowed to take a mental break from football, hang out with friends that did not play football, and gave me another athletic test to try to improve my overall athletism. It also gave me sports to just play for fun. While I always competed to the best of my abilities and went out of my way to practice hard, just went and had fun during the track season.
While that could be the subject of a completely different article, that seems to be one thing that can be lost early in young specializing athletes, the sport is no longer fun. It becomes more work and less enjoyment.
So when the off-season comes up instead of spending the next 9 months just waiting around for football to start again, give a different sport a try. Always wanted to pick up a racket and give tennis a try, or step on a mat and see how you would do at wrestling, or never played volleyball before and think it would be cool to spike the ball on somebody? Well, now would be the time to try. Who knows, you might find a new favorite sport or at least one you can play for pure fun. If you can’t find a different sport you like try going to a speed camp like the ones we offer at Velocity Sports Performance on a regular basis to work on your speed, agility and other general athletic skills needed to elevate your game to the next level.
Adam Johnson, MS, CSCS is the Sports Performance Director at Velocity Sports Performance whose 27,000 square-foot training center is located at 25461 Rye Canyon Road, Santa Clarita. Their web site is www.velocitysp.com/scv.
Football Recovery: Taking Care of Your Body After the Big Game
By Adam Johnson
Most serious football players know what it takes to be at the top. They have to practice regularly, train hard, study their opponent, etc. However many players forget to take care of their bodies after all the hard training and competitions.
At Velocity Sports Performance we are regularly trying to educate our players on the importance of recovery workouts. We will even go so far as to build recovery sessions into the training program of many of our players because we know how hard they are pushing their bodies.
A recovery workout is not necessarily a day off; it is a day to help loosen up tight muscles, excite the nervous system and get the body ready to perform during the next training session.
How is a recovery workout different than a regular training session?
A recovery workout is similar to a normal performance training session with an added emphasis warming-up and stretching muscles out after the session. This type of work helps the body recover faster and ensures that the player will feel and perform their best at practice on Monday.
What does a recovery workout consist of?
We start our recovery sessions with a form of massage called Myo Fascial Release (MFR). Players use a massage tool (e.g., a “Stick” or a foam roller) to massage out any knots that may be in the muscles. These massage tools also help to loosen up the sheath of tissue that surrounds the muscle belly. This helps the muscles to move through a fuller range of motion once the warm-up begins.
Next comes the Active Dynamic Warm-up. This is a series of movements designed to increase the core temperature of the player, lower the viscosity of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and activate or “turn on” certain muscle groups. Normally a warm-up will last 15-25 minutes. However, during a recovery session the warm-up can last as long as 45 minutes. Although this may seem like a long time, many of the movements are done in place and the focus is more on activating certain muscle groups rather than transit or moving exercises.
Following the Active Dynamic Warm-up, players will go into the weight room for a short strength and power session. This abbreviated strength session is design to ensure that players maintain the strength they gained during their pre-season training. We will typically focus on 3-4 exercises in the weight room. We will do one major explosive exercise such as a “snatch”, one strength exercise like back squats, and one supplemental exercise to target any injured or particularly sore areas the players may have. An easy way to still get some abdominal work in is to pair it up with the supplemental exercise. This allows for more work to be done in the same time frame.
Once the strength training has been completed the players will spend 10-15 minutes massaging the muscles again and stretching. Following the massage and stretch session the athlete will ice any sore body parts they have with ice packs or sit in an ice tub for a more full body approach.
If you want to experience the same recovery techniques used by NFL and college players, feel free to check out our Recovery class on Saturdays for high school athletes and Sundays for our youth and middle school athletes.
Adam Johnson, MS, CSCS is the Sports Performance Director at Velocity Sports Performance whose 27,000 square-foot training center is located at 25461 Rye Canyon Road, Santa Clarita. Their web site is www.velocitysp.com/scv.
A Question of Strength
By Adam Johnson, Velocity Sports Preformance (7/5)
It is widely accepted that strength training is an important part of a football player’s training regimen. I would have to say that almost 90% of the football players that come to train at Velocity Sports Performance come in with one of their main goals to be increasing their strength. Depending on the age, training experience, and the position of the player I need to determine what kind of strength they need to work on the most.
Principle of Speed
By Adam Johnson, Velocity SP (5/7/08)
When an athlete comes to Velocity Sports Performance to train we initially ask them for three goals they wish to accomplish. It is almost guaranteed that one of those goals will be to run faster. That can mean increasing their first step quickness so they can explode off the line or increasing their speed endurance so they are a scoring threat down the field.
