Nowadays, speed training is all the rage in almost every sport. You can find “coaches” marketing weekend camps or group training at schools and parks everywhere. Because it’s so heavily marketed to teams and groups, you feel like you’ll be left in the dust if you don’t do it.
I think we can all agree that teaching the mechanics of running is essential for beginners because technique and form are necessary for achieving maximal speed. But with so much emphasis placed on getting faster, what is a parent or athlete to do?
In my opinion, “speed training” is the latest fad to squeeze money out of misinformed coaches, parents, and athletes. Some parents are usually torn between choosing to pay for speed training or strength training. Well, I’m pretty sure you can guess my answer to this dilemma! The biggest bang for your buck is achieved through strength training. The stronger you are, the more force you’ll be able to apply to the ground, which will make you faster.
To get faster, strength training is paramount because:
- Force = mass x acceleration
- Power = force x velocity
You’ll also get better triple extension (locking of the ankle, knee, and hip). We all want to develop more force and power, but what does triple extension have to do with all this? Without locking at the hip, knee, and ankle, maximal jumping and sprinting can’t be accomplished. Triple extension is the key to a faster athlete.
Let’s take a look at the NFL combine. The combine is made up of a series of tests—the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, broad jump, bench press, three-cone drill, and shuttle run. Five out of these six events are lower body dominant, and they test the athlete’s ability to explode from a static position to an all out sprint, jump, or lateral shuffle. Guys running a 40-yard dash under 4.25 seconds are very hard to come by. If you can achieve this type of speed at a combine, you can pretty much assure yourself a very lucrative contract. Tenths of a second can mean the difference between thousands or millions of dollars for certain athletes.
Each position player is looked at as a whole, but the hips and legs are highly scrutinized so separating yourself from the pack is very important. With that being said, quickness is brought about by explosive movements such as cleans, snatches, squats, deadlifts, tire flips, and other movements. I’m willing to bet that the guys who stand out on these tests put in a lot of time performing these types of lifts!
Take a look at a basketball player going up for a blocked shot or a slam dunk. He explodes off the ground by applying as much pressure as possible in order to get as high as possible. Triple extension is very important for all jumping movements. With a proper weight training program, athletes can increase their vertical jump and speed and decrease their chances of injury.
Most people wouldn’t think that swimmers need to lift weights let alone incorporate triple extension exercises. But they have to start somewhere and usually it’s on land. If they’re competing in the backstroke, they push away from the wall with an explosive jump. The weights don’t have to be heavy in order to increase the power derived from triple extension. Jumping or deadlifting with light weight can make a big difference in a swimmer’s starting strength.
Wrestlers definitely need to utilize strength training because they are constantly battling an opponent’s weight and strength. However, do they need to encompass triple extension exercises? Of course. They’re creating tremendous power and force with every throwing movement. For this, we use different types of cleans with dumbbells, kettlebells, and sandbags in order to strengthen their hips. The tremendous grip work involved is an added bonus of performing cleans.
Being a coach, my ultimate goal is to get my clients stronger and faster than their opponents. I teach them technique first, and as they improve, I increase the resistance and workload specific to the demands of their sport. Running around cones and ladders won’t increase their speed nearly as well as a quality strength training program. Time invested in a weight room will yield better results than running with a parachute strapped to your back. It doesn’t matter what surface they compete on—by achieving powerful triple extension through the ankle, knee, and hip, we can create explosive and powerful athletes!
PDF 
Mike Rojas is the owner and coach at STRONG 101 GYM, located in Corona, California. He trains athletes ranging from middle school up to the professional level as well as all tactical personnel. His main goal is to help his clients excel in and out of their sport. If you would like more information about Mike and his gym, visit www.Strong101Gym.com. 
Good article Mike. It goes back to an article written previously on Elitefts when comparing Olympic weightlifters to sprinters. The weightlifters can hang at first, not because they have good running mechanics, but because they can exert a ridiculous amount of force production during the initial ground contact. I am not going to lie, I have been a part of a gym where we advertised for a speed camp, while the parents were looking we went over sprint mechanics (b/c that is what they want to see, is there child learning how to swing their arms and drive their knees and lean forward), when the parents left we had the kids squatting a deadlifting.
excellent article… I have seen first hand many of these “speed camps” put on by personal trainers to attract naive parents to spend money. They use agility ladders, cones, bands and parachutes to make it look like the kids are working hard, which they are, but they aren’t working efficiently. I’ve seen a CSCS use all sorts of gimmicks with his athletes but one… working on plyos and strength.
goes to what good people already know.. hammer home the basics and it falls together,
Great article Mike. I have put speed clinics and camps together. The message I try to get across to the parents is that strength training should be the foundation of their program and where they make the quickest impact. My hardest sell is to teach the parents that development is a year round commitment. It is what you eat, how you recover, and how you adjust the strength training or speed training cycles.
Thanks for the feedback brothas… I appreciate all the comments, questions and information you guys post. Keep kickin’ ass!
“The biggest bang for your buck is achieved through strength training. The stronger you are, the more force you’ll be able to apply to the ground, which will make you faster.”
This is a pretty absolute statement here. I think you have it wrong on this one. First of all what age group/s are you talking about? If you are talking about 11 year olds then hopefully they are doing some sprint work, working on mechanics along with calisthenics, and maybe some Med ball work all done concurrently. Why would you choose strength training over speed work? That makes absolutely no sense. Hopefully you would do both. It shouldn’t even be an issue of “strength training” or “speed training” It should be about a qualified coach being able to design a physical preparation program based on age, sport, if they are old enough, and the athlete’s current physical development. Getting someone stronger is the easy part.
Just because you are stronger in a general sense doesn’t mean you will necessarily be a faster sprinter. This doesn’t mean that you have good mechanics i.e. explosive paw back action, arm swing, more explosive hip flexion, powerful ankle joint extension ect. There is more to being fast than applying more force to a barbell even if you attempt to move it fast. Even more important is the fact that at a young age sprint work along with multiple bodyweight movements are much more useful than “strength training” in the weight room.
Maximum strength training will only increase speed up to a certain point. Hopefully the coach knows when a player’s squat is high enough to succeed on the football field.
“Triple extension is the key to a faster athlete.”
I just don’t get why “triple extension” is such a big deal?? It seems like this term was made up by some football coach to advocate Olympic lifting for football. Has anyone ever done a scientific study on football games to see how often “triple extension” occurs? When you are making a tackle “triple extension” becomes extremely immaterial. Oh, and by the way if you ever watch Olympic lifting videos of great lifters you will quickly notice that their ankle joints extend VERY little. So where’s the “triple extension”??
During sprinting the knee joint actually stays slightly bent throughout the entire movement accept during the first part of acceleration.
“With that being said, quickness is brought about by explosive movements such as cleans, snatches, squats, deadlifts, tire flips, and other movements.”
You forgot to mention: Sprints, vertical jumps, single leg jumps, box jumps, Change of direction work, broad jumps, jumping over objects, jumps up stairs, split squat jumps, med ball throws- all of which are a great deal easier to perform then the Olympic lifts and their variations, and present a MUCH MUCH SMALLER stress to the joints; especially the shoulder, wrist, knees and low back. This should not be overlooked. They are also much more explosive than dead lifts, squats, and tire flips.
“The weights don’t have to be heavy in order to increase the power derived from triple extension. Jumping or deadlifting with light weight can make a big difference in a swimmer’s starting strength.”
Power is not derived from “triple extension.” Power is derived from applying large amounts of force in a small amount of time. Just because you apply a lot of force to a barbell doesn’t mean that you create large amounts of power. A large amount of power is a result of an optimal grouping of the weight of an object and the speed of movement. I think you kind of made my argument for me here. Various types of jumps, sprint work, agility, and med ball work are fully sufficient for the development of explosive strength for athletes who do not compete in Olympic weightlifting.
This is for Tyler who mentioned the study about weightlifters keeping up with elite sprinters.
I have not seen this study, but I do not doubt that this is true. Where this argument loses is the fact that if they were elite weightlifters then of course they are extremely explosive because weightlifting is the only sport they competed in. They lift EXTREMELY LARGE amounts of weight. An 85kg (187lb) pound Olympic caliber weightlifter can clean and jerk about 450 lbs. The world record is 479.6 lbs. A high school or college running back or linebacker power cleaning their measly little 275 or even 315 3x 5 with pitiful technique ain’t gonna cut it. Don’t even waste an athlete’s time with 185….
Mike, a great article, but like some people said it really depends on age! I am 20 years old and am a student strength and conditioning intern at a top basketball school in the country. With our athletes we do perform a lot of triple extension work, especially squats (single and double), lunges, etc. When I am not training athletes at school I run “speed camps” for 7-11 year olds. I will be the first one to admit, these kids could accomplish a lot of what we do at camp on their own at home, if they had any type of desire to get out and play, but they don’t.
As a 10 year old I began training at the original Parisi’s facility and absolutely hated it. They had about a 30 to 1 kid to instructor ratio, and there were all levels of athletes in the groups. After working on my 40yd dash form and squatting all the time I got so sick of it that I told my parents I didn’t want to do it anymore. It almost scared me away from strength training for life as I didnt start working out again for about 5 years.
While everyone believes places like Parisi’s have great programs that involve triple extension, they do not understand these facilities inability to cater to all of their clients. Kids do not need to work on jumping, triple extension endless sprinting and 40yd dash techniqique. Kids need to play. To work on explosveness with my kids at our “speed camps” we have broad jump competitions, overhead soccer ball throws, some ladder drills, and even sumo wrestling.
Again, Mike I think its a great article, but you cant forget to specify who it is referring to.
Jimmy: You are correct, I should have put the age groups I am talking about… I am referring to Athletes from 12 yrs old and above. We don’t train any kids under 12 at our gym, it’s a personal choice due to the lack of coordination and strength in some kids. Puberty is hard to fight when a kids shoe size is an 11, and they are 5 feet tall. I appreciate the feedback!
SB: Thanks for your comments as well…
Mike,
We had talked about this topic a while back. You and I are on the same wave length bro. I always tell my kids you can’t get faster, generally speaking, without getting stronger. Yes, the mechanics of running are very important, and once learned can often lead to an immediate increase in speed, however after that one has to increase their level of strength in order to see more gains. Keep up the great work bruddah!