To become a better athlete, you must train all components of athleticism

- Speed
- Power
- Strength
- Change of Direction

Don't waste your time on exercises that won't get results

Here are 12 exercises I use with my athletes to build better athleticism, that you can use too: The best training days are ones that train all components of athleticism.

Training only certain aspects will limit your potential as an athlete.

Make sure you are checking all the boxes below to build superior speed, power & strength.

Athletes of all sports know that speed kills.

But many aren’t sure how to train it effectively.

Here are 12 drills you can implement today to improve your speed & acceleration: 1. Backward’s Sprinting

5 Tests To Measure Athleticism

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1. 30m Sprint 2. Accel Decel Ability

7 Speed Drills To Use On Sprint Days

Use these drills on your acceleration days to prepare the body to run at high speeds.

(Bookmark this one to use on your next speed day)

//Thread// Philosophy

We use our sprint drills as a way to prepare the body to move at faster speeds.

A big part of our acceleration drills is to build & strengthen the foot/ankle complex.

These drills can also be done barefoot or overhead to change up the stimulus.

10 Exercises To Improve Acceleration

Use these exercises in your speed program if you are trying to improve force & power.

(Bookmark this for future reference)

//Thread// Philosophy

Acceleration development is critical for the success of all athletes.

There are 3 components of acceleration development:

1) Force (first step)
2) Power (first few steps)
3) Velocity (top speed reached)

Improving all of these aspects will build better speed.

I am in better shape today at 34 years old, than I ever was playing football in high school or college.

Here are 30 things I would do today that I should have been doing back then to maximize my athletic career.

Bookmark this one for future reference.

//Thread// 1. No Alcohol — drinking is poison to the mind & the body.

2. Sprint training 3x/week

3. Resisted sprints with sleds 2x/week

4. Hill sprints performed early in the offseason

4 Tier Total Body Lifting Outline

Use this outline to build out an effective 3 day lifting plan to build high levels of strength.

//Thread// Philosophy

The most effective program we have used with our athletes is a 3 day total body lifting plan.

The reason?

More exposure to lifts throughout the entire week.

On those days:

1) Main Lower
2) Upper Push
3) Accessory Push
4) Upper Pull

8 Fundamental Truths Of Building Elite Athletes

Include these 8 aspects into your training program to improve athleticism & improve play in your sport.

//Thread// 1. Train Consistently All Year

There is no replacement for training consistently year-round.

If you are training for 3 months, then stopping for a month, you will never make long-term progress.

Find a plan that is sustainable & enjoyable for you to train all year long.

It costs $160k+ to get an exercise science degree

You become a better coach for less than $1k & in a fraction of the time by reading these 10 books.

Bookmark this one for future reference. 1. Triphasic Training by Cal Dietz & Ben Peterson

What you'll learn:

- How to effectively train the eccentric, isometric & concentric phases of a lift
- How to structure your lifting program for optimal development of the athlete

5 Step System To Teaching The Clean

Follow this step by step approach to have your athletes cleaning big weight in a short period of time.

//Thread// Philosophy

We follow a 4 week block progression of each of the exercises below.

We start with the bar from day 1.

We follow a top down approach as we have seen athletes progress fast that way.

Athletes should only progress when they show proficiency in the current block.

5 Drills To Develop Max Velocity

Use these drills year round to build high speed in your athletes.

//Thread// 1. Straight Leg Bounds

Exposes the hamstrings to higher speeds then you can achieve in the weight room.

Used with either a shuffle or acceleration into the bound.

Distance can range from 30m-100m depending on the goal.

BUILDING A SUMMER PROGRAM 101

A well rounded sports performance program should include the following aspects:

- Sprints
- Jumps
- Lifts
- Conditioning

Here is a thread on how you can build a high level summer program to optimize the athleticism of your athletes (Continue ⬇️) TRAINING OUTLINE

We will build this program off of a 3 Day Split, following a high/low CNS outline:

HIGH DAYS

- Acceleration Work
- Max Velocity Work
- Plyo's
- Bound's
- Total Body Lift

LOW DAYS

- Extensive Tempo
- MB Circuits
- Lifting Circuits
- COMPLETELY OFF

BUILDING FORCE IN ATHLETES

High horizontal force output is a common quality I see amongst elite athletes.

Ways to train force include:

✅ Heavily Resisted Accels
✅ Deep Position Plyos
✅ Olympic Lifts
✅ Squat Patterns

Here’s a quick thread breaking down ea method (cont ⬇️) GENERAL THOUGHTS

While I have seen high level speed at all level, high levels of force has been the biggest difference b/t players

What is force?

Force = initial push to initiate movement in a sprint

Here is our scoring chart I have collected over the yrs for evaluating

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LOAD VELOCITY PROFILING FOR ACCELERATION

In order to maximize the returns on our resisted acceleration training, we must first profile our athletes

We follow a simple 3 step protocol before we program

Here’s a quick thread on how to load velocity profile your athletes (cont👇🏼) GENERAL THOUGHTS

Just as we profile our athletes for percent work in the weight room, we should be doing the same for our acceleration work.

Since no two athletes accelerate the same way, prescribing by % BW is not an accurate method to use.

This is where LV profile come in.

REDUCING HAMSTRING INJURIES

In my time as a director, we have seen minimal injuries of the hamstring.

In order to reduce the incidence we focus on:

1) Proper Sprint Mechanics
2) Max V Sprints
3) Bounds
4) Posterior Chain Lifts

Here’s a quick thread how we use them (cont ⬇️) 1) PROPER SPRINT MECHANICS

It amazes me to this day how many coaches spend so little time correcting sprint technique.

Why should we focus on sprint technique with team sport athletes?

1) Reduce incidence of injury
2) Improve Athletic Outputs

Being fast isn’t good enough

BUILDING A HOLISTIC PROGRAM FROM SCRATCH

With the onset of the new year, our players are going to be starting new offseason program consisting of:

- Sprints
- Jumps
- Lifts

Here is a quick thread on how you can build a program to maximize athletic potential (continue ⬇️): 1. GENERAL

3x a week frequency have been the programs we’ve had the most success with.

45 min sprint —> 45 min lift

We undulate our load & intensity throughout the week (med —> high —> low)

Every training day is considered HIGH CNS days w/ our off days being our LOW CNS days

TEACHING THE SNATCH

We follow a top down approach when teaching our players:

- OH Squat
- Hang Snatch From Power Position
- Hang Snatch From Below Knee
- Power Snatch + OH Squat*
- Snatch*

Here’s a quick breakdown of how we teach & utilize each one of these (continue ⬇️) 1. OVERHEAD SQUAT

Even though we won’t do full snatches with our team sport athletes, the OH Squat is a great way to assess strength/mobility along the full kinetic chain.

We will groove this pattern in our GPP blocks

If they can do the OH Squat correctly, they can do anything

We run a HIGH/LOW speed & conditioning program:

HIGH - raise the ceiling of acceleration & peak velocity abilities

LOW - develop the aerobic quality to promote recovery & support higher outputs

Here’s a quick breakdown about how we train each (continue ⬇️) 1. SPEED

We do the following weekly breakdown for our speed work:

- Acceleration 2x/wk (resisted & unresisted combination)
- Peak Velocity 1x/wk (flys, drive floats)

All of our sprint work is supported by:

- Med Ball Throws
- Jumps
- Bounds
- Lifts

The number one way to improve speed is through SPRINTING.

These secondary methods also play a huge role in the development of speed:

- Ignition Series
- Throws
- Jumps/Bounds
- Lifts

Here’s a quick breakdown of each one of those categories & how we use them (continue ⬇️): 1. SPEED IGNITION SERIES

These are drills done at high speeds, w/ good technical emphasis:

- A Series
- Sled March
- Bounce Series
- Power/Speed Skips
- Prance
- Gallop
- Strike Drill
- Bkwds Run

Main goal is providing a strong stimulus to potentiate the CNS for sprinting.

PROGRAMMING 101

If you are working out 3x/week, your training should include the following each day;

1) Sprints
2) Jumps
3) Lifts

Here’s a brief description about how we attack each part of our workout (continue ⬇️) 1. SPRINTS

Broken down into 4 key areas for us:

- Acceleration
- Max Velocity
- Tempo
- COD

We train acceleration 2x/wk because our results showed that 2x was the necessary stimulus we needed to elicit change.

Max velocity in the middle after our acceleration priming day.

Every player is different but our assessments usually put our athletes into one of the following categories:

- Force dominant
- Balanced
- Velocity dominant

Here’s a quick breakdown of how we go about training our weak areas based on our assessments (continue ⬇️) 1. GENERAL COMMENTS

It’s up to you as the coach to determine sport & positional needs & gear your training towards the quality you desire most.

Since acceleration is king in team sports, we aim for our athletes to be more force dominant/balanced in their athletic profile.