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Reactive / Speed / Quickness Training for Athletes

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:53:43 +0000

Reactive / Speed / Quickness

Training for Athletes

When you think about speed, quickness and reactive movements you immediately think of jumps, agility drills, jumping and maybe even perhaps some overspeed running with bands?
CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST AFTER THE JUMP
Yes, those strength training means are one part of the equation.

The 5 Senses

You must use the senses in your training. Especially with athletes. I’m not talking about tasting a kettlebell, I’m speaking specifically about harnesses sight and hearing. The next-step, unconscious patterning of actual practice and gameplay can be heightened and developed in the weightroom.

Sight & Hearing

If we can isolate the importance of sight and hearing with our athletes it does many things. They become sharper, they can “turn on” when they need to faster, they can make their movements without thought and without hesitation.

How Do We Do Speed, Quickness and Reactive Training in the Gym?

It is simple, all we need is a tennis ball.

I am going to show you one of the ways I specifically training my athletes to get faster and improve their speed. In this video, two MMA fighters are working on their quickness. We use this technique early in the workout when they are fresh and can demonstrate as much power as possible.

Another benefit is this display of power in non-optimal. There is NO PATTERN. Only reaction. Their is NO PLANNING, only reaction.

Drill 1: Visual Target / No Visual Cue (VISUAL SPECIFIC)

The athlete can see there target (the tennis ball) but do not know when I am going to drop them. They MUST grab the ball before it hits the ground TWICE. Notice in the video, their movement. Multi-planar, non-patterned and very explosive.

Drill 2: No Visible Target / With Verbal Cue (VERBAL SPECIFIC)

This time the athlete will not be able to see the target, they must listen for the verbal cue. Their hearing is heightened. Only until the movement is initiated can they turn around and IMMEDIATELY have to find the target as fast as they can.

Drill 3: No Visible Target / No Verbal Cue

In this drill, the athlete will stand in front of a wall and grab the tennis ball without any visual cue or verbal cue. This is the ultimate test and proficiency of hand-eye coordination is developed very fast. You will see immediate improvement after the first session.

Stay tuned for my next installment, where the chaotic environment is turned up a notch.

Hope you enjoyed the drills, please “like” the video on YouTube.

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Speed Training for Athletes

Jedd Johnson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:52:02 +0000

Speed Training for Athletes – Two Factor Strength Training

When discussing speed training applications for athletes, there are numerous factors to consider.

Some of which include:

improving stride length
improving stride frequency
improving leg drive
improving transverse hip to shoulder action, ie. rigidity (resistance to movement), mobility for the sporting action (remember, mobility is specific to the action), removal of soft-tissue abnormalites
improving the strength of arm action; drive speed and turnover
improving individual and synergistic kinetic segment stability (where appropriate) and mobility (where appropriate)
improving RFD (rate of force development) and reactivity
decreasing ground contact time

increasing sporting age, ie. speeding time developing technique over a long period
improving maximal upper, lower and full body strength levels through the incorporation of various CKCE’s – closed kinetic chain exercises.

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on developing the strength of the posterior chain which falls under 1, 2, 3 and 7 above.

Two Factor Training

When engaging in closed-chained strength training movements, there are two options.

Factor 1: Unilateral

Examples include; step-ups, lunges, split jumps, 1 leg RDL’s

Lunges of Death Will Bust You Up

Factor 2: Bilateral

Examples include; squats, deadlifts, RDL’s, good mornings

___________________________________

The exercise we are demonstrating today are RDL’s.

But not your typical RDL’s.

How to execute conventional RDL’s:

1. Brace your abdominals and with an upright, neutral posture, unrack the loaded barbell from the power cage.

2. Take as few steps back as possible and setup with a shoulder width foot position.

3. Reset your air, brace your abdominals outward and start moving your hips backward while keeping the bar scraping your legs as the bar moves downward.

NOTE: DO NOT BEND OVER!!! MOVE YOUR HIPS BACK

4. When the bar reaching a position right below your knees, extend back to the starting position with a powerful glute contraction.

5. Do not let the bar move away from your legs.

6. Reset your air and repeat.

For the purposes of our demonstration today we are showing a variation to the RDL.

Beyond the Range (BTR) Sumo RDL

This movement is the same as the conventional movement but is done with a sumo stance and on an elevated surface. The elevated surface increasing the range of motion (ROM). The sumo stance allows the foot position to be turned outward and the wide position engages the gluteus medius (one of the external rotators of the hip and essential for unilateral (gait, running) strength and stability) to a greater extent. As you can see we also overloaded the lockout with jumpstretch bands.

Now if we can improve our lower body strength, specifically improving hip extension AND improving the deceleration of hip flexion, we will improve:

stride length
stride frequency
leg drive
maximal lower body strength levels through the incorporation of various CKCE’s – closed kinetic chain exercises.

Quick Note: If you engage a movement in one anatomical plane of motion your decelerate its antagonistic counterpart. This is VERY important to understand when programing for athletes.

Also remember when the muscles that externally rotate and extend the hip are weak, there is more prevalence of anterior knee pain. (Ireland et al. (1))

I actually recommend this movement over good mornings for young athletes. It is a safe alternative where you can let the bar go if you are in trouble and it is very easy to teach. It also is a greater progressional training movement for the conventional RDL’s AND the transition of the 1st to 2nd pull in the clean and snatch.

Other exercises to activate the glutes are: clam shells, X-band walks, glute bridges

BTR SUMO STANCE RDL’s


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Sale Starts Tonight, Don’t Forget the Bonus

Jedd Johnson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:44:46 +0000

The sale for Truth About Quickness starts tonight.

I actually got a sneak peak at the whole system (don’t tell Alex) and stole the image for the complete system. I don’t even know if anyone has this yet

Now, of course this is a blatant attempt to sell you something, but here is the cool thing!

If you purchase Alex and Kelly Baggett’s new speed and quickness system from my link above you get the following from me for FREE:

NOTE: ONLY FOR THE FIRST 50 PEOPLE TO ORDER THROUGH MY LINK!

Deadlift Fundamentals Manual 101
Deadlift Fundamentals 101 Video
Explosive Med Ball Training ebook
Advanced Kettlebell Training I
And you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of my best selling Combat Core Double DVD set!

All you have to do is purchase Alex’s product and forward me your Clickbank email receipt as your proof of purchase and I’ll send you your free stuff. Don’t forget about your chance to win my renowned DVD set.

Click here to check out the new speed and quickness training system.