Whatever you can do, they can do better...

We are now into the 3rd week of our Summer Speed, Strength and Power (SSP) Camps and a few things are very apparent.

1. The younger kids are, the quicker they seem to learn. In just two weeks of training, the camp we have been running for NOR has seen some amazing improvements! From running technique to deceleration to landing technique, these kids have improved by amounts I was not expecting! And this keeps them safer during play, as well as improves their running speed, lateral movement and overall fun!

2. The girls are just crushing the boys in each of our 3 camps. The average ratio of boys:girls in our camps are 2:1. Our NOR camp has just 1 girl out of 14 kids in the camp. Yet the girls CONSISTENTLY out-perform the boys in acceleration, agility, foot-speed and quickness. The only thing the boys have over the girls is strength. And even then if we measure strength relative to body weight, the girls are almost even with the boys.

3. We need to do more of these. Almost daily I hear from the parents how much their kids enjoy the program and they ask if we do this during the school year. We absolutely do these during the school year. But it seems that practice and games for 3 different baseball leagues that Junior is signed up for takes precedence over movement skill training. Remember, movement skills are the foundation for sports skills. If an athlete has poor movement skills, then sport skills are going to be more difficult to teach. If a child can control their body with precision, then teaching sport skills becomes infinitely easier. Heck, it'll make the most basic instruction have a major impact and sport coaches will think they are all of a sudden Vince Lombardi.

So we will be starting a second Summer SSP camp for the junior group. The new camp will start on July 12 and run through August 4th. Meeting times are Tues/Thurs from 1-2:30. Ages for this camp are from 8-12. We would love to have more baseball and soccer players showing up. Although this camp is open to athletes of all sports.

If you have any questions about the Speed, Strength and Power Camp or just general questions about speed, agility and quickness, feel free to send us an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com! We hope to see you on July 12th!

The best way to train speed...

Many sports performance coaches, trainers and facilities say they are "research based." But often times their research consists of nothing more than a quick perusing of YouTube to see what the latest gadget is.

But we at Pair & Marotta do read A LOT of research. We understand how specific exercises train the muscular system and what techniques work the best. So today we'll cover a very HOT topic: Methods for Speed Training.

Everybody loves speed. They love to watch players literally move like electricity and yet do it so smoothly. But how do we train it? Should we use parachutes? Bands? Sleds? Hills?

In the most recent edition of the "Strength & Conditioning Journal" Matthew Behrens, MS and Shawn Simonson, EdD reviewed the options for improving sprint speed. Here is my brief summary.

The first point is that there are two parts to improving speed: Stride frequency and stride length. The authors state that assisted sprinting is used to improve stride rate. Stride rate is otherwise known as the speed that the legs are moving. The legs can move fast, but if they aren't taking long enough steps, then they're literally just "spinning their wheels."

Over speed training can be accomplished using various methods. The first is to be towed. To do this you'll need 2 people or a fixed anchor point. Generally an elastic band is hooked to 2 athletes and the person in the back runs at supra-maximal speeds. I generally describe it to athletes as "running faster than you ever have before." Obviously without the demand on the legs to push harder, they just have to keep up with the body being towed.

The second method the researchers discuss is high-speed treadmill sprinting. This has been demonstrated to be effective, but is usually cost-prohibited in addition to restricting training to 1 person at a time. 

Downhill training is also effective but only at specific angles. The problem with downhill training is that the slope should be a maximum of 2-3 degrees. Usually finding a slope long enough at this angle becomes a problem.

Behrens and Simonson recommend that the best recommendation is assisted towing. This still allows the athlete an acceleration phase but with a much faster top end. One area of concern with over-speed assisted training is the risk of hamstring strains due to a braking effect. If the leg extends too far out during the pull-through of the running cycle, the hamstring attempts to slow the body down and often this is where we see a multitude of hamstring injuries.

Assisted sprinting is used to develop stride frequency. On the other end of the spectrum is resisted sprinting. Resisted sprinting is used to develop stride strength and length. The only 2 options the authors give for resisted training is resisted towing and uphill sprints. 

Resisted Sprinting

The concern regarding resisted sprinting is that if the resistance is too great, sprint mechanics will be altered and as a result the transfer over to normal sprinting will not be as great. As a result, parachutes have been developed as they provide resistance, but not so much that the mechanics are changed. Finding an appropriate hill is also problematic as too steep of an incline will surely change sprinting mechanics.

Although sprint training might seem simple, it is a highly complex topic that takes proper prescription of exercise and drills. Think of training like a prescription medicine. If the dosage is too high, there will be severe side effects and the medicine will be ineffective. If the dosage is too low, the medicine will have minimal effect. In order to train athletes to be their best, you must have the correct prescription.

Fortunately, Pair & Marotta Peak Performance training has the solution: Summer Speed, Strength & Power (SSP) Camp. By attending this 6-week camp, your athletes will get faster, stronger, more powerful, more resistant to injury and have a refined work ethic. We have 2 camps, one for junior athletes age 8-12, and a high school camp for athletes ages 13-18. Camps start June 6. For more information and costs, please contact Aaron@pairmarotta.com or call 661-912-9991 or visit www.pairmarotta.com/fitness.

6 Steps to a Better Athlete - Part 2: Agility

What is agility? If you had to explain it to a parent, could you? Sure most coaches have heard of an agility ladder, but what is it exactly that you are attempting to teach with an agility ladder?

Agility is simply the ability to accelerate for a given distance, decelerate, change direction and re-accelerate.

Teaching agility doesn't require any fancy tools or devices, just a sound understanding of what it is and what physiological principle it relies on. Once that is understood, the practical application of that principle is a piece of cake.

Agility relies on the same principle as plyometric exercise does: the stretch shortening cycle (SSC). The SSC is a series of actions that occur within a muscle. When a quick stretch is placed on a muscle it will contract quicker than if the muscle were held in a stretch and then shortened. 

This is not to say that you train agility in the same way that you train for jump height, just that the principle is the same. Basically, the muscle can contract quicker when it is quickly stretched and then released with a muscle contraction. 

Here is a way i explain it to our young athletes. I got this from Mark Verstegen and it is a terrific way to explain it to kids and parents alike. 

Place your hand flat on your chest with your palm against your chest. Now lift your middle finger down and slam it against your chest as hard and as fast as you can. Pretty quick. But now what I want you to do is take the thumb from your other hand and lift the middle finger of the hand that is on your chest to a quick stretch and then move your thumb. That middle finger comes down a lot quicker. 

The thing is, you didn't have to think about it. Instead the mechanics of the muscle caused it to contract quicker. So in a practical sense, you have to teach the muscle to move faster. 

However, there is one thing that must be considered when training for agility: deceleration. Being able to hit full speed and then decelerate is a very complex skill, one that most kids do incorrectly in a sport setting. 

Now most deceleration takes place by loading only a single leg as that leg is planted and then pushed off of in another direction. One exercise you can do to improve deceleration and strength is a single leg hop to squat. 

Have your players balance on a single leg then jump up. As they come back down have them sink into a single leg squat and tough their shoe laces. This should really open your eyes as to which kids are going to be the most agile. 

Athletes basically have to slow themselves down like a car going from 60-0 mph. This means not only controlling their own body weight, but also controlling the inertia created by their body weight. 

Another exercise that you can use is a lateral bound to squat. This is a similar exercise but focuses more on lateral deceleration. I hope your catching the major concept of agility here. 

To perform the lateral bound, have the athlete balance on a single leg and then jump laterally to the other leg, where upon landing they will squat and touch their shoe lace. Now remember that a squat must come from the hips. If the athlete simply bends at the waist, then this is not going to be very effective and will actually encourage a bad, BAD habit.

Continue to enforce control upon landing, making sure that the foot is perpendicular to the direction of travel. This will make sure the glutes are used in both deceleration and reacceleration.

Stay tuned for the next post as we talk about rhythm and how to incorporate it into your practices for improved movement, speed and agility!

Warm Up to run faster!!

The pre-event warm-up is often the most overlooked aspect of training for improved performance. Take a look at what a "warm-up" is to most coaches and it looks a lot like effortless stretching from players while they joke around and laugh.

But realize that warm-up is not just A time to get faster, it is THE time to get faster on field. And their are many exercises and skill development techniques that can be used as part of a warm-up to make you or your athletes FASTER.

The truth is that great returns can be made on small time investments as long as the effort of exercise is VERY high

Now to avoid the longest blog post yet, I have put together a FREE manual for you titled:

Peak Preparation: A guide to movement preparation

This spring it will be available for purchase. But I want to give it to you for free! All you have to do is send me an email at aaron@pairmarotta.com titled warm-up and I will send you back a copy of the manual in PDF format.

All you have to do is print it off, put it in a binder and BANG...it's ready to take to the field and get put to use THAT DAY. This free manual offer is up Sunday January 25th.

Pair & Marotta Peak Performance is dedicated to improving the fitness of baseball and softball players all over Bakersfield! That is why we are GIVING this away. I'm not trying to make money off of this (yet).

You have only yours and your player's health at risk here. How much is that worth? Hopefully it's worth the time it takes to send me an email and read a 25 page training manual!!

Again, send email aaron@pairmarotta.com and I will email it back to you THAT day!!