Athletes come to me to get faster. Over time, we address lots of things, but the big successes I celebrate are athletes running faster times with greater efficiency. At some level, my business exists to prove that speed is a skill and that everyone can improve it.
Speed is built on a foundation of power, both concentric rate-of-force development (referred to as “explosiveness”) and elastic force return (referred to as “bounciness”). Both types of power depend on tissue qualities and on neuromuscular qualities. Explosiveness is easier to quantify, since many movements to develop it can be done with large external loads or measured on the order of tens of centimeters. Bounciness is harder to quantify, since it is only really measured in ground reaction forces and milliseconds. With such acute sensitivity, bounciness work either doesn’t get done at all or gets dramatically overdone. Both extremes prevent athletes from getting faster!
This little series breaks down the HOW of fast running. We’ll explore that using the elements of the Speed Drill Warmup that every athlete in my program learns.
[Part 1: A Series] | [Part 2: Lunge Series] | [Part 3: Bounce Series] | [Part 4: Easy Series] | [Part 5: Push Series]
Full SHIFT Speed Drill Warmup
This third article is all about the Bounce Series. Before that, though, here’s the full Speed Drill Warmup, with each drill done over 20 meters except the ones marked with an asterisk:
- Forward Skip
- Backward Skip
- Tall Lateral Shuffle R/L
[easy series] - Stepover Lunge
- Snap Lunge
- Rocket Lunge
[lunge series] - A March
- A Skip
- A Cycle
[A series] - Quick Straight-leg Run*
- Straight-leg Bound
- Bound
[push series] - 5-Box*
- 1-leg 5-Box R/L*
- Big Split*
[bounce series]
Why Athletes Have to Bounce To Run Faster
A drills were used to practice posture. Lunge drills were used to practice acceleration mechanics. Fundamentally, Bounce drills are used to develop top speed qualities.
Top speed qualities are poorly understood and developed irresponsibly.
Ground contact time in sprinters ranges from 0.08 seconds at the elite level to 0.15 seconds at the intermediate level.
Vertical force ranges from several multiples of body weight to barely 50% over bodyweight.
Stride frequency ranges from nearly five cycles per second to barely three cycles per second. These numbers aren’t really comprehensible, so they are difficult to plan progressive training around. Coaches and athletes do jump training with no sense of how much is too many or how hard is too hard.
(There are no easy numbers here, as sprint power calculations are so complex that they are typically discovered empirically rather than predicted analytically.
But consider a 60kg athlete and a simplified unit of measure, load per second. At 3X BW and 0.10 sec GCT that’s 1,800 kg/s. At 1.5X BW and 0.15 sec GCT that’s 600 kg/s. The point is that there are big differences in impact at higher speeds.)
The three Bounce drills used in the Speed Drill Warmup are not progressions. They are gates. When an athlete is slow off the ground in one of the drills or feels uncoordinated, we change the plan for the day. If one of these drills feels wrong, either top speed or max-effort acceleration (or both) is also going to feel wrong, so we drop that part of the plan for less demanding training.
Technical Cues in the 5-Box
- Up & over
- Bounce *or* Landing = Jumping
- High & Far
Up & over means tucking your heels to your butt as you swing your knees forward.
This should look and feel familiar because it is the same range of motion as the Stepover Lunge and the same speed as the Snap Lunge. Visualize jumping over a series of duffel bags, low boxes, or short training hurdles. The 5-Box is simply a set of hurdle hops without external implements. So get your feet up!
Bounce means striking the ground hard so you get right back into the air.
Plyometrics are badly misunderstood. Sprinting is the most relevant plyometric exercise to speed development that there is. In sprinting, you want your foot on the ground for the least possible time. You want your foot to arrive to the ground in the most vertical position possible relative to your hips. And you want your foot strike to maintain or further elevate your hips, so they can keep flying forward through space. All plyometrics should support these demands: least time on the ground, most vertical position, elevate the hips. You cannot bounce if you are soft anywhere in your body. Anticipate the ground when you do the 5-Box; strike the ground; bounce off the ground. Thus, landing and jumping should be the same experience.
High & far means produce as much force as possible.
Vertical forces against the ground are essential to speed maintenance but horizontal forces are what your tissues must manage during sprinting. Start rehearsing that complex blend of neuromuscular demands by pushing as high as you can and as far forward as you can with every jump of the 5-Box. This trains faster hip extension, enforces strict ankle dorsiflexion (you can’t control this combination of force vectors with a plantar-flexed foot strike), and high intention for power production.
Technical Cues In The 1-leg 5-Box
The transition from two legs to one leg in any exercise increases loads by much more than double. With two legs, your center of mass tends to project to the ground between your feet, meaning you are balanced. Thus all force production can be dedicated to propulsion.
With one leg, your center of mass can project to the ground at an uncountable number of orientations compared to your foot, meaning you are almost never balanced. Thus force must be spent stabilizing your body in space. Now, combine that stabilization need with the three technical cues from the 5-Box: up & over, bounce, high & far…
In “The Warmup As Evaluation” I described this sequence of drills I use before sprint training as “a painfully honest assessment of how ready I really am to go.” The 1-leg 5-Box is a loud and critical assessment of your readiness to sprint.
If you can’t find balance, you shouldn’t sprint today.
If you can’t bounce, you shouldn’t sprint today.
If you can’t go high & far, you shouldn’t sprint today.
If your left leg feels much different than your right leg, you shouldn’t sprint today!
“Up & over” is unique. If you can’t tuck your heel up and over during a 1-leg jump, you either lack mobility or you lack strength that will be essential to your long-term speed development. Go back to the Stepover Lunge to assess your tissue qualities before you work too hard at bouncing.
Technical Cues In The Big Split
Pause.
Pay close attention: only track & field athletes use the Big Split.
One more time: I do NOT prescribe the Big Split to any field sport athletes.
Seriously, hear what I am saying: the Big Split is an incredible plyometric and coordination exercise, but it carries enormous risk to athletes with frequent ankle sprains, groin strains, or impacts in competition. The Big Split can be done safely by anyone (with modifications and appropriate progression). But you don’t need it unless you are an intermediate or higher-level track athlete.
Most of you should not do the Big Split as part of your Speed Drill Warmup. For track athletes, and only those who have spent 20+ practices with the other drills, the technical cues in the Big Split are as follow:
- Split long
- Punch
- Hang time
Split long means pull your front knee as high as possible and press your back knee as far backward as possible on each rep. This drill alternates, so you create large elastic responses in the hip extensors (front leg) and hip flexors (back leg) by splitting as long as you can. Practicing those elastic responses supports the “split & rip” approach to acceleration mechanics, prepares your pelvis for the shearing forces of the transition phase, and primes your nervous system for elastic return through the hip flexor during top speed. Big Split is a sprinter’s way of “checking the weather” on their own body before attacking a full-effort rep.
Punch means swing your fists quickly and aggressively in “natural” sequence with your legs. Natural refers to your left hand swinging forward as your right knee swings forward. But natural doesn’t mean relaxed or gentle. It means coordinated naturally. During the Big Split, you have to punch your arms just as violently as you split your legs. This prepares your shoulders for elastic return with timing specific to sprinting.
Hang time means be in the air in your split position for as long as possible. You want your feet to snap to the ground. By snapping your feet down, you experience a larger ground reaction force. Since you have no heels (revisit your A drills cues!), that leads to much larger elastic forces at your lower leg. This is good training for the marginal increases in elastic power essential to sprint specialization.
How Bounce Drills Relate To The SHIFT Speed Drill Warmup
The task of the SHIFT Speed Drill Warmup is to practice the elements of effective sprinting at paces and in positions which leave you time to think about where your body is in space.
When sprinting, your body will utilize every unit of force you are capable of producing in the ground contact time required. If you cannot absorb and rebound enough force, you will spend more time on the ground so more tissues can manage that load. Plyometrics are used to practice absorbing and rebounding forces in less time. Intense plyometrics should be done in extremely limited volumes and only when you are fresh enough to stay coordinated. Since sprinting itself is the most violent and transferrable plyometric to sprinting, “lesser” plyometric drills can be used to evaluate your readiness to sprint.
The 5-Box, 1-leg 5-Box, and Big Split are those lesser plyometric drills. They can still develop elastic power. They can still condition your body for sprinting. But when you notice they feel sluggish or inconsistent, that is a strong sign from your brain and body that you should not sprint today.
Ultimately, this is the abuse coaches commit with intensive plyometrics: without teaching you how to notice you aren’t ready to sprint, you may be pushed through a training program with large forces, quick contacts, and high volume when your body isn’t prepared to tolerate it. Elastic tissues become stiff (“inelastic”) when underused. Elastic tissues become loose (“unresponsive”) when overused. Both result in slower running times.
Take the signals your body gives you throughout this Speed Drill Warmup, especially its shouts and cries during Bounce drills on your tired days. Better to rest a day or two, then come back ready to run fast than to risk making yourself slow. You know why by now: Fast Kids don’t train slow.
Next up: the easy series – if you can believe it, these are plyometrics, too!