3 Overlooked Factors in Power Development for Athletes

February 16, 2015

1 – The brains intent

Most people believe that the only way to increase power is to use light loads and high speed. This is not the case. It has been shown that it is actually the brain’s intent that determines the adaptation to high-speed lifting. So as long as you concentrate on accelerating the bar, no matter how fast the bar actually travels, you will get the same results as high speed lifting at a lighter load.

This is not to say that plyometric exercises such as depth jumps, box jumps, throws etc. don’t have a place in the development of power, they do, I just feel that most people over use these methods without having a solid base of maximal strength, or they tend to neglect the heavier work which in the long run holds back their development in speed.

When training athletes for power I like to keep the reps low (1-5) so that the high threshold motor units are recruited. If you use higher reps than this more slow twitch fibers are recruited even if you concentrate on accelerating the bar.

Purposely training at slow speeds can increase maximal strength levels but leads to less power output. I tend to use slow speed lifts in the early or general preparation phases of an athlete’s program and progress them to higher speed movements as competition becomes closer.

2 – Neglecting maximal strength work

It is important to remember that threshold levels of maximal strength are needed before a fast lift can be improved. I learnt this from Charles Poliquin. An example he uses is that if you want to power snatch 100kg, you won’t be able to do so until you can full squat between 184kg and 194kg. No amount of power snatches will get you to lift 100kg until you have reached the numbers on your full back squat.

This is why we test our athletes in the power snatch, power clean, front squat, and back squat, we use the data gained to determine the amount of time we devote to power or maximal strength development.

3 – Not resting long enough between sets

Rest periods are also an important factor when training for the development of power. When I watch athletes train for power their rest interval is generally far too short to recover between sets to be able to exert maximal force. The nervous system takes five to six times longer to recover than the muscular system. So although your muscles may not feel tired,you still need to take into account the recovery of your nervous system. This could be anywhere between 3-4 minutes, up to 5 minutes, to be able to repeat efforts at these high intensities.

So to develop power in athletes you can still use heavy loads that may travel at what seems to be a slow speed, as long as the athlete focuses on trying to accelerate the bar as fast as possible. Maximal strength levels play a very important role in how effective your power development can be. You need to be able to determine what your limiting factors are and where to orientate your training for 

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Sprint Training Tips

December 15, 2016

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Nathan Waters

Sprint training isn’t something I spend a lot of time on with my athletes. I spend more time in the gym correcting imbalances and getting the athletes strong. I feel this is the biggest bang for your buck when time is restricted as they get a lot of speed and agility work from the demands of their sport anyway. Their biggest limiting factor tends to be imbalances and lack of strength. If I were to perform more sprint sessions with my athletes then these are some general guidelines I follow.

When training for pure speed, it is important to focus on the quality of movements performed during the session and not just the quantity. You will see sessions performed where guys are just going through the motions with no attention to the details of each drill. This is pointless and you are just accumulating fatigue. You want to make sure each rep of each set is perfect. Training is about trying to ingrain the correct movement pattern into the brain so that when it comes time to compete and when you are under fatigue those are the movements you naturally resort to. If you perform them sloppy at each session then when you are under fatigue, how do you expect to maintain technique and speed?

Another thing to consider is how often you perform full speed or near full speed sprints and the distances you should cover. Personally for most field athletes I would keep the distances relatively short, working mostly on starts and maintaining speed over 30 to 60m max. If they are fast in the first few steps then they can beat defenders and accelerate away from them and if they can maintain that speed for 30 to 60m then generally they finish off and score points.

After each sprint session you must focus on complete recovery. The central nervous system (CNS) is heavily taxed when performing all out efforts so to keep the quality you must recover not only between drills and sprints but also between sessions. You will learn much better when you are fresh and you will also feel it in your performance feeling a much better flow in your technique then if you done it fatigued. Speed work should only be done twice a week in my opinion with about 72 hours rest between sessions.

During a sprint workout you have to know when to call it a day. It is the same as in the gym. We call this the critical drop off point. When the quality begins to deteriorate it is time to stop the speed work and move on to something else or go home. As they say garbage work equals garbage results. More is not always better.

When sprinting, it is also important to try and stay relaxed. Personally I find this very difficult but you should try to keep the face and shoulders relaxed and maintain correct arm action. They are the biggest tips I think most people, especially athletes get wrong. Leg turnover is generally quite good but the arm action is tough to master and needs to be focused on a lot during your drills and tempo runs.

This is far from an exhaustive list of tips but hopefully it sparks some ideas on how you can best implement sprint sessions into your program if you desire to.

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Recovery