I got my formal degrees in exercise science from 4 year colleges, but I learned far more useful track and field training methods and philosophies through regularly scanning the forums of elitetrack.com. At the helm of this fantastic website is Biomechanics PhD, recent Vancouver Whitecaps fitness coach and owner of Athletic Lab: Dr. Mike Young. Mike has a background in track and field that branched out into team sport preparation.
We have a lot to learn from these coaches, because track is a sport where the only thing that matters is in the end is the improvement of time and distance. These results come from optimizing an athlete’s movement skill and building a precision training program to optimally assess and distribute workloads. Having a good handle in these areas can give a team sport athlete that extra edge over their competitor, and is a worthwhile area of study for any coach. I have given Mike 5 questions regarding speed, sprint technique and technology when it comes to training team sport athletes.
Are there any differences in coaching acceleration or top end speed technique for team sport players vs. track and field?
Mike Young:Â Yes and no. The physics necessary to accelerate are the same. To move forward you must apply a horizontal force in the opposite direction. The larger the horizontal force applied the greater the acceleration. So the basic mechanical principles on how to achieve this will remain the same. That said, there are some unique demands and constraints of team sports that should be taken in to consideration. First off is the surface. In track and field, you run on a completely flat rubberized surface with spiked shoes designed to maximize friction between your foot and the track. This allows for far greater application of horizontal forces in the acceleration phase than what would be seen in team sports. This is because the greater friction allows you to push at a more horizontal vector without the foot slipping backwards from the ground. Also, in team sports you can’t usually start in the low positions that are advantageous for initial horizontal force application and there tends to be a big advantage to getting upright very quickly. Both of these limit the magnitude and vector of horizontal force on each step as well as the number of steps an athlete can take with a predominately horizontal force application.
So recognizing those differences, I’d say any differences in optimal acceleration mechanics for team sport athletes is just a matter of changing the mechanics for these parameters. The biggest thing will be a slightly more vertically oriented push on the first couple steps to minimize slipping and get the athlete upright quickly. Other than that the basic mechanical principals should remain the same in my opinion: front side dominant swing leg recovery, low heel recovery on the first couple steps, pushing through the long axis of the body, congruent flexion-extension angles of the arm with contralateral leg movements, preservation of neutral posture, etc.
How important is coaching running technique and what amount of time do you spend on it for a team sport vs. track and field?
Mike Young: I spend FAR more time working on it in track and field. Running with optimal mechanics is a huge factor in maximizing speed. And in Track, running fast IS the sport. You can’t hide deficiencies in physical development in a sport like track like you can in team sports where strategy, ball handling skills, shooting, etc. are all major factors. Sometimes these other parameters factors are easily enough to cover up sub-optimal running mechanics and the athlete can succeed in spite of their poor mechanics. That said, I do try to work on running mechanics with team sport athletes but it’s mostly done in different settings. I try to set up practice environments that facilitate what I’m trying to teach without having to explicitly coach it. For example, activities like resisted runs, belly sprints, hill sprints and the like are all great ways of forcing even the least efficient accelerator how to become more efficient. The very nature of team sport practices often dictate that any sprint technique work is less individualized and often has to be done through triage and going after the most pervasive flaws.Â
What is your stance on the risk/reward of Olympic lifts for very high level team sport athletes? Are we being overprotective by avoiding these lifts?
Mike Young:Â I have been able to safely train over 90% of the athletes I’ve worked with to Olympic lift and I can’t recall a single injury from doing the lifts. I think there are plenty of benefits and on a global scale these benefits far outweigh potential drawbacks if you are able to competently teach the technique. Competently teaching the technique is really the key factor in my opinion. With the last pro team I worked with, only 5 of 33 of the athletes on the squad had done the Olympic lifts before I arrived but by my second year with the team about 80% of the team were doing the lifts on a regular basis and seeing great improvements in their acceleration times and vertical jump scores. Almost all of the others were performing Olympic lift variants, like single arm DB snatches and DB push jerks, that are practically idiot proof and provide a similar stimulus (albeit less effective) with far less risk. That said, there are a few athletes who I’ve been very conservative on the teaching progressions or decided to forgo Olympic lifts altogether because the risk did outweigh the reward. In some cases this might have been because of a prior injury history, unique anthropometry, or maybe just because of being late in their career and not wanting to add in new elements.Â
Do you use any technology to assess field training loads, and if so, how does this influence on your strength program? What do you think it takes for technology to become beneficial for the strength professional?
Mike Young:Â Â I’m a tech geek and do use quite a bit depending on the situation but I’ll be the first to say that tech, especially for monitoring, can potentially be more of a crutch or time waster than it can be beneficial if it’s not used appropriately. Ultimately, the coach must be able to coach and a big part of that is being sensitive to many of the variables that monitoring technology provides quantitative values for. I think technology is most beneficial when it can 1) provide information that may be difficult to assess accurately otherwise, 2) when it provides data that is actionable and 3) when the information within the data is easily accessible and ideally visualized for quick consumption. I regularly use HRV scores, sleep monitoring apps and surveys to assess wellness, recovery and lifestyle and use timing gaits, jump mats, GPS, accelerometers, and heart rate monitors to assess training load and physical readiness.Â
How do you approach special conditioning/running work outside of actual soccer practice throughout the year?
Mike Young:Â Â Â I like to balance general and specific fitness work and training with and without the ball. Doing work with the ball enhances specificity and increases buy-in from athletes that may not be accustomed to, or particularly enjoy, fitness training outside of their sport practice. Whenever possible, I try to work with the sport coaches to ensure that the technical and tactical practice variables address or facilitate whatever I’m trying to train from a conditioning perspective. In a perfect world, it would be great if all fitness demands could be developed through game specific drills and games. The reality though is that it’s almost impossible to do that. Working with the ball constrains the training stimulus from a purely fitness perspective and also makes it difficult to ensure everyone is getting an equivalent workload. I’ve found that because of team play, skill, strategy or sometimes just sheer laziness there are huge discrepancies in the physiological (heart rate) and physical work (distance covered, changes of direction, velocities, etc.) output between the top and bottom individuals following work with the ball. When you are able to reveal these discrepancies through monitoring and then remediate, supplement, or complement when appropriate you can develop an entire team with great fitness capacities.Â
About Mike Young
Mike is the owner and Director of Performance at Athletic Lab sport performance training center. He has a BS in Exercise Physiology, an MSS in Coaching Science & a PhD in Biomechanics along with being recognized as a CSCS, a Level 3 coach by USATF, and a Level 2 coach by USA Weightlifting. He has coached 5 individual national champions in track & field as well as national championship qualifiers in bobsleigh, skeleton, and weightlifting. While at LSU the team won 6 NCAA Team Championship teams. In the sport of soccer, he was Fitness Coach for the 2x NASL champion Carolina Railhawks and most recently was the Fitness Coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS.
Free Speed Training eBook - Velocity 101
Improving speed is one of the most popular topics in the athletic performance equation. Where there are many ideas and thoughts out there, as to particular training exercises, or setups, the more core aspects of speed training often go without mention. These include the fundamental aspects of what makes an athlete fast, specific sprint-power concepts, the relevance of "3D" motion, motor learning and more. Â
Velocity 101 will help you take a leap forward in understanding of what makes athletes fast, and how to train it effectively