In the world of athletic performance, there are two big time sports that carry within them many of the best, most explosive athletes in the world:
- Track and Field
- Football
Since both of these sports require speed, power and precision, why is there such a divide between them in so many high schools and colleges?
Matt Gifford, Tony Holler and Chris Korfist are experts in building speed, and have great experience on the levels of building both track, and football players. They are also all speaking at the Track & Football Consortium III in Lombard Ill, on June 17th and 18th,, 2016. This is one of the best performance conferences out there, and has some of the most integral, effective and “out of the box” concepts you can get vs. the typical seminar that simply re-hashes and argues over the same old ideas on training.
For any coach or athlete who is looking to expand their knowledge of speed, especially within the scope of what makes athletes fast on the track, and the grid-iron, and how the two can and should relate, you are going to love this roundtable.
Even if you’re not a football person, or track person, there is still some amazing information here in regards to building speed and power in any athlete.
With that said, let’s get down to it.
Just Fly Sports: What are the most common weak-links that you see, concerning ability to display speed in the majority of your athletes? What is a go-to system you utilize to correct this?
Matt Gifford: I would break this up into two classes: the “the gifted elites” and the “average Joey’s.” The “gifted” athletes naturally have higher RFD abilities. In this class it is common to see mobility issues in the ankle, hip and upper torso. The lack of range of motion reduces their ability to create space or length and unfortunately creates more compression globally. This hinders their ability to attain certain positions that would help them improve force and display optimal technique. Unfortunately, the lack of mobility (and reciprocally stability) will also eventually result in sub optimal recovery and likely eventually lead to injury.
To further add, the more elite athlete usually needs a lesson on patience when it comes to the art of sprinting.
We usually find that the “average Joey” has a solid movement efficiency base. However, he usually lacks the strength, power and elastic abilities to “boom, pop, and turn over” when he sprints. Training strength, power, and teaching optimal sprint mechanics over time will give him a healthy base. Strength will play a major role early in his development and taper off slightly as new found speed and power abilities are reached. These young athletes need to develop the “controlled pit bull” mentality when it comes to balancing sprinting aggressiveness while staying relaxed.
Above and beyond, sprinting is an art and a science. Teaching, cueing, and allowing the athlete to feel positions through weeks and weeks of reps is still the most important. Most athletes need to understand that patience is a huge element in going fast.
Tony Holler: I first see my kids in the summer before their freshman year. I “speed train” my freshman football team 15 times during the summer as a part of their summer football camp. 95% of my freshmen have done lots of “running” but no “sprinting”. They are well-trained for running slow, have never worn spikes, and produce no vertical force.
Aerobic running does not require the exaggerated knee lift required to produce vertical force. We do old-fashioned speed drills, not as a warm-up, but as an instructional tool. Everything we do is based on making habits of picking up the feet, getting into what I call the “big” position (think classic Carl Lewis), and bouncing off the ground.
Here is a video of our drills.
“Feed the Cats Speed Training”
Chris Korfist: The common weak links that limit speed are lateral chain stability/strength and ankle foot function. For lateral chain, the more the foot comes to the middle or even the other side of the body, the longer the ground contact time and the more weight transfer or displacement takes place, which creates a mass that is trying to move in one direction but has vectors moving all over, like a wobbly tire.
Likewise, if the ankle doesn’t bend (in dorsiflexion upon foot contact), the body has to find an alternative means to move the center of mass forward, which would increase the wobbly tire effect. Also, if the toe off is not forward through the big toe, you create a push in a different direction, which is why sometimes arm movement is not optimal. They are counter balancing a push in a direction that isn’t straight.
To make matters more complicated for the hundredths of a second the foot is on the ground, the stronger or more powerful an athlete gets power without the proper support, the more the brain drops the center of mass because the added power to an unstable system could create instability and injury. So to protect the body, the runner runs low, or not tall.
To deal with all of this, we focus on ankle rocker exercises, all of which have been documented in various places. We also do a series of toe off drills that focus on that movement as well.
Ankle Rocker Jumps
For the lateral chain, I like mini-hurdle runs. I don’t use them for acceleration. I allow athletes to get up to speed and run through the hurdles that are placed over a line. The athletes focus on keeping their foot an each side of the line. I keep the distance short to focus on quick contact time. To make the exercise more difficult, they will run with their arms over their head or even hold a light bar over their head.
Just Fly Sports: If you could have a perfect world, how would the yearly training program go for athletes who participate in both football and track? When would they start training for football and track seasons, and how would the lifting emphasis optimally shift over the course of football/indoor/outdoor track?
Matt Gifford: Acceleration is a quality that can be trained year round for football and track athletes. Jeff Demps, Michael Ray Garvin, Jacoby Ford, and Trindon Holliday were perfect examples of acceleration athletes that were gifted and could apply themselves on this yearly model. The typical football season runs from August to December. While the typical track season runs from lets say February until Late May.
In theory, we can assume that the track season provided the athlete with a decent aerobic base as linear speed of all capacities were addressed. Additionally, it would be safe to say that athletes who sprint fast need to do so at a certain desired (smaller) bodyweight.
The football pre-season will require the track and field athlete to put more emphasis on deceleration and change of direction. It will also be an appropriate time to add armor through appropriate strength work and diet. Alactic capacity must be developed as sprint volume will exceed anything seen on your average “Charlie Francis” charts. Keep in mind that during a typical 20 period August practice, a receiver may sprint between 1000 to 2000 yards.
As the football athlete transitions to the track, I would assume mobility and stability must first be addressed. Moving from here, I believe following a short to long approach is the absolute best method with the football athlete. 8×200 is out for the short sprinters. Continue to build on strengths, focus on diet and start to build a longer acceleration pattern and technical model.
Tony Holler:
Summer: Monday-Wednesday-Friday = speed training, strength training, and football related activities (no summer track).
Fall: Practice fast, see below.
Monday and Wednesday: 100% alactic,
Tuesday: Walk-through and video.
Thursday: No practice.
Friday: Play healthy, happy, and fast.
Saturday & Sunday: Rest and grow. Why don’t football coaches understand rest, recovery, and growth?
Winter: Ideally Monday-Wednesday-Friday is speed training including lots of Freelap timing (record, rank, and publish) combined with strength training. Here is my article written in February. https://www.freelapusa.com/record-rank-publish-8-weeks-of-alactic-training/
Spring: No more than five days a week on the track including meets (four preferable). Spike-up and sprint three times a week. Sprinters need two lactate workouts every week (and meets are lactate workouts). Never do three lactate workouts in a week. When your team is broken down, skip the lactate workouts.
In addition, there should be a 9-day vacation from football/track five times a year. (July 4th, Post-football, Christmas, Spring Break, Post-track)
If an athlete plays basketball over the winter, good for them! Basketball builds athletes.
Chris Korfist: I would set it up starting with the football season. Speed and power take care of themselves in-season but I would add some isometrics to keep a base strength level. I would not do anything during doubles of a week out from playoffs. I would give the athletes a 3-week rest after the season.
I would then go into blocks of triphasic lifting and focus on 10m speed and acceleration during the indoor season, especially since most of us have limited space. As we approach the end of indoor and go into outdoor, I would stop lifting and focus on speed, speed endurance and power.
Once the season is over, I change to agility and acceleration during summer football. There are elements of movement that would carryover from block to block so fundamentals of movements will be focused year round.
Just Fly Sports: What are your go-to progressions for teaching and building acceleration ability in the training season?
Matt Gifford: Drills provide context. By using drills we can feel patterns and positions and isolate certain nuances for event specific sprinting. Drills also allow a neural bleed while providing work capacity for skill retention or skill enhancement. Lets be short and sweet here. The prowler march or sled drag allows one to rehearse body position and pushing mechanics, while gaining sprinting specific strength. If you cue properly and contrast or potentiate sprints with the sled you will find great technical and performance results.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFmp2V1rFvy/?taken-by=coachgiff
Tony Holler: We do starts every time time we do speed drills. We are constantly developing drive phase fundamentals. The 40-yard dash is our main quantifier; half drive phase, half max speed. If you don’t time 40’s or 30m block starts, fundamentals are not practiced in conjunction with speed.
Athletes need to spike-up and sprint. “Sprint as fast as possible as often as possible staying as fresh as possible.”
Chris Korfist: I think the initial push out of the blocks is really important. Without the initial push, the foot placement will be out in front of the center of mass and the athlete will be decelerating rather than accelerating. From that point, improvement of the drive is key.
I like a single leg box jump with proper body alignment. Have an athlete put a foot on a box anywhere from 12 to 18 inches high. The foot on the ground should be close to parallel to the foot on the box. Bend at the ankle first and sit into a slight squat. Shins and torso should be parallel. Then have the athlete bend slightly forward and jump up. To build on that, a coach can set up two boxes and they can jump back and forth between the two boxes. The lateral movement between the two boxes, emphasizes the toe off through the big toe.
Just Fly Sports: If you could pick only 2 strength exercises to use in training sprinters, what would they be and why? (I suppose just “sprinting” and “jumping” could count here in a purist sense.)
Matt Gifford: We all know the answer lies in sprinting. Jumping would be secondary. If I had to appeal to the internet minions I would say the prowler march or sled drag is my favorite specific strength exercise. If you made me choose a second I would have to say when an Olympic clean is effectively performed it elicits extreme benefits. (The keys to effective Olympic performance: understanding tension, position and each phase of the respective lift.) It’s a higher velocity movement, one must master tension and body position, the catch is both eccentric and concentric based.
Beyond this figure out if your athletes gravitate towards pushing or pulling and select a large compound movement for them to progress with. Pick a path and coach it up.
Tony Holler: BOX JUMPS (imagine jumping over five tall boxes, bouncing off the ground) and BOUNDING (high and far).
Here is Alex Ruscitti bounding (Alex was on my sprint relays last year)
Box jumps (fast guys are really good at this)
Chris Korfist: Staying away from the obvious sprinting, my mainstays for quite some time are stiff legged runs and mini-hurdle runs. We do them a variety of ways. Between the two, I think they force high school athletes into better running form.
I am becoming a fan of the Frans Bosch single leg clean or snatch that focuses on getting to the big toe and all of his hip tip drills which drive a better lateral chain. With the really bad spring weather in Chicago this year, we have been using those more.
Chris’s teams are running really fast despite the poor Chicago weather and outdoor training conditions at Montini
Just Fly Sports: If you could pick only 2 strength exercises to use in training football players, what would they be and why?
Matt Gifford: In a perfect world we would all be dummies not to pick clean and jerk and snatch. Those who can master these exercises have high levels of transfer to many different biomotor abilities. However, sporting culture and the athletes we all work with are nowhere near perfect.
If I had to choose two pure strength based exercises I would say front squat has to be number one. Ankle mobility, hip mobility, anterior chain strength/stability and trunk strength will all be addressed with a proper front squat. Football athletes need a strong base of support and they need to effectively bend their knees. That second exercise is dependent on position. Linemen have to press, arguing against its non-ground based nature should be the least of your worries.
Press variations build armor, provide strength/stability and hopefully with solid technique and upper back work they can also help protect the shoulder from impact injuries. As far as skill positions and backs, my second exercise is as a toss up between hinge variations and rotational lunge work.
We need effective hip movement to sprint, change direction and do so without getting injured. Football is a game of movement, not just strength. The athlete that moves better usually plays better and hopefully performs optimally. With that being said, the football athlete is getting larger by the year. Building armor through the weight room is very important and we cannot forget mass will often create more force.
Tony Holler: At this time, almost everything done in the weight room seems counterproductive to me. Building mass at the expense of speed sucks. Body-building sucks. Every high school football player who commits to the weight room seems to become a body builder, addicted to mass and addicted to competitive lifting. They love to pose for pictures and hate to get timed in the 40.
No lift has a direct correlation to speed. When I see an athlete dunk a basketball, I see a direct correlation. When I see an athlete clean 225 pounds, I have no idea.
Of the two guys pictured below, who is faster and more explosive?
I encourage our football coach not to get into ruts in the weight room. Keep the weight room varied and fresh. Don’t neglect pulls. Since we sprint one-legged, do more one-legged work. I agree with “strength” as a positive attribute but I think strength should be viewed in a general sense, not based on the squat, clean, bench, dead lift, etc.
Here’s an interesting observation: I’ve had sprinters who never lifted weights but had terrific strength and a totally ripped body.
Slow people consistently underestimate sprinting and jumping as strength builders.
Chris Korfist: Reactive single leg squats and isometric split squats. https://www.freelapusa.com/my-love-affair-with-the-bulgarian-split-squat/. These are the two exercises that athletes who are fast do really well and athletes that aren’t fast do poorly. I have yet to find an athlete where this does not hold true. So, I would use them for question #4 as well. I think these have some more focus on acceleration which is key to football, or most other sports as well.
Expert Bios
Matt Gifford
Check out his website at Coachgiff.com
Tony Holler
- 35 years of classroom teaching, presently teaching Honors Chemistry at Plainfield North High School in Plainfield, IL.
- 35 years of coaching football, basketball, and track. Presently Head Track Coach and Head Freshmen Football Coach at Plainfield North.
- Member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame
- Co-director of Football-Track Activation Consortium (along with Chris Korfist)
- Winner of 39 consecutive freshmen football games and the streak is still alive.
- Winner of 3 IHSA State Track Championships and 8 total trophies (top-3 finishes).
- Winner of 14 “Coach Of The Year” Awards.
- Coached 8 individual state track champions and 7 relay state champions.
- Speaker at 25 different track clinics in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois.
- Author of 45 blogs for ITCCCA (Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association).
- Conducted speed camps since 1997.
- Son of Don Holler, a 47-year basketball coach at the high school and college level.
- Father of Alec Holler, hurdle coach at Edwardsville H.S., winners of the Illinois state title in 2015.
- Contact at tony.holler@yahoo.com or by text 630-849-8294.
- Follow on Twitter @pntrack
Chris Korfist
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