Elite Coaching Roundtable: Optimal Strength Training for Speed, Part II

If you don’t have a proper handle on the right way to implement strength training into your speed program, you could be doing as much harm as you are doing good.

Last time, we covered important pieces of the strength training equation in speed development with a group of expert coaches, and they are back in the final three questions of our “strength training for speed” roundtable. Again, here are the coaches we’ll be talking to in our quest for maximal speed.

Chris Korfist: One of the world’s foremost speed experts, and hugely successful high school sprints coach.
Dan Fichter: The most well-traveled, invested coach I know in picking the brains of the best and brightest scientists and coaches in recent history. Dan owns two gyms devoted to improving athletic speed and power, and is an award winning football coach at Irondequiot high school in NY.
Henk Kraaijenhof: Dutch sprints coach who trained Merlene Ottey and Nelli Cooman. One of the worlds top speed experts, as well as a leading thinker and scientific contributor to sprint development.
Boo Shexnayder: Legendary jumps coach, and top track and field educator.

Question #4. What are your thoughts as far as the development of important sprint muscles such as the glutes, in the weight room? How specific do you get with focusing on these muscles in the weight room?

Dan Fichter: I believe all have their importance in sprinting or just base athletics. However, if your firing patterns are off, and you are doing some type of glute work, you are just perpetuating the faulty firing pattern. Patterns need to be intact first before you go and strengthen an isolated muscle you think is important in sprinting. I had an Olympic Lifter come in to my gym. He said he can’t get his glutes to fire. He went through his whole entire arsenal of glute activation exercises and still couldn’t get it to fire when we tested it. So, I activated him (aka Douglas Heel) and things changed dramatically. Now, the exercises he was doing before actually have meaning. It’s that powerful!!!

Chris Korfist: I am a fan of the concentric glute work and eccentric hamstring work for my more advanced athletes. My kBox does all of that work. I also do single leg jumps on the MVP shuttle. Kneeling face down, one leg pushes off the platform. I use my Gymaware to monitor output. That one is a real glute burner. So, I get as specific as possible.

Henk Kraaijenhof: Answer that in the question before: but let’s have a look: during sprinting the hamstrings work unilaterally, also eccentrically, at very high velocity, while running 12 meters per second, how are you going to imitate that in the weight room? Certainly not with leg curls? On November 28, a good friend of mine, Dr.Per Tesch, organizes the second symposium on the Hamstring in Spain. I will explain my vision there in detail: How to evaluate the hamstring and how to prevent and treat hamstring injuries.

Boo Shexnayder: As important as they are, I never make an attempt to isolate the glutes or any other particular muscle. You end up with imbalances and discoordination, and the resulting program ends up being too gimmicky. I try to focus training on the movements and positions needed, allowing the muscles to operate in unison with other muscles, performing their designed role in the kinetic chain. I think specificity should be centered on movements, not the muscles involved. A lot of these apparent weaknesses result from neurological or biomechanical deficiencies and are not genuine strength deficiencies. Too many times I’ve seen glutes test weak, then test strong after 10 minutes with a good therapist.

Question #5. What are your thoughts on the psychology of a strength training program emphasis for speed athletes? Is there a mental side of heavy resistance training that may supersede adaptation limitations (in the case of an excessive amount of this training modality in a program)?

Dan Fichter: Wrong question wrong guy. You are talking to a guy who does barely any running at all in his program. We have kids with so many faulty patterns my belief is fix the posture and position by any means possible (see above) and then teach them to absorb force (Jay Schroeder) and things will fall into place. The connection emotionally to how we train needs to be as important as what you are actually doing in the weight room. So your actual question in my world is reversed. Because we run so little, I need to work on the thoughts of running faster with my athletes when we do hit the track. It’s crazy once they realize they’ve fixed their flaws, you see times start to drop from week to week when we check. (We run approx. 1x per week)

Chris Korfist: I think the mental aspect is huge. If the athlete feels beat up and slow, they will run slow. This is why I like the Be-Activated stuff. After an activation, athletes feel light and fast. Apply the principles to the weight room and they have that same feeling. They can feel their glutes kicking and the spring off their foot. They feel better. And you can tell when they have it. You will go through the activation and exercises and take them out to sprint. When they walk back, they have a smile on their face. That is the mental state I want my athletes in.

Henk Kraaijenhof: There are two mental factors that are involved:

The “ Umpff-factor” : the ability to recruit muscle fibers and to feel that you are strong,
Also that placebo-factor: do you feel that this exercise makes you faster?

Boo Shexnayder: The psychological issues here are hard to generalize, because when dealing with speed athletes they are so diverse. You have athletes who are deathly afraid of the weight room and fear it will only harm them, while you have others who will lift indiscriminately, possibly to the point where performance is harmed. I think as a coach it is imperative to develop a training culture that views the weight room as a key component in a program, but only one of many items on a checklist, one of many areas to be mastered in order to achieve high levels of performance.

I think the most important part of tracking bar speed is not so much for improving speed, but to measure fatigue and gauge other work being done.

Bonus Question: What are your thoughts on velocity based barbell monitoring for speed seeking athletes? (This may be a whole other’ article)

Dan Fichter: This is a whole other article. There are uses for bar speed and measuring how fast on can move a load. There is a lot of great research out there saying on what the correct %’s are for improving RFD. I get all that. I think the most important part of tracking bar speed is not so much for improving speed, but to measure fatigue and gauge other work being done. All work above a certain threshold will stimulate the CNS the way we want to improve performance parameters. However submaximal work will not improve it. With monitoring speed, you can see where each athlete is compared to fatigue levels. Huge implications!!!!!!

Chris Korfist: Again, as I mentioned, I think we need to try to replicate the speed.

Henk Kraaijenhof: We use this for the longest time, by the ideas of professor Bosco, monitoring the force-velocity-curve and the force-power curve, This allows us to control the strength training process and tells use where you are at the speed-strength continuum. In other words, it’s a smart thing to do, at least if you know where you are going.

Boo Shexnayder: As a huge proponent of preservation of training quality throughout a session, any technological assistance is assessing power output levels is a big plus. I won’t go so far as to say these devices are necessary but they certainly can help and take much guesswork out of training administration.

Coach Bios:

Dan Fichter: Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY and Tampa, FL that offers training to elite athletes. Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra. Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country. Dan is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football.

Fichter is presently the head football coach at Irondequoit High School in New York.

Chris Korfist has been coaching track for 22 years in Illinois. He has coached at Hinsdale Central, Downers Grove North and York HS, producing 59 All-state track athletes, 3 individual state champions, 2 team state champions, 3 second place team finishes, and 2 3rd place finishes. He owns the Slow Guy Speed School which is a gym that focuses on running and athletic development from which other All-state athletes have trained. He used to run the Inno-sport website and wannagetfast.com with Dan Fichter. He also had the opportunity to work occasionally with some Olympic sprinters and other professional athletes.

Henk Kraaijenhof coaching credentials include Nelli Cooman, Merlene Ottey, Troy Douglas and Tennis star Mary Pierce. His specialties are the physical and mental coaching, in particular stress and stress management and the methodology or training. When you consider both Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s, something is working.

Henk Kraaijenhof currently works for Vortx and his blog is helpingthebesttogetbetter.com.

He has published work in performance, training systems and protocols for elite athletes and has also conducted research in the development and application of scientific training systems. Henk is also involved in scientific research projects in human sports performance in Norway, Estonia, Italy and the Netherlands. He is currently also working as a mentor for the Olympic coaches and Olympic talent coaches in Holland.

Boo Schexnayder is regarded internationally as a leading authority in training design, possessing 34 years of experience in the coaching and consulting fields. Most noted for his 12 years on the Track and Field coaching staff at LSU, he is regarded as one of the world’s premier coaches, having developed 19 NCAA Champions and 10 Olympians. Schexnayder has coached multiple World Championship and Olympic medalists and has been on several national team staffs, including the staff of Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also possesses 13 years of experience in NFL player development and combine preparations. He frequently lectures and consults domestically and internationally in the areas of speed and power development, training design, motor learning, and rehabilitation. He currently operates Schexnayder Athletic Consulting and serves as director of the USTFCCCA’s Track and Field Academy and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s performance division. Prior to his collegiate and international career, Schexnayder was a successful prep coach for 11 years, coaching football, track, and cross country.

Coach Bios:

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