Youth Program: Lateral Speed Teaching

LATERAL SPEED TEACHING

In this month's youth training program I wanted to highlight one of my favorite performance areas to coach and train, LATERAL SPEED.  Whether young or old, lateral speed is a component that needs to be taught for the purposes of injury prevention and movement efficiency.  I like to begin my teaching progression with "HOLDS", which are stable and well-executed postural landings or stops.  It's during these "Holds" or landings you can develop the athletes' braking ability which acts as the foundation to produce a forceful change of direction. Many strength training plyometric programs skip to what we would consider "true" plyometrics where there is as little time spent as possible on the ground in between jumps. However, in order to effectively rebound energy (as in a jump or stride), an athlete must first learn to absorb energy.

Efficient braking ability also acts as great injury prevention because you focus on properly reducing forces around all joint structures in motion during the eccentric movement phase.

 The following list of exercises is the teaching progression that I follow in the off-season.  I do use some of the exercises during the season but at a low volume. These exercises can be used in any area and with low-cost plastic "training rings" or you can tape or paint circles on the ground.  When setting up the distance between the rings for the athletes, be sure they are not too wide because the athletes will overreach and jump into the next ring.  You want their steps to be quick and at a length where they can "push" to produce force, not "reach" so they slow themselves down. A very important teaching cue to emphasize is low-position postural control during the movement and at the finishing hold phase of the movement. 

• 1-2 Ring Hold x3 sets
• 1-2 Ring Cut and holdx3 sets
• 1-2-3 Ring Cut and hold x3 sets
• Ring cut continuous x4 sets
• 1-2 Ring Hold one side -- into sprint x3each side
• 1-2 Ring Hold two sides - into sprint x3 each side

Thank you, Mike, for this fantastic article. If you're interested in checking out Mike (and Kevin Neeld's) latest resource, go to optimizingadaptation.com