Biomotor Ability - Speed

Paul McCambridge

The speed article! Without focus you will lose pace. In this article Paul discusses some training principles for maintaining explosive pace, brings in some training progressions and also asks will Theo Walcott maintain his devastating pace throughout his career, although he neglects to ask how many more years it will be until he learns to kick. Remember, you're either first or your last!

The need for speed

In this part of my Biomotor Ability Series I will look at how a person can increase their speed.  It always puzzles me why sportsmen tend to lose a yard of pace in their late twenties compared to their early twenties.  Do you know any premiership footballer who has actually got faster throughout his career? Take Michael Owen as a case in point, he still has impressive speed but clearly he does not have the devastating turn of pace of ten years ago.  Do you really believe that Theo Walcott, at thirty years old, will still maintain his fantastic speed so that when he plays, terrorizes defences all over the world?

The reason I am puzzled is because in the case of true sprinters, several do not hit their peak until their late twenties or even beyond.  For example, legendary sprinters like Donovan Bailey, Maurice Green and Linford Christie all of whom won Gold Medals at major events in their late twenties and early thirties.  These sprinters actually became faster throughout their twenties and thus this makes the mind boggle as to the potential abilities of Usain Bolt, who still has time on his side.

Now it is well known that your genetic make up and physiology will play a huge part in your ability to run fast.  When is the last time you can recall a white Caucasian male in the 100metre Olympic final?  This is worth a whole discussion in itself regarding racial fibre type and distribution but this article is aimed at anyone who wants to get faster, without having the luxury of choosing your genetic fibre type or your parents!

So how do you get faster? And is it important?  World renowned Strength Coach Charles Poliquin states, “The most important factor in any team sport like football or hockey is the first 5-step quickness”.  This quote must be taken with regard that elite sportsmen already have a fantastic motor engram of “skill” for their particular sport, so improving your initial 5 step quickness will massively improve your performance. Think about it. Regarding most sports if your first 5 steps were much faster than anyone else on the field, I am sure you’d agree that your performance and capabilities would go through the roof.  Interestingly, Poliquin further explains that the quickest athletes over the first five steps, (or as he tests over 20, 30 and 40metres) aren’t often the sprinters but the Olympic Weightlifters, Shot Putters, Javelin and Discuss throwers.  Poliquin states that over 30 metres he often sees a weightlifter ahead of a sprinter, beyond that though they tend to have a heart attack!

This is where I need to differentiate between raw speed, and speed endurance. Usian Bolt has incredible 100 metre times not just because he is quick, but he has an astonishing ability to maintain his top speed longer than anyone in history.  100m running actually is a speed/speed endurance event.

According to Strength Coach Jerry Telle, the initial speed burst that can be gained from our most powerful muscle fibres, the big type II or fast twitch fibres only lasts 7-12 seconds. To allow for them to be fully replenished we need 3-5 minutes rest.

To maximise your speed training, it’s important to have a good strength and power base but to truly target speed you train at a super high intensity for 7-12 seconds, then lie about on your arse for at least 3 minutes and preferably five before going onto your next set.

So if you do not do enough focused speed work that doesn't last longer than 12 seconds followed by 3-5 minutes complete rest, then you will not be training to improve those all important first steps.

This is why I believe footballers tend to lose a yard of pace in their late twenties.

How many footballers do you think train this way?  If you are a footballer yourself you know that at best you will do forms of interval training to mimic what goes on in football, with short bursts of activity for maybe 30 seconds then a short recovery of maybe another 30 seconds before repeating the exercise. This training clearly will condition you for football and similar team sports, and you will be able to last the 90 minutes with a good hard run into the penalty box at injury time but you certainly won’t get any faster. In fact, as seen throughout all team sports, this type of training over time will make you slower.  This is simply because you are not training the fibres that give you pure raw speed because only until these muscle fibres are fully replenished will they do a job for you.  They need a long rest!

Before you flood me with complaints, look at the article title “The Need for Speed”.  I understand there is a need to train in a way that mimics the conditions of the sport, as mentioned with the above interval training, but to get faster, which I believe will improve your performance massively, you must respect the physical energy systems and fibre type need for recovery time especially.  If you sprint flat out for 60 metres, and have only a minute to recover, each set will gradually become slower and slower.  This is because you are no longer training the amazing super fast twitch fibres which make you fast!  These fibres are incredibly powerful, and incredibly lazy!  If they don’t get a full recovery (even if you feel completely fresh after one minute) these super fast fibre types will not help you, and slightly less fast fibre types with a higher endurance capacity will take over.

If you are a short track sprinter, you will already know this, and you will train accordingly. If you are not, then consider setting one day a week to train with speed.  It can be a frustrating way to train depending on your character type, but if you want pure speed set aside one day a week and train purely for lighting speed.

Examples of great drills:

Try some of these out by themselves or the lot as full workout

7 Second sprints with weighted vests (at least 3 minutes of recovery, preferably 5 minutes after each sprints)

Clean and press(choose a weight you can complete one rep in less then 0.75 seconds) and repeat as many reps  as you can in 11 seconds, repeat 5 times with at least 3 minutes rest between each set.

Power Squats(Choose a weight you can complete you rep in less than 0.75 secs) and repeat as man reps as you can in 11 seconds, repeat 5 times with at least 3 minutes recovery

7 second sprints unweighted.x 3 sets with at least 3-5 mins recovery. Tornado Ball Rotation Blasts x 5 for 7-11 seconds (No more!), rest for 3- 5minutes

With considerations to Jerry Telle’s Strength Science, Charles Poliquin Metholodology of Strength training and Paul Chek’s Programme Design.

More about the Author

Paul is no average personal trainer. Find an article, an idea, a course or any other fitness concept and Paul has done it, read it and can tell you all about it. From a degree in Sport Science to studying from the worlds best coaches, Paul is on a constant mission to find out everything he can about how to get stronger, fitter, leaner and healthier. He is also a food detective! If you can't digest, or can't get lean, he wants your blood!.. He will send it to the lab and sort you out. However, he is rumoured to be both a bad loser and a bad guitar player. You can hunt him down on his Facebook page.

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