Developing Youth Speed
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How to Improve Your 40-yard Dash in 1 Week
Original article published at EZineArticles.com
Can you (or your athletes) run faster in 1 week? I get calls from parents/coaches to help their athletes in a variety of ways. This was no different a few weeks ago. I received a phone call from a the father of a high school football player looking to improve his performance in the 40-yard dash at an upcoming combine. Below is the time line of events of what took place:
Week 1: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 4 college football camps/combines, 1 each day day plus driving travel. Best 40-time: 4.72, 4.73 hand time
Week 2: Monday-Wed: active rest
Thursday: our first meeting. I evaluate the athlete and find he is at a 4.92 hand time that day. His last 20 yards is very good, but first 20 needs work.
Friday: 1000m tempo runs, hot/cold showers, massage
Saturday: Acceleration work. 3 sets of 3 sprints with resistance, with 2 sprints without resistance in between sets. Timed 40 in 4.82 seconds hand time, first 20 yd is 0.1 seconds faster than Thursday ....Hot/cold shower, massage
Sunday: 800m tempo runs, massage, easy skill patterns, hot/cold shower
Monday (evening): Due to scheduling, we met in the evening. This allowed more than 24 hours of rest from Sunday. 2 sets of 3 sprints, finish with 2 20-yd sprints with full recovery. Best time is 0.1 seconds faster than Saturday. hot/cold shower, massage
Tuesday: Heavy bench press (athletes max is 275). 2 sets of 2 at 240lbs, hot/cold shower, massage as needed.
Wednesday: Combine day. Ran 4.70 hand-start, electronic finish (~4.6 hand time). Vertical jumped 30 inches, 2 inches higher than previous best.
Comments: There are different timing methods which affect the time. Our goal was to get below a 4.70 hand time. After talking to the athlete for a while to understand the training he has been doing, how the combine went etc, it was easy for me to plan his week.
In this athlete's case, he was severely overtrained from the travel and combines. All we did was work on mechanics and recovery and it worked very well.
