This winter I took over a new group of high school
sprinters.

Like most athletes in most sports, they came from a
background of minimal speed work.

Again, in case you forgot, true speed work is defined as
2-8 seconds of full speed, full intensity running with full
(minimum of 3 minutes) recovery.

If your ’speed workouts’ don’t fall under that category, then
you are not training your athletes to improve their ability
to accelerate effectively or develop faster top speeds.

So when I first got this group, they were all over the place.

But yesterday’s practice further solidified in my mind the
critical importance of teaching and consistently emphasizing
certain fundamentals of speed development.

Except it wasn’t my athletes that helped remind me of this
fact.

I was talking to my group when the wrestling team came plodding
past us. They were doing some sort of speed workout.

After they ran by I commented to my team that ‘That’s how you
guys looked the first week of the season’.

My group has barely reached a level of proficiency
where they are expected to assess their own mechanical
strengths and weaknesses, as well as their teammates. But
as inexperienced as they are, it was plain as day that these
other (multi-sport) athletes had no idea what they were
doing.

Several of my athletes commented that they couldn’t believe
how terrible these wrestlers looked when trying to run. And
they found it hard to believe they could have looked anything
like that just a few weeks ago.

But they did, believe me.

And in witnessing first hand what truly terrible
running form looks like, I believe they further realized
how far they have come in less than a month. But more
importantly how far they need to go.

Most, if not all of my athletes have bought into the system
and into the process. (The fact that most of them ran lifetime
bests in the first meet of the season certainly helped my
cause.)

Because running fast is, without question, a skill. And there
are certain elements of running that need to be developed
in order to get consistent results.

And those results come from a focus on the following five
areas, in no particular order.

Speed Fundamental #1: TEACH PROPER ARM ACTION

Ultimately the role of the arms is to stabilize the torso.

In doing so, it allows for greater power transfer and force
application, factors critical to speed.

All arm action should take place through the shoulders. Cue
athletes to keep the elbows locked at approximately 90
degrees. In front, the hands should not cross the midline
of the body.

Hands should come to cheek height in front and clear the hip
in the back. Also, focus on driving the elbow or the hand
down and back, keeping the elbows close to the body throughout
the entire range of motion.

You’ll be surprised how difficult this is for many athletes.
***
Speed Fundamental #2: TRAIN FAST, RUN FAST

I don’t care what sport you coach. If all your training is
at a submaximal pace, then you are not going to develop
faster athletes. It’s just that simple.

This principle is not just for track sprinters. From soccer
to football to lacrosse and everything in between, athletes
need to train fast if they want to be fast.

I’m not saying a soccer player shouldn’t do aerobic work, but
they spend a great deal of time accelerating to a ball and
to/from a defender.

To get where they want to go faster, they must have faster
acceleration speed. And this comes from doing acceleration
work at full speed with full recovery as I mentioned above.

For some people this is difficult to comprehend. 4 second
sprints with 3 minutes rest seems like a waste of time.

Believe me, it isn’t.

But if you’re coaching true speed/power athletes like
sprinters and football players, high intensity sprints with
full recovery *must* be the *foundation* of training.

Aerobic work serves as recovery from speed work, it does not
get them ‘in shape’ specific to the demands of their event or
sport.

This is not even a debatable concept.

For more on the right way to train for speed, I recommend:

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
***
Speed Fundamental #3: BE PATIENT

I’m not just talking about being patient with your athletes
as you break them down to build them up.

I’m talking about being patient within each repetition of
speed work.

Speed can’t be forced. Athletes must learn to override the
voice in their head that says ‘try harder, run harder, push,
strain, hurry up’.

Instead they have to let the speed come to them.

During acceleration, ground contact time goes from long to
short. But most athletes are in a big rush to get up and
into their ‘normal’ full speed running technique.

This is the equivalent of shifting the gears of a sports
car as quickly as possible. It will not maximize performance.

Athletes need to be patient. Spend more time on the ground
as they overcome inertia and accelerate. Stride length and
frequency should increase naturally, as a result of efficient
force application, strength and mechanics. They should not
be forced.

Athletes should reach triple extension with each stride, fully
completing the action of driving down (and back).

Instead I see athletes trying to shift gears too quickly. This
results in reaching a slower top speed earlier in the run.

Since an athlete can only maintain top speed for 1-2 seconds
before deceleration begins, impatience during acceleration
will cost them speed and time with every step they take.
**
Speed Fundamental # 4: GET STRONGER

If you work with athletes, particularly teenaged athletes, then
time spent developing physical strength in the weight room
should be a fundamental part of your program.

Athletes who do not focus on strength development have a
very low glass ceiling that will prevent them from making
significant gains in speed.

It’s just common sense - the stronger you are, the faster you
can propel your body forward.

But this doesn’t mean going into the weight room and lifting
like a bodybuilder.

When I go in the weightroom I see athletes doing pointless
training.

Here are some examples of lifts that, for our purposes, are
a waste of time:

- anything on a machine such as hamstring curls, leg extensions
  calf raises, Smith Machine squats, etc.
- single joint movements such as bicep curls
- chest flies, tricep extensions, etc.

While these are all great movements for looking good at the
beach, I cringe when I see in-season athletes doing these
lifts as part of their training. And I see it more often than
not, sadly enough.

If you want to know exactly how to develop strength in your
athletes (even your pre-teen athletes) that will transfer
to the track, field or court check, I recommend the following
resources:

1. http://tinyurl.com/3b5l23

2. http://tinyurl.com/yqvrqu

3. http://tinyurl.com/2q479t
**
Speed Fundamental #5: STEP OVER, DRIVE DOWN

The ability to apply force to ground and, more specifically,
mass specific force, is the primary mechanical consideration
you must spend your time on during each speed session or
drill session.

Athletes have a variety of issues adversely affecting their
lower body mechanics.

But the vast majority of them stem from lack of physical
strength and the inability to recover the heel underneath
the hips, step over the opposite knee and drive the foot
down into the ground so that it lands beneath the hips and
not out in front of the center of mass.

If there is one topic of discussion that I get the most
questions about it is the concept of ’step over, drive down’.

If there is one topic of discussion I get the most emails
from satisfied customers about, it is the positive results
gained from teaching athletes how to ’step over, drive down’.

And this is the case at every level of sport.

I’ve written about this extensively in the past. So if you’re
interested in reading more, browse our blog archives to

the right for a considerable number of articles on the topic.

But if you want to know the exact drills, cues and concepts
I use to teach the principle of ’step over, drive down’ you
can learn my exact system (and even watch me perform the
drills!) by getting a copy of our best selling resource:

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
To your success,

Latif Thomas
 

Goal setting is not only important athletes but also for coaches. With the new year quickly approaching coaches everywhere have started to put together their 2008 goals. Most of the goals that I have heard recently revolve around ‘helping more athletes’.

The best way to help more athletes as a coach is to grow your business. The more athletes you bring in, the more you can help.
 
There are many ways you can increase your business’s success, but  I wanted to share with you 3 of the most important.
3 Ways to Grow Your Fitness Business
1. Be a good coach

First and foremost, you need to be a good at what you do. If you can ‘talk the talk’ but not ‘walk the walk’ athletes will have no use for you.  Being able to relate to athletes and produce results is a must. I am sure you have seen coaches that sound great but can’t apply the ‘hype’ that they speak.

You don’t want people to see you once, use your services, and then never be heard from again. You want people to continue to come back to you. If you honestly help and improve your athletes, they will reward you with continuing to use your services and also recommend and refer you to their friends and family (which is extremely powerful).

I know I am speaking to the choir on this, as you are constantly seeking the best training information so you can improve the skills of your athletes, but being a good coach is not something I wanted to skip when speaking about growing a fitness business.

Coaches at every level need to find mentors, test new ideas, share information, and continue their education so their athletes can strive to reach their full potential. 

Finding mentors and/or a group of coaches that you can bounce ideas off of and discuss what is and isn’t working is possibly the fastest way to learn (and understand) training design and how it is applied. 

Also, as far as continuing your education is concerned, Complete Speed Training (www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com) is a must have for any speed & power sport coach’s library.

Bottom line: Bad coaches will never have a successful business.

2. Drive traffic

You need to get people to see what you have to offer. You could be the best coach in the world, but if nobody knows about you, you won’t be able to help anyone.

This comes down to marketing. Whether you have a facility or a website you need to bring people in to see your message.

Learning techniques that will have people show up to your door can make or break your company. Techniques like the best ways to advertise in your community, being able to do joint ventures with other professionals, how to get a hold of and talk to athletic directors and other coaches to bring in more athletes, how to advertising online, how much should you spend in your marketing, etc.

When I first came out of college and started coaching and training, my personal library was 100% training books, videos and audios. Although my exercise physiology knowledge was great, I was not taught in school how to run a business.  It’s a shame, but most coaches started out just like me, not knowing how to run a business.

Today, my business library is at about the same level as my training library. I am passionate about every aspect of sports training and always will be but I will also continue to seek better ways to run my business to make my life easier and be able to help as many coaches and athletes as I can.

Bottom line: Being the best kept secret is the best way to fail as a business owner.

3. Conversion

Conversions is really convincing people you are the right person for the job of helping them reach their goals. Maybe ‘convincing’ is the best word as it makes some people feel uncomfortable as it has the connotation of making someone do something that they don’t want to do, which is not our goal at all.

You want to show your visitors (parents, coaches, athletes) that your skills and abilities as a coach, will improve their lives. You want your visitors to know that they will benefit from spending their valuable time and money with you.

There is more and more competition everyday and many coaches that offer similar services, you must prove to people that you are worth it. This sounds a lot easier then it is. Too often coaches talk too much about themselves (about how many certifications they have, etc) instead of letting the athlete get a sense of all the benefits that they will get from working with them and how it will impact their lives.

Whether people are walking in to see your facility or stopping by your website to take a look at what you offer, your message needs to clear, concise and convincing. Do not over look the importance of this. Don’t be afraid if your message sounds a little ’salesy’ (I don’t know if that’s a word but I mean sales-like). Remember you need to express to people why your services are special and it’s not always easy to do.

Here’s a quick tip, next time you buy something, ask yourself why you did. Was it something that you really needed? Was it something that made you feel good about yourself? Was it something that will make you look good in front of others?

After you found out why you bought that item, think about the person that is searching for your services. Figure out what the person wants and how they will benefit from it, and put that in your message.

Bottom line: After getting traffic (people) in to see your message, you need a strong enough message so people will stay.
Again, those are three of the most important aspects of growing your sports and fitness business. There are others but focusing on becoming a better coach, bringing in customers and selling those customers your service, will dramatically improve your ability to reach out and help more athletes.
>>If you are looking for more information on growing your sports training business you can check out the Speed Clinic Empire http://www.SpeedClinicEmpire.com
Yours in speed,

Patrick Beith

P.S. - Discover a Step by Step Blueprint for Attracting New Business Opportunities and Income Running Sports Clinics …
http://www.SpeedClinicEmpire.com

People are skeptical by nature. Especially when it comes to
a near $200 training resource. And that’s a good thing.

Because there are a lot of people on the internet peddling
crap programs and Complete Speed Training knock offs.

In most cases, I find that peoples’ skepticism comes stems
from simple lack of knowledge. And since I believe that
better coaches equal better athletes, my goal is to bridge
the gap between peoples’ misapplied beliefs.

Here is an email from Joe G. that caught my attention which
exemplifies the typical belief system held by people before
I get them to drink the Kool Aid, so to speak:
****Joe wonders:

“I’ve been reading some of your emails and find them both
interesting and hard to believe.  Interesting in that as a
former soccer player, I was one of the top two or three
fastest players every year.  I never trained in such a way
as you describe, mostly laps, some sprints and other drills
but nothing like what you mention. The detail you describe
interests me that I wonder how this ‘new’ training would
improve my 8 yr old’s speed in football.”

>>Latif says:

Just because you are fast doesn’t mean you are as fast as
you should or could be. At the first Teacher-Parent conference
my mother ever attended when I was in kindergarten, do you
know the very first thing the teacher said to her?

It wasn’t about how smart I was. It was ‘Wow, Latif can run
really fast!’

My mother still tells that story.

According to Joe my natural talent should have taken me
right to the limits of sporting achievement, regardless of
the training I did.

Fast forward to high school and I was still pretty fast. I
still hold 2 school records at my high school in the sprint
events and I earned an athletic scholarship to college. But
I wasn’t as fast as I could have been. Or should have been.

Because between the ages of 8 - 18 no one taught me the skills
required to be a better athlete in any of the many sports I
competed in or the many teams I was a member of.

I didn’t do a dynamic warm up (part of the reason I tore my
hamstring in high school), I didn’t learn speed drills or
running mechanics (see above hamstring comment), I
wasn’t taught how to lift weights or strenghten my core, I
didn’t do speed work, no one developed my coordination…

Should I continue?

Sure I was fast *despite* the way I was trained. But I wasn’t
efficient. I was probably operating at 50% efficiency. But
what if, through proper training, I was operating at 80%? 90%?

How fast *could* I have been?

The truth is there is nothing ‘new’ about this training.

Good coaches have been using similar techniques for years.
It is only ‘new’ to so many people because so many people
don’t know anything about how to train athletes.

Which leads me to Joe’s next paragraph…
****Joe wonders:

Hard to believe that your training regiment is something I
came across on the internet and not on the field. I ask
myself, “how come no one else is doing this?” Maybe it’s
because after training in a certain way for so long I
question just how legit your training techniques are besides
financially sound for you.

>>>>Latif says:

That my friend is entirely the problem. That you haven’t
come across this information in the field is, quite frankly,
a crying shame.

I see the results of mediocre training every day. I get
emailed stories of mediocre coaching every day. I am begged
to help parents and athletes overcome mediocre coaching
every day.

So I know that the majority of coaches out there are, at best,
mediocre.

There are lots of other people doing this type of training.

I speak to them every day. And we’re converting more mediocre
coaches every day. But not fast enough. Because most adults
think they already know everything. And maybe they’ve been
successful in spite of their bad coaching. So they see no
need to change.

But the ones that do are getting incredible results. We don’t
make up the testimonials you see on the site. Read them again
for yourself:

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
I get people who bring up the money issue all the time.

I run a business. A business has one purpose:

To generate a profit.

If I don’t make money, I can’t put out information that helps
you or your athletes. If Complete Speed Training didn’t work
or get results, people would return it and never buy anything
from us again.

But they don’t return it and they do continue to buy from us.

Why? Because the information works. It’s based on science and
experienice.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but if you think running
mileage improves a soccer player’s game speed then you
better invest in Complete Speed Training quick.

If you think repeat 200s with 1-3 minutes rest is going to
make your 100-400 meter runners faster then you are not a
very good track coach.

If you think running wind sprints up and down the football
field with short rest periods is going to help your football
players improve their 40 or burst through the line faster
than you also qualify as, at best, a mediocre coach.

I’m being blunt, but I’m being honest. Most coaches’ training
methods are just terrible. They look for excuses to justify
their training instead of investing in some education.

I could have gotten out of college and said ‘Hey I’m an All
East athlete and a scholarship athlete. And I’m naturally
fast. I must be a good coach.’

But I didn’t.

I got educated (thanks to my mentor Kevin Murphy, a Hall of
Fame coach who didn’t let me rely on my personal success as
a coaching crutch) and realized I didn’t know very much about
training.

And my athletic experience alone is more education than many
coaches have. So think about the crap they’re doing with their
athletes. Because you don’t need a certification to coach
youth or high school sports.

In many cases a pulse will do the trick.
==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
****Joe wonders

Would the techniques you preach help my son improve his
speed?  He just played his first season of 8-9-10  yr old
division football and happened to be as fast as the 9 and
10 yr olds.”

Joe G.
>>>>Latif says:

Of course they would. These aren’t some weird ideas I invented
in a dream. They are fundamental principles of athletic
movement and development.

Start your athletes early and give them an advantage over
their peers.

Or pray their natural ability takes them to the top in spite
of their mediocre coaching.

But take it from someone who relied on natural ability alone.
I *wish* someone had started teaching me proper athletic
development when I was 8 years old.

Your athletes will thank you for investing in being a better
coach. After all, I’ve committed my life to educating coaches
so other young athletes don’t have to wonder what they could
have been.

Want more Complete Speed Training success stories?

Click here:

http://completespeedtraining.com/testimonials.html

What do you think? Post your comments below.

To your Success,

Latif Thomas CSCS, USATF II (Sprints, Hurdles, Relays)
2005 MSTCA Coach of the Year

With the holiday season here, I wanted to give you a quick reminder:  If you live inside the United States, order before Monday December 17 to ensure your program arrives before Christmas!

With that being said, I wanted to give you my Top 5 Favorite Products (that are also perfect gift ideas):

5. Complete Olympic Lifting

If you work with speed athletes and you want them to learn or improve their Olympic lifting technique, then Complete Olympic Lifting is the way to go. It was designed for specifically for speed and power sport athletes. The movements are broken down into teaching progressions so your athletes can pick up the Olympic lifts like the Clean and the Snatch skills faster and more safely.
To learn more about Complete Olympic Lifting click on the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/ytd2o8

4. Movement Based Games

I absolutely love this product. Professional Speed Coach Jeremy Boone gives you the best speed and agility games around. I have used this with all levels of athletes and they instantly become their favorite ‘workouts’. Not only are the games fun and breaks up the traditional repetitiveness of practice, but your athletes are working on movement skills that will make them faster and more agile.

To learn more about Movement Based Games click on the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/26puzs

3. Groundbreaking Athletic Movement

Lee Taft is the agility king. There is not a better program that teaches you the progressions of the prime lateral speed movements. Lee gives you the fundamentals of athletic movement then goes into detail on how it is applied. If you watch the program today, tomorrow your athletes will multi-directional speed will improve.

To learn more about Groundbreaking Athletic Movement click on the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/yvco72

2. Complete Athlete Development

Complete Athlete Development was created by the International Youth Conditioning Association President Brian Grasso. It is a 7 part system for developing youth athletes that puts the emphasis back to actually look at the long term development of today’s youth athletes. Brian breaks down the movements into teachable skills, in a systematic order, helping youth athletes reach their full potential. It’s not just a list of drills with no direction or purpose

To learn more about Complete Athlete Development click on the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/yqvrqu
1. Complete Speed Training

The Gold Standard in Speed Development. If I could only have one speed training and athletic development product in my library, it would be hands down Complete Speed Training. I know that I am a little biased, but Latif and I created the blue print for developing faster athletes. There is not another all inclusive speed training program that focuses on every aspect (acceleration, flexibility, conditioning, top end speed, strength, power, speed endurance, etc) of getting your athletes faster. It is as it’s called: the most complete speed training program around.
To learn more about Complete Speed Training click on the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/39oycx

Yours in speed,

Patrick Beith

P.S. - Just a quick reminder:  If you want to receive your orders before Christmas and you live inside the United States, order before Monday December 17 to ensure your program arrives in time!

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/products.html