Speed, Quickness and Agility: Key for Superior Success

   Speed, Quickness and Agility: There’s a fine line between condition training and speed training.

   If athletes are going to increase their speed, quickness and agility they must train at high speeds. Many times coaches keep the drills too long and the rest too short; this simply becomes a conditioning session, not a speed session.

That’s because it represents a failure to appreciate the importance of proper recovery and duration required for maximum speed.

   Speed and quickness requires appropriate recovery time between reps for maximizing an athlete’s speed and quickness. Speed and agility training is governed by the energy system demands of the ATP-CP system, which is mainly responsible for producing power very quickly in very short periods of time (3-7 seconds).

This power-producing energy system requires time to regenerate in order for an athletes to master movement efficiency with as much speed, agility and quickness as possible.

   It also must be understood that most athletic plays only take a few seconds to occur before lower intense movements or a stoppage in play takes place during competition.

So if it’s speed and quickness athletes are after, then they should allow up to as high as a 50:1 rest-to-work ratio, and as low as a 20:1 if full recovery is what their after.

   This of course is ideal, but time is not always a luxury. Still, this can be adjusted to as low as 8:1 or 12:1 rest-to-work ratios if time is limited or other qualities of speed need to be trained.

The more advanced an athlete, the more rest is required, so this also must be taken into consideration. But even with this lower rest to work ratios, as a trainer, I know I’m still getting enough recovery so my athletes can go hard the next rep or set.

   If athletes are still breathing heavy while performing their next rep, then coaches have to realize their athletes are training for condition as they have not recovered enough to achieve maximum speeds required for speed training.

TRAINING TIME : Tim Rudd for IYCA