PHASE 3 SPEED-STRENGTH, SPEED-ENDURANCE, STRENGTH SPEED

PHASE 3 SPEED-STRENGTH, SPEED-ENDURANCE, STRENGTH SPEED

Phase 3 marks the beginning of SPP.

SPP is short for specific physical preparedness. This is the specific physical skills needed to advance in the sport. Some of these include:

Dynamic Strength – having the ability to move weight with maximum force.

Absolute Strength – having the ability to move large amounts of weight.

Special Strength – this would be the training of special exercises needed to advance one of the three main power lifts.

Technique – this is the actual technique skill you have performing the specific sport of choice

The two special strengths we are concerned with include:

Strength-Speed Training
The purpose of strength-speed training is to develop “explosive-strength”, which is defined as “the ability to realize strength quickly”. What this really means is that you will be increasing your “rate of force development”(RFD). Take a pair of NFL lineman who weigh the same and squat the same, both with sound technique and nor a leverage advantage to either one. The one who is going to win the battle at the line of scrimmage is the one who has better explosive-strength development. This is not only because he is going to be delivering more force to his opponent but also because he will reach this point of peak force output quicker. That, my friends, is like playing No-Limit Poker with a pair of Aces up your sleeve! That, my friends, is explosive-strength development!

AW percents for strength-speed training are 20% above your peak power output. Since the average athlete will put out peak power with 63% AW 1RM, the general guideline is to use 63-83% AW 1RM for your strength-speed work. However, some less-explosive athletes will want to use 51-71% AW weights and some more-explosive athletes, such as basketball players, may be better served with 74-94% AW 1RM when looking to develop explosive-strength. Again, it all comes back to your relative-power output in respect to your absolute-strength.

Speed-Strength Training
The purpose of speed-strength training is to develop “explosive-power”, or “the ability to achieve peak velocity as early in the rebound action of the movement as possible”. What’s the difference between an elite baseball player and an elite softball player? We’ve tested them both to be able to swing over 90 mph with a baseball bat, but only the baseball players had enough rate of force development to accelerate the bat head fast enough to achieve peak velocity rapidly after the start of the swing. The softball players had a longer acceleration track, not to mention much slower reaction time scores. It should be noted at this point that explosive-strength development and explosive-power development are both reliant on proficient rate of force development display.

Speed-strength training embodies everything below your relative-peak power AW percent. The goal is two-fold: teach your system to activate peak-twitch sooner and teach your system to release peak tension quicker. Most athletes will work with 63% AW 1RM and below, with only 43%-63% AW 1RM having a strong direct-impact on their peak power scores and explosive-strength development (even though all speed-strength percents will feed into explosive-power development). Again, some athletes may work with 54-74% AW 1RM to influence their relative power output whereas others need to work with 31-51% AW 1RM.

This stage also marks the beginning of the optimization of the Static Spring Effect. The static Spring Effect is a combination of “frictional” strength and reactive strength.

Types of Strength

Muscle strength vs Reactive strength

Frictional strength- Also known as "muscular" strength. Frictional describes the actions of the actin and myosin filaments during a muscular contraction. Frictional strength becomes more important the longer the duration of movement is and the heavier the load. Neuro-duration dominant athletes will also tend to use more frictional strength, often even when executing what should be a reactive dominant movement (depth jump), often due to the programming that has been induced by prior training.

Reactive/Elastic/Plyometric strength- Refers to the non-contractual muscular elements, the tendons, fascia, and ligaments. These structures store energy during a stretch and then release it during a contraction much like a spring. Reactive strength generally becomes more important the faster the speed of movement and the less loading is involved.

Together the combination of frictional strength and reactive strength make up your static-spring proficiency. Sporting movements requiring speed are reactive dominant but reactive movements also need a strong base of frictional strength in order to add stability. The importance of stability for a reactive movement can be thought of as the "stiffness" of a set of shocks on a vehicle. Too loose and your in for a bumpy ride. Too stiff and your in for a bumpy ride as well!

This stage begins with mastering force absorption methods (ADA, FDA, RA). In terms of sporting performance, the more force you absorb, the more force you can exert. Once force absorption is mastered we move to methods that exploit the reactive ability of the athlete (REA, RA, OSP).

The Power Development Cycle

The number one factor for power production is power absorption (e.g. high velocity/high force yielding, a.k.a. “eccentric power output”) because it leads to the greatest degree of stretch-reflex potential in the muscle-tendon complex. And it's no secret that the more energy you take in the more energy you can put out. Just think about a quarterback throwing the ball like a drunken dartsman versus a quarterback who throws like, well, a quarterback. Or it may help you to relate the concept to jumping out of a chair versus a typical down-up vertical jump?

The number one factor for power absorption development is strength development. Research shows that as your muscles get stronger your ability to absorb more force increases, which in turn gives you the potential to absorb more power. And this if obviously important because the more power you can absorb, the more power you can produce!

Power is defined as the product of force and velocity whereas force is defined as the product of mass and acceleration(or mass and “deceleration” in this case). Just think, force plate studies show a sprinter will encounter about 5 times his bodyweight in force on a single leg at peak velocity. That's tremendous force executed at tremendous velocity...or "power" as some of us like to call it. Consequently, the main difference between power absorption and force absorption is the velocity component. It's best to think of force absorption as slow-negatives with relatively heavy weight (Force = MASS x deceleration), even though it can also be thought of as lighter weight with a greater deceleration component (Force = mass x DECELERATION) and a moderate mass yielded at a moderate deceleration value (Force = mass x deceleration). But, it helps me to think about how fast the body or loaded-limb is moving prior to the point at which the object is slowed down (decelerated) whenever I want to get my arms around the power absorption concept.

If you take a power movement and perform it in “reverse” or just the first-half of the movement then you will absorb a good deal of power. The landing of a depth-drop from a high box; the catching of a barbell during a beta-snatch movement or drop-squat movement and of course AMT landings (i.e. 'over-speed depth drops’) are all good examples of power absorption movements. In terms of methods explained in “The Sports Book”, amplitude-drop-absorption (ADA) methods where you drop, absorb and stabilize can all be classified as power absorption methods. Force-drop-absorptions (FDA), also detailed in “The Sports Book” are another group of power absorption methods. In terms of force, which may be easier for many of you to understand, power absorption methods can be thought of as “Force = mass x DECELERATION”. That is, the force register during power production and power absorption movements isn't necessarily high because the mass of the object being moved is great but, rather, because the acceleration/deceleration factor is so big.

Think of them as fast acting eccentrics where a good deal of force is taken into the muscle and you should be able to understand what a research scientists is talking about when he uses the term power-absorption. In example, the reactive (REA) method and the reactive-acceleration (RA) method also contain a good deal of power absorption. Again, the more velocity going into the absorption/yielding phase of speed-strength and strength-speed movements the greater the chance you have to absorb power (or put out “eccentric power” as science calls it). You can absorb a lot of power during full range movements, as well, just be sure to focus on rapid yielding-to-overcoming transitions- "Plyometrics" should ring a bell?

Another way to distinguish between force absorption and power absorption is to compare a heavily weighted squat jump with a reactive box jump and the vertical jump improvements each one makes. Use a force plate to make sure the force values for the weighted squat jumps equal that of the depth-jumps. What you'll find is that the altitude drop-and-jumps increase your vertical jumping ability more than the loaded counter-movement-jumps because more power is absorbed with the former (or less power was absorbed with the latter…however you prefer to look at it). Again, the interesting concept is that the force absorbed is the same but the power absorbed is different.

This is yet another reason why AMT jumps out-perform other jump training methods when looking to raise your run-up approach jumping ability, or “reactive-strength” as sport scientists call it.

Another intriguing concept here is most athletes errantly try to raise performance by simply getting stronger.

At this phase we continue the GPP warm up but cycle between 6 and 12 minutes of continuous work. We also include the specific warm up as mentioned earlier.

Once the client is completely warmed up we move to the main session. The basic split for the main workout is as follows:

Session 1: Strength-Speed Work
Session 2: Speed-Strength Work and Speed-Endurance Work

We continue to work from an upper-lower split. The exercises we use are as follows:

Strength Speed

FDA Beta-Snatch	FDA Upright-Shrug	OSP-R RBR
OSP-R Squat	Power-PIM Bench	Power-PIM Squat
REA SS Cycles	REA Squat	FDA Squat
REA Bench	OSP-R Bench

Speed Strength

LJ Barrier Jump	LJ Landing Drill	SL Speed Jump
Bounding Drill	Fly-in Sprint	Fly-in Sprint B
Sprint Sample	ADA Forward CSS	ADA Lateral 180
ADA Lateral Full CSS	ADA Lateral SS	ADA Tension-Drop
AMT Jumps	AMT Jumps B	RA Bench
Block 30m	OSP BB Throw B	OSP BB Throw
Pass Coverage	PIM BB Swing	RA BB Swing B
PIM Bench	RA Backwards SJ	RA Drop-Sprint
RA Dynamic Balance	RA SS Barrier Leap	RA Forward SJ
RA Lateral BL	RA SS Jump-Sprint	RA Lateral SS PF
RA SS Barrier 180	RA Lateral SJ	RA Lateral SS
RA Sprint Start	RA Pullover-Extension	RA SL Bounds
RA Sled Sprint	RA SS 180	RA Rear-Step TS
RA VJ to ADA SS	REA Elbow Extensions	REA Glut-Ham
REA Bench	RFI Front Raise	RFI H-Ab Jumps
RFI Lateral Jump	RFI Low-Squat Lateral	RFI LS Four-Square
RFI SL Diagonal	RFI SL Speed-Jumps	RFI SL Lateral
RFI SL Linear	Torsion Samples	VJ to ADA SS
RA Squat	RA Bench

Speed Endurance

RFI Lateral Jumps	RFI Lateral Barrier	RFI Quadrant Jumps
PIM Bench	REA Bench	REA Elbow Extensions
RFI LS Four-Square	RFI LS Lateral	RFI SL Diagonal
RFI SL Lateral	RFI SL Linear	RFI Front Raise
RFI Hip-Ab Jumps	RFI Hip-Ad Jumps	RFI Lateral Barrier
RFI Forward Speed	REA Glut-Ham

A sample three phase progression of Power Absorption and Reactive methods follows:

Phase 1: Basic Force Imposed Movements

In this phase, you want to familiarize yourself with the basic movements that I will carry through during this introductory lesson of Torsion Training. Understand that this isn't even a comprehensive lower body list of exercises, let alone a complete list of possible movements altogether. It would be impossible to release every movement for every athlete involved in every sport at this time. But hopefully some of the basics rub off on you enough. Notice that this isn't a workout session, it is a progression that is carried through within the phase. Most likely, you will only use one or two movement(s) per session, thrown in with other Neuro-Dynamic components of your training routine. Start this Phase with the first exercise and exit to Phase 2 with mastery of the last exercise.

Down and Up Vertical Jump: you should be able to move your entire body in a sequence of fluid motions in order to descend and then ascend into the jump, as well as land softly and under perfect balance(i.e. like the perfect dismount of a gymnast).

Forward ADA Drop Squat: step forwards off a box height equal to your vertical jump. Concentrate on enhancing your ability to land effectively.

Lateral ADA Drop Squat: step sideways off a box equal to your vertical jump height, landing efficiently in squat stance.

Backwards ADA Drop Squat: step backwards of a box equal to your vertical jump height. Don't look for the landing; rather, prepare yourself for the blind-side landing and then once you begin to feel it, quickly absorb the impact and bring yourself into good jump-ready squat position.

Blind-Folded Vertical Jumps: seal off your vision completely using a soft cloth material. Set yourself, then perform a down and up vertical jump. Once you can achieve the same jump height as in your standard down and up vertical test, as well as land softly and efficiently, then you can progress to the next Phase.

Phase 2: Intermediate Force Imposed Movements

This phase takes the basics of Phase 1 a step further. You will learn how to utlize more neural energy and master exercises that have greater difficulty and much greater carryover to the general sport arena(i.e. related to our goals of being able to respond and react better, as well as cut, juke, and control your body with better overall mastery).

Forward ADA Split-Squat Drop: step forwards of a box equal to your vertical jump height with one leg in front. Push off with your back leg in order to give you some horizontal movement. Land in split-squat position, well balanced so that you could explode out in any direction.

Lateral ADA Split-Squat Drop: get in staggered-stance position on top of a box equal to your vertical jump height, with your leg closest to the side you wish to drop-off of in front. Take your front leg/close leg and reach it out sideways, effectively stepping off the box laterally. Land in split squat position, with the step off leg in front. You should be controlled in the landing, building energy throughout your system so that you could explode out in any direction if needed.

Backwards ADA Split-Squat Drop: using a box height equal to your vertical jump ability, step off the box backwards and land in a split-squat. Be sure to have your feet make contact at the same time, stress good plantar flexion dynamic minimization of the rear leg, and be in ready position to move in any direction required.

Single Leg ADA Landings: performed from a height equal to 40-55% of your vertical jump height, this is actually 6 movements rolled into one. That is, landing on one leg with your free floating leg held behind you for one version and in front of you for the other version, you will master landing on each leg for each step off(forwards, backwards, and sideways). A deficiency in either one restricts you from further progression.
RA Squat Jumps: using the same format listed in my reactive jump appraisal, find your peak reactive jump ability for a two-legged squat-style forwards reactive jump, sideways reactive jump and backwards reactive jump. That is, step off in each direction, land as you have learned in the previous steps, but this time you will react out into a vertical jump.

Phase 3: Advanced Force Imposed Movements

This phase builds upon what you just learned one degree further. Now you will be requested to arouse your feedforward mechnisms of your body to a greater degree, which will really help bridge the divide between visual reaction times and physcial reactiveness. In real world terminology, this means that you will better your ability to physically react to visual stimuli in sport. Many athletes can visually recognize what they need to do, but it is only the ones that have the skills to physically do it that prevail. To extend the old cliche; You can tell your body what to do but it doesn't mean it will do it...unless you teach your system how to do it. And to say that turning visual recognition into physical reaction is a huge player in being a successful athlete is like saying converting more horsepower to the wheel is something that may help make your car go faster. Duh! (My friend and associate calls it "the difference between an arm-chair quarterback and an NFL quarterback".)

ADA Cycled-Split Drops: we commonly do these one of three ways so I'll list them all here. The first way is a forward step off from your peak reactive jump drop height. Step out and off the box with one leg in front, and push out with the hind leg. As soon as you are in free fall, quickly bring your rear leg to the front and your front leg to the rear(cycle in mid-air), effectively landing in split-squat position. Again, you should land in perfect balance, so if I cued you to react out in any direction after impact that you could do it, quickly. The lateral version is a lot the same. Step off sideways with your close-side leg and push out(not down or up) with your trail leg. The instant you get off the box you need to bring your step off leg in a rapid front-back-front cycle, with your trail leg(inside step off leg) in a rapid back-front-back cycle. You will then land in the ground with your step-off leg in front and on outside(away from the box). You should be well balanced when doing these on both sides(be sure to always land with outside leg in front). The third way is to step off backwards with one leg, pushing back with the lead leg. Once in flight, rapidly switch the back leg to the front and the front leg to the back, landing in a perfectly balanced split-squat position.

AMT Landings: using your reactive jump height box, you will fasten enough overspeed band resistance so that your reactive jump with those shooting down(released at contact) will be about 7-8% less than your normal reactive jump height. Perform forward, backward, and lateral step-offs and landing in a jump-ready squat position.

ADA Torsion Drops: using split-squat style because it is much more sport specific than a squat stance, you will perform three somewhat difficult movements. The first entials that you stand in split squat position on the top of a box. Whichever leg is in back will be the side you jump off. The goal is to perform a 180 degree turn in the air, landing with the front leg on the outside(away from box). You can initiate the turn in both directions(clockwise or counter clockwise) for each side, just be sure to always land with outside leg in front. The next movement is a backwards jump off from split squat position. Rotate so that as you jump back and turn you are facing away from the box, but don't forget to land so that you are absorbing the force of impact with your front leg hip abductors. This means that whichever direction you are spinning just prior to impact, that side-leg should be in front. (If you are spining to the right, right leg in front..visa versa) You may also perform these by jumping off forwards in split-squat position. Simply rotate to the side of the front-leg and land facing towards the box in split squat, jump-ready position. As your balance gets better, you may integrate cycled-split actions in the air.

AMT Jumps: this one doesn't need much explaining, especially since it has been covered before. Just remember to react out after your absorption phase is complete. Far too many athletes try to turnover too quick. Step-offs in all directions will better prepare you for sport than just a step-off in one direction. Remember that.

AMT Torsion: at this point you have developed the ability to know where your body is at all times, when and how to crank up the dial for your nervous system output, how to use feedforward processes to increase your firing rate, increase your ability to react, and you have effectively put it all together. Now you need to be challenged with a moderate degree of difficulty(I call this the advanced phase, but it doesn't end here). Selectively perform any or all of the movements previously detailed, using AMT methodics.

Upon completion of the main session, the athlete once again moves to the Isometric PAP/CJC circuit

Upper Body:

Chest CJC

Row PAP

Pull Up PAP

Rear Delt PAP

Lower Body

Hamstring CJC

1 Leg Squat CJC

ABS CJC

ABS PAP

Oblique PAP

PHASE 4 REASSESSMENT

"Hey coach, how do I get better?"

"Easy...get stronger!"

That's bullshit! Even though the strength training approach may help them increase their force absorption potential, especially in terms of being able to lower heavy weights under control, it's only when you increase your ability to absorb more power will you realize the greatest gains in your power production development! So much for your cut and dry powerlifting and/or bodybuilding routine, huh? What may interest you bodybuilders and powerlifters, however, is that as your power production values go up then your hypertrophy potential goes through the roof. Once you capture this hypertrophy potential then you will have raised your strength threshold, once again, setting a new stone for power development. That's one you're sure to hear regurgitated by all of my copy-cat coaches out there!

As you can see, it's nothing more than a big fat cycle of getting stronger to get more powerful to get bigger so that you can get stronger which feeds into more power development! (whew…that sucked the air out of me!)