Defensive Back Skills At Speed And Power Camp

Defensive back footwork skills such as speed shuffles, back pedals and hip turns were learned by athletes at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed And Power Camp. These footwork skills can also be used in other sports like baseball, soccer and basketball.



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I played defensive back in college so I'm definitely an authority on the need for accelerating backwards, forwards, shuffling, etc. We practiced "running backwards at game speed" every day until it became a natural movement.

If you play a defensive position in your sport or transition to defense (as in basketball, lacrosse or soccer) then you need to train your body for backwards acceleration and other footwork skills. Many times, you may be running forward and need to adjust quickly into a back pedal, shuffle or hip turn to defend your opponent. Or, you could be in a stand-still position and need to quickly accelerate backwards in a defensive position.

There are exercises that you can practice to improve your backwards acceleration. As with all speed exercises, backwards acceleration practice should be done with "game-time effort." You also must keep your shoulders leaned forward in order to maintain dynamic balance and to be able to stop and go forward "on a dime."

Some common exercises to improve footwork are: back pedal, hip turn and run, hip turn and shuffle, hip turn and crossover, shuffle and run and continuous hip turns. Good hip drills are: hip twists, hip in outs, leg swings and hip flexions/extensions.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Football Lineman Speed, Power and Agility

Great football linemen excel with speed, power, agility and quickness. We had a few linemen at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp learning to improve these qualities. And, I saw the improvement already during the first football game this week!



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Football linemen need great change-of-direction speed to succeed in the trenches. Having great change-of-direction speed (agility with quickness) allows you to beat your opponent "to the spot" or recover from mistakes in positioning. Linemen with "not great speed" can repeatedly make plays to help the team win. This is not an accident. You can improve your change-of-direction speed with proper training.

As with any athletic move, core strength is critical. Overall body strength is also important. Before you begin to train for speed and power, the foundation should be laid with sufficient core and body strength. Failure to lay this strength foundation will lead you to certain injuries.

Body positioning is critical if you want to improve your change-of-direction speed. You will need dynamic balance. In many sports, it is not that easy to change direction and accelerate because you are often off balance.

To improve change-of-direction acceleration, you should have a shin angle of approximately 45 degrees for the first few steps. Your shoulders should also be slightly leaned forward. Your body lean should be at the ankles and not the hips. Having your feet just wider than shoulder-width apart will give you the most stable base of support.

This is not always possible during athletic competition. So, stability needs to be added by lowering the center of gravity. Change-of-direction acceleration could be laterally, at an angle or forward (when back pedaling) and will catapult you to near maximal speed quickly.

The first step in the change-of-direction is important. If this step is too long, you will over-stride and bring your shin to a vertical angle instead of 45 degrees. This will slow you down. So, the first step should be under your hips. Again, your body lean should be at ankles and not the hips.

Lateral change-of-direction technique is critical for football linemen. The shin angle remains important. Shuffles are often followed by sprints. You should use short, quick steps to decelerate and bring your body under control. A "jump stop" can also be used to change directions. Your knees and hips should be bent with the shoulders aligned over your knees and toes.

Shuttle drills, lateral shuffle/cuts, crossovers, cariocas, tapiocas, ladder drills, etc. can all be used to improve change-of-direction speed for football linemen. You should perfect technique at half speed before progressing to full speed drills.

Work on your change-of-direction speed more during practice.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Dynamic Flexibility At Speed And Power Camp

Your dynamic flexibility is important if you want to be a top level athlete. Athletes at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp worked on dynamic flexibility every day.



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An effective dynamic warmup is a MUST before your workout or game. A dynamic warmup will prepare your body best for practice or games. Do static stretches after your workout or game (when muscles are warm) to increase your range of motion.

Accomplish the following during your dynamic warmup:

1. Make sure your "power center" is flexible. An athlete's "power center" consists of the glutes, hips, quadriceps and hamstrings. This area of your body is prone to some hard-to-recover-from injuries!

2. Your hip flexors need to flexible. Tight hip flexors cause many problems, including problems with your glutes and hamstrings.

3. When you warmup, practice relaxing your face, shoulders, arms and torso. You will perform better when you are relaxed and you want your body to work like a "well oiled machine."

Some good dynamic warmup exercises are back pedals, lunges, step ups, cariocas, form running, shuffles, heel sprints, ankle bounces, bounding, prancing and jump rope.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Running Mechanics At Speed And Power Camp

You will never reach your speed potential with bad running mechanics! I'm always amazed at athlete's bad running mechanics. At Sports Fitness Hut's Speed And Power Camp, we worked on running mechanics everyday.



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If you want to improve your running speed, you must first master the basic mechanics of running. Running mechanics have three main components: Posture, Arm Action and Leg Action. Listed below are some key checkpoints of proper running mechanics:

Checkpoints for proper running posture:

1. At maximum speed, the head should be held high. Also, the head should never sway from side to side and the jaws should be relaxed.

2. The head should be in line with the torso and the torso should be in line with the legs at all times.

3. There should be a slight body lean when starting and accelerating. At maximum speed, which usually takes about 4-5 seconds, the body is more straight up with tall hips.

4. The feet should be dorsiflexed (pointed up) at all times except when striking the ground. Feet should strike the ground on the balls of the feet.

Checkpoints for proper arm action:

1. Use the shoulders (and not the elbows) to pump the arms as fast as possible. The hands should be relaxed in unballed fists with the front hand rising up to about nose level and the back hand passing the buttocks.

2. Move each arm as one piece with the elbow bent at 90 degrees. Arm action should be straight forward, up and down and never flailing side to side.

Checkpoints for proper leg action:

1. The faster the running speed, the higher the heel on the rear foot should kick up. When the foot leaves the ground, it should follow a path straight up to the buttocks. It should not flail from side to side.

2. The knee raises up to where the thigh is parallel to the ground. The foot then drops down below the knee (knee angle is about 90 degrees).

Your foot should land under your hips. Drive your foot to use the ground to give you power. Don't overstride or it will cause breaking.

The more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will "give you power."
When you run, don't lift your knee past your "thigh being parallel" to the ground. This way, you will use your "power center" (glutes and hamstrings) to apply force to the ground instead of the less powerful hip flexors.

In other words, running "with high knees" is not the best way to run! Also, step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground to create maximum force. Your heels should never touch the ground.

3. At top speed, the drive (pushing) leg should be fully extended to the ground.

It's a good idea to practice running mechanics before, during and after workouts.

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Leg Power At Speed And Power Camp

Leg power helps you improve your speed and you become a more explosive athlete. Part of Sports Fitness Hut's Speed And Power Camp was designed to show athletes how to improve leg power.



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I was watching NFL highlights on ESPN Sports Center one night and I saw a touchdown run by Adrian Peterson.....besides being fast, I saw something else during his run to paydirt---extreme explosion and acceleration in relation to the players trying to tackle him. They didn't have a chance once he exploded.

Every athlete can improve leg power and explosion. Your height achieved in squat jumps and vertical jumps, and horizontal distance of long jumps will tell you how much leg power you have. These exercises also give a good indication of how much speed you have. Doing these exercises as full speed plyometric exercises will improve your leg power.

Quadriceps, hamstrings, hips, glutes and calves are targets for improvement if you want your vertical jump and long jump to improve. Squats, lunges, leg presses, step ups, hip abductors and calf raises are all good exercises to improve lower body strength. Also, the hang clean is a great exercise because you execute the exercise from the same position that you jump from (or the power position).

How much lower body strength do you need to develop optimum power? A male should be able to squat his body weight 8-10 times and a female should be able to squat about 75% of her body weight 8-10 times. If you are not able to squat, then you should be able to leg press about 1.5 times your body weight 8-10 times.

It doesn't help you to continually get stronger if power development is not there also. Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best physical predictors of success in sports.

Train hard and smart!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Weight Lifting at Speed And Power Camp

Athletes learned how to lift weights explosively with correct form at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp!



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Explosive weight lifting will improve your power and set you apart from your athletic competitors. Just as you can do medicine ball exercises, plyometric exercises and light dumbbell exercises explosively, you can also lift heavier weights explosively.

Lifting weights explosively is an advanced form of exercise and shouldn't be done by beginners. Your body should have the needed stabilization and strength before beginning explosive lifts.

It doesn't help you improve as an athlete to continually get stronger if power development is not there also. Power, or speed strength (how fast your muscles can produce force) is one of the best physical predictors of success in sports.

Research has proven that only lifting heavy weights at a moderate or slow pace will not improve your explosive power.

Especially at the start of the lift, explosive lifting can be done for exercises like (5-6 repetitions):

--Bench press
--Shoulder press
--Squats
--Leg press
--Hamstring curls
--Calf raises

....and also for bodyweight exercises, like (6-8 repetitions):

--Power step ups
--Bodyweight squats
--Pullups
--Pushups
--Inverted rows

......and medicine ball exercises, like (8-10 repetitions):

--Throws
--Chops
--Slams
--Rotational exercises

Lift explosively, safely and improve your power!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed Camp Has No Long Distance Running

There was no long distance running at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp!



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Sprinters should limit distance running during training. Sprinters need to activate and train the bulkier fast twitch muscles. If you do too much long distance running, your slow twitch muscle fibers will take over and make you slower and nonexplosive.

I was once asking a client about running exercises they were doing in school athletics to improve running speed......the answer was disappointing and typical....

Some of the running drills were:

1. mile runs
2. stadium steps for endurance
3. gasers for conditioning

"Did you run any sprints?" "No." Guess what? Those athletes aren't getting any faster....they are just basically running for conditioning.

Conditioning has its place.....but if you want to get faster, you have to train fast.....that means sprinting drills with enough recovery time to run each sprint full speed. About 1 minute of recovery time is needed for each 10 yards sprinted (50 yard sprints need about 5 minutes recovery time).

Running sprints after practice won't get the job done either....players are too tired at this point to give maximum effort. So, coaches, do your sprinting drills at the beginning of practice when your players are fresh.

Train hard and smart to get faster!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Agility And Quickness Improved With Ladder Drills

Improve your agility and quickness with ladder drills. Athletes worked on improving their agility and quickness at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp. Its important to practice doing the exercises correctly. You can add more speed to the exercises as you progress.



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In many ways, quickness and agility are more important than straight-ahead speed. A player rarely reaches maximum speed during game competition. Having great change-of-direction speed (agility with quickness) allows you to beat your opponent "to the spot" or recover from mistakes in positioning.

How many times have you seen a player with "not great speed" repeatedly make plays to help the team win. This is not an accident. You can improve your change-of-direction speed with proper training. Read my post that discusses change-of-direction speed in detail.

You can also improve quickness by improving your reaction time. You do this by training to make the right choices as quickly as possible. You can practice reacting to sight or sound cues.

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed And Power For Baseball

The best baseball players have speed and power---powerful arms, powerful swings and powerful movements. Baseball requires quick, powerful bursts, whether its on the basepaths, batter's box or in the field. Athletes began to improve their speed and power last week at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp.



See Speed Camp Youtube video!

Every baseball player wants more power, speed and strength! Not every baseball player is training right for explosive power. If you need more power hitting the baseball, more speed running the bases or more quickness at your position then you need to work hard and smart to improve.

Baseball requires a series of rotational and lateral movements. Therefore, the baseball player needs a strong core to generate rotational and lateral speed and power.

The physical demands of baseball are: starting ability, acceleration, stopping, cutting, stride rate, stride length, sprinting form and speed endurance.

Most explosive movements occur after some other movement (swinging, sliding, etc.). Maximum velocity is rarely reached except in the case of hitting a triple, inside-the-park homerun or running down a long fly ball. Therefore, starting ability and acceleration should be emphasized during training.

Work hard in the offseason to improve your speed and power on the baseball field!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed, Power, Agility and Quickness In Action

See speed, power, agility and quickness in action at Sports Fitness Hut's Camp. Take a look at the video below to help you become a better athlete!

Be sure and download your Free Dumbbell and Medicine Ball Metabolic Fat Burner Workouts and start shaping your body faster! Mark Dilworth, BA, PES Your Fitness University My Fitness Hut Her Fitness Hut Sports Fitness Hut Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

Football Players Need Dynamic Balance

One must-have for all football players is dynamic balance. In my opinion, dynamic balance along with power are the two greatest physical predictors of success in sports that require speed. Athletes began to improve their dynamic balance last week at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp.



See Speed Camp Youtube video!

Improve your dynamic balance and you will be a better football player and overall athlete.

Static balance, which can be maintained with minimal movement, should be distinguished from dynamic balance. Your ability to maintain your center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support is critical to success on the football field and is the essence of dynamic balance. The ability to "stay on your feet (under control)" and "make the play" distinguishes great football players from other football players. Postural strength and control is also necessary to achieve dynamic balance.

You should do exercises that progressively challenge your dynamic balance and postural control. Exercises that require use of different surfaces (firm to unstable) will work to accomplish this. One-armed and one-legged exercises also work well. Experts don't always agree on the specific balance exercises to be performed, but research proves that changes in both sensory and motor systems influence balance performance.

Workout hard and smart to be a better football player!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed And Power For Football

If you don't think you need speed and power to play football, watch a college or NFL game on television. Each play ends in a train wreck! You won't be a very good football player without speed and power. You can improve your speed and power (how fast your muscles can produce force) for football and become a more dynamic player on the field. That's exactly what athletes are doing this week at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp.



See Speed Camp video on YouTube!

Speed strength is a combination of starting speed, explosive speed (maximum velocity in the shortest time) and reactive speed. Proper training methods will produce the strength, power and speed you will need to succeed in football.

The best football players have great amounts of strength, speed, power, agility and quickness. Straight-ahead speed is not enough. This is the main reason that many world-class track athletes don't make a successful transition to the sport of football.

Core strength is important to help you remain strong and upright when you are running, especially in the late stages of a football game. Adequate core strength helps your speed endurance, which is the ability to maintain maximum velocity or a percentage of maximum velocity for a prolonged period of time or in a fatigued state. The best players and teams have excellent overall body strength, core strength and speed endurance (and they win the most games).

I hope you have trained this offseason to improve your speed and power this season!

Workout hard and smart to get better!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed And Power For Basketball

You can improve your speed and power (how fast your muscles can produce force) for basketball, even if you think your genetic makeup says otherwise. That's exactly what athletes are doing this week at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp. Athletes are training to jump with more explosion, accelerate with more power and move laterally with speed and power! All of these improvements will make you a better basketball player.



See Speed Camp video on YouTube!

To improve your power for basketball, you need to train fast and explosively.

You will be a better basketball player if you have the muscles you need to compete at a high level....build muscles to improve your speed, power and explosion.

A certain amount of traditional weight training is needed to build bulk muscles and core muscles with exercises like bench press, squat, deadlift, rows, shoulder press, planks and briges...

After that, a basketball player needs to be concerned with improving speed (especially lateral speed, endurance speed, change-of-direction speed, backwards speed, quickness and acceleration speed) and power (with plyometric exercises).

One good way to build power and explosiveness is with high-speed medicine ball exercises after having laid the foundation with traditional barbell, dumbbell and core exercises....medicine ball exercises also allow you to exercise using your natural motions....this is important because every person moves different.

Workout hard and smart to get better!

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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Speed And Power Practiced

Yes, you can improve your speed and power if you practice hard with correct technique. At Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp this week, 18 high school athletes have been working hard (in 100 degree heat) to get faster and more powerful for the sports they play.



See Speed Camp video on YouTube!

Speed and power are critical in sports because you will rarely reach maximum speed during the game. Therefore, players with speed acceleration and explosive power will outperform their equals.

You can improve your sports power by improving your muscle's rate-of-force production (how fast your muscles can produce force, or speed strength).

This goes far beyond brute muscular strength. The strongest athletes are not necessarily the most powerful athletes on the field or court. Explosive power has to be trained in athletes. Plyometric exercises are one way to improve your athletic power.

No matter what sport you play, there are only 5 ways to improve playing speed:

1.Starting ability is critical. You can improve starting ability by practicing starts from 3-point, 4-point, standing and moving positions. At this point, it is important to accelerate to maximum speed (or as close as possible).

2. Increase your stride length. One good way to improve stride length is to effectively pump your arms as fast as possible. Leg strength and power also improve stride length.

3. Improve your stride rate (the number of steps you take per second). Leg strength and power improve stride rate.

There is one running technique that is often overlooked. One way to run faster is to apply more force to the ground with your feet. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

The more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will "give you power." When you run, don't lift your knee past your "thigh being parallel" to the ground.

This way, you will use your "power center" (glutes and hamstrings) to apply force to the ground instead of the less powerful hip flexors. In other words, running "with high knees" is not the best way to run. Also, step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground to create maximum force.

4. Improve your speed endurance. Speed endurance will not make you faster but it will keep you from slowing down when you are fatigued after repeated sprints.

5. Improve your running mechanics. You should practice running mechanics every day.

Your goal should be to play the game fast and explosive under control!

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Other things being equal, a muscular, powerful athlete will outperform a fat, slower or skinny, weaker athlete. Sports Fitness Hut's Fat Blaster Athletic Power Training System will give you your "lean and mean" athletic machine!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Sports Fitness Hut

Bodyweight Speed Drills At SFH Speed Camp

Master bodyweight speed drills before progressing to resisted speed drills such as towing sleds. This is definitely the rule at Sports Fitness Hut's Speed and Power Camp which started today. You may have seen the commercial showing an athlete doing a speed drill while pulling a sled. That's a good exercise to do---if your body is ready for it.



See Speed Camp video on YouTube!

Unfortunately, many young athletes haven't even mastered bodyweight speed drills yet.....and, they don't have enough core strength or overall body strength to do this sled exercise the right way.

Master bodyweight speed drills before progressing to assisted or weight-bearing speed drills. The average guy or gal I see working out doesn't even run with correct running mechanics! This would be the place to start----work on running mechanics every day!

Greek researchers found that athletes training with towing methods (sleds, tires, etc.) improved their running velocity over the first 20 meters (i.e. acceleration) but that overall maximum speed did not improve. The researchers found that unresisted sprint training techniques improved maximum speed velocity more. So, resisted and unresisted training has a place in the overall speed training program. Finally, the researchers found that towing sleds that were too heavy forced the athletes to use bad running mechanics.

Don't do an exercise just because you see it on television or in a magazine! You may not be ready for that exercise!

Train hard and smart to achieve your athletic goals!

What are you doing to improve your running speed?

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Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
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