7-on-7 Football--Work on Speed and Change-of-Direction

As you play in your 7-on-7 football games to prepare for football season this fall, work on improving your speed and change-of-direction. You can't tackle anyone in 7-on-7 football, so work on your speed and footwork to get better!

Improve your change-of-direction during 7-on-7 games by perfecting your technique as a defensive back, linebacker, receiver or quarterback. Do the repetitions the right way--everytime! Perfect practice makes perfect

You can also improve your speed during games. You get faster by running fast. Train your muscles to fire faster. Run routes at full speed and cover your man at full speed. You don't have to wait until your formal team practices to get faster. Let your coach see your speed improvement when fall practices start.

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.

The best running backs, receivers, defensive backs and linebackers all have great dynamic balance.

Having great dynamic balance means that you are able to maintain your center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support. Thus, quickness and agility drills help you to improve dynamic balance and change-of-direction acceleration while not wasting motion.

Improve your change-of-direction with these drills and then apply them during your 7-on-7 games:

1. jump rope (one foot, two feet, slalom, Ali shuffle, backpedal)

2. speed ladder drills

3. cariocas, tapiocas, back pedals, shuffles, toe taps

4. hip turn and hip flexibility drills

Use your 7-on-7 football games to improve your skills and help your team win this fall.

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How to Improve Multi-Directional Speed

Become a better athlete in your sport by improving your multi-directional speed.

In many instances, agility and quickness are more important than straight ahead speed. In many sports, maximum speed is rarely reached or needed, but explosive reaction is often necessary. You can improve reaction times by training to make the right choices (choice reaction).

Reaction time is the ability to respond quickly with proper posture and control to a stimulus such as sound or sight.

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.

Improve your agility and quickness fundamentals these 3 ways:

1. 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 to certain injuries for you.

2. 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 the athlete is often off balance.

Some sports, such as football and basketball require running with or bouncing a ball. And, other sports, such as soccer require moving a ball with the feet. The best running backs, tennis players, basketball players, shortstops, etc. all have great dynamic balance.

Having great dynamic balance means that you are able to maintain your center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support. Thus, quickness and agility drills help you to improve dynamic balance and change-of-direction acceleration while not wasting motion.

3. 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.

The body lean should be at the ankles and not the hips. Having the feet just wider than shoulder-width apart will give you the most stable base of support. This is not always possible during athletic competition.

Therefore, 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 the shin to a vertical angle instead of 45 degrees. This will slow you down. So, the first step should be under your hips. Again, the body lean should be at ankles and not the hips.

Improving your coordination will help improve your multi-directional speed and linear speed (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.

Improve your quickness and agility with these drills and then apply them during your movements in a game:

--jump rope (one foot, two feet, slalom, Ali shuffle, backpedal)

--speed ladder drills

--cariocas, tapiocas, back pedals, shuffles, toe taps

--hip turn and hip flexibility drills (like leg swings)

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Hip Flexibility Improves Change-of-Direction Speed

You can improve your change-of-direction speed with strong, flexible hips. Body positioning is critical if you want to improve your change-of-direction speed.

Side Leg Swings

Front Leg Swings

Hip flexibility is crucial to your success in speed sports. Improve hip range of motion with daily leg swing exercises.

Leg swings are a great way to improve your dynamic flexibility, loosen your hips and make you a faster, more fluid athlete.

If your hip flexor muscles are not flexible, you will not even be a good athlete in your sport(s)! Tight hip flexors also lead to some painful injuries (like pulls and strains) that are hard to recover from.

In many sports, it is not that easy to change direction and accelerate because you are often off balance. Having great dynamic balance means that you are able to maintain your center of gravity over a constantly changing base of support.

How to do Leg Swings:

Just swing your legs back and forth at least as high as your waistline. As you become more flexible, your legs will swing higher and more fluid.

Front and side leg swings are perfect to do before your sprint workouts.

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Lateral Speed Improves Playing Speed

To improve your playing speed, you should focus on straight-ahead speed, lateral speed and agility (deceleration, stabilization, acceleration and change of direction with proper posture, strength and balance) and quickness (reaction time without hesitation).

Other important components of playing speed are speed strength, speed endurance and proper mechanics. Speed strength is a combination of starting speed, explosive speed (maximum velocity in the shortest time) and reactive speed.

Speed endurance is the ability to maintain maximum velocity or a percentage of maximum velocity for a prolonged period of time or in a fatigued state. Proper mechanics allows you to run with efficiency and is a product of posture, arm action and leg action.

Some sports, such as football require more power, explosion, reaction and lateral speed. A sport like soccer requires more endurance speed with the ability to mix in sprints during game action. You should emphasize your training for the types of speed needed in your sport.

Some important exercises to incorporate in your exercise programs are lateral lunges (with or without dumbbells), lateral bounding, lateral step ups (with or without dumbbells) and lateral shuffles (with or without resistance).

Straight-line speed is important but so is lateral speed and agility in sports. The athlete has to move quickly and efficiently from linear to lateral positions (and back again) many times during a practice or game.

The lateral lunge forces the athlete to decelerate movement through one hip at a time, placing greater emphasis on the gluteals and hamstrings. It trains the athlete to move correctly in the lateral direction.

Many knee ACL injuries occur when athletes place too much stress on their knees and not enough stress on their hips during deceleration. In other words, the hips are often under-used during sports activities.

Lateral bounding is a progression from lateral lunges that requires the athlete to practice lateral movement at game-time speed.

Do not progress to full-speed lateral bounding until the proper mechanics are achieved with lateral lunges. One common mechanical breakdown is when the knees protrude far in front of the feet when decelerating, landing or squatting. This puts undue stress on the knees and often causes injury.

Lateral shuffles (with or without resistance) also work well to train correct lateral movement. Lateral shuffles without resistance can be practiced at game-time speed.




Lateral step ups emphasize development of the athlete's hips, quadriceps (especially outer) and glutes.

Any serious athletic exercise program would be incomplete without these exercises. They can be performed as strength or power (high speed) moves.

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Metabolic Speed Training Improves Performance

Use metabolic speed training to improve your performance and speed endurance in your sport. If you can maintain a higher level of speed (for a longer period of time) than your opponent during the game, you will win. Tired, exhausted teams in the 4th quarter will lose games.



Interval training for speed endurance is different than regular speed training. Speed endurance sprint intervals last from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Also, recovery time is reduced to prevent complete recovery by the athlete. Here is an example of speed endurance training:

Shuttles - Place cones at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 yards. You would sprint to the 5 yard cone and sprint back to the start. You would then sprint to the 10 yard cone and sprint back to the start. The same would be done at the 15, 20 and 30 yard cones. That is one set. Rest for 2 minutes between sets. Do 5-6 sets.

Metabolic training simulates actual game time activity. An example would be for an offense in football to simulate the entire game in practice (i.e., huddle, run a play, huddle, run a play).

Many sports such as football, basketball and soccer require different levels of strength, speed and power.

For example, soccer requires constant running---jogging, half-effort sprints and maximum effort sprints. Football requires short bursts of power, sprints, jogs back to the huddle and endurance.

Football also requires relative strength, which is the strength level per unit of bodyweight. Basketball requires repeated sprints, jumps and sub-maximal effort runs and cuts during the game.

No matter the sport, metabolic speed training can get you in peak condition for your sport.

Metabolic speed training means that you are being conditioned at the cellular level. You can make improvements in resting heart rate, cardiac output and blood volume. Your body fat will also decrease.

Metabolic speed training will make you a better conditioned athlete and will allow you to use your skills more efficiently for a longer period of time (speed endurance). The strongest and fittest players and teams at the end of the game usually end up as the winners.

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Speed Training 101

You want more running speed. Every athlete wants more speed. Speed is much more than straight-ahead running. In this article, I will cover some general speed training guidelines....

1. Straight-ahead speed is important but there are other types of speed such as starting speed, acceleration speed, top-end speed, change-of-direction speed, stopping speed, closing speed and speed endurance. You should train for all types of speed particular to your sport. Quickness, which is reacting explosively without hesitation should also be trained for and will enhance your overall speed.

2. Your body needs adequate strength (including core strength) and speed strength (power) for you to reach your running speed potential.

3. Master bodyweight speed drills before progressing to assisted or weight-bearing speed drills.

4. You need to master the basic running mechanics to become faster. Posture, arm action and leg action are keys to improving your speed.



5. Running alone will not give you the leg strength you will need to improve your running speed. You should strengthen your legs with exercises like squats, step ups and lunges because these exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run with speed.

Don't worry about leg extensions too much because the quadriceps will get plenty of work with other exercises. Instead, focus on strengthening the hamstrings with exercises like hamstring curls, straight-leg deadlifts and good mornings.

The quadriceps shouldn't be significantly stronger than the hamstrings. If so, you are headed for injuries such as knee ACL tears. And, don't forget about your calf muscles.

The calf muscles provide at least 30% of the strength and power it takes to run fast. Use calf raises (seated or standing) to strengthen the calves.

6. You have to train fast to get faster! Too much distance running will defeat your goal of improving your speed. When training for speed, distance running should be kept to a minimum because it reduces explosiveness. You can condition for your sport by doing metabolic training, which is training that closely mimics your game-time competition.

Train hard and smart!

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Rest And Recovery During Speed Training

Rest and recovery is sometimes not given enough importance by those of you doing speed training. You must give maximum effort during speed training workouts, if you want to get faster. You can improve your running speed no matter who you are!



You have to train fast to get faster! This might sound simple but how many times have you seen coaches have their players run "sprints" after practice. That IS NOT speed training---that is general conditioning!

You can only run full speed when your body has recovered. That means you need adequate rest between sprints in order to run each one at full speed. About 1 minute of rest is needed for every 10 yards sprinted (forty yard sprints need 4 minutes of rest).

Coaches, instead of having your players run sprints after practice, make sure that they practice at full speed during practice and drills. And, a better tactic would be to run sprints before practice when your players are fresh (they would still need adequate recovery between sprints).

Metabolic training and speed endurance training are also important for athletes.

The running mechanics are important to improve straight-ahead speed. Practice these mechanics every day! Strengthening your body (core included) will also help make you faster.

The same holds true for plyometric exercises such as squat jumps. These drills need to be done at full speed with adequate recovery time between sets. Drills like squat jumps help improve speed and power.

Train hard and smart!

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Core Strength, Speed And Power Work Together

Improve your performance with core strength, overall body strength, speed and power training. You need an integrated training approach to make you a more dynamic and powerful athlete. Integrated training just means that you cover all the training bases at the right time.



Your body needs adequate strength (including core strength) and speed strength (power) for you to reach your running speed potential.

Straight-ahead speed is important but there are other types of speed such as starting speed, acceleration speed, top-end speed, change-of-direction speed, stopping speed, closing speed and speed endurance. You should train for all types of speed particular to your sport. Quickness, which is reacting explosively without hesitation should also be trained for and will enhance your overall speed.

Master bodyweight speed drills before progressing to assisted or weight-bearing speed drills.

You need to master the basic running mechanics to become faster. Posture, arm action and leg action are keys to improving your speed.

Running alone will not give you the leg strength you will need to improve your running speed. You should strengthen your legs with exercises like squats, step ups and lunges because these exercises use the same pathways that it takes to run with speed.

Don't worry about leg extensions too much because the quadriceps will get plenty of work with other exercises. Instead, focus on strengthening the hamstrings with exercises like hamstring curls, straight-leg deadlifts and good mornings.

The quadriceps shouldn't be significantly stronger than the hamstrings. If so, you are headed for injuries such as knee ACL tears. And, don't forget about your calf muscles. The calf muscles provide at least 30% of the strength and power it takes to run fast. Use calf raises (seated or standing) to strengthen the calves.

You have to train fast to get faster! Too much distance running will defeat your goal of improving your speed. When training for speed, distance running should be kept to a minimum because it reduces explosiveness. You can condition for your sport by doing metabolic training, which is training that closely mimics your game-time competition.

Train hard and smart!

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

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
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Improve Power With Bodyweight Plyometrics

Bodyweight plyometric workouts will improve your power output! And, one-legged plyometric exercises are more intense than two-legged plyometric exercises. Shorten and intensify your workouts with jump training (plyometrics)! Plyometric workouts also blast more fat and calories during and after your workout!



Improving your power with exercises like long jumps and squat jumps will also improve your speed.

Bodyweight plyometric workouts are advanced workouts. You need to perfect jumping and landing techniques or you will injure yourself. And, if you have knee and low back problems, high-speed jump training is not for you.

Try this plyometric workout (take little or no rest between exercises):

--jump rope, two feet, full speed, 1 minute
--squat jumps (pictured above), 10, full speed
--lunge jumps, 10, full speed
--depth jumps (off knee-high platform), 10
--tuck jumps, 10, full speed
--lateral cone hops, 30 seconds, full speed

Rest 1 minute between exercises. Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits. Repeat the circuit 2-3 times. Take more rest between exercises or circuits if needed.

Try bodyweight plyometric workouts to improve your power output!

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

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!

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Core Strength

Core strength helps you reach your speed potential.

Adequate core strength helps you run fast late in the game when you are dog tired! You will generate more power when you are tired if you have core strength.

One of the first signs of fatigue that I look for in an athlete is whether he or she can remain strong and upright towards the end of the game. If your core is weak, you will start to "bend over" and lose power and explosiveness when you run. Next, your arms will start to "flail" instead of pumping powerfully to fuel your running.

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).

If you are a serious athlete, you need a program that continually challenges and improves your core strength! You will lose power and speed during the game if you have a weak core area!

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Arm Pump Drill

Practice the arm pump drill every day to improve your speed.



Use the standing arm pump speed drill to help you run faster. This drill will help you develop quick and powerful arm movements. It also stretches and strengthens your arms. You can run faster by pumping your arms faster.

I have seen many athletes not pump their arms fast enough or properly when running....pumping your arms fast, especially at the start, helps you accelerate faster. Accelerating to your top speed faster can help you "make the play" or "win the race."

1. Stand and pump your arms as fast as you can with control.

2. Use the shoulders (and not the elbows) to pump your arms as fast as possible. The hands should be relaxed in unballed fists.

3. 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.

4. Keep your shoulders relaxed and head up looking straight ahead. Keep your chest spread and the lower back locked in.

Running mechanics are critical to improve your speed. Part of the running mechanics is properly pumping your arms. I have seen more than one athlete run with little or no use of the arm pump. This is a big mistake!

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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!

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Hamstring Training

Improve your speed by improving your hamstring strength and conditioning. Every fast athlete has powerful hamstring muscles. You need to strengthen your hamstring muscles all year to avoid injuries.



The glute ham raise is an advanced strength exercise for the hamstrings. There are few injuries as bothersome and harder to recover from than hamstring injuries. Prevention of hamstring injuries is the best solution. Similarly, weak hamstrings can lead to other serious injuries.

You can execute the glute ham raise with the assistance of a partner holding down your feet. The partner might also need to assist you in raising up. YOU WANT YOUR HAMSTRINGS TO DO THE WORK!!

Also, try these flexibility and strength exercises for your hamstrings:

Hamstring Flexibility - walking lunges, resistance band eccentric stretch and static stretch (static stretch should be done after workout or game).

Hamstring Strength - lying or standing hamstring machine curl, deadlift and good morning exercise (with or without weights).

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

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Sprints

Sprints are a top speed training exercise! This is a no-brainer but you would be surprised by how many athletes don't run with 100% effort during workouts. The only way to get faster is to do your sprints with maximum effort. Speed training at less than 100% effort will accomplish good conditioning but will not make you faster!



If you run alot of long distances, you will not get faster! Run sprints at the beginning of your workout when you are fresh. Rest 1 minute for every 10 yards sprinted. So, if you are sprinting 60 yards, rest 6 minutes between sprints. You need to run each sprint with maximum effort in order to get faster!

Because you will rarely reach maximum speed during the game, playing speed is also critical. 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 faster than your opponent!

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Long Jump

A top speed training exercise you may not be doing is the long jump. Do the long jump to improve your speed and power.



The standing long jump (or broad jump) is a test of your explosive leg power. The NFL Combine uses the standing long jump as one of its test for athletes.

Use a soft athletic surface such as grass, astro-play or rubber floor to perform the long jump.

1. Stand behind a marked line.

2. Swing your arms back and bend your knees to propel your take-off.

3. Use a 2-footed take-off and landing. Jump as far as you can and land without falling backwards.

Your jump is measured from the take-off line to the nearest point of contact which is the back of the heels.

Results of your long jump:

Excellent:

Male, 8.5 ft. and above
Female, 6.5 ft. and above

Average:

Male, 7.5 ft.
Female, 5.5 ft.

Poor:

Male, 6.5 ft. and below
Female, 4.5 ft. and below

Include standing long jumps in your training to improve your leg power and running speed.

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Deep Knee Bend Jumps

Do these top speed training exercises: deep knee bend jumps and deep knee bends. They will help improve your speed and vertical jump height. The fastest players often have the highest vertical leaps.



Deep knee bends will strengthen your knees and ligaments around them. Having strong, stable knee structures will influence how high you can jump.

For deep knee bends, make sure that your back is straight when you are bending your knees. Crouch down as low as possible and rise back in a slow motion. Repeat this exercise for 10-15 repetitions. You can add dumbbells to this exercise as you progress.

Deep knee bend jumps are like deep knee bends. When you reach the lowest point of the crouch, leap vertically and explosively as high as you can. When you land, crouch back down and jump again. Do 10-15 repetitions.

Make sure you have perfected jumping and landing techniques to avoid injury.

Include deep knee bends and deep knee bend jumps in your sports fitness training routine to improve your speed and power.

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Squat Jumps

The squat jump is a top speed and power exercise. In sports competition, it is not always the fastest player who makes the play. You will rarely reach maximum speed during a play or sequence of plays because it takes 4-5 seconds to reach maximum speed. Many times, if you accelerate faster you will usually make the play.



You can train to improve your speed acceleration and power. One great exercise to do is squat jumps (bodyweight squat jumps should be mastered first). Just descend into your squat, jump up explosively and repeat for the required repetitions.

While sport-specific plyometric training improves power, non-specific power training should not be ignored. Researchers from Canada found that athletes who performed better with weighted squat jumps were the best accelerators at 10 meters. Therefore, concentric force development (jumping power) is critical to improve sprint acceleration. The first step from a stand-still (or near stand-still) position requires concentric muscle power.

It is important to learn proper jumping and landing techniques before doing medicine ball or dumbbell squat jumps. Read this post about jumping and landing techniques.

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Power Step Ups

One of the top speed training exercises (often underused) is the power step up. Improve your speed sooner with power step ups. Do this exercise full speed with control.



Doing one-legged power step up exercises will improve your speed because you use the same pathways that it takes to run. Sometimes, too much focus is placed on leg exercises done with two legs. These two-legged exercises, like squats, are needed in your exercise program. But, one of the best physical indicators of athletic success is dynamic balance (rate-of-force production or power is the other).

1. Face a bench or platform (knee high) and put your right foot on the bench. Your knee should be bent 90 degrees. Don't do this exercise with dumbbells until you have mastered the bodyweight version.

2. Alternate your feet on and off the bench or platform (you will be sprinting in place).

3. Explosively drive your knees up and pump your arms as fast as possible. Each set should be 20-30 seconds.

4. Do this exercise with correct running mechanics.

Challenge yourself to improve your running speed!

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

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Top Speed Training Exercise: Leg Swings

Leg swings are a great way to improve your speed, dynamic flexibility and hip mobility. They will make you a faster, more fluid athlete.

Side Leg Swings

Front Leg Swings

You need to do more than jog for 5 minutes when getting ready for your speed workout. Most people will have muscle areas that are tighter because of the way they live. An example would be tight hip flexors, which is common with people who sit for most of the day (thanks to technology!)

Gone are the days when static stretching before workouts was commonly accepted as the best method. Current research suggests that a dynamic stretching routine will prepare your body better for your speed workout. Among other things, a dynamic stretching routine will excite your central nervous system and juice up your muscles. Dynamic flexibility integrates various stretches in all three planes of motion to produce maximum extensibility of soft tissues throughout the full range of motion.

If your hip flexor muscles are not flexible, you will not even be a good athlete in your sport(s)! Tight hip flexors also lead to some painful injuries (like pulls and strains) that are hard to recover from.

Just swing your legs back and forth at least as high as your waistline. As you become more flexible, your legs will swing higher and more fluid.

Front and side leg swings are perfect to do before your speed workouts. Try them out today!

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

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
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Top Speed Training Exercise: Dynamic Warmup

Every speed training workout should be preceded by a good dynamic warmup.



An effective dynamic warmup is a MUST before your speed workout. A dynamic warmup will prepare your body best for your workout. 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 perfecting running mechanics such as 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 lunges, step ups, form running, heel sprints, ankle bounces, bounding, prancing and jump rope.

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

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
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

Top Speed Training Exercise: Running Mechanics

First things first about speed training: you have to run with correct running mechanics to be as fast as you can become. Don't take running mechanics lightly! You must practice your mechanics every day.



You will also avoid many running injuries by running with correct mechanics. So, here are some basics to help you perfect 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. 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.

Be sure and download your Free Bodyweight 500 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