overspeed training

Improve Your Speed And Your Chances To Win

One of the key elements that make a successful athlete is high speed. Nine times out of ten, the teams or athletes with the most speed are going to win.

While everybody agrees on the importance of speed in order to be successful in sports, not all coaches focus on developing the skill of speed as a preliminary element of their training. Arguably the biggest myth in all of sports says you can’t coach speed -that athletes are born with “it” or they aren’t.

Speed, strength, flexibility, coordination and endurance are all skills requiring specific attention during practice and those who do not train focusing on these elements are simply not prepared to compete at high levels.

Speed can be taught and improved. There are training strategies and overspeed training equipment that can help coach speed. Because some people aren’t “naturally fast” some coaches wrongly assume there is little they can do about it. While it’s true not every athlete can be an Olympic 100 meter runner, most athletes have never been taught how to run or move correctly. As they improve their technique and practice focused training, the athletes will operate at a much higher percentage of their full potential.

Overspeed training methods:
•    Running downhill
•    Towing
•    Rubber bands
•    Unweighted training equipment
– GlideCycle
– GlideTrak
– Alter-G

Systematic use of overspeed training methods increase unassisted speed by

•    recruiting more muscle (in particular fast-twitch muscle fibre)
•    improving stride length and frequency

By repeatedly training using the overspeed methods, the athlete will, eventually, be able to improve his/ her speed.

For more information on the methods enlisted above (detailed description of each method, pros and cons) check out the links below or read my next articles.

About the Author

http://hubpages.com/hub/Speed-Training-Be-Fast-Be-the-Best

http://glidecycle.com/sports-training.html

http://www.unweightedtrainingequipment.com/