Prowler Push How?Why?What!?

The prowler is a piece of equipment that is definitely one of my favorites! With a catchy title and its challenging reputation, this sled portrays the epitome of a ‘meat-head’ in terms of teaching movement. Despite this one-dimensional image, the Prowler has an overwhelming variety of uses. I specifically use the Prowler while teaching the acceleration component of speed.
I found a ton of videos in which people are attempting to show correct technique with the Prowler and I could not find a single one I liked. Therefore, I was inspired to share my instructions on Prowler Acceleration. Now, I am sure there are people out there reading this and thinking, “everyone thinks their way is the right way so of course this guy thinks his way is better”. Well, I was prepared for that so I put it to the test!
First, I took one of my athletes to accelerate the Prowler. He has a basic knowledge and understanding of the concepts of acceleration, as well as correct form using my checklist:

• Power Line Position
• Knee Punch to hip height (without initiating with knee flexion first, parallel shins)
• Drive the ball of the foot backwards behind the hip and center of mass, etc.

What I had him do next was watch some of these videos and try to demonstrate what he saw, I forced him to perform each a few times. When he was finished, I asked him to explain what he felt during the movements. This is demonstrated below by the bottom illustration. If you look at the joint angles you can immediately determine that the quadriceps are going to load the brunt of the force, which limits activation for the Glutes and Hamstring.

I took a picture of the Prowler with my phone, transformed it into a sketch, and then printed.

After comparing the results, there are noticeable differences and in using my checklist my athlete was much more effective and able to push more weight faster with less fatigue. He uses a better combination of power and in a better direction. The top picture demonstrates my checklist. My way the athlete will get a better combination of quadriceps activation as well as total Glute and Hamstring extension. These movement skills will carry over to free running and make any athlete more efficient.
Not convinced? Check out the videos…

Prowler Push (Not my version to increase Acceleration technique)

Prowler Push (Acceleration Technique)

Wall Drill (The Basics)

The more I search the Internet to find videos on Acceleration Wall Drill, the less I actually see it being coached. The only things I feel being stressed are rapid fire speed and move as quickly as possible. Do not get me wrong those are two key things in order to make an impact on the Nervous System and a key way to make a change on how their muscles fire. Athlete’s need to understand this, there is a lot more going on with the wall Drill, then that. A few things need to get done correctly prior to moving rapid fire, and moving like a crazy maniac.  

Stance:

1.  Hands are finger tips up, shoulder height, shoulder width apart on the wall, use something sturdy. It is very similar to a push up position.
2. Eyes are set in between the hands to aid in neutral spine.
3. Feet Hip width apart.
4. Feet are walked back so that the body is in a position approximately 45 degree angle.
5. Heels should be pressed down towards the floor creating our “Credit Card Rule” (Dorsiflexion)
6. Abdominals are Draw-in, which cause the hips to tilt slightly in a posterior direction.

Start by getting in this position and holding.

Ready Position: (Punch)

1. Repeat Stance protocol
2. Focus is Hip Flexion prior to Knee Flexion
3. Making sure that when 90 degrees of Hip Flexion is achieved stance position has not changed.
4. Tibia, both air and ground are parallel to each other, both at an approximate 45 degree angle.
5. Return to Stance.

Start slow with a longer isolated hold, use a 3 count to start and decrease as athlete’s show competence.

 

That is extremely basic, but extremely important. It is hard to believe that so many athletes are unable to “Punch” their knee up and maintain their Draw-in, and come to 90 degrees of Knee Flexion without a postural change. If you cannot do it stationary, you cannot do it moving. If you cannot do it slow, you will not do it fast. Start here and progress, for more STAY TUNED!

IF YOU CANNOT PUNCH, YOU CANNOT DRIVE

The terms we use in our center, “Punch AND Drive”, describe the Hip Flexion and Hip Extension actions that are crucial components in the Acceleration Phase of Movement. ‘Punch’ is a cue for an explosive hip flexion movement, whereas, ‘Drive’ is the counterpart cue for Hip Extension and the ‘driving’ force! I enforce a great deal of emphasis on these two actions and as I preach them it reminds me of the recent T-mobile commercials. An interviewer sits around a table with a few elementary-aged children and they discuss speed. One little kid imagines strapping a cheetah to his grandmother’s back to make her faster. It is pretty entertaining.

One absolute guarantee in life is, that as we age, our body will lose a few things. Understand, I am not ignorantly referring to year-to-year changes but instead, decade-to-decade. Over time, we lose three vital aspects to movement: strength, power, and mobility. Anatomically, we have 5 muscles that aid in Hip Flexion and based on the their locations of origin, these muscles can either help all the way or part of the way.

The muscles that insert at the iliac crest (Tensor Fascia Latae, Rectus Femoris and Sartorius), can only assist part of the way. Confused?? In other words, if they connect at the hip, they can only lift to the hip and not beyond. If these muscles can generate enough force, they will propel the movement higher then the hip, but without momentum they will stop at hip level. Still with me??  The other 2 muscles (which give us a total of 5 potential movers involved in Hip Flexion) are the very popular psoas and iliacus. The psoas has an origin on the lumbar spine whereas the iliacus has its origin on the posterior of the ilium. The psoas and the iliacus are the only hip flexors capable of bringing the hip above ninety degrees. 

A great test for an athlete to discover if he/she has an inactive psoas: Take his/her foot and put it on a box that brings them to a point above 90 degrees of hip flexion;  ask him/her to  activate these muscles by hip flexion off the box and hold for 10-15 seconds.  Check for the following:

1.                          Lumbar Spine Flexion: Make sure that the athlete does not compensate by flexing their Lumbar Spine. One of the most prominent signs of an inactive psoas and lack of hip flexion is flexion in the lumbar spine (which is a leading cause of disk injuries!!!).

2.                          ‘Quad-Dominance’: If the athlete does not have the Psoas and Iliacus strength and mobility to produce hip-flexion, then the Rectus Femoris (Quad) may over-compensate to produce the hip-flexion movement (which is a leading cause in quad & knee injuries.)

So before I take you on an even longer tangent into the science behind these movements, the fact of the matter is that in this day and age of Sports Performance and Strength Training, there is a huge emphasis placed on training the ‘Drive’ Phase of Hip extension. Consider some of the hip extension exercises such as squat, deadlift, power clean, lunge, etc).

Where are your exercises focused on hip flexion??? ::Cricket Cricket::

Don’t take this out of context. Yes, there is Rectus Femoris Activation at some point in each of those lifts mentioned above but, is this quad-activation being used for hip flexion or knee extension?

Hip flexion is not the primary focus, which is a main contributor in psoas and iliacus deficiencies. Another contributor is the daily routine of many who sit behind a desk all day. This is not a knock on adults because kids spend a majority of their day sitting behind a desk at school as well. Therefore, in our Active-Dynamic Warm-ups and Speed Training, we spend a lot of time working on our ability to ‘Punch’ rapidly and efficiently to make sure that our pesky psoas has strength and mobility!!

Understand this, if you spend all your time and energy on developing your Hip Extension and ‘Drive’ phase but not consider the ‘Punch’ phase, then it is time and energy wasted. This is the main reason an athlete who, in the off-season, only lifts weights but does no running and is surprised by that mysterious “quad pull”.

You cannot have Drive without Punch!!!

Want some more information on Hip Flexion exercises?

Check out my facility, Velocity Sports Performance in Mahwah, New Jersey or Contact me using the ‘Contact Tab’ on the side for more information.

-Adam

Combine Prep: 3-point Start Part 1

The NFL Combine, a national invitational camp designed for scouting college athletes for the NFL, has presently overhauled one of the nations biggest realms of business in the Sports Performance Industry. Business’ such as the IMG Academy, Parisi Speed School, Bommarito Performance, Velocity Sports Performance, Athlete's Performance, are all spending countless man-hours assessing movements, designing programs, coaching athletes, lifting, moving, etc. in preparation for the NFL Combine. Athletes have dedicated themselves to excellence both on the gridiron and through a pre-season series of strength, power, and speed assessments in order to solidify their future and worth on the NFL level. Today, we raise the bar again with the birth of the “High School Combine” era. This era is a booming production with combines in our area such as the, National Underclassmen Combine, Under Armour Combine, Nike SPARQ Combine, etc. in which young athletes aspiring to become NFL players are displaying their talents for what is next: a college scholarship.

How can you rise to the challenge?

           

Speed is “measured time” in which most sprint races come down to tenths and even hundredths of a second. A good NFL scout will adamantly explain the difference between what two-tenths of a second could mean. It could be the difference between a first or second round draft pick and multiple millions of dollars during contract negotiations. The saying, “Speed Kills”, is absolutely true; it can be lethal to a scouting report and recruiter opinion or kill a draft stock.

So let’s talk about speed:

            Loren Seagrave is a renowned Speed and Conditioning coach, whom I have had the pleasure to hear in lecture and work with in practical application. Loren proposed four important and interdependent categories that relate to all components of Speed Training.

1.      First, and generally most emphasized is the “Big Force” component. This component stresses the ability to apply as much force in the ground as possible. In terms of Sports Performance, I always preach that the more force you are able to put into the ground, the stronger you need to be to stop that force eccentrically.

2.      The next component to be highlighted is “Short Time”. The ability to generate a large force is only half the battle. As discussed earlier, speed is always measured in the element of time so it needs to be done over a relatively short period of time.

3.       The third component discussed is “Proper Direction”. Forces should be forward/backward and not lateral. This component is part of my inspiration in creating CoachingSpeed.com Proper Direction and Short time are the reasons that maximum performance barriers are reached in athletes.

4.      The fourth and final component is “Optimal Range of Motion”. Limbs achieve certain heights and distance and no higher.

When all of these components are learned and organized in the correct manner, movement performance potential is maximized.

When coaching speed, we always teach technique first and then utilize these techniques in a practical application.

The 3-Point Start

Today, the topic is the 3 pt. Start and first I will explain the stance:

The most common error and hardest concept to understand is, “Where do my feet go”? In the athletes I have trained in the past, there is one common set up point, the “Front Foot”. First, we need to decide which is the dominate ‘Front Foot’?? Two rules of thumb I use is:

1.      Ask your athletes to cross their arms. The arm that gets to the body faster and is underneath represents their “Quick Side”.

2.      Ask your athlete to stand tall and close their eyes. With their back facing me, I will give a little push and watch to see which foot they use to step in front and recover their balance.

Now that we have established their ‘front foot’, let’s talk about foot placement:

            The Front Foot should be set up one sneaker-length from the line where the hand is going to be placed. That back foot will require a little trial-and-error, but I try to set my athlete’s up based on the study done by Harrison & Comyns at the University of Limerick, Ireland.  I ask my athletes to place their knee somewhere between mid-foot and toe of their strong side/lead leg. (Most people would refer to this as a Medium Stance). The rest of the secrets and analysis to the 3 Pt. stance can be explained in person.

Do you want to enhance your 3-point stance and your 40-yard dash?

Check out my facility, Velocity Sports Performance in Mahwah, New Jersey or Contact me using the ‘Contact Tab’ on the side for more information.

Work Hard, Work Smart, and keep Coaching Speed.

-Adam