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:
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.
Eyes are set in between the hands to aid in
neutral spine.
Feet Hip width apart.
Feet are walked back so that the body is in a position
approximately 45 degree angle.
Heels should be pressed down towards the floor
creating our “Credit Card Rule” (Dorsiflexion)
Abdominals are Draw-in, which cause the hips to
tilt slightly in a posterior direction.
Making sure that when 90 degrees of Hip Flexion
is achieved stance position has not changed.
Tibia, both air and ground are parallel to each other,
both at an approximate 45 degree angle.
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!
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.
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.
