More Quickness With These Acceleration Drills
It’s all about the first step. When you have a weak minded opponent, hell, even a strong minded one, blow by them enough times, and that’s enough for them to give up trying.
That’s why it’s important that all athletes constantly work on their acceleration.
How do you work on acceleration?
It’s a mixture of mechanics, force production, and repetition.
Even more:
Below, I’m going to layout three very basic, but POWERFUL, acceleration drills that you can do on your own. These acceleration drills will work to put you in the best possible positions to build to top speed as quickly as possible.
Now, before you head to the dark depths below, make sure you head to my acceleration mechanics post. It’ll help you immensely in understanding what we’re working on here.
Alright, time to dive into these acceleration drills:
1. Ground Starts
The Ground Start is an excellent drill for both beginner and advanced athletes. It really teaches an athlete how to put their body in a bio-mechanically advantageous position so they can build as much velocity as possible.
To perform the Ground Start, you’ll start on the ground, palms flat. On your go, you’ll pop up, stagger your feet, and stab the ground to propel yourself forward.
The point of this drill is to make the athlete accustomed to being in an efficient acceleration position.
This means having the proper shin angles, body angle, and a few more specifics.
Points of Attention In the Ground Start
- Positive shin angle – The key to acceleration is having your shins towards the ground, as this gives us an advantageous position to use our strength and power to build up velocity.
- Eyes – Your body goes where your eyes go, so if you find yourself standing up straight too quickly, try keeping your eyes on the ground, because you want to stay in that acceleration phase as long as possible.
- Feet – Trust them. Some athletes get a little skittish, thinking their feet won’t be under them after they pop up. In my career, I’ve never seen someone slip on a ground start
Falling Sprint
Here’s another drill to force yourself into proper acceleration mechanics – The Falling Sprint.
In the Falling Sprint, you’ll start by getting up onto your tiptoes. From there, you’ll lean forward towards the ground, keeping your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles in a straight line.
Once you can’t tip any further, react.
Take a stride out and propel yourself forward.
Points of Attention In the Falling Sprint
- Shins – Again, you want to lean forward enough that you get a positive shin angle so you can stab the ground and propel yourself forward.
- Hips – We’re putting our bodies in an unstable position, so it’s natural for an athlete to unconsciously make himself feel “safer” by bending at the waist. We want to avoid this, as it prevents us from getting into an advantageous position. Keep your body in a straight line as you lean forward.
- Eyes – Just like in the Ground Start, if you look forward too soon, you’ll pull your body out of that advantageous forward angle.
Wall Sprints
With the wall sprint, we’re working specifically on the acceleration mechanics of the lower extremity.
In this drill, you’re going to find a wall and place your hands on said wall right under your nipple line.
From there, you’ll move your feet back until you’re at a 45-55 degree lean.
Then, you’re going to bring one knee up, like you would in the middle of a stride. Keeping the raised ankle cocked, you’re going to claw at the ground (think a cat clawing a ball of yarn) and switch legs.
Points of Attention in the Wall Sprint
- Core – Keep the core tight the whole time you’re performing this drill. Believe it or not, as we run, our body naturally wants to rotate. Keeping the core tight prevents this.
- Ankle – As stated above, the for this drill to be effective, you have to keep the ankle cocked so you can claw at the ground.
Conclusion
These three quickness drills, while basic, will help you build a solid base of fundamental acceleration mechanics, which we can build layers of power on, creating more powerful strides.
Powerful strides that allow us to blow by our competition.
Get to them.
Want to REALLY Improve Your Mechanics?
Just like a sculptor chips away at marble to make a beautiful sculpture,
An athlete must trim the fat, remove excess movements, and create stability in order to become the fastest guy in his league.
It takes not just knowledge, but daily practice.
Are you prepared for that?
If so, check out my FREE ADVANCED SPEED SERIES, where I dive DEEP into acceleration and top speed mechanics…
So that you can become a faster athlete.
Check it here:
