@keithjferrara: How To Improve Acceleration In...

How To Improve Acceleration In 90 Days

Here's the outline I would follow if I had 12 weeks to improve acceleration & reduce my sprint time to dominate my sport (including sprints, jumps & lifts)

Let's dive in 🔽

RESULTS

I don't share anything that I haven't gotten results with.

Here are the results I got this past semester with one of the team's training in 11 weeks:

Peak Force n/kg (first step): 6.78 --> 7.13
Peak Power w/kg (first few steps): 12.60 --> 13.34
Peak Velocity m/s (top speed): 7.26 --> 7.49
Velocity @ 10m m/s: 6.37 --> 6.52
30m Sprint Time: 5.04 --> 4.94

We improved every acceleration metric across the board with the training I am about to tell you about.

PHILOSOPHY

You need to train acceleration at least 1x/week

The sweet spot I have found over years of experimenting has been 2x/week

150m minimum of volume

300m maximum of volume

This is going to be accomplished through a mixture of resisted & unresisted accelerations

Our primary training tools for targeting acceleration is going to be:

1) Resisted Sprints
2) Unresisted Sprints
3) Horizontal Jumps
4) Olympic Lifts
5) Bounds
6) Squats

These are all going to play a major role in developing better acceleration.

Let's dive into each one 🔽

1. SPRINTS

Resisted sprints are the most important tool for improving acceleration.

Athletes need to learn how to put force into the ground & learn how to switch their thighs rapidly to produce power.

We use the following types of resisted sprints to target each quality:

Heavy Resisted Sprints (> 50% VDEC) = Force

Moderately Resisted Sprints (30-50% VDEC) = Power

Lightly Resisted Sprints (10% VDEC) = Transition To Max Velocity

If these aren't an option for you, hills are your next best choice.

Resisted sprints prime the body well for your unresisted sprints.

We will use unresisted sprints to develop the skill of sprinting while looking to develop our top speed reached in 30m.

We like to utilize different acceleration drills:

◼️ Stick accelerations
◼️ Drop In Accelerations
◼️ 3-10 step acceleration
◼️ Half kneeling accelerations

We will perform a majority of our unresisted accelerations from 10-40m depending on the athlete.

2. JUMPS

Horizontal jumps are another great tool to improve acceleration.

2 types of jumps that show a huge correlation to acceleration in our athletes are:

1) Broad Jumps
2) Triple Broad Jumps

I would follow this simple progression in a 12-week training period:

1) Broad Jump or Resisted Broad Jump
2) Double Broad Jump
3) Triple Broad Jump or Standing Triple Jump

For more advanced athletes (sufficient strength) you can utilize acceleration bounds prior to your sprint work.

3. LIFTS

The stronger you are, the better you will be at acceleration.

The main lifts we will try to improve at this time include:

1) Squats (Back Squat, Front Squat, Single Leg Squat)
2) Power Clean
3) Power Snatch
4) Jerks (Push + Split)
5) Pulls (Clean + Snatch Pulls)
6) Posterior Chain (RDL + Back Extension + Reverse Hypers)

We will lift between 70-90% for a majority of our lifts to improve both force & power.

A sample lift outline you can follow:

a) Push Jerk

b) Power Clean

c) Clean Pull

d) Back Squat

e) RDL

Warm-up sets from 50-70% (3-4 reps)

Main sets between 75-90% (1-3 reps)

This lift checks a lot of boxes for total body development that will help improve acceleration.

Focus on form first then add load where appropriate.

Boom!

That’s it!

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