Overspeed training

[farzamk]

A pretty much uncovered topic in thsi forum and generally by me. So what types of overspeed can we do safely, and have them be useful and not work counter productive?

Downhill sprints

Towing

Wind aided sprints

(please read guidelines below)


Towing generally can be dangerous as well as useless sometimes, depending on method of towing and all, I would call this one a useless one overall.

Wind aided sprints generally arent too much overspeed really, you should always do sprints with wind behind your back, therefore you're still doing regular speed work.

Downhill sprints are the most famous one. Now the thing about this is the decline level. General rule for this is it MUST be on grass and a good surface, no rocky and bumpy free fall hill.


Two things wrong with overspeed:

Safety

Counter productive to sprint mechanics

For the safety part, a nice soft and grassy downhill + track spikes to allow for grip is pretty safe.

The sprint mechanics part can be easily gotten rid of by using proper decline as well as having proper mechanics before doing overspeed. Overspeed running causes your feet to land ahead of the hips when in max velocity form, you want feet always landing beneath center or mass (below hips), therefore to prevent this from sticking in, one must have above average sprint mechanics before doing any sort of overspeed work.

Guidelines to overspeed

Only go to 105-110% speed max, anymore is dangerous, useless and counter productive.

Use very small decline on downhill, so technically not what you'd describe as a hill, but just a field with a small downhill decline which allows for faster than max speed running by just 5-10%.

Only on grassy and soft hill.

Proper mechanics irst then overspeed.

Low volume work, 3-4 runs max per week over 40-50m distance.

Proper warm up to prevent injury from hgiher speeds.

Full recovery inbetween sprints, (7-8 mins per 40-50m run).



The benefit of overspeed training is it increases max speed. The icing on the cake as so to speak. It develops max speed by allowing neuromuscular system to adjust to higher than 100% max speed when in max effort. Downhill would be best as it allows for firing of motor units by one's individual choice rather than being forced to do it by something which is making you do it (towing).

[farzamk]

bump

[finfan]

what do you mean towing for overspeed?

[farzamk]

what do you mean towing for overspeed?

harnesses, long resisted bands or anything which attaches or you hang on, and it pulls you to higher than normal speeds. So being pulled (towed).

[finfan]

harnesses, long resisted bands or anything which attaches or you hang on, and it pulls you to higher than normal speeds. So being pulled (towed).

oh, I was thinking that.

[farzamk]

oh, I was thinking that.

Ya I dont see them useful and too dangerous. You arent firing your own muscles intentionally, you are being forced to go faster. Downhill allows proper running intentionally.

[Reps n Sets]

I'm 6 foot but I run short, probably due to poor flexibility, especially in the hamstrings and hips.

Would decline sprints help lengthen my stride?

[farzamk]

I'm 6 foot but I run short, probably due to poor flexibility, especially in the hamstrings and hips.

Would decline sprints help lengthen my stride?

Until you have proper mechanics, do not do any overspeed.

Lengthen your strides by daily stretching, core strength development and regular strength training in addition to bounding and technique drills. Do plyometrics as well.

[rowza]

sprinting requires small steps, that is how speed is gained.Also another method but quite dangourous is the bungie run.One person runs while the other is tied into a harness and a bungie rope connecting them both the one thats running away in a towing action stops after 70m and the other one starts running with great speed(do this indoors) we were doing it and breaking world records with 8second runs (advise to get used to running with it as you do feel like your going to fall over

[musicmad27]

aww man farzamk is back? didnt u cause enough trouble already?
and do none of u guys know this is some 15 year old kid pretending to be a 30 year old coach?

[f00tball4L1fe]

sorry 2 disagree but i think towing (such as sleds) is pretty beneficial, for leg strength/stride frequency

[PowerBuilder08]

He's still banned. Some jackass just bumped this thread.

[macmoney]

sorry 2 disagree but i think towing (such as sleds) is pretty beneficial, for leg strength/stride frequency

do you know from EXP? or did you read this w/ scientific back up? cause last time I checked anything a kid thats 15 pretty much will make them bigger stronger faster cause your body's growing so dam fast.

[Fullback7]

ol' farz... wonder whatever happened to him.

[musicmad27]

i think dude got banned for a long long time haha