What Does A Session Look Like?

Warm-up

Our warm-ups are geared toward priming the body for the upcoming training session, as well as filling some of the “buckets” that are often neglected in traditional training.

In every warm-up, we will do some low intensity, “springy” movements (such as A-Skips, Pogo Hops, or Agility Ladder Hops). These are meant to teach ankle stiffness, which can help with more efficient force production when sprinting, changing direction, and jumping.

Also included will be dynamic stretching of the entire body, with special attention on the primary muscles for the upcoming speed portion of the session. For example, if we are going to be working on lateral quickness & change-of-direction, we are going to stretch out the hip abductors / adductors, the hamstrings, and make sure to move side-to-side in our stretching portion.

The warm-up takes between 8-15 minutes, depending on the session type.

Speed Development

After our warm-up, we’ll take a quick water break and roll into speed work.

Speed training will vary day-to-day, but will always fill one of the following areas - acceleration, top speed, backpedal, lateral, multi-direction, & reaction.

We will begin with some movement prep drills to “groove the pattern” for the day. For example, if we are working on Backpedaling, we will talk about keeping feet under the hips, and work on starting / stopping at lower speeds to be comfortable in the right positions.

After movement prep, we will get into max-effort bouts of the speed. In the above backpedal example, this could mean doing some full speed backpedals to sprints in a variety of directions.

We will always finish speed work with some sort of competition / challenge. For backpedal, this might be a shadow drill where you are trying to stay side-by-side with a partner while they are sprinting or backpedaling / attempting to make you fall.

Core / Prehab

We then go into Core / Prehab work, where we are looking at common areas for injury (shoulders, low back, hips, knees, ankles, etc) and trying to strengthen / mobilize them to reduce the risk of injury. If we use low back as an example, we might do some Bear Crawl variation and some sort of Rotational Medball work. These will teach us to brace our core during the Bear Crawls, and then train explosive rotation through the hips, while locking in the mid-section.

We usually do 2-3 exercises for 2-3 rounds.

Weight Room Work

Next, we are headed into the weight room, where we will focus on total body power production & strength. The type of program you are on is individualized to what I saw during the assessment, as well as what I learned about your previous training experience. I will use my best judgment to draft up the best program that will get you results.

Conditioning / Recovery

Depending on the day of the week, when your next game is, and other factors, we will either finish the session with conditioning work or recovery.

If we are doing conditioning, we will vary it between higher intensity, shorter bouts and lower intensity, longer exercises. What you are doing on a specific day depends on what you have done in your other sessions recently.

If we are doing recovery, we will focus on lowering the heart rate and getting into a relaxed state. This might include some breathing techniques, laying down, or stretching to name a few examples.

All-in-all, every session will give you a comprehensive approach to your athletic development.