Speed, Agility and Plyometrics

Speed Wins!

To get faster, athletes need to perform speed training twice a week in the off-season. An ideal schedule would be to lift on Monday, Wednesday, Friday; and perform speed training on Tuesday and Thursday. Here are seven ways to increase speed:

"Lifting and conditioning for nearly 12 weeks in the summer helped our team make great strides in speed and strength."

Matt Gilmer
Holy Family High School, State Champions, Football
Broomfield, Colorado

Speed Training

To get faster, athletes need to perform speed training twice a week in the off-season. An ideal schedule would be to lift on Monday, Wednesday, Friday; and perform speed training on Tuesday and Thursday. Here are eight ways to increase speed:

BFS Sprint Technique System.

The system consists of the following eight techniques that should be emphasized during sprinting:
  • Your head should be upright
  • Your eyes should be fixed, looking straight ahead
  • Your toes should point straight ahead
  • Your back should be upright and slightly arched
  • Your shoulders should rotate vigorously, with the elbows fixed at 90 degree angles
  • Your wrists should stimulate a whip action as the shoulders rotate back
  • Your feet should make the initial plant directly under the hips, not out in front of the body
  • Your forward leg should initially lift forward, not up. The lower leg should hang before planting with the foot and toes up. Your back knee should extend fully on the follow-through, or end-of-the-leg drive

Plyometrics: The Next Step in Power Development

Plyometric training involves maximum explosive contractions performed as quickly as possible. Plyometrics is the icing on the cake, so to speak, in terms of speed, jumping, and explosiveness.

"I remember the first day we did the plyometric boxes. I said, ‘This is ridiculous – we can’t do this!’ But the second time they got much better, and within two weeks we were really just taking off on them."

Bob Turner, Head Football Coach
Edenton-Holmes High School, North Carolina

The BFS Plyometric Program

The BFS Plyometric Program consists of five steps: Standing Vertical Jumps, Standing Long Jumps, Plyometric Box Jumping, Jumping on a Box from a Stand, and Plyometric Bounding Drills. All these phases sound like a lot; but if your program is well organized, your athletes can complete it in about 10 minutes.

Agility

Increasing Agility for Superior Quickness

One of the simplest, and fastest, ways to improve agility is to perform the BFS Dot Drill at the start of every workout. The BFS Dot Drill is the perfect warm-up for athletes because it develops foot speed, a key component in improving agility, balance and coordination.

Testimonial

"I really love the Dot Drill for female athletes because it’s a single-leg exercise and develops ankle strength and balance. I also believe that plyometrics helps strengthen the ankles, and obviously the weight training is important."

Erin Aitken
Head Girls Basketball Coach
Lodi High School
Lodi, California

Agility Program In-Depth Information

Prior to any workout, it’s important to warm up, and the most practical and effective way to warm up is with the BFS Dot Drill. The Dot Drill does get the blood temperature elevated, producing a little sweat. Getting your body warmed-up is important before any physical activity to prevent injury. You may perform the entire Dot Drill series, as shown in our BFS Dot Drill DVD, or a modified version instead.

"All our PE classes in the high school warm up with the Dot Drill; our lifting program for classes and athletics is the same for all and is largely based on the BFS program and principles."

Coach Patrick Fee,
Defensive Coordinator Football / Physical Education Teacher,
Weyauwega-Fremont High School
Weyauwega, Wisconsin

When athletes first try the BFS Dot Drill, they will find it tiring and they may appear clumsy. But if they perform it six times a week, soon they will be able to do the exercises without becoming tired, and they will improve dramatically within a month.

To keep motivation high, a coach should time the athletes about twice a month and record their progress and results. And to take an athlete’s agility program to a higher level, they should perform the BFS Plyo Ramp, a three-sided ramp that involves plyometric movements.

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