Tim: Hi Alex, I really appreciate you taking the time out to do this interview.
Alex: No problem man...this should be fun.
Tim: Can you briefly outline to the readers your background as a speed coach?
Alex: Sure...my background is certainly a little different than most of the traditional speed coaches out there, as most of what I believe in and preach is based more on my own proven experiences and the proven experiences of others...not what certain textbooks say, what labcoat dudes theorize or what the "internet chatter" is gossiping about.
I've been training athletes for more than 6 years now, but the person I selfishly care about most when it comes to training is me (surprise!). I won't recommend or test anything on any athletes until I've tried it out with me or with a couple of the braver athletes I train.
I've studied (and just talked a whole lot) with my mentor, Kelly Baggett and to be honest, most of what I know about speed training is because of him (thanks Kelly...you're a rock star).
And beyond that, I've been helping athletes in more than 35 countries in the last year with my athletic training products, from The Truth About Quickness to The Effective Ball-Handling Program to the recently released Flying in Four vertical jump program.
I also ran an online personal training service until recently, as it was just too time-consuming for me not to be actually spending the time personally with athletes.
Lastly, I've spent thousands of my own dollarz" on books, manuals and products to continue to stay ahead of the pack in terms of training athletes, along with studying Kinesiology at one of the top programs in the country at Michigan State University.
Personally, I used to be really slow and weak (thanks a lot mom and pops), but through a lot of my own training discoveries and testing, I've come across several ways to rapidly improve the speed and quickness of athletes, most of which I used on myself to eventually make it to a very high-level of college basketball.
I'm also kinda funny and a little cocky -- most people like it, but I can rub people the wrong way once in a while with my unwavering honesty :-)
Tim: Can you outline some of the key physical qualities that need be to developed for speed? Would these vary depending on the type of speed being developed?
Alex: Your question is right on track -- does it vary depending on the type of speed you're looking for? Of course it does. A 100m athlete needs different training than a basketball player and a 400m athlete needs different training than a shortstop. But generally speaking, we can get into *really* scientific boring details with this, but it's much easier to remember this simple combo: glutes and feet.
Get your ass stronger, and your feet quicker and more reactive and you're going to get quicker, faster and more explosive...guaranteed.
Tim: Are there any key exercises that you use in the gym for speed development?
Alex: The best way I've found to increase speed in the gym is to light an athlete's feet on fire (make sure you've got the OK from the parents first though).
Kidding aside, you can get an athlete plenty fast staying just inside the gym. Some of my favorite exercises are deadlifts, bulgarian split-squats, tons and tons of GHR's, weighted planks, low depth-jump variations and a few different quickness-specific drills. Just work on those ones I mentioned and stay consistent with them and you're gonna get faster...your body just won't have a choice but to move faster.
Tim: Most notably, the squat has fallen out of favour with a number of high profile strength coaches recently. Are there any exercises that you would avoid with the speed based athlete?
Alex: The one mainstay: long-distance running. Besides that, I'm not ready to just write off an exercise as unusable...I like to think of my philosophy as being able to use everything, and I know that in some cases, the back squat would be best for an athlete...would it be right of me to just use something else with that athlete other than the squat, simply because I dropped it my from my repertoire?
Everything out there can be helpful in certain cases...you just have to understand it all and be able to implement it at the right times...that's the mark of a good coach...being able to react and adapt accordingly on the fly, because it's best for the athlete.
Tim: What are the biggest speed training mistakes you see athletes and coaches making?
Alex: Besides not buying The Truth About Quickness? (I kid) ...this might not be a
really common mistake but I think athletes could benefit a lot if coaches focused more the P-chain with their athletes and got everything back their in the trunk firing better and stronger. I really like the idea of entering a P-chain focused block at the beginning of the off-season for almost any team sport athlete. Your focus would be on activating, strengthening and growing the hell out of your backside (hamstrings, glutes and lower back specifically). To do the "P-chain specialization" block right, you'd wanna follow these principles:
* 4-6 weeks long
* training P-chain 3-4x a week
* roughly 40-45 sets of total work for P-chain per week, split up accordingly amongst the 3-4 workouts
* 25% of sets below 6 reps, 25% in the 8-10 range, 25% in the 12-15 range, 25% using more "movement" focused means
* Throw in a major upper body compound movement in each workout working up one heavy (but not that heavy) set of 3-5 reps for maintenance
* Use a HUGE variety of exercises to keep things interesting and your body guessing: all types of deadlifts, squats, uni-lateral stuff, GHR's, rev. hypers, all kinds of P-chain focused bodyweight exercises and then definitely throw in some strange exercises, like reactive GHR's, jumping bulgarian split-squats or 1-legged box squat jumps
* "Movement focused means" would be things like bounding, prime-times, flying sprints and broad jumps for example
* Precede and end each workout with glute activation and hip flexor flexibility stuff
Tim: Thanks Alex, that was great. Where can people go to find out more about you?
Alex: You can find me in VIP (laughs)...check out GameSpeedInsider.com for sure...that's my blog, I update it most and you can get tons of free info there, as well learning more about the advanced strategies in my products...so if you're reading this, go there now and check it out, let me know what ya think.
TIM EGERTON STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING CONSULTANCY
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