I recently interviewed Barry Ross on the subject of speed training. As you will see, Barry has a wealth of experience and he has revealed some fantastic pieces of information here.
Tim: Hi Barry, I really appreciate you taking some time out for this interview.
Barry: Hi Tim and thanks for the opportunity to share our training methods
Tim: I know you have a tremendous amount of coaching experience, not only working with track athletes but also as a strength and conditioning coach to athletes and teams in a variety of sports. Could you briefly outline to the readers your background?
Barry: I began my athletic career as a shot putter in 1965. I did not weight train until I was a 17 year old in 1967. My “tutors” were shot putters Dave Davis and George Woods; both were trying to qualify for the 1968 Olympics. Woods did win silver in 1968.
Interestingly, that was the same Olympic year that Tommie Smith won a gold medal and joined with John Carlos in the famous black glove salute.
Just over 30 years later, Tommie Smith asked me to work with his throwers at Santa Monica City College. The opportunity to work with Tommie and to get insights from him regarding 1968 as well as training philosophies was incredible.
I had been a volunteer coach at Los Angeles Baptist High School for several years and had just finished 4 years of coaching a young lady in the shot-put (over 50’) from a different high school when a another young lady named Felix asked me if she could work with me in the weightroom for the next few years. I agreed, and it virtually changed my life—but not how others have suggested.
Felix was, and is, an outlier on the curve so almost anything would work for that level of natural talent (which is true for any coach at any level who coaches an outlier).
The life change was finding Dr. Weyand’s research.
Tim: One of your famous phrases is 'Do as little as needed, not as much as possible'. Could you explain your reasoning behind this philosophy?
Barry: The phrase is attributed to the long-term European coach Henk Kraaijenhof.
Many coaches rely on what we call the “eggs against the wall” theory. The idea is that if the coach throws enough different types of training at an athlete, then there is a possibility that something might actually work. In application, the theory has little merit because it significantly increases the training load while frustrating both coach and athlete.
Besides its failure as a training method, it also subjects athletes to a greater potential for injury.
By narrowing down training to what we believe are both essential and trainable, we can significantly improve performance while reducing the probability of injury.
Tim: I believe the research of Peter Weyand has been very influential in your programming. For those that might not be aware of his research, could you highlight some of his key findings and how they relate to training for speed?
Barry: Weyand and Bundle’s work (and the work of several others) have provided an incredible amount of information that is not only available but also usable by coaches and trainers in most sports. The list would include hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer (football for our non-U.S. coaches and athletes), speed skating and many others.
Training for speed is very simple:
1. Hit the ground hard so that the body loads the limbs via the spring-like action tensioned by muscle force.
2. Reduce speed decrements over time by recruiting more of the largest, fastest firing motor units.
Perhaps the most important factor, however, is one that is least understood: Rate of force delivery or RFD.
Any athlete that has an exceptional RFD would most likely be an outlier on the curve. Researchers are not yet aware of the reason for extremely high RFD among certain athletes. Neither maximal strength nor level of coordination (either a high level of skill or lack thereof) is required for high RFD.
Those who believe that spending 10,000 hours of workout time would convert any athlete to an elite athlete have to figure out how to get around RFD!
Tim: What are the key exercises that you use to develop sprinting speed?
Barry: The key exercises are running fast and lifting heavy weights. As far as I am concerned, that would cover the majority of sports.
While there are a vast number of sprint coaches who rely on a myriad of drills and exercises to enhance speed, the reality is that most of them will not improve performance more than simply running fast and getting stronger.
Drills, like stepping over and driving the foot down to increase ground force, are not necessarily beneficial. In fact, the opposite is more likely to occur! Research has shown that the runner will slow down the forward foot, relative to the speed of the body, to ensure a safe landing. My partner, Ken Jakalski has used assessment tools pertaining to this issue and found the same: the runner (be it human or animal) will slow down the limb as ground contact approaches.
Trying to create greater ground force by speeding up the limb would merely increase braking force that would most likely cause the runner to fall at contact.
The time factor in sprinting is incredibly short, yet an elite sprinter can apply support force of more than 4 times bodyweight during the first half of ground contact.
For an elite 170 lb sprinter, force equal to or exceeding 680 lbs, is delivered (from the grounded leg) in less than 0.05 seconds. Force is delivered mostly isometrically so that joint angles change minimally (another reason why runners who are attempting to increases force volitionally will not have much success).
In addition, the idea that an athlete can make meaningful gains at competition running speeds by using significantly slower training speeds in practice does not make sense.
Tim: Does your exercise selection vary depending on the level of athlete you are working with?
Barry: It does not.
For weight training, we use the deadlift for all our athletes. We add the bench press for those who compete in a sport that requires a pushing motion.
We use a patented algorithm for all of our speed training. The algorithm predicts running time from a few meters to more than 5 minutes of running...with greater than 97% accuracy. The algorithm will also show if the runner is in good condition.
Reduction of speed decrements over time (how fast the runner slows down over the distance run) are accomplished by lifting heavy weights rather than over-distance repeats. Weyand, et al. recently published a study that suggests the abundance, rather than the lack, of anaerobic fuel supply is the cause of speed decrements over time. While this is contrary to what most have relied on for many years, our algorithm uses the anaerobic speed reserve as a factor in its high-level of predictive accuracy.
One of our two strength-training goals is simply to lift maximum weights in order to recruit larger and faster firing motor units to offset those that begin to drop off due to fatigue. This is in accord with the SAID principle, since the demand is the provision of additional larger, faster firing MU’s.
The other strength-training goal is to minimize increase in bodyweight (or mass). Increases in mass increase ground reaction force, and that requires more strength to support the body’s mass at contact.
One of our best female athletes (multi-event in track) increased her bodyweight from 115 lbs to 130 lbs over 3 years of lifting. She also grew about 1 inch over that time. Her deadlift max increased from 150 lbs when she started to 405 lbs when she went off to college. In her senior year of high school, she dropped her 100mh time from 14.9 the previous year to 14.13 (FAT).
Many (if not most) coaches are currently using a lot of power type lifts. This does not make any sense for most sports and it certainly violates the SAID principle as it applies to both speed training as well as event training. Power lifts are nothing more than an expression of maximal strength. In other words, their gross weight and speed of lift, at any level, is dependent on the current max of a deadlift or squat, etc. The movements of power lifts do not mimic what occurs in the majority of sports. If one wants to improve movements that are specific to a sport, they would be better off lifting heavy weights for strength and rehearsing the needed skills of the sport by performing the actions of the sport!
Power lifts are typically performed at ~70-75% of a one-repetition max. This level is certainly not sufficient to recruit the largest, fasted firing MU’s.
If my athletes increase their max deadlift, then they will improve speed performance on the track, field or court…to the extent their rate of force delivery allows.
Tim: What are the biggest mistakes that you see being made by coaches and athletes?
Barry: Over training.
The idea that working long and hard is the only way to maximize potential is simply not true in all cases. In fact, it is not true in most cases.
Our speed algorithm provides short, fast repeat runs. We do not exceed 10 runs in any session; over the course of a season, we average 5 runs with an average distance run of approximately 40m (not including a fly-in of 10-20m).Our strength training does not drop below 85% of max. We average 10 reps for the deadlift and 10 for the bench per training session.
A minimal workout routine with maximal results!
Tim: Thanks again Barry, I have really enjoyed talking with you. It would be great if you could let the readers know where they can find out more about you.
Barry: The best place to find me is at our forum at
http://www.bearpowered.com/
info@bearpowered.com
In addition, you should visit our
http://www.asrspeed.com/ about the algorithm.
TIM EGERTON STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING CONSULTANCY
