Posts Tagged ‘speed and agility training’

In Warm Weather, Children Are In The Hot Seat

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Speed exercises in the summer means teams practicing and working out in the heat. Consequently, young athletes do not adjust to high temperatures as well as adults. Don’t underestimate the significance of the warning signs for heat illnesses and preventing them. These illnesses can be any type such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If your team is doing strength training workouts, as an adult, you need to keep in mind how dangerous heat illness can be to your charges. In fact, children are the most vulnerable to heat sickness.  Heat stroke in children is deadly as the mortality rate is anywhere from seventeen to seventy percent. The factors to consider are the gravity of the illness and the youth’s age.

Children experience heat-related unwellness when their bodies are unable to offset and properly cool themselves.  Youngsters are more vulnerable to heat related illnesses because they don’t adapt as fast or as well to heat changes as do adults and they also create additional warmth with activeness. They also generate additional heat with activity. Young folks also sweat at a higher body temperature, and they perspire less than adults.  Those kids, whom are heavy, have continuing illnesses and take a number of medications are even more susceptible to high heat conditions during practice.

NOTE
Heat Cramps – sharp, involuntary muscle twitches, commonly in the gastrocnemius or hamstring muscles (the tissues at the rear of the forelegs and thighs)

Dehydration – tiredness, thirstiness,  dizziness, less-frequent urination,  disarray, increased heart rate and breathing, dried out skin,  dry mouth and mucous membranes

Heat Exhaustion – clammy, pale skin, sweating, dry mouth,  tiredness (fatigue), headache and or dizziness

Heat Stroke – Loss of consciousness, confusion or hallucinations, headache, agitation, high body temperature, absence of sweaty, deep or shallow breathing, weak pulse rate, seizures|

PREVENTING HEAT ILLNESS
Be cognizant that temperatures over 80 degrees create conditions favorable to heat condition.  Also be aware that high humidity reduces your body’s ability to get rid of excess heat by sweating. In order to prevent this illness acclimate the child to the heat, increase intensity over 10-14 days, no heavy work for the first week Early evening or morning is the best time for exercising as it is cooler outside. Ensure youngsters take rest periods. Hydrate kids before working out and at practice have enough fluids on hand for hydrating – preferably H2O. Although they might not be thirsty, youngsters should drink fluids every 20 minutes when exercising. Liquids to stay away from are caffeine and everything effervescent. With clothing, have kids wear well-ventilated, sweat-absorbent and light-weight.

In case your adolescent or your squad is doing speed exercises as a manager or parent, you require to be mindful of the danger of heat-related conditions.  Respect the heat or there could be catastrophic consequences.

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Motion Potion For Athletes – Flexibility

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

Are you ignoring flexibility training? If true, you’re not the only one.  As outlined by experts, flexibility exercise is by far the most underrated factor in speed and agility training.Everyone gains from improved flexibility, it’s not restricted to athletes..

How do we define flexibility?

To define flexibility, it’s the full range of motion in the capability to move joints. It is the changing from a resting positiion to a flexed extended pose.Flexibility training is aruguably the most significant practices an athlete can do to avoid getting injured.In addition, it enhances cardio workouts, athletic competencies and strength movements.The more flexible that you are in your strength training, the more you work the muscle groups you are training.By doing this, the effectiveness of the training program will get better.   A flexible athlete also moves with more comfort and better agility. The American College of Sports Medicine in its general exercise recommendations, advocates overall flexibility exercise.  They advise stretching exercises for the major muscle groups be completed two to three days each week.

It’s always essential to warm-up your muscles before you stretch them.Cold and stiff muscles that don’t yield are said to be a principle cause of injuries.If possible, a 5-10 min. run ought to be enough.As a result of doing this, muscles have faster relaxation and contraction speeds.This helps boost metabolism, increase body temperature and increase circulation.

An athlete stretches so that they can enhance flexibility.  Even non-athletes are going to optimize functional movement in everyday life such as bending over to pick something up off the floor.   An athlete ought to gently stretch a little bit more each day so as to improve flexibility, speed and agility.

Guidelines

The following are suggestions to use when stretching.

· Warm up muscles before you stretch

· Stretch until you’re a little uncomfortable but not to the point that you feel pain.

· The sense of tightness diminishes as you stretch

· Clutch the stretch for 10-30 seconds

· A set should be 2 or 3 exercises before moving on to next one

· Shake out the limbs between stretches

Find more informative articles here on training for speed and agility.

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Learn What The New Field Of Sport Vision Training Can Do For Your Speed And Agility

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Speed and agility training has seen a paradigm shift in the past couple of years.   Some see it as the biggest breakthrough in athletic training and speed and agility training in decades.   We have to thank a class of people called contrarians for the development of training protocols applicable to previously thought of as untrainable characteristics. This training is now a staple for athletes wanting to enter the NFL Combine (a camp in which professional football teams assess NFL draft candidates).   Sports Vision training.  It deals with your speed of reaction, your ability to process information on the court, tempo or timing and even goes into things such as depth perception. The basis of this training is that you have to see it to react to it.   The sooner an athlete can see something the better he will be able to deal with it and the better he can do that, the better his value to the team will be.
Most improper reactions on the field have a simple cause — lack of sports vision training.    An athlete doing conventional speed and agility training needs to also be  trained for speed exercises of the mind as well, or speed and span of recognition training.   This includes even the fastest players.  Times have changed and the atletes who don’t improve these previously untrainable characteristics will be left sitting on the bench.

One of the key points of the rapidly growing popularity of sports vision training is that it leads to an incresed performance in visual imagery processing capacity even when under high stress — such as during an important game.  While there are no true standards since the field is so new, below are some of the sports vision training topics and what they cover:

* peripheral awareness – being able to recognize and react to objects out of  the corner of the eye

* dealing with the ability to process visual imagery we have visual reaction time – it’s upside is that it can help atletes get the picture (and what they need to do about it) faster

* dynamic visual acuity – the number and correctness of the moving objects the athlete can keep an eye out for    * the ability to follow rapid moving objects
* focus time training – changing focus is something that needs to be done fast in order to get the best information that your eyes can give you

* depth perception – leads to the correct placement of objects within our 3D world

* fusion flexibility and stamina – under excessive speed and being physically taxed,  the ability of the eyes to work together
Sports vision training is truly one of the biggest discoveries in speed and agility training.  I think it is funny that the old saying: “keep your eye on the ball” has become an actual, measurable, improvable feat.

Other cool resources on speed and agility training that you need to check out are:role of protein in speed and agility training

For more high quality information visit: Speed and Agility

Make sure to try this great exercise for speed and agility training and decreasing chance of injury

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No Goals – No Edge

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

What do All-Star athletes, accomplished professionals and  CEO’s, all have in common? They believe in the power of setting goals.  They know that it offers them the capacity to achieve great things.  It is the difference between mediocrity and brilliance. They also know the power of goal setting as they believe it give them  an edge over other colleagues and competitors .  A lot of people are not familiar with goal setting. Deciding what you want to accomplish and a plan to realize it is the definition of goal setting. Setting goals give athletes clarity of focus. It moves them in the direction of success in sports as well as the lives.  In order to get the most out of your speed and agility training you must set goals.

 

Why Set Goals?

Goals are primary in the success of an athlete. An athletes mind must be targeted to the actions necessary to attain success thus goals provide that directive. Im the event of frustration and difficulty, goals help the athlete stay inspired. Goals encourage the athlete to forge ahead and to reach a higher level of performance. The athlete’s expectations are more clearer and their path to advancing in sport is faster when setting goals.  Goals can give an athlete a psychological edge as well by improving self confidence, giving them a sense of pride and as they reach their goals for Speed and Agility Training. Goal setting gives an athlete a physical edge by improving power, performance and speed and agility. Using the agility ladder, a certain speed goal is targeted and then achieving that target.

For speed and agility training, a knowledgeable coach can be a great asset. The coach must facilitate the athlete in the process of setting goals.  Good coaches can help the athlete set practice, performance and game goals. Goals will position the athlete higher than his competition.  Practice goals are designed to prepare an athlete for a specific event. These goals concentrate on method and performance. Goals, when set with the help of coaches, should be demanding yet possible to obtain.

Whether people are elite athletes or Fortune 500 CEO’s, the ability to set and master the skills of goal setting contributed greatly to their achievements and it will to yours as well.

Get more information on speed and agility training by going to this awesome website Agility Training

 

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Speed Agility Training And Strength

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

This posting will look into what role strength plays in your Speed and Agility Training course. Now let’s check out a few terms.

Absolute strength – the max power that you’re capable of producing, your individual rep max is your absolute strength

Starting Strength – a result of the number of muscle fibers you are in a position to instantly tighten

Look at it like this, if you snatch a heavy set of weights off the ground you might injure your back. But if you were to lift slowly this will not take place. Starting strength (from this example), merely measures the greatest weight you’re capable of snatching off the floor with no damage.

Relative strength – your strength per pound of body mass

Reactive Strength or Plyometric Strength – looks at your capability to soak up and employ energy whilst changing from an eccentric contraction to a concentric contraction.

What is the importance of these definitions to your training plan?
The more your absolute strength, the higher your starting strength. The higher your starting strength, the quicker your acceleration, the quicker your increase in speed, the higher your explosiveness or your capacity to arrive at your top speed faster. Ask yourself, “Is my Speed and Agility Training helping my absolute strength for those muscles that are important in my sport of choice?”

Relative strength is significant because the more your relative strength, the greater the power you’ll be able to produce. This benefits you in a couple of ways; your nervous system is better conditioned and will cross over into your quickness, and you have less stuff to carry around. This also crosses over into speed.

A good question to ask about is whether your Speed and Agility Training improves your relative strength. Take into account while training for speed and agility your relative strength is more influential than your absolute strength. Note: you should not be concerned too much with reference to bulking up because a 10% growth in LEAN body mass translates into a 30% rise in power.

Last but not least, we come to reactive strength. This sort of strength plays a vital part in agility, it makes it possible for you to quickly alter direction and stun your opponent with unanticipated moves. It also enables you to jump higher while running (but not alot from a standstill stance). It also has a function in running speed however there’s better ways to exercise for it if running speed is what you want to achieve.

What’s the take away home from this commentary? So as to appropriately train for speed and agility you must include strength training workouts in your schedule. You must also customize it for the sport you are involved in. There can be no shortcuts but there are effective ways of arriving at your objectives (whatever they may be).

If this has confused you somewhat you should….

Here is a food for thought issue for you.  Why do sprinters (50, 100 meter dash, basketball players, quarterbacks etc) produce ripped abs without specifically training for them? Obviously you have got to be aware that starting strength is different for distinct muscles groups and can be trained separately. Knowing which muscles play a role in the movements most critical in your athletic endeavour enables you to concentrate on them and create swift and efficient results

If you liked this article, you can find more information, tips, and videos by going to: more Speed and Agility Training.

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