CAP Soccer: 20yd Dash Improvements during a 6 Week Phase of Linear Rhythm and Plyometric Drills in the Winter Season

**Scott Moody, Aaron Kleinwolterink

Introduction

During the winter of 2006 we implemented a 6 week phase of rhythm based linear movements along with a plyometric progression to see if we could capitalize on the dramatic increases in strength we noticed during the fall session.; These strength increases in the form of back squat and hang clean exercises seemed to boost the confidence and overall power of each of the players, but we weren’t noticing a significant transfer over to straight ahead speed (20yd dash). As you can see below in the first graph (Figure 1) the players improved during the Fall Season, but not as much as we had hoped to see. We must take into consideration that this was during the Fall Soccer Season and Tournament Schedule. During the Winter Session we tried to bring out some of those increases in strength and power and realize the impact it makes in 20 yd dash. When you compare the results we had with the players that had not taken part in the Fall Season Workouts (did not establish a strength base) with the ones that took place in the Fall Season (Figure 2), you will notice that both groups improved, but the ones that had established a foundation of strength and power were able to maximize the new stimulus of linear rhythm based movements and plyometrics, giving them superior results.

The first assumption might be that the strength trained group continued to get stronger or more powerful in the Winter Session, or that the non-strength trained group didn’t get the same strength training focus as they should have during the Winter Season.  But, as in all our programs, strength is a constant.  We are constantly looking to either get strong or stay strong, but sometimes we will focus the attention more towards “how well”  or “quality reps” as opposed to “how much” or “heavy reps”.  Below is a graph (Figure 3) that shows the strength and power improvements during this 6 week linear rhythm and plyometric focus.

As you can see, the athletes actually stayed the same during this phase.  Sure we had some that added 10 lbs to their squat max, and some that lost 10 lbs, but when you look at the big picture, we really stayed about the same during this phase.

This was the goal:  To maintain the gains we made in the fall, and to add a new stimulus of rhythmic, power production so as to maximize these training stimuli in a sports specific way.  I know many facilities that claim superior results in straight ahead speed tests, that don’t use any periods of strength training.  And from the graphs above, you might conclude that they would be right in assuming that athletes get better gains during periods where strength is not a focus.  But with a closer look into the graphs (especially Figure 3) you will see that you will receive even greater gains if you put in the work to get strong, before you put in the work to get fast.

In the next section we will discuss what was done to achieve these results.

In-Season Training Protocol:

Below (in Figure 4) is an overview of what type of activities we did in each workout.  These workouts were 90 minutes long, 2x per week.  The workout organization was as follows:

• 15 minute Warm Up
• 15 minute Sport Specific Activity
• 15 minute Power Assistance Work
• 15 minute Strength Maintenance
• 15 minute Conditioning and Core
• 15 minute Cool Down and Flexibility

For the purpose of this study, I will not go into the Power Assistance, Strength or Conditioning sections and I won’t elaborate on too many of the specific exercises.  When looking at this program it is important to understand that it is not so much “what” exercises you do, but “how” you do them that is the key.  There is a certain learning progression that must take place for optimal results.  We must make certain that the athletes understand how the exercises will impact their performance, and then make sure that they put forth the desired amount of effort, intensity and technique to achieve their goals.

Here are some examples:

Emphasis on Hip and Hamstring work:

• Balance (controlling your body against external factors)
• Band Resisted Hip Abduction (glute stabilization / strength)
• Jump Landing (the mechanics of the jump and landing motions are essential building blocks of plyometrics)
• Single Legged RDL’s and Box Step Ups (isolated posterior chain strength through hip flexion / extension)
• Super Legs and Dynamic Squats and Lunges (increasing speed and confidence in hip flexion / extension)

The reason behind all the posterior chain, hip and hamstring work is to give the athlete more strength and confidence during the initial acceleration phase (20 yd dash).  By selecting these exercises, and trying to get the players to initiate the drill in a more rhythmic, explosive action, we set them up for success in the bounding type, plyometric exercises.

Emphasis on Rhythm and Coordination Drills:

• Skipping (skipping gives us a foundation from which to progress to drills about knee drive, arm action, and posture)
• Ankling (ankling teaches dorsiflexsion of the ankle and sets the stage for teaching decreased ground contact time)

These drills were strung together with some other rhythm and coordination drills to allow the athlete to learn by doing thousands of repetitions under constant instruction and attention to form.  At this age (13-17 years old) the athletes are going through changes that sometimes hinder their rhythm. Without rhythm, speed suffers. We don’t do traditional sprint drills such as A-Marches, B-Skips, Wall Drills, etc because we feel that it is hard for young athletes to fully understand the physics and biomechanics behind those motions. Some try to put in the effort, some lose focus and are very quickly practicing bad habits again.  Likewise, most of these drills are geared more towards “Top End Speed” or “Speed Endurance” which very rarely comes into play on the soccer field.

Emphasis on Linear Plyometric Drills:

• Skipping Progression (for height, distance, acceleration – all of this without losing rhythm)
• Split Squats (working on hip loading, decreasing ground contact time, increasing rate of force production)
• Ankling to Bound (working on transitioning into an acceleration with form and posture)
• Box Drops (for controlling the eccentric – catching phase – part of the landing)
• Depth Jumps (working on producing maximum force in minimum time)

All of this was introduced in a sequence that allowed us to set up the movement with a low level, easy to understand drill and then build off of that drill by introducing some increased level of speed, power or complexity.  Our goal was to progress the focus of the workout from Rhythm/Coordination, to Quality Movement, to Linear Power.  This seemed to workout perfectly and we were very satisfied with the results.

Testing and Results:

We use a Newtest Powertimer© photocell system with a link to a palm monitor to time each player in a 20yd sprint using a switch to start and a photocell at the 20yd mark. The timers are accurate to .001 s. Each subject is timed 3 times with a 60-90 s rest in between runs. Reliability of hand timed sprints of this distance is very poor. For this reason we do all timing with a photocell system to reduce the user error and increase the reliability of our tests.

We tested each athlete on the 3rd week of the winter training program.  We felt that this would give them the first two weeks to get comfortable with their surroundings, as well as understand the importance of the test.  We timed them again 6 weeks later as a post test. They timed both days after a 20 minute warm up that got the Heart Rate between 170 and 190.  This 20 minute warm up was part of the regular program as seen in Figure 4.

There are several ways you can look at the results.  First we will look at the Fastest Male and Fastest Female as they are typically the ones that have the hardest time improving since they train pretty much year round with us, and are already quite fast.

This was exactly what we had hoped to see. In Figure 6 you will see that one of our fastest players (pre-test 3.00 seconds) actually broke our former record of 2.87 seconds by improving by .17 seconds in the 20 yd Dash.  This player actually set the new squat record as well over the winter as she squatted 225 1x breaking her former personal best of 215.  When you have a solid foundation of strength and you add a new stimulus of speed-strength or plyometrics to the program, the results should be incredible.

Next let’s look at the rest of the group.  We had 95 soccer player take part in our long term soccer program this winter.  They came in groups of 8 to 12 and stayed for 90 minutes as discussed before. It is sometimes best to not just look at average improvement, but to look at how certain demographics within your population improved.  The following graphs show this in detail.  We have broken it down to show improvements based on how fast the athlete was coming into the program.  Hopefully this will allow us to better predict how much improvement an athlete might have based on their Pre-Test Time.

In the future we will break add to these numbers every time we do this protocol.  It is critical to look at the big picture (career long improvement) rather than just at a six week session. We also will want to break these numbers down by age and look at which age group had the most success.  We might assume that the group with the most improvement would be the group of 13-15 year old girls.  This seems to be an age where females realize the largest gains in athletic development.

Practical Applications and Comparisons:

We were so impressed with the results of this study that we will most certainly implement a 6 week rhythmic coordination and linear plyometric power phase in to our curriculum for off season soccer.  But let’s not miss the forest for the trees.  This is 1 aspect of a training curriculum.  If it had not been for the previous strength and power phase, we might not have had the success we were able to have.  And conversely we still have 6 weeks before the springs season starts.  And then we still have 3 months before high school state championships, state cup, and regional tournaments begin.  We do not want to peak out too early.

We are now getting ready to use these increases in acceleration and starting speed to help elevate our agility.  The last 6 weeks of the winter training program will be designed to utilize this newly developed burst of speed while introducing control in deceleration techniques to improve cutting and other change of direction type agility drills.

Here’s a taste:

• Fall – we established a base of strength and understanding of movement
• Winter (Phase 1) – Develop explosive acceleration
• Winter (Phase 2) – Develop confidence in explosive change of direction (begin getting sport specific)
• Spring (Phase 1) – Develop the 4 components of Agility
• Quick Feet (and Touch with a Ball)
• Strength / Power Transition
• Body Position
• Reaction (to the ball, to other players, to situations)
• Spring (Phase 2) – Peaking Conditioning and Tactics
• Summer – Specific Peaks for State Championships, Regional Championships, National Championships

Research:

EXPLOSIVE-RESISTANCE TRAINING IMPROVES EXPLOSIVE ACTIVITIES IN SOCCER

1) Gorostiaga, E. M., Izquierdo, M., Ruesta, M., Iribarren, J., Gonzalez-Badillo, J. J., & Ibanez, J. (2002).  Effects of explosive type strength training on force production, sprint performance, endurance and serum hormones in soccer players. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(5),

2) Zebis, M. K., Bangsbo, J. Suetta, C., Crameri, R., Kjaer, M., & Aagaard, P. (2002). Effects of heavy resistance training on muscle profile, strength and soccer performance in female elite soccer players. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34(5),

STATIC STRETCHING IMPAIRS FORCE PRODUCTION, STRENGTH AND PERFORMANCE

3) Behm, D. G., Button, D. C., & Butt, J. C. (2001). Factors affecting force loss with prolonged stretching. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, 26, 262-272.

4) Nelson, A. G., & Kokkonen, J. (2001). Acute ballistic muscle stretching inhibits maximal strength performance. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 72, 415-419.

5) Evetovich, T. K., Nauman, N. J., Conley, D. S., & Todd, J. B. (2003). The effect of static stretching of the biceps brachii on torque, electromyography, and mechanomyography. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5),

6) Noffal, G. J., Knudson, D., & Brown, L. (2004). Effects of stretching the upper limb on throwing speed and isokinetic shoulder torques. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36(5), Supplement abstract 937.

7) Fry, A. C., McLellan, E., Weiss, L. W., & Rosato, F. D. (2003). The effects of static stretching on power and velocity during the bench press exercise. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(5),

8) Jones, A. M. (2002). Running economy is negatively related to sit-and-reach test performance in international-standard distance runners. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 23, 40-43.

9) Young, W. B., & Behm, D. G. (2003). Effects of running, static stretching and practice jumps on explosive force production and jumping performance. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 43, 21-27.

10) Wallin, D., Bjorn, E., Grahan, R. & Nordenborg, T. (1985). Improvement of muscle flexibility: A comparison between two techniques. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 13, 263-268.
11) Wilkinson, M., & Williams, A. (2003). Too much of a good thing? Why increased joint flexibility may damage your distance performance. Peak Performance, 175, 5-6.

STRETCHING DOES NOT REDUCE MUSCLE SORENESS OR PREVENT INJURY

12) Herbert, R. D., & Gabriel, M. (2002). Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review.

SPORT SPECIFIC APLICATIONS FOR STRENGTH TRAINING, PERIODIZATION

13) Stegeman, J. (translated by J. S. Skinner). (1981) Exercise physiology. Chicago, IL: Year Book Medical Publishers.

14) Wilson, G. J., Newton, R. U., Murphy, A. J., & Humphries, B. J. (1994). The optimal training load for the development of dynamic athletic performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 25(11), 1279-1286.

15) www.finesoccer.com Strength Training