Unique Drills (You Haven’t Tried) to Improve your Speed- VOL. II

In the first installment of this series, I posted a video of a few athletes that worked with me this summer performing some medicine ball throws to improve their lower body power and enhance their overall speed for their sport. Today’s post is very similar to the first in that you must use EXPLOSIVE force and generate lots of power when performing these drills. This is one I got from speed coach Dan Pfaff, one of the world’s experts in training athletes for speed development. We call these “1 hop + Heave forward” throws.

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Notice some of the key features and technical cues on these throws:

• The athlete squats down and back before jumping out.
  
• Hold the ball at your chest, explode out of your stance like you were performing a regular standing long jump.
  
• Upon landing, let the ball carry through your legs.
  
• You want to simultaneously extend with the legs and arms to propel the ball OUT.
  
• If you do this drill properly, you should get some lift off the ground; imagine JUMPING out after you land.
  
• Again, keep these throws low volume, i.e. 2 sets of 6- 8 throws. They can be incorporated into a warm-up, or as a drill on their own. I prefer to do these during a speed session, either before or after. Remember, quality is key here, not the quantity. Use a 6-10 lb. ball (males will typically use 8, females 4-6) as this is an explosive exercise, not a strength exercise. If you can, measure your throws to gauge progress.
  
• These will enhance your overall power, improve coordination and timing, improve jumping ability, and reinforce proper angles for acceleration and put the athlete in an optimal position for maximal power output in a sprint or jump.
  

Hope that helped, use these in your training and watch your jumps and sprints improve within a couple weeks!

See ya!

John Cortese, YFS

CortesePerformance.com

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