Train Deceleration
The constant demand of sports to become faster and more powerful has obviously shaped the landscape of sports performance. A variety of philosophies and training protocols exist to try to increase speed and power. Countless studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of said protocols and philosophies. All the “guru’s” know how to make their athletes faster and more powerful. We have become great at creating high horsepower athletes with huge engines. There is one small problem with this. No one is working on their brakes. We have essentially created a generation of athletes who can put out a ton of force, really fast, and crash to stop.
One of the best predictors of success in the NBA is not vertical jump or sprint speed, but rather, how quickly they can stop. We all know and have seen athletes that look insanely fast on the field or court, but only post slightly above average sprint times. Why is that? Because they can stop to change direction extremely well!
Practically speaking, an athlete with a 4.4sec 40yd dash may not be as successful as another athlete who runs a 4.5 or 4.6 because they lack the ability to quickly decelerate under control. An antelope can never outrun a cheetah in a straight line, but it will survive if it can change direction faster than the cheetah can. In all levels of sport, athletes are running faster and jumping higher than ever before. We have also seen a rise in non-contact injuries (such as ACL tears) like never before. Rather than being hyper focused on getting an athlete to run .1sec faster in a 40yd or jump 2 inches higher, perhaps we should be spending more time teaching them how to stop.
This is not just true for running, jumping, and cutting. Other sports like baseball, lacrosse, and hockey, requiring rotational power also require brakes. We are seeing athletes produce insanely fast pitches and shots. Additionally, we are seeing a lot of injuries to the spine and upper extremities as a result of inability to stop.
So how do we train brakes? How do we enhance deceleration? Really I see two main avenues to address this. First and foremost are practicing biomechanically sound landings and stop/cut techniques. Exercises like drop squats, box drops, hop plants, build up sprints to various types of stops/cuts, etc. can be used. Make it specific to your athletes, and specific to what they have difficulty with.
The second area that needs to be addressed is eccentric single limb strength. This means either single arm or single leg exercises that challenge the athletes’ ability to stabilize their “pillar” (hips, spine, and shoulders) while producing an eccentric contraction. It is accepted eccentric contractions require the greatest force production of a muscle. Thus in theory, stopping efficiently, should be more demanding than starting. Athletes must have the ability to dissipate enormous amounts of kinetic energy. Examples of these types of exercises may be tempo single leg squats, lifts/chops with single arm or in single leg stance, lunges with unilateral loading of weight… Be creative as you can, just apply the basic principles of proper biomechanics with slow controlled eccentric contractions.
I like to use analogies when trying to make a point. If you are not working on proper deceleration (landing, stopping, cutting) technique, you are essentially turning your athlete into a drag racer. They are overpowered and have to utilize the passive structures of their body to stop themselves. More so, they will fail to perform at their full potential, and will likely get injured in training or competition. The most important thing when you get into your car is your brakes. (There is a reason mobsters cut brake lines) Stop pushing athletes to jump higher and watching them crash land. A plane must be able to land safely before you get it off the ground. Give your athletes great brakes and you give them an advantage and make their careers longer in the process.
Thank you for reading and best luck in your endeavors.