STRENGTH TRAINING AND ITS RELATION TO SPEEDWhy is strength training on a website for speed development in young athletes? The answer is strength training is a vital component of all speed. As the majority of young athletes progress through adolescence they get faster why? Because they are naturally getting stronger. Why the men’s 100m times are faster than the women’s basically because they are relatively stronger. So what factors affect speed in young athletes? 1. HEREDITARY FACTORS This relates to the numbers of fast twitch fibres in the muscle these (type 2) fibres are those designed for speed of movement during a short period. The more of these in your muscles the faster you will go. This can be affected to some extent by types of training as some of these fibres are transitional (type2a) in nature they can be pushed towards the fast twitch (type2b) or towards the slower endurance fibres (type 1). This shift relates to the amount of endurance work versus the amount of pure speed work done. Always remember pure speed training is 2-8 seconds of maximum intensity work followed by a full recovery 2. TECHNIQUE The better the technique each young athlete has them more efficient the use of their power and energy and therefore the faster they will go. This subject is dealt with extensively in the other sections of the website. 3. NERVOUS SYSTEM EFFICENCY This is the efficiency of the nervous system to fire as fast as possible and to recruit as many muscle fibres as possible. The speed of transmission may have some hereditary factors –it is thought that the Afro-Caribbean’s nervous system seem to be the most rapid firing in relation to speed –PROBABLY WHY SO MANY 100M CHAMPIONS COME FROM THERE. The amount of recruited muscle fibres relates directly to strength training. Prepubescent athletes respond to training by increasing this fibre recruitment and hence becoming stronger. It is only when adolescent hormonal changes take place that muscle will get significantly bigger (hypertrophy) in response to training. 4. STRENGTH TRAINING This allows more force to be delivered to the ground for each foot contact leading to increased speed. Prepubescent athletes respond to suitable training through increased efficiency in recruiting muscle fibres .This in turns leads to a stronger contraction of the whole muscle and hence delivers more force. Pubertal and post pubertal athletes still benefit from this increased efficiency as well as the muscle fibres enlarging in response to training and in male athletes the stimulatory effects of male hormone. I have posted on this website a complete e-book on strength training written by Chris Scarborough with sample programs with sets and reps .Please follow the link below to this excellent resource
Link from strength page to Chris Scarborough article Return from strength to training-4-speed home page
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