Speed is every athlete’s need and many an athlete’s nemesis.  A speed training program develops the muscle movements and bursts of energy required to beat the competition.

Speed training programs should ideally start at a young age.  Drills for adolescent athletes focus on developing the correct mechanics and muscle memory required for quick sprints.  Everything from posture to arm movements should be practiced and repeated to increase fleetness and reduce injury.  Drills for pre-adolescents should be fun and more like a game.  The age of the athletes and specific sport have to be considered when deciding which practices to implement.

Adult athletes should develop a speed training program that calls for explosive movement and muscle strength.  If you want to get faster, do away with the long-distance running and long endurance exercises.  Rather, emphasize getting the maximum burst of energy from the very first step.  Shaving even just a few seconds off your speed time can make the difference between winning or losing the game.

Any speed training program should follow a few basic elements:

• Warm-up every muscle group before starting.
• Concentrate on posture, head and shoulder position, arm movements and hip agility to help prevent injury and give your muscles the chance to show their best.
• Vary the drills and speed required for each to avoid hitting a “speed barrier.”
• Strength is a top factor in developing speed, so don’t forget the weight lifting and resistance training.
• Do not add more than 10% of body weight if your speed training program includes sleds or resistance objects.  Anything over the 10% mark can have a negative effect on speed and actually slow the athlete down even when not weighted.
• Optimal speed requires optimal health.  Don’t focus on speed training when you are not at your athletic best.  Instead, use those times to work on increasing range of motion, strengthening your core and other training specific to the sport.

If you want a speed training program that builds your strengths and improves your weaknesses, why not get the top-secret, fluff-free speed training blueprints from the pros? The e-book SpeedExperts.com packs in several programs suited for different body types and goals.

Click Here For More Info About A Revolutionary Speed Training Program!

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If every championship tournament game, and all of the regular season conference games were decided by a 40 point margin each and every night, very little ‘pressure’ would exist in the game of basketball. The dominant teams would roll into arenas full of confidence and perhaps even arrogance, expecting another blowout and the poor opposing much weaker team would play with a hope of just trying to keep it as close as possible and a hope to ‘look good’ losing. But we all know that there is no such thing as 100% certainty in sports. Further, games are often decided by single digit deficits, and at times by just a point or two. A cursory glance at last year’s NCAA tournament brackets and the deciding score line will quickly reveal what every coach in America and every sports fan already knows; games often go down to the wire.

So why spend a short paragraph writing about something that is already so well understood? The purpose is to provide a strong reminder of the critical link between tight games, clutch situations and pressure, a concept and a link that is not so well understood.

More than anything else, pressure affects an athlete’s ability to relax, which in turn can alter shot selection, assist to turnover ratios, shooting percentages, overall clutch performance, and the list goes on and on. Yet for many coaches, composure and the ability to relax is a double edged sword, with some coaches believing that in order to remain relaxed, intensity must be sacrificed. This is simply not true. An inverse relationship between composure and intensity does not exist. A player can maintain 100% intensity, yet still be fully composed and relaxed when she needs to be.

The dangerous approach

So how do we develop composure in our players? Lets us begin by exploring how NOT to develop the trait. Yelling, screaming or evenly quietly admonishing players to “RELAX!” during a timeout or game is certainly not the most efficient way of achieving player composure. In fact the opposite effect sometimes is unintentionally created by the coach. A command to relax that is given to a player who does not have the skills to relax and deal with the pressure, is only going to make that player increasingly anxious and nervous, making them increasingly aware of their state of anxiety in addition to their inability to deal with the nervousness, tension and lack of composure. Any coach will tell you that a team can only consistently execute a terrific flex offense if they know what the flex offense is and have practiced the flex successfully together as a team at some point. Can you imagine the look of astonishment on the faces of the assistant coaches if the head coach yells to the point, “run the flex.” “Ummm Coach,” the apprehensive assistant coach might begin, “we’ve never run the flex before….they don’t know it.” Obviously, few head coaches would call for the flex to be run under these circumstances! Yet when coaches tell players to ‘relax’ or ‘not be nervous,’ in a similar way, they may be asking for something that the players simply do not know how to execute. An additional approach which certainly can help with composure, but is often seen as the only solution to composure, is physical skills practice. Some coaches mistakenly believe that if you practice something enough, then it will become automatic under game conditions. If this were the case, then clutch free throw shooting percentages would always be as good as practice free throw percentages. As we all know, this is not always the case. Shooting 800 jump shots a day will certainly improve shooting composure in games, because being more proficient at any skill creates greater confidence levels which in turn can have a positive affect on composure levels. However, shooting 800 shots a day in a practice environment has a much greater effect on the proficiency and execution of that skill in that practice environment than it will do compared to execution in a competitive situation or harder still, a high pressure competitive situation (such as a free throw to ice the game). The key to performing consistently in high pressure conditions, is to specifically develop composure as an actual skill.

When I travel the country to work with teams on mental skills and toughness training who may be performing well, but want to increase their conference or national ranking, or work with teams that are underperforming or in a slump, one of the questions I ask as I examine the critical mental skills and toughness trait issues affecting the team is, is this issue a ‘won’t do’ or a ‘can’t do’ issue or a combination of both of these issues? If it is a ‘won’t do’ issue, then there is an attitude adjustment or a very strong sense of commitment that I will install. If it is a ‘can’t do’ issue, then there is a critical skills gap, which requires a different type of training – mental skills development in a specific area. I share this because in my experience, a lack of composure or consistent loss of composure, be it during critical on court decision making or on the free throw line, is a ‘can’t do’ issue requiring skills training. A team I worked with in the past four weeks was a strong underachieving division one program that was not nationally ranked, yet probably should have been were it not for a number of defeats by just 1-3 points, almost all of which had occurred as a result of an inability to execute in the clutch. For this particular team, their clutch performance was often a can’t do issue. The workshop on composure immediately led to a win over a top 20 ranked program.

Developing the composure skill

Contrary to popular belief, composure can be taught as well as a baseline jump hook, bounce pass, or pick and roll. After understanding what composure is and how to practice composure, the key quickly becomes composure practice consistency.

Step 1 – understanding how the mind creates stress

People are often concerned and sometimes fearful about things that they do not understand. For this reason, pressure and nervousness in sports is often a huge area of pre-game, in-game and post-game anxiety for many athletes. Worse still, discussing these thoughts and feelings is a ‘place where few athletes enjoy going’ for fear of being perceived as mentally weak, foolish, giving away a mental edge or advantage to teammates who may be competing for their playing time, or having their playing time affected by a coaching decision due to their public admission of nervousness. For these reasons, game time anxiety and nervousness remains an almost silent, unspoken pain. Smart coaches find smart ways to talk about this vs. sweeping it under the proverbial game time rug, and these smart coaches find innovative ways to broach the subject without athletes fearing they have lost face or will be seen as weak. There is a tremendous sense of bonding and togetherness among a group of athletes who begin to realize that “its ok,” “everyone is pretty much experiencing the same things,” “and we’ll get through it together.” In itself, these types of informal team meetings (some may be player lead, other meetings coach led) can be of some help to maintaining composure levels, but it is just a first step. As we will discover, the next step is to develop a team practice routine to develop the composure skills that will have a huge impact on game time performance.

Before we get to step 2 however, we must first outline the type of conversation that needs to occur in step 1. The first thing to discuss is the fact that this feeling of nervousness has been common to all athletes, from Michael Jordan to Diana Taurasi. The feeling is normal and not necessarily a negative. The key is what becomes of this feeling of nervousness. Is it transferred to excited energy, or does it become uncomfortable and debilitating muscular tension? We should next discuss, the process by which nervousness is created. On a very basic level, any area of the brain called the hypothalamus recognizes stress and activates two different response systems. Picture this like a rainstorm at the top of a mountain that results in two different rivers that flow down this mountain. The first river is the ‘sympathetic river’ which activates many of our primary organs directly (causing changes in our heart rate, perspiration, muscular tension etc), and the second river is the ‘pituitary’ river that flows through the pituitary gland (a small pea sized gland in the brain), that in turn stimulates our stress hormones, often resulting in the same traits as river #1 – increased heart rate with altered breathing patterns, the shutdown of the digestive system, an uncomfortable knotting sensation in the stomach and throat, and increased muscular tension. Collectively, these rivers are caused the ‘fight or flight’ reaction. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that when this energy is used to positively focus and sustain intensity, it can produce lifetime best performances, but when this energy turns into an uncomfortable level of muscular tension and nervousness, fine motor skills and intricate firing patterns of the muscles (responsible for things like free throw shooting) are altered, and smooth practice mechanics quickly become ‘brick city’ in games. In time, we will learn how to solve this. However, I cannot emphasize the following point enough…clenching our teeth and fists and wanting to win a game the most is NOT the path to a combination of great composure and intensity. There is nothing wrong with intensity and ‘wanting it the most.’ In fact it is an important trait of any championship team. However, this mindset does not guarantee clutch composure. Any accomplished coach will tell you that only Hollywood gives the win each and every time to the team that ‘wants it the most.’ In real life, the team that executes their offense and defense the best will win the game – period. And skills execution in high pressure/clutch situations takes composure. Again, even a simple, basic working knowledge of this process is somewhat comforting for athletes, especially as they arrive at the realization of how much control they truly have over a process that is set in motion by their own perceptions of the game or game specific situation.

Part 1 of this discussion has so far examined the need for greater composure training, explored some of the myths connected to clutch composure, and provided an overview of the mind-body connection of composure, important for each coach and athlete to at least have a basic understanding of. The next issue of the WBCA journal will include Part 2 of “Poise under Pressure,” and will examine more of the skills training necessary to achieve a consistent level of clutch composure. Part 2 will discuss:

1. Reducing muscular tension
2. Mistake management to increase composure
3. Finding a player’s optimal emotional arousal
4. Reducing the stress response under pressure
5. Having a championship mindset for clutch situations

Spencer Wood
http://www.articlesbase.com/basketball-articles/poise-under-pressure-part-1-a-true-test-of-mental-toughness-755721.html

When it comes to exercise, the word ‘intervals’ puts fear in many peoples minds. Intervals are sometimes misunderstood but adding them to your exercise program can help you burn fat and get in shape quicker.

Intervals are not for everyone. To begin performing intervals, you should be in good condition and a physical from your doctor is highly recommended.

What are intervals?

The easiest definition would be periods of high intensity exercise followed by recovery periods of low intensity exercise.

Here’s an example. You are following a walking program and have been walking briskly for thirty minutes a day, four days a week. You feel pretty good but would like to lose weight a little quicker.

Intervals might be perfect for you. Begin your regular walking program and, after five minutes, jog for ten, twenty, thirty seconds or more. Your heart rate will begin to increase and your breathing will pick up after this period, return to walking briskly until you have completely recovered. You then begin to jog again.

In the beginning you may only want to perform two or three of these short jogs. That’s fine. Do what’s comfortable for you. Later, as you become more accustomed to this routine, you can add more jogs or increase the length of time you jog or both.

During each period of jogging, your heart rate has increased. When you stop jogging and continue walking, your heart rate will be at an increased rate for a minute or so. This is an added benefit. During aerobic exercise you want your heart rate to increase, which makes it stronger and makes you healthier.

Intervals work great on a treadmill. You can increase the speed for however long you want, or you can increase the height, so you are walking at the same pace only going uphill.

This is interval training at a low level but you still get benefits from it. You can follow a similar routine in your other aerobic exercise as well.

For instance, if you are riding a bike for exercise, every so often pedal faster until you begin breathing heavier, and then return to riding as before.

You can see that interval training is not only for athletes. It’s one of the fastest and most effective means of reaching a top level of fitness and decreasing body fat.

Do these three or four days a week and watch your fitness level go up while your pounds begin to disappear.

Ian Williamson
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/interval-training-your-key-to-fitness-53334.html

Strong legs, strong lungs, strong will. Such is the portrait of a typical distance runner. The good news is that you can be a runner, too.

Why run?

Running carries with it the same benefits of all cardiovascular exercise: it helps reduce stress, strengthens the heart and lungs, reduces risk of certain diseases, increases confidence, brightens your mood, helps you sleep better, gives you more energy, and, in general, provides a better sense of well being. It is also a great way to burn calories.

How many calories do you burn running a mile?

Conventional wisdom says that, for every mile you run, you will burn 100 calories. But other factors play into the equation as well, including your running speed and your body weight. Generally speaking, a 135 pound person will burn about 100 calories per mile. A 200 pound person, running at the same speed, may burn 150. Obviously, the faster you run, the more calories you will burn.

Starting to run

Running can be stressful on your body, particularly on your leg muscles and knees. But you can minimize your risk of injury with a few simple tips.

Make sure to stretch before and after every run. Walk briskly for at least 5 minutes at the beginning of each run. Once you feel your body starting to warm up, do some gentle stretching exercises. Focus on steady, continuous stretches and avoid bouncing through the stretch.

If you are new to running, here is how you can work up to a 30 minute running routine while reducing the risk of injury.

Your first goal will be to make sure that you can walk at a brisk pace for 30 minutes. If you can do that, start to run at a slow pace until you become short of breath. Then walk briskly until you feel like you can run again. Continue with these intervals. You can challenge yourself by timing these intervals and working toward longer intervals. For example, maybe the first day you will run for 30 seconds and walk for 2 minutes. As your endurance increases, run longer and walk for shorter distances.

Another interval technique involves counting your footsteps, instead of measuring time. When you are first starting your running routine, you may do 100 or 200 running footsteps with 300 or 400 walking footsteps in between. Then you can work up to 400 or 500 running footsteps with 200 walking footsteps in between. Each day, try to extend the number of running footsteps and reduce the number of walking footsteps (even by just a few footsteps) until you are running for a full 30 minutes. Counting steps can help give your mind a clear focus toward an achievable goal.

It is important to not push yourself too hard. Even if you simply walk for 30 minutes and can manage to get in a couple of one or two minute runs, you are getting your heart rate up, and you will be reaping some of those health benefits. The rule of thumb is this: run at a pace at which you can still talk. If you are very short of breath, slow down or take a walk break.

Once you are running for a full 30 minutes, keep up this interval training to maximize the benefits of your running routine. For example, run at your normal pace and then speed it up for 30 seconds or one minute (or 200 or 300 footsteps).

After every run, walk for a few minutes, and stretch your muscles again.

Making the most of your running routine

Here are a few more tips to help you make the most of your running routine:

Invest in a good pair of running shoes, which will increase comfort and reduce your risk of injury.

Plan to rehydrate about every 10 minutes during your run.

The best places to run are smooth dirt roads or paths, which are not as hard as asphalt and concrete. Ask around (at your local running store, for example) for recommendations of good routes.

Finally, make sure to follow these simple safety precautions: Running with a friend (or even a dog) is safer than running alone. At the very least, tell someone when you are leaving, where you are going, and when they should expect you to return. Leave your valuables at home, vary your routes, and stay in busy, well lit areas. Pay attention to what is going on around you. That means leaving the headphones at home, or turning the volume down low. Lastly, always jog against traffic, so you can assess oncoming cars for potential danger.

A running routine is a rewarding way to build strength and endurance. Enjoy the process of developing your own strong legs, strong lungs, and strong will.

Note: The tips in this article are for general information only. Before starting any exercise routine, you should consult with your doctor.

Jamie Jefferson
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/running-tips-what-you-need-to-know-when-starting-a-running-routine-65411.html

By setting goals, and measuring their achievement, you are able to see what you have done and what you are capable of.

The process of achieving goals and seeing their achievement gives you the confidence and a belief in yourself that you need to be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals.
Providing that you have the self-discipline to carry it through, goal setting is also relatively easy. The following section on goal setting will give you effective guidelines to help you to use this technique effectively.
Sometimes setting goals alone is not the only problem that you must face. Sometimes, choosing the right goals to begin with is harder.
Basically, you can choose to work any goal that you feel is necessary for your health, stability and happiness.
Goal setting is nothing more than a formal process for personal planning. By setting goals on a routine basis you decide what you want to achieve, and then move in a step-by-step manner towards the achievement of these goals.
The process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on to do it. You also know what nothing more than a distraction is.
Goal setting is a standard technique used by professional athletes, successful business people and high achievers in all fields. It gives you long term vision and provides you with short term motivation.
It helps to focus your attention and knowledge which helps you to organize your resources. By setting sharp and clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless effort.
By setting goals, you will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your and ability to meet the goals that you have set. The process of achieving goals and seeing this achievement gives you confidence that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals later on.
Goals are set on a number of different levels. In the first place, you decide what you want to do with your life and what large scale goals you want to achieve.
Second, you break these down into the smaller aims that you must hit so that you reach your overall lifetime goals.
Finally, once you have your plan, you start working towards achieving it.
By setting up a structure of plans you can break even the biggest life goal down into a number of small tasks that you need to do each day to reach the lifetime goals.
The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime, as setting lifetime goals that gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making process.
To help give you a broad, and balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in categories.
Once you have divided your goals into categories, you have to assign a priority to them if you want to succeed.

Adrian Kennelly
http://www.articlesbase.com/goal-setting-articles/how-to-choose-the-right-goals-to-focus-on-52890.html

Duration : 3 min 58 sec

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