Developing the Total Athlete

Speed: Change of Direction

If you coach at any level from youth through high school you should be incorporating movement training as part of your overall pre and in-season practices.  A majority of athletes struggle with executing the fundamentals of a sport due to the fact they’ve not been introduced to basic movement training.  Next time you attend a game or practice for any particular sport watch how uncomfortable kids look running, jumping, throwing, etc.  This results in kids struggling to perform basic fundamental skills that are essential to success in any sport. As a coach you can improve your entire team’s performance, and every individual’s athletic potential by spending as few as 10 to 15 minutes every practice incorporating movement training.

Movement training involves the 7 essential elements of athletic development:

            Agility
            Balance
            Coordination
            Flexibility
            Speed
            Stamina
            Strength

While all seven are equally important this article will focus on speed as it relates to change of direction. Speed is often only thought of in a linear fashion.  However an athlete rarely executes on the field or court without weaving away from defenders, decelerating, changing direction, accelerating etc. In lacrosse a player uses short movement skills and quickness to escape pressure while moving to more open space as it presents itself while attacking downfield.  The same holds true for a quarterback and running back in football as well as soccer.  

PROPER TECHNIQUE:
When instructing athletes on the proper methods of accelerating, decelerating, planting, and moving laterally, one of the most vital techniques is arm movement with proper shoulder rotation.  By speeding the shoulder rotation up the legs will move faster and vice versa when decelerating.  The other important technique that is often overlooked is keeping the arms and elbows close to the body.  If you watch most youth athletes perform, more often than not you will witness their arms flailing out to each side, causing them to lose speed and reaction time. 

CHANGE OF DIRECTION:
When we talk speed training we are most often referring to field speed, not track speed. With field speed you are forced to stop and go, move around and avoid defenders, etc.  One of the keys to an athlete’ success on the field of play is effectively changing direction while attempting to not slow down.  The most successful running backs and wide receivers in football, attack men in lacrosse, and soccer players, have the ability to change direction and be illusive without slowing down, by correctly planting one foot and exploding in a different direction. 

One of the most common errors made when changing direction is dropping the hips while planting.  The natural tendency is to drop the hips in order to get power to explode in another direction.  This however causes the athlete to lose a substantial amount of speed and momentum. The most effective method to changing direction is by extending the plant foot (rather than dipping the hips) rapidly to the ground while keeping the arm rotation active.

CHANGE OF DIRECTION - DRILL/COMPETION:
Note: It’s important that athletes conduct this drill when they are fresh and fully warmed-up.

PURPOSE: Very few athletes have the natural ability to change direction while maintaining maximum speed.  However the technique can be learned through practice and muscle memory.  The following provides a drill to learn and reinforce change of direction by extending the plant foot without dropping the hips.

EQUIPMENT: 10 cones, a stopwatch

DRILL SET-UP: See Diagram (1)

EXPLANATION: The athlete begins the drill by jogging five yards to the first cone (a), where the athlete begins to accelerate to the next cone (b) 10 yards downfield.  When the athlete arrives at the third cone (b) he or she quickly extends and plants the left foot (without dropping the hips) while keeping the arms moving (shoulders rotating) and elbows close to the body. After planting the left foot the athlete sprints to cone (c), plants the right foot and sprints to cone (d) where the athlete plants the left foot and sprints to the finish, cone (e). See Diagram (2).

Have each athlete repeat the drill alternating the change of direction at cone (b) to cone (f), to cone (d) to cone (g).  Repeat in each direction until each athlete begins to get a feel for correctly planting and effectively changing direction.  Remember that this is not a conditioning drill, if the athlete begins to tire, stop the drill and repeat the next practice session.

SELF-MEASURING COMPETITION: When you feel your athletes are beginning to execute the change of direction skill with the proper techniques, you may decide to time each run through the course.  This is an opportunity to demonstrate when proper technique is used times will improve. It’s also important to closely observe and ask each athlete if they felt as though they had properly executed each plant.  This will provide you with both your perspective of what you observed and their perspective of how it felt to them.  If you observe that they are executing incorrectly, such as not keeping their arms moving during the plant, ask them to only focus on their arm movement for the next time trial, and see if they begin to self-correct themselves.  Remember this skill calls for muscle memory and therefore each athlete must be aware of how their body is moving and how it feels when done correctly.

Once a personal best time is established for each athlete it becomes the benchmark by which they attempt to improve upon.  This allows for the athletes to not worry about competing against the others, but to focus on improving their own techniques and times. 

Assign 5 points for every ¼ of a second recorded under their personal best, and -5 points for every ¼ second recorded time above.  Conduct 3 runs of the course in each direction every time you compete.  Add the total number of points achieved for that session as a final score. 

Note: the athlete keeps their original personal best during the competition session regardless if a better time is recorded that session.  The newly recorded personal best is then applied the next time you conduct the competition.

We will continue to provide movement training drills and tips for you to incorporate into your team training regiment.  For a complete guide of drills and competitions look for my new book “Athletic Fitness for Kids”, Human Kinetics, available this November in bookstores and on the web.

- Scott Lancaster, July 2007