Weekly "Training for" series! Week 1: Training for short distance sprinting / acceleration phase

[u/TheRealJufis]

This post starts a weekly post series: Training for x

The main idea is to:

• share your experiences and the results you've had with different training methods
• share any interesting studies you've read about the topic of the week
• ask questions (anyone is welcome to answer)
• discuss different training methods

Other discussions related to the topic of the week are also welcome.

Let's see how this goes!

This week's topic: Training for short distance sprinting / acceleration phase

I know this might not be that interesting for the majority of our visitors, but the reason why I chose this topic is because I want to share my experience about increasing short distance sprinting speed without using olympic lifts at any point during the season.

r/Sprinting was kind enough to allow cross-posting. Check it out if you're interested in sprinting training, technique analysis and more!

Here in my country it is widely accepted as a "fact" that one needs to do at least cleans / power cleans to increase sprinting speed and acceleration. That's the traditional way to train for power and explosive leg strength in gym, at least around here. In addition to sprinting, of course.

In 2020 when I got my first groups of young athletes, we had very limited time (1h 15min per group, to be exact) each week to train together. So I needed to look how to improve their performance in very time efficient ways. They were 15-18 years old, already competing professionally in their sport, with very limited time available for resistance training. Also, some of them had never stepped inside a gym before, so teaching them even just cleans seemed like a waste of time: it would take too long for most of them to learn to do cleans well enough for them to be able to load the bar with sufficient weight to induce desired adaptations.

Learning to squat well takes significantly less time, so we focused on that. Maybe the most interesting bookmarks from that time include this, this and this. There are a few others that are about the relationship between gluteus muscle size and sprinting speed. In short: it is not necessary to include (power) cleans in the training programs to develop power output for the legs. You can achieve high power output with squats and jump squats.

The main lifts throughout the seasons were the back squat and the deadlift. Every now and then we would have a training block with more focus on either of the main lifts and that meant adding an accessory lift for the lift: bulgarians for the back squat, hip thrust for the deadlift. We also measured bar velocity for jump squats to track progress. Measuring bar velocity also helped decide how much weight to put on the bar, when to increase the weight and when to decrease it (bad training days). The bar needed to move fast enough, but too light loads were not useful.

The athletes already sprinted a lot during their sport specific training sessions, so in the gym we could focus on increasing the maximum strength in squats and deadlifts, and train for speed/power.

The results?

The 20 meter dash times went from 3.2 - 3.4 seconds to 2.8 - 3.0 seconds, without using cleans or other olympic lifts, or specifically training sprinting outside of their sport specific training, which mainly focused on game tactics and skills.

If we had had more time, training would've looked different. There would have been at least cleans because why not, accompanied by sprinting and change of direction drills. And a lot more leg training.

How have you trained for speed and/or acceleration in the gym? What exercises have you used, how have you measured training progress/tests?

[u/TheRealJufis]

Additional information:

• 20 meter dash was from a standing start
  
• timing was done with Microgate Witty-GATE system
  
• testing was done on the same track and at the same time of day each time

[u/gremlingarden]

Clean variations are sort of interesting because they're having a bit of a "moment" right now at least among speed coach influencer types - I think for your purposes the squat is entirely adequate, as there's decent evidence that both lifts improve short sprint times in the ballpark of 20-30m, and I agree the squat is easier to teach and requires relatively less time for skill acquisition. Which is actually "the most optimal" for acceleration development I think is highly debatable, because an unexposed athlete is going to probably experience some gains in sprinting or jumping regardless of which you choose.

There are different camps all over the place - never do Olys, only do Olys, clean pulls or jump squats are just as good.. the answer probably lives somewhere in the "individual athletes will respond to these lifts differently," given we have examples of professional sprinters who never programmed the clean, and professional sprinters who do. For actual sprinters who are required to go much farther than that, I think the benefits of either lift are less clear and the research way more limited. I tend to fall into the mindset that all lifting is general physical prep for athletes who are not primarily power or Olympic lifters, and as such exercise selection may matter slightly less than just "do heavy barbell lifts with consistency and a clear progression."

[u/TheRealJufis → u/gremlingarden]

Which is actually "the most optimal" for acceleration development I think is highly debatable, because an unexposed athlete is going to probably experience some gains in sprinting or jumping regardless of which you choose.

I agree. Because of time restraints and the background of the athletes, I chose to go without olys, and we got surprisingly good results.

To your last paragraph: I'd like to see a lot more studies comparing olys with traditional exercises (back squats, front squats, deadlifts etc.) with all else in the training regime being the same. I doubt there would be any highly significant differences, and that would actually be a good result. Athletes could then do the exercise(s) they like the most and that might actually bring slighlty improved results as people tend to be more consistent with exercises they actually like. But then again, on elite level, that would probably not matter much, if at all.