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Speed is paramount in almost every sport. If you coach sports like football, soccer, baseball, softball or track and field, then you need to know about new advances in speed training. Next-generation training tools and new training techniques have shattered preconceptions about the way we train athletes for speed and what’s possible for each athlete’s ultimate speed potential. Taking advantage of these breakthroughs can give your team the edge it needs to make game-changing plays and achieve greater success.

We now know that training long hours at slower practice speeds doesn’t make athletes fast. This is because training at slower-than-game speeds doesn’t recruit fast-muscle fiber used to propel specific movement in sports.

It is important to understand that there are three muscle fiber types that propel sprinting: slow, fast and superfast. Training programs moving at slower-than-game speed typically do not recruit superfast fiber because the body always sends the slow muscle fiber to accomplish the task first. When the brain senses more muscle fiber is needed, the brain recruits fast fiber to help propel the movement. When still more speed is needed, the brain recruits superfast fiber to accomplish the task.

Getting athletes to recruit all three muscle fiber types helps create micro-trauma in the muscles. During sleep, all three muscle fiber types then heal and come back bigger and stronger. When your athletes recruit all three muscle fiber types for sport-specific and position-specific movements, you will see a superior adaptation to training.

Understanding these details makes it easy to see why training at faster-than-game speeds is so important to enhancing athletic performance. The new speed technique protocols designed with this in mind are built on the science of neuroplasticity and validated by observing the scans of a subject wearing an EEG cap.

When a subject attempts to learn a new movement, the whole human brain lights up as the subject tries to figure out the best way to accomplish the movement. As the subject becomes proficient in making the movements, the brain begins to eliminate pathways not needed. When the subjects get so good at the movement that they can do it instinctively, the EEG cap shows us that only the task-specific areas of the brain engage. However, the task-specific areas engage with incredible intensity as demonstrated by the luminosity of the EEG scan. But now that we understand the science of speed, how do we get athletes to train at faster-than-game speeds?

The S-Drive Performance Trainer and its coordinating speed protocols from Matrix Fitness were specifically created to get athletes to practice precise athletic movements at faster-than-game speeds. With the ability to simulate sprinting, sled pushing, resistance and parachute training, the S-Drive will help athletes of all types build speed, strength and initial explosiveness.

New speed protocols specifically created to maximize the potential of the S-Drive use scientifically validated techniques to accelerate every phase of movement. Precision-designed body positioning drills help internalize perfected upper and lower body sprint mechanics.

This direct reprograming of the brain and nervous system recruits the superfast muscle fiber essential to unlocking each athlete’s ultimate speed potential. The heart and lungs are forced to oxygenate more muscle fiber, improving overall athletic conditioning, and the bursts of exertion release a natural human growth hormone in a way traditional protocols can’t. This means that even as athletes become faster, they will also be building muscle at a significantly higher rate.

If you’re interested in helping your athletes improve their speed and achieve more, visit sdrivebymatrix.com or email us at sdrive@matrixfitness.com today to learn more about the S-Drive and new speed technique protocols exclusively available from Matrix Fitness.