🥇 The Athlete Development Journal

Developing speed, strength, power, health, and character, so athletes get the most out of their athletic career.

Listen to this episode on your way to practice. ⬇️

You can also listen on ​Spotify​ or ​Apple Podcasts​.

Train your mind:

Just do it.

Sometimes, the work just needs doing.

In case you’re wondering, yes, she did the work.

Build your body:

9 unconventional ways to get faster

Speed is a strange mix of rhythm, patience, timing, fluidity, and violent aggressiveness.

With such a complex interplay of qualities needed, there’s inevitably a complex interplay of systems operating behind the scenes.

Yes, sprinting is the best training tool to get better at sprinting. Playing your sport is the best way to get more game-specific speed. There’s no way to get around that.

But, when you’re operating with a few subpar subcomponents (or whole systems), they’re going to continue to stay subpar if you only train the skill as a whole. If you raise the individual competency of each subsystem, then your overall speed performance potential will rise as well.

You have two main systems with underlying subcomponents.

Musculoskeletal System

1. Contractile tissue
   • Muscles
2. Elastic tissue
   • Tendons
   • Fascia
3. Structural support tissue
   • Bones
   • Ligaments

Nervous System

1. Sensory input structures
   • Vestibular apparatus + vestibulospinal tracts + vestibular nuclei
   • Proprioceptors + spinocerebellar tracts
   • Eyes + optic nerve + primary visual cortex (occipital lobe)
2. Processing and control structures
   • Cerebellum
   • Basal ganglia
3. Motor output structures
   • Corticospinal tracts + primary motor cortex (frontal lobe)
   • Reticulospinal tracts + reticular formation (brainstem)
   • Peripheral motor neurons

Some of these are highly trainable, like muscles and vestibular function. Some of these are barely trainable, like bones and ligaments. Most are somewhere in between.

If one of those systems is operating a few notches below the others, then that system is going to serve as a governor and single-handedly limit your performance potential. Or, if you can override that governor, you’re going to put yourself at injury risk.

If you sprain your ankle, your proprioceptors get damaged. If your proprioception is poor, the cerebellum, which is responsible for planning, coordinating, and processing movement, will purposefully inhibit the motor cortex to limit speed and protect the joint.

So, to ensure you’ve got a well-rounded speed development process, you should:

1. Develop muscle architecture with weight room movements
2. Build tendon and fascia stiffness with heavy, slow strength training, rhythmic movements, and plyos.*
3. Spin and roll a lot to challenge your vestibular system.
4. Close your eyes or do things like rhythmic stabilizations to improve your proprioception.
5. React to visual cues to fine-tune your visual pathways.
6. Do novel movements, like a ton of skip variations, to bolster your cerebellar control.
7. Sprint with maximal intent and navigate complex environments to drive high-threshold output from your motor cortex.
8. Practice floating (running fast while staying relaxed) to reinforce the automatic, rhythmic drive of your brainstem.
9. When you’re ready, flirt with contrast or overspeed training to get your motor neurons to fire at a faster rate.

*for any super nerds who are out there and recognize that this categorization isn’t perfect, I already know that. For example, histological tendon stiffness isn’t likely to be increased by plyos (just heavy, slow training seems to do that). But, functional stiffness definitely is. So, is that a tendon adaptation? A muscle adaptation to better anchor the tendon? A nervous system adaptation with better timing and control? The answer is “yes” to all of those.

Fuel your soul:

Mark Twain vs The Majority

I’m not advocating for contrarianism, but I do think Mark Twain gave sage advice when he said:

Being excellent requires taking exceptional measures, which by definition, are not the actions of the majority.

Let’s wrap it up with a couple important things…

1. This newsletter and podcast is completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, illustrating, recording, editing, and uploading. The best way you can support it and allow it to continue is to share it with people you know. You can just send them to ​gtperformance.co/newsletter​ and they can subscribe there!
2. Everything in these newsletters, podcasts, social media, and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or your athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.

Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!

Be >,

Zach

Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS