L’entrainement de la vitesse et de l’agilité sont des sujets d’intérêt pour les athlètes, entraineurs et préparateurs physiques. En fait, de nombreuses actions décisives en match sont reliées à ces deux qualités.
Dans le cadre de deux cours que j’enseigne à l’Université Bishop’s, je propose aux étudiants une séance pratique sur la vitesse et de l’agilité. Il s’agit en fait d’une introduction aux différents principes et exercises qu’ils peuvent utiliser.
Je partage donc avec vous le court document de travail que je leur propose. Ce document (en anglais) fait un survol des principes fondamentaux de la vitesse en sprint, du changement de direction et de l’agilité. De plus, quelques éducatifs et exercices sont présentés pour chaque phase d’un sprint , pour les changements de direction et lorsque vient le moment d’ajouter l’aspect cognitif.
Workshop #4 – Sprint & Agility training
Fundamental concepts related to sprint and agility training
- Sprint
- Direction of force application
- Posture
- Skill acquisition and refinement
- Change of direction and Agility
- Physical
- Leg muscle qualities, core, sprinting speed?
- Technical
- Center of mass, feet placement, adjustment of steps to accelerate, posture
- Cognitive
- Decision-making: visual scanning, pattern recognition, anticipation, game knowledge
- Physical
The warm-up is an excellent moment to rehearse some of the fundamental movement mechanics associated with sprinting.
RAMP method: Raise-Activate-Mobilize-Potentiate
Posture
PAL principle (Gambetta, 2007; Gambetta & Winckler, 2001): Posture + Arm Action + Leg Action
- Posture: High hips, relaxed shoulders, head in neutral position, torso under tension, hips/glute muscles under tension
- Arm action: Helps to stabilize the trunk against excessive rotation in transverse plane. During acceleration, drive the arms down & back.
- Leg action: Focus on foot-ankle-knee-hip.
- During acceleration, push backward to project the hips and the body forward down the track/court/field.
- During top speed: Foot from above. Under the hips.
Some drills that you can use:
- Wall drill – Heel flick
- Wall drill – Heel flick & Step over
- Bill Knowles’ Running Pillars
- Wall drill from half-kneeling position
- Wall Drill Exchange
- Wall Drill Exchange with elastic band at the waist
- Wall Drill Marching
- Wall Drill Doubles or Triples
- Fall Forward & March against a partner
- Marching A
- Skipping A
- High knees
- Butt kicks
- High knee exchange
- Stick run
- Rope Skip run
Direction of force application
- Starts and acceleration: Horizontal application of force
- Top speed or maximal velocity: Vertical application of force
- IMPORTANT: It is obvious that without any (or with low) vertical GRF, an athlete would not be able to keep upright, let alone sprint (Haugen, Mcghie, & Ettema, 2019).
Short-to-long approach: allows athletes to accumulate higher overall volumes at increasing intensities & more compatible with conventional weight-training approach.
Short distances (5-10 meters) and progress to longer distances (20-40 for team sport athletes or 100-150 meters for a 100-meter T&F athlete).
Starts -» Acceleration -» Top speed
Different starting positions: push-up, 3-point stance, feet parallel/staggered stance, etc.
Rollover start – 20, 30, 40, 50 & 60 meters
Block start – 20, 30, 40, 50 & 60 meters
Sled – Various loads
Harness
Contrast with sled or harness & release
Uphill sprints
Top speed
Flying sprints – 20, 30, 40, 50 & 60 meters
Overspeed with harness 20-100 meters
Towing + Release/Free 30 – 40 meters
Downhill: short (30 – 50 meters) ou downhill to level (30 – 50 meters)
Sprint-”Float”-Sprint – 10/10/10 or 20/20/20 or 30/30/30 meters
Al Vermeil’s chart of the modalities that can be used to develop acceleration and top speed in sprinting (Valle, 2013).
(Young, Benton, Duthie, & Pryor, 2001)
Multidimensional or multidirectional speed and agility is speed training, not conditioning. The principles of speed development will therefore apply to the improvement of this aspect of sports performance (Gambetta, 2007).
Drills in multidirectional speed and agility = proper posture, effective movement patterns (Jeffreys, 2010)
- Athletic position
- Sway drill
- Jockeying (foot placement & hip positioning)
- Deceleration drills
- Backtrack
- Lateral push & stick and crossover & stick
- Footwork
- Low-box drill
- Agility ladder –» Remember the principles of speed training!! Hip projection, not quick footwork!!
- Hurdle drills
- Change of direction
- Speed cut
- Power cut
- Wheel drill
- Other popular drills: Pro-agility, L-test, Curved runs, W, square drills, etc.
- Reactivity
- Add a cognitive component
- Knee tag
- Get behinds
- Protect the space
- Mirror drill
- Shark in the tank
- Wolf & Sheep
- Races
- Add a cognitive component
Teaching progression:
Gambetta, V. (2007). Athletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning. Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.
Gambetta, V., & Winckler, G. (2001). Sport Specific Speed : The 3S System. Sarasota, Fl: Gambetta Sports Training Systems.
Haugen, T., Mcghie, D., & Ettema, G. (2019). Sprint running: from fundamental mechanics to practice — a review. European Journal of Applied Physiology, (April).
Jeffreys, I. (2010). Gamespeed : Movement training for superior sports performance. Monterey, Ca: Coaches Choice.
Valle, C. (2013). Kinetics Manual : Raven Codex. Boston.
Young, W., Benton, D., Duthie, G., & Pryor, J. (2001). Resistance Training for Short Sprints and Maximum-speed Sprints. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 23(2), 7‑13.