Todd Williams, CSCS

When it comes down to it in sport nowadays, speed is key. Not just straight line speed and not just on your feet. Being able to move yourself, an opponent, and/or some other object quickly, under control, and better than the competition will result in performance achievement but to do so an athlete must have strength and power as well.

Over the last 10 years, I've worked in different sports performance training centers on both the east and west coast. Helping athletes of any age and ability level reach their athletic potential was the goal at all of them and I've seen different philosophies of how to improve an athlete physically. Some philosophies think that strength and power are priority and you'll see a highly developed weightlifting and strength training program in that environment. On one hand, you may have a facility focused more on the technique of proper movement which emphasizes running and movement training. With a knowledgeable staff and proper programming, both types will produce results but which is the best? I believe neither is best. An athlete needs both and given proper planning while focusing on one or the other may be the best way to go.

There is a type of training the Russians introduced decades ago where they would alternate periods of training between Strength and Speed. Basically an athlete would focus on developing strength for a certain time period, sometimes called a microcycle (http://www.answers.com/topic/microcycle?cat=health) and then change the training goal to speed, alternating the focus of the microcycle between speed and strength. Having worked with athletes of all ages and ability levels, I think this can be an effective model. Take an early pubescent female athlete for example. Typically, they have good focus, pay attention to detail, and with proper coaching can put a technique in play easily(as opposed to boys of the same age who just want to go harder and faster!!). I may be able to teach these girls great acceleration mechanics but if I don't develop their strength and teach them to produce power, who cares if they have good acceleration mechanics? They are still just a slow athlete with good acceleration mechanics… but no acceleration! This is not going to put points on the board.

Another reason that this type of training can be effective is that it can help prevent overtraining (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining) and boredom. Over time, continuous strength training without proper 'downloading' phases can easily put the body into an over trained state in which performance will halt or, even worse, decline. Rather than doing the same program with some speed work and some strength work equally over time, focusing on strength work for a given amount of time and then changing the focus of the workout to speed development for a given amount of time is an easy way to let the body unload from the stress of the strength training while continuing to make athletic progress training for speed. Mixing up the type of training sessions and their focus will also prevent boredom of doing the same workout.

Finally, if you were to try this type of training, I would not recommend committing to only strength or speed training during a microcycle. A microcycle focused on strengthening the muscles involved in the sport specific athletic movements with some speed work alternated with a microcycle focused on speed and power development while doing some strength work to maintain any gains made in the previous microcycle could be a good idea.