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	By Peter Twist MPE, BPE, CSCS © 2001 Peter Twist Peter Twist is President & CEO of Twist Conditioning Inc and the former Coach of Conditioning & Player Development for the Vancouver Canucks. He has authored dozens of articles on athlete development in scientific journals, written two books on conditioning and is currently finishing a third on core stability. Peter Twist runs weekly sport-specific conditioning camps for professional athletes, high school students, and adult recreational athletes, as well as one-on-one training and team clinics. He can be contacted through www.sportconditioning.ca or 604-904-6556. Lightning quickness is best described as the first gear of speed. Coaches have forever dreamed of athletes with "explosive speed" - this is quickness. I interpret speed as the third, fourth and fifth gears which is evident during linear acceleration and ultimately measured as the velocity at top speed. However, the ability to initiate skilled movements quicker than opponents is the foundation for successful offensive and defensive tactics. Athletes need the skills to perform complex maneuvers very explosively. Extend your arms out to your sides - quickness is often executed within this distance. Successful shooting, passing, bodychecking, stoping, face-offs, and all one-on-one tactics are all fueled by quickness, agility and balance. Four key components, speed and quickness, along with agility and balance (SQ&AB) all contribute to improved athleticism and enhanced hockey performance. They are all highly trainable! Improving SQ&AB focuses on the neuromuscular system. This has to do with how the brain commands the muscle system to contract quicker, and quicker under control. From a biomechanical perspective, the 100 meter linear sprint provides a very poor model for teaching sport acceleration. Practicing sprinting in a straight line may serve some conditioning purpose, but has limited utility for hockey which requires stop-and-starts, lateral movement, backpedaling, crossovers, turns and pivots. The mechanical demands of sport-specific speed are multi directional! The successful combination of strength, power, balance, quickness, agility and reaction skills are often required to meet game demands. Defenders face the demand of controlling their high speed to suddenly stop on a dime and explode laterally to contain an opponent. Likewise, the offensive player will cut and turn and zig zag to evade a defender. The ability to 'shift gears' and quickly change speed while already moving fast is a deceptive tactic that proves very effective for throwing off a defender. In these ways, SQ&AB are learned skills that contribute to sport technique, individual tactics and team systems. At my summer camps, 100's of athletes will participate in quickness and agility drills. I like to design drills that challenge the player's movement skills and require explosive, dynamic movement. Their improvement is dramatic and they become more in tune with their body from an athletic sense (versus just sitting supported on a bench lifting weights). Reaction balls and micro hurdles are two simple SQ&AB tools. The reaction ball is a tennis ball sized rubber ball with several knobs that produce unpredictable and irregular bounces. A variety of read and react drills force athletes to quickly move their feet to track and catch the ball. Reaction ball drills tend to produce the hardest efforts and the most laughter, a great combination. Micro hurdles replace the old track hurdles - they are only 4 inches in height. Numerous timed drills incorporating lateral movement and stops and starts use these hurdles. These eliminate the repetitive high impact that saw high hurdles and plyometrics produce so many injuries. The micro hurdle drills are low impact and focus on movement speed, not air time! At my summer conditioning camps, where groups of driven athletes workout together, micro hurdle relay races work really well. Instead of just running lines (what athlete enjoys that?!), you can condition athletes through a variety of micro hurdle patterns - your players will enjoy these because they require very athletic movements and explosive actions. You will like them, because they produce superior game-specific results!
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