I was fortunate enough to be a part of a small group of Americans in the 1980s that was invited to be part of an education exchange during the “Glasnost” period between the former Soviet Union and the United States.  We did post-graduate work at the world-renowned Soviet Sports Institute, where the Russians were developing athletes a lot differently than anything I’d ever been exposed to in the West.  It was basically the flash-point of the basic ideas for what has become the CES Proprietary Training System today, and the real secret to how we get the incredible results we get at CES and with Under Armour TNP Training. 

Of course, it is now common knowledge that there was a lot of doping going on during that era…so I’m not referring to that aspect of what the Soviets were doing differently .  But I am referring to the basic differences in our approach to strength and speed training.  In the west, we were putting all of our athletes through the same basic conditioning and strength training.  We were creating better all-around athletes, but we never got specific as to the sports, position and movements we were asking each individual athlete to execute.  The Soviets started with the opposite approach.  They started with each movement, and developed each individual athlete around the exact movements, position and sport they were trying to dominate. 

In equating that to football, we would take an entire team and ask them all to run three miles and put them all through the exact same weight lifting routine, regardless of what position they played.  We were training defensive tackles the same way we trained wide receivers, despite the fact that those two positions require distinctly different athletic skills to be successful.  The Soviets were training to get specific results on the playing field.  When I saw their approach and began to apply it to western team sports like football, baseball and basketball, I really realized that the generalized approach we were taking in the West made no sense whatsoever.  That was the birth of the my proprietary training system.  When we began applying those principles, we started seeing phenomenal results that were actually measurable on the field.  We weren’t just making better athletes anymore, we were making better players! That influence and the overall direction of our program was a direct result of my experience in Russia. 
 

Chip checks in with the final segment of his tips for bettering your 40-yard dash time. Today the focus is on finishing the race and working on your stride.

Chip Smith checks in with the 2nd of 3 entries on increasing your speed in the 40-Yard Dash. Today he talks about techniques, posture and starting the dash.

Techniques of the 40-Yard Dash:

The 40-yard dash is the shortest race that is used to measure linear speed. And just like any skill that is learned, the 40-yard dash is a skill that can be coached. By following this systematic approach, you will be able to improve your linear speed. I have broken the 40-yard dash down into 6 movements that can be learned. You must practice over and over again to acquire these skills.

Stance:

The way I teach my players to start is a pretty simple technique. Start by placing your power foot on the starting line. If you’re not sure what foot to start with, have somebody stand behind you. With your eyes shut, have them push you forward. The foot that you step forward with will be your back foot. Once you determine which foot is your power foot, you will then place your knee in a direct line from your front foot. I want you to imagine that you are being photographed for a group picture and you are on one knee with your arms resting on your front knee. Keep your head up and your back straight. From that position, your back foot should be directly 4 to 6 inches behind the front foot, when you stand up.

If you have your right foot back, then you would place your right hand just outside your shoulder frame and on the starting line. One of the things you will always hear me tell my players is we want to run 39 yards as opposed to 40 or 41yards. This means you should crowd the starting line. Your back leg will be bent slightly with 80% of your weight on the ball of your front foot. Your arm should be cocked at about a 90 degree angle with your elbow slightly above your back.

Chips Tips for a Proper Posture:

1. Take a picture
2. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet
3. Keep your back foot 4-6 inches from the front foot
4. Inhale and stay tight
5. Keep your elbow cocked and held high
6. Crowd the starting line

Posture and Position:

From your stance, your hips should be cocked higher than your head. Your back should be flat, with your eyes either looking down or fixed on a point 15 yards down the field. Stay relaxed as tense muscles have a tendency to make you run stiff. By putting all the weight on the balls of your feet, you can feel the transfer of weight to the front foot just before you take off. You will have the sensation of falling on your face, but right before that happens you will explode off both feet. It’s something innate that keeps you from falling. The illustration that I like to use is one of comparing the first step, or the pushing off of both feet, to the cocking of a double barrel shotgun. By cocking both hammers of that shotgun instead of just one hammer, you’re getting twice the explosive power.

By exploding off both feet you’re exploding violently out of your stance. To demonstrate this principle, I have my player jump off one foot to see how far they can jump. Then, I have the player jump off the ground with both feet; they quickly see that they can jump further with both feet. I believe that this pushing motion, the motion of pushing off the ground with both feet on your first step, is based on Newton’ First Law of Relativity which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This principal applies to running when you push off on your first step and are pushing against the ground (i.e. force) and the ground propels you into a forward motion.

There is a direct correlation between the 40-yard dash time, the vertical jump, and the power clean. As you drive your hips in an upward motion, whether for your push off in the 40, the upward thrust of the vertical jump, or explosive hip drive on your power clean, you must use the ground for force to propel you forward, upward, and out! I routinely video my player’s 10-yard starts. The one thing that I look for is whether the athlete is stepping out on his first step or if he is using both his heels to apply force towards the ground, in a violent, explosive manner on the take off. By using the video, I can show the player what I am talking about improve his overall start.

One often overlooked aspect of the starting stance is proper breathing technique. I want my athletes, while in their stance, to use a breathing technique called the Valsalva maneuver. Here’s the easiest way to explain this technique. Do you remember your Mom coming to you because you were strong and asking you to open that stubborn jar of pickles? You grabbed that jar, held your breath, and twisted the lid until the lid came off. That’s an example of the Valsalva maneuver. By holding your breath, you raised your blood and intra thoracic pressure which gave you added strength and explosion. In the same light, by holding your breath and staying tight, you gain that same edge on your 40-yard dash take off.

Chips Tips for a Solid Start:

1. Keep your back straight
2. Explode off both feet
3. Inhale and stay tight
4. Drive your back arm
Arm and Hand Position. On your 40 start, you should place your hand on the starting line. Always remember that whichever foot is in the back, the same hand is on the front line. Some coaches teach opposite hand, opposite foot. I think it is easier to just remember, right foot back, right hand on the line, left foot back, left hand on the line. Whichever hand is not on the ground, have that arm cocked above the back. The optimal hand position is one that is relaxed. I coach players to hold their index finger and thumb lightly together, with the arm action cheek to cheek, slightly coming across the body as if the player is zipping up your coat. Make sure you don’t tense up as that will make your upper body tight and affect your turn over rate. Remember, the faster you move your arms, the faster your feet will move.

Chips Tips for the Arms and Hands:

1. Fast arm swings
2. Run, check to check
3. Stay loose

Next time, we'll talk about finishing the 40-yard dash and getting your optimal time. Until then!

Chip

Renowned Combine trainer and TNP Training Council member Chip Smith reflects on Usain Bolt's historic performance at the Beijing Olympics and begins a multi-part tutorial on how to master the 40-yard dash.

I’m sure that many of you, like me, stayed glued to the TV during the summer Olympics. I could not wait each night until the coverage started. Being a speed coach, I had more that just a passing interest in the track events. As I watched the preliminaries in the men’s 100 meters I could not believe that Usain Bolt’s winning time of 9.75, a world record was set with him winning by five yards and coasting thru to the finish line. I could not wait for the finals the next night and had a feeling he was going to bust the world record he had just set the night before. The rest, as they say, is history. Usain won the Olympic Gold in a world record time of 9.69, beating his closest competitor by 20 one hundreds of a second, again, coasting the last five meters. Who knows what his time would have been if he had run thru the finish line!

As Usain ran his race, I found myself counting his steps or stride. My wife thinks I’m like the savant in the movie Rainman. Remember the scene where he knocks off the box of toothpicks and Dustin Hoffman yells out, “487 toothpicks.” My wife thinks I’m that guy because I’m always counting something, railcars, birds, etc. Anyway, most 100 meter sprinters cover that distance in around 47-48 strides. Usain’s stride was 41 which is unreal!

Why is that so important? Speed can be increased by improving two elements, stride length and stride frequency. Each time Usain’s foot hits the ground he is throwing on the breaks. So over a distance of 100 meters, if he had run 47 strides instead of the 41 that it took him, his time would have had been a lot slower. At a height of 6‘5“ his stride is unbelievable. If you watched the race you may have noticed that in the first 40 meters Usain was in the middle of the pack. But as he continued the race he increased his stride length finishing well out in front of the other sprinters.

While most of you don’t run the 100 meters, the same principles apply to the 40 yard dash. What I want to do is break down the forty into three segments for you over the next couple of weeks using the techniques that over 800 NFL players have used to improve their 40 times. 

Over the next several entries we will discuss techniques, starting position, posture and finishing during the 40. We'll also break down the dash into segments, helping you train properly and improve your time. For example, we want our athletes to run their first 10 yards in 7 strides, followed by 11 strides in the next 20 yards and finishing the 40 in 17-19 strides. If you can work on these stride patterns you can lower your forty times, guaranteed!


Chip