3 tips to achieve maximum acceleration for athletic performance
1. Arms at 90 degrees. It surprises me that there are athletes who swagger from side to side when running forward. Lateral movement such as swagger, arms flaring out, bobbing your head up and down will increase drag on the body and prevent you from ever achieving top acceleration. One thing you can do immediately is to run with your arms at 90 degrees and making sure that all arm movement moves forward. Eliminate any side to side arm movement and keep all your body parts moving forward. 2. Body at 45 to 50 degrees Upon initial take off, the more time that you can keep your body in the 45 to 50 degree angle while accelerating will allow you to achieve maximum acceleration faster. As you are accelerating your body is coming straight up. When you are running and your body is straight, you are no longer accelerating. At that point, you are maintaining your top speed. Therefore, upon takeoff you want to achieve a 45 to 50 degree angle during your acceleration phase before coming up and maintaining your top speed. 3. Decrease contact time They call it having soft feet and what they mean is to minimize surface contact time upon foot touchdown. During your stride, your feet make contact with the ground. What your feet are suppose to do is to 'claw' the ground with the greatest amount of force and with the smallest amount of time to move your body in forward momentum. Basically, with the most power. The contact time to liftoff is called the amortization phase. Reduce the amortization phase and you'll go faster. It's the minimal time from the eccentric contraction to a powerful concentric contraction. Put these 3 tips to use into your speed program. For more information, visit www.parisispeedschool.com.
'Cap' is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (C.S.C.S.) from the NSCA who works at the Performance Zone powered by the Parisi Speed School in Westlake California. 'Cap' is involved with evaluating athletes measuring athletic power, maximum acceleration, and agility.
Visit Cap on his website at: www.josuecano.com
