The pursuit of speed has led me down many rabbit holes. I am always searching for new ways to aid the athletes I work with to reach higher performance levels. This has led me to try various methods that fit my principles of training. As a practitioner, you need to be able to sort through the nonsense and use actual methods that work and have transfer. One of these methods I have utilized is overspeed training. I must admit I used to be wary of this method for improving sprint performance, as it seems a little archaic at first glance. The idea of being towed makes me nervous as a coach, due to the risk of potential injury. But, if implemented correctly this method could be very effective. The question then becomes how is this method "correctly" implemented. Do I need a $20,000 device like the 1080 sprint to perform overspeed training? Can I use bungees and bands to implement overspeed training? I'm here to tell you that bands and bungees are effective, particularly in the area of acceleration.

When we think about traditional training it is commonly thought heavier resistance provides a better training stimulus in general. I believe this is one of the biggest issues in strength and conditioning. At times this can be true but, let's not forget about the velocity side of the force-velocity curve, sprint training, and the velocity side of the "sprint velocity curve". Yes, I said sprint velocity curve, not force-velocity curve. Understand that during sprinting forces are extremely high, and that inverse relationship does not work with sprinting as it would on traditional weight room exercises. Traditionally, this curve is thought of in more of a weight-room sense due to the inverse relationship between force and velocity. But, let's look at this sprint velocity curve and how we apply it here at Total Athlete Performance.

Over the period of a general macrocycle we will gradually shift down the velocity curve. We have found a lot of success increasing speed spending time going heavier on resisted sprints, then gradually decreasing the resistance over a period of time. Here is just an example below of a 12 week macrocycle.

Let's focus on the final three weeks of "peaking" and what methods I like to use during this period. As you may have guessed by the name of this article overspeed is a method I love to use when peaking an athlete, primarily for three reasons:

1. Exposure to higher velocities than the body could normally reach
2. Exposure to fast force at a high velocity
3. Post-activation potentiation effect from overspeed training

I can not stress the importance of high-velocity preparation. Sports happen fast! Nothing is slow about sports. Our body must be prepared to handle the rigours of these high velocities, if not you are only setting up your athletes for failure in both performance and risk of injury. Overspeed is the most extreme training stimulus in terms of velocity we can do. Exposing the tissues to these velocities will hopefully hardwire them to be resistant to soft tissue problems in the future. So how can you implement this stimulus at an affordable level? For the price of 30 dollars, you can get an unbelievable training stimulus with resistance bands. Here at Total Athlete Performance, we use the Elite FTS brand. I have found those to be the highest-quality resistance bands.

When utilizing overspeed with bands I keep the reps under 10 yards in total, only utilizing two bands tied together. The coach will stand in front of the athlete, the athlete will have the band around the waist. Once the coach begins to accelerate the band tension will build on the athlete, and that is when the athlete should begin his sprint. After ten yards the towing effect dissipates due to the bands losing tension. It is pretty difficult to do reps that expand out to 20-30 yards due to the number of resistance bands you would need along with the tension dissipating. Not to mention the danger of the athlete tripping over the numerous bands falling in front of them.

Now that the logistics of this process is covered let's talk about what to look for when utilizing assisted sprinting (the kinematics). Kinematics is the most important aspect when looking to implement assisted sprinting. We can not throw off the kinematics to a point where it no longer resembles sprinting. Kinematically, we are looking for the athlete to be able to reposition their limb in the same fashion they would when sprinting free (no resistance or assistance).

As we can tell in the graphic above the ability to reposition the limb was not affected by the assistance from the band. This is essential. If you have an athlete who is heel striking during the rep, take the assistance away or lessen it. The assistance is not providing an effective stimulus because the kinematics are thrown off. The athlete is essentially just trying to survive being towed. The assistance is going to challenge the athlete's limb velocity (can the athlete reposition the limb effectively to put force in the right direction). Which, with all of the recent research coming out, seems to be the biggest limiting factor in an athlete getting faster (Clark, et al., 2020). So, if we have the ability to push the limits on repositioning the limbs quicker (increasing their limb velocity), while not affecting the kinematics of sprinting this method passes the smell test in my opinion.

The next question to ask is are the kinetics affected by the overspeed. Since I do not have a force plate track to get force readings I will refer to research. A study was performed that looked at this very question of kinetics on overspeed sprinting using elastic bands. The study participants were fifteen Division III college athletes who participated in baseball, football, basketball, and track (Frisk, et al., 2022). The study found that towing with elastic bands did affect horizontal ground reaction forces or vertical ground reaction forces (Frisk, et al., 2022). It was also concluded that "Overspeed towing results in increased velocity which is accrued due to greater distance and faster between step times, and lower duration of ground contact." (Frisk, et al., 2022). The previous statement I confirmed with video analysis. Hip projection which is the distance the center of mass has moved. As you can see in the graphic below hip projection was greater on the assisted sprint. A simple way to measure hip projection step by step is to place markers that are visible on video. In the background of these two sprints, you can see a PVC pipe set-up. I got this idea from Kris Korfist and I am glad we decided to build it. It is great feedback for our athletes to visually show them the ground they are covering (or not covering). The PVC pipes are placed a foot apart from each other. We can now measure projection at each step, which projection should increase every step. If not increasing every step we look for the technical reasons as to why.

The next aspect to keep in mind is the reduction in GCT from the assistance. During video analysis I collected the data between the two individuals who performed the sprints. The results are below.

Finally, as expected with reduction of GCT and projection the velocity of the 5 yard sprints were faster with assistance. The difference is shown in the graphic below.

The evidence is there to support that using bands for assisted sprinting is a reliable training stimulus. Assisted sprinting challenges the limbs ability to reposition quicker (increasing the velocity of the limb), increases projection, and reduces ground contact time, thus increasing velocity. There is no difference in the kinetics, so we are putting the same amount of force into the ground in a quicker period! All great athletes produce a lot of force very fast.

Yes, bands will limit the amount of ground you are able to cover, but as mentioned before this is a great way to surf that sprint velocity curve. More specifically this is a great method to apply as an athlete approaches their season. Exposing Athletes to high velocities and fast forces to reach a greater level of performance. There are a couple of ways I will utilize assisted sprinting into the athletes microcycle. One way is to put the assisted sprint into their sprint prep before they sprint:

Another way I love to go about implementing assisted sprinting is contrasting an assisted sprint with a free sprint:

Do not be surprised if you have athletes set personal bests after performing assisted to free contrasts. The potentiation effect from assisted sprinting is very powerful, which is why I believe it should be used very sparingly throughout an athlete's macrocycle. This keeps the stimulus fresh and powerful for when it is needed to push the needle a little bit further. The final way I would implement assisted sprinting would be to blend it into an athlete's weight room regimen. Since the yardage being covered is relatively low an assisted acceleration could be viewed as a special exercise. Here is an example of how you could use an assisted sprint in a weight room complex (french contrast method):

As you can see there are various ways to implement the method. Just be wary of volume and the amount of reps you choose to prescribe. I will typically program no more than 4 reps of an assisted acceleration in a session. Throughout a macrocycle, I would implement it over a 3-4 week period. In my experience as a practitioner, the stimulus will dampen after that. As I mentioned before this is something that should be programmed very sparingly!