Moving legs faster.

[VaultPurple]

I know this sounds like the basic, how do i get faster thread but it is a little different.

I have a team mate this year that is a female vaulter that has jumped 10' holding around 11'6 in high school last year. She is about 5'10 130lb and has never ran more than 5 lefts before in the vault.

The biggest problem we have encountered right now is she is very slow. With most new vaulters coming out of high school that have never really had a coach, you can just teach them the proper way to run, do some sprint workouts, and maybe some 20-20s to get their feet moving. But she does not have that bad of running form, it is just like her legs will not move any faster, and it just looks like she takes such big slow steps when she runs. She also seems to slow down at the end of 7 lefts when we are doing pole runs too but I almost think it is because she is trying to run faster and just takes even bigger steps.

What would be the best way to just get her moving her legs faster? I recommended things like 20-20s and very quick high knees just to get her legs moving as fast as possible, but they just wont go. Do you think its just going to take the right combination of weight training, plyros, and time?

Thanks for imput...

[ACvault]

I know this sounds like the basic, how do i get faster thread but it is a little different.

I have a team mate this year that is a female vaulter that has jumped 10' holding around 11'6 in high school last year. She is about 5'10 130lb and has never ran more than 5 lefts before in the vault.

The biggest problem we have encountered right now is she is very slow. With most new vaulters coming out of high school that have never really had a coach, you can just teach them the proper way to run, do some sprint workouts, and maybe some 20-20s to get their feet moving. But she does not have that bad of running form, it is just like her legs will not move any faster, and it just looks like she takes such big slow steps when she runs. She also seems to slow down at the end of 7 lefts when we are doing pole runs too but I almost think it is because she is trying to run faster and just takes even bigger steps.

What would be the best way to just get her moving her legs faster? I recommended things like 20-20s and very quick high knees just to get her legs moving as fast as possible, but they just wont go. Do you think its just going to take the right combination of weight training, plyros, and time?

Thanks for imput...

You make it sound like there is a simple, quick solution to this. There is not. The first thing you should do is post some video of this athlete running with and without the pole.
You cannot just quickly teach proper running mechanics and expect the sprint workouts to kick in right away. If she is taking big, slow strides then she is overstriding and needs to tighten up her mechanics. The solution is not training to get faster (by doing 20-20s, plyos, etc.) the solution is to find somebody who knows how to teach proper running mechanics.

[VaultPurple]

come on now... where is the Easy Button!

[charlie]

Her goes!! I have 26 vaulters and runners from 4 states and they all do statium steps and 50's with ANKLE WEIGHTS.The lever that enables a runner to move their legs faster is the Hip flexor. I can take a slow runner AND GUARENTEE faster within 3weeks with the ankle weights. Compression causes joint pain, and with the weight on the ankle you get NO compression on the hip or knee joint. 29 region Champions and 20 state champions in the last 2 years and NO injurys. I think i know what i'm talking about!!!! Coach Charlie (2Time Masters World Champion)

[bel142]

yes, the problem is that most high school athletes come out to the university scene without ever having been trained properly. This is not just a one season problem, this is something that needs to be taken on with a macro-scale vision of training. You ask about speed... Speed is directly related to ground reaction force. So leg strength needs to be addressed. She needs to think about sprint technique and not just running technique. She needs to become a student of the sport and start to be able to internalize what the ultimate goal is. She needs to learn what it feels like to not only change what she is doing but allow that to neurologically become correct. Half is the answer is internalization of information. Changing things neurologically takes years, hence macro - scale big picture type of training.

So the other half of the answer is proper coaching, When people discuses training and have the ability to train in a club athletes need to realize most of the work is going to be done out side the club. It takes a very disciplined athletes to take on that responsibility to an elite level without a big picture coach. This is where the discussion of development into a program and not just a hobby comes into play. What are the differences between successful and non successful D1 programs across the country? Is it strictly coaching or is it the process to success? If a process can be set up across years, from the time training starts to the end of a career there should be vast improvement.

[Andy_C]

Developing leg speed is probably one of the hardest, if not the hardest thing you can ever get out of an athlete.

If we're talking limb speed and limb speed alone here you need two things:

Fast/Explosive muscles - of course you're going to need this if you want to move your legs faster.

Neurological "Wiring" - your brain and nervous system needs to be able to fire off signals at a fast enough rate to command those muscles to move. You'll notice that most (if not all) of the people who are "neurologically wired" can perform very fast twitchy movements and also have impressive reflexes and reaction time. Sprinters are the prime examples in track and field but if you want other athletes then take a look at lighter/smaller boxers and fighters. Fast fighters are usually shorter though that's not always the case. Anyway, I think this aspect is quite overlooked and under-trained for whenever people want to train speed (outside of martial arts/fighting). Simple truth is that this is very difficult to train. People are usually born like this and this talent is nurtured while they're young but again it's not impossible to bring out in a slower person. There are a lot of ideas floating around but I'm afraid there's no Beginner To Bubka-like book on this subject. All I can really recommend comes from my background in martial arts. Lots of short, high speed "burst" exercises and movements. Also lots of rhythm exercises (moderately high to high pace). Skipping a rope at a high tempo is a start. Start young and do it frequently is what I can recommend. Unfortunately I really can't give you a laid out plan for getting "neurologically wired". Fighters use a speed bag or a huge array of focus pad drills at high speed among other things. For legs there are a lot of kicking exercises of course. A lot of these exercises not only develops their muscles but also prepares their entire bodies (including legs) to move very quickly. It definitely works for them, even bigger guys have success as well; Fedor Emelianenko and Lyoto Machida are good examples of bigger guys who are also very quick. But how to translate this success into track and field would be a daunting task. You would have to take into account all of the things you always worry about when making up a new plan. In addition, I don't think anybody has really made this "connection" between track and field and martial arts/fighting. I've seen some study related to punching speed bags and sprinting but that's the most I've ever read. All of this stuff is uncharted territory. One thing I know is that a lot of training that goes into fighting makes for a lot of very quick limb movement. Of course there are other things to running fast than moving your legs faster but it's very important.

Sorry to go on a diversion there... if there is another sport that trains like this then you can probably take some wisdom from that sport as well. The only other sport I can really think of is football, but it doesn't have the same level of importance as in martial arts. Staying within T&F; 20/20s, short-fast stepping and other related drills will help you out. For pole vault I don't think you can go wrong with 20/20s with the pole - you're training speed with the pole (always important to do drills with the pole so carrying it becomes second nature). Are the martial arts/fighting exercises as good or better than the T&F drills at developing "wiring"? I don't know. I wouldn't say that these exercises are the best for T&F since the movements are completely different. But can we learn some training and development principles from them? Definitely. How that happens I don't know. As I said, it's all uncharted territory.

Hopefully I didn't confuse anybody with any of that. I just really wanted to bring forth a big element of speed that I feel gets very much overlooked. You need to train your muscles. But remember that your muscles get commands to move from your nervous system, therefore in order to move faster you would need to develop your nervous system too! But how you do that is subject for huge debate. Some people do not even consider it possible...

Understandably a lot of people will have different opinions on this. I don't think there have been anywhere near as many sports related studies about the nervous system as there have been about the skeletal system so there really isn't that much definitive scientific information available. Most of the ideas like this either come from some kind of experience or in my case some kind of traditionalist eastern training, vastly different from what I receive now in terms of perspective. They don't provide a solid scientific explanation as to why something works, they just do it because it's proven itself to be very effective. They seem to support their training with spiritually based or esoteric rationales.

Anyway this is just my view on things; if you want to move faster you have to take all elements of bodily movement into account.

-Andrew