Want to get faster and more explosive?

Hey Molly,

Sara emailed us asking for ways to help her get faster and more explosive. I had two main concepts I wanted to share with the team in regards to this: triple extension and the stretch-shortening cycle

1) TRIPLE EXTENSION - This means the extension of the hips, knees and ankles. Any type of running or jumping involves triple extension. The KB swings and box jumps you’ve been doing involve triple extension which is good but I would also recommend adding cleans or snatches to your workouts. Not sure about your familiarity with these lifts but I explained hang cleans.

Hang Cleans

-In order to properly perform a clean, you want to feel comfortable with your deadlift form and high pulls.

-I think you've been doing hex bar deadlifts (not sure what a hex box deadlift is, maybe you meant hex bar deadlift??). A hex bar deadlift is similar to a regular barbell deadlift, the load (weight) is just situated more towards the front of your body so you really have to focus on your posture and keeping your back neutral (not letting it round).

-The deadlift is to get the bar in position from the floor especially as your weight increases. You can also start by taking the bar off the clips of a rack. Player’s choice

i) Starting Position: the bar should rest just below mid-thigh, keeping your back neutral and elbows extended, head should be neutral and looking straight ahead, feet should be shoulder width apart with a slight bend in the knees and at the hips

ii) The Pull: performing the high pull is where the triple extension comes into play. This is an explosive movement and will best be performed at high speeds. The idea here is to push your feet into the ground so that you either go up on your toes or your feet can even leave the ground slightly. At this time you are getting into triple extension (ankles, knees and hips are all extending). As you triple extend, shrug your shoulders and then drive your elbows up to the ceiling, keeping the bar close to your body and getting it as high as you can (this is not an arm movement, but should come from the power generated by the triple extension). Make sure you are not overextending your back as you pull the weight up, your body should remain in a straight line-In the gym: if this is something completely new to you, I would start by just working with the deadlift and the high pull exercises. Especially with the high pull, get used to that triple extension motion and driving those elbows up high, making sure the bar stays close to your body. If your arms are feeling very fatigued from this movement, you are using too much of your arms to lift the bar and are probably doing a reverse biceps curl to lift the bar instead of using the triple extension.

iii) The Catch: at the end of the pull, you want to rotate your wrists underneath the bar and catch the bar softly on meaty part of your anterior shoulders (just how it would be positioned for a front squat). Catch the bar with a slight bend in your knees and then stand up. Stay balanced and feet should remain in same shoulder width position, pointing forward

1. The Hang ii)  Triple Extension      iii)The Catch

-In the gym: if this is something completely new to you, I would start by just working with the deadlift and the high pull exercises. Especially with the high pull, get used to that triple extension motion and driving those elbows up high, making sure the bar stays close to your body. If your arms are feeling very fatigued from this movement, you are using too much of your arms to lift the bar and are probably doing a reverse biceps curl to lift the bar instead of using the triple extension.

-Keep it simple to start: use an Olympic bar (45lbs) at 3 sets of 5 to get the technique down. As you start to feel comfortable with the lift, you can add weight. But remember, ultimate requires many explosive movements over the course of a game (and tournament) so we want to replicate that while we are lifting.

-Ideally you want to get to a point where you are working at about 75-85% of the max weight you feel comfortable with, doing 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps.

If you want to read up on some more info about cleans: http://skydmagazine.com/2014/03/ultimate-power-2-crush-cleans/

OH HEY TRIPLE EXTENSION:

2) STRETCH-SHORTENING CYCLE

Power is all about using the stretch-shortening cycle. Basically, stretching your muscles and then quickly exploding (shortening) them to use that stored energy to produce fast, explosive actions (think of a rubber band). Plyometrics, including box jumps use this stretch-shortening cycle. However, depth jumps have been known to be the most effective way to improve your vertical jump height. This requires you to absorb the shock when you are landing and then quickly explode off the ground again into a maximum jump.

You should first practice stepping off a box and absorbing the landing without jumping. Make sure you land in a squat with good form. Landing on the balls of your feet with your butt sitting back, making sure your knees don't go in front of your toes or cave in, keeping your chest and head up.

For a depth jump, you step off the box in the same manner but instead of sitting all the way down in a squat, only go down to about a quarter squat. Once your feet touch the ground you quickly explode into into a jump for maximum height. When you land, make sure you land balanced and your knees remain in line with your toes (if your knees extend past your toes or cave in, there is greater risk for injury)

Variations:

-height of the box (recommend a box anywhere from 12-42” but not higher)

-types of jumps off the box: max vertical jump, max broad jump, some type of agility movement, jump onto another box

-single-leg depth jump (very advanced)

Let me know if you have any questions/comments

-Pele