Posted on 06/13/2009 5:23:16 PM PDT by edcoil
I am sure this will get moved by maybe a little exposure first and you can forward to friends you might be able to help.
My son (12) has been doing speed camps and I have met two completely different schools of thought on the proper workout.
Running on angled treadmills or running flat and level on the ground.
One place uses angled treadmills. They say they are just fine and the newest technology. However, I am told that running on them moves your enter of gravity back and changes your running stance, stretch and timing and tends to open the athlete to hamstring problems and is not good for a football player since football is a horizontal game.
The other says do all speed camps without treadmills flat and level to keep body leaning forward at a horizontal level. It keeps the center of balance at the core of the body and is more natural for a football player.
Anyone with thoughts or experience?
football training ping
Running on ground is better than running on a treadmill. If you want an angle, run uphill.
Running barefoot on grass is better than running in running shoes on pavement.
Running in flat, low heeled running shoes is better than running in big-healed, heavily padded, motion control running shoes.
Check out Gordon Pirie’s free online book, Running Fast and Injury Free. http://www.gordonpirie.com/
Very interesting stuff about the biomechanics of running, shoe design and the causes of running injury. The guy was a middle distance runner, but if you watch sprinters in slow mo, they run on the forefoot, as advocated and practiced to great success by Gordon Pirie.
I’d be interested in some information as well?
Freepers seem to know everything.
Have him do what Earl Campbell did when he was growing up. Find him a nice, soft sand hill about 100 feet tall and have him run up and down it 100 times a day until he graduates high school. That was how Earl got 34” thighs!!
But then again, Earl Campbell is in a wheelchair now, so.....
When I played ball we used to run the stadium at the end of every practice, hated it but was great workout.
Back then however you played football four months a year and got to relax, now it is played 4 months but they do camps every week.
People have different physiques but I sometimes wonder about guys like Earl Campbell and Herschel Walkers physiques in light of their workout claims.
Treadmills are for fat people at the YMCA.
Do both. Spend most of the time working on flat ground, but incorporate the inclined treadmill in 1-2 times a week.
Also, do 1-2 sets of squats a week, and do farklek runs to build endurance.
But rememeber, your son is still too young to be over doing it. Just make it fun for him now, and encourage him to start working extremely hard once he is ~16 years old.
The best thing he can do at his age is just go outside and play. ;)
Acceleration training -
http://www.athleticrepublic.com/cms/index.php?option=com_geolocate&Itemid=94&state=
Great amount of success and a lot of our local college athletes do the program during the summer.
Go Huskers!
There is little point in either at this stage. I don’t know the first thing about football, but as a former ASEP certified karate coach, I understand physiology and juvenile sports pedagogy well. Until boys have gone through puberty there is little to be gained from overly strenuous exercise, since their young bodies lack the complete skeletal formation to support more muscle and the hormones necessary to build upon existing muscle mass even if the skeleton could handle it. In essence, all that work does nothing beneficial for a child, but can cause harm. It’s a no brainer.
Moderate exercise is more beneficial to children than strenuous exercise. Wait until he’s closing in on 15, or his pediatrician says that he’s reached stage 5 on the Tanner development scale. Then he’ll actually benefit from speed drills, weight training, plyometrics etc etc.
I would have to agree. As a PT and as an ATC, I see coaches "speed train" athletes on a treadmill. It usually requires the athlete to hold on to the rails, stand on the non-moving edges as the treadmill is accellerated to a speed of 6-10 MPH, then the athlete jumps on and starts running immediately 6-10 MPH (or literally falls and gets nasty abrasions. Don't laugh, happens more then you'd think) I believe this is possibly one of the most injurious thing done to lower extremity muscles, tendons and joints.
Think about it-the body is "stationary" and the "ground" is moving. This is unnatural.
The stress and strain placed on the ankle and lower extremity is almost exactly the opposite as it is in "real life". In real life, the ground doesn't agressively "yank" your ankle backwards as your shin bone continues to move forward. This sprinting motion on the treadmill is damaging to the lower extremity, especially when the athlete already has a history of lower extremity and ankle problems. I do NOT endorse these activities and only wish I could make my coaches drop them.
I believe this one activity (sprinting like this on the treadmill) is one of the more potentially harmful activity we have our athletes perform.
Flying Australians or Box Jumps are awesome for toning the legs.
Correct. No weight lifting at all until Freshman year of high school.
Yep,exactly. No mass building, no speed drills, no interval training, and no plyometrics. They don’t raise performance in children. All of the above do the same thing: Build muscle even interval training builds the heart muscle.
Stretch the muscles and elevate the heart rate. That’s what benefits pre-adolescents the most.
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