I, like almost all S&C / Performance coaches, are on schedule. We only have a certain amount of time with our athletes, be it in a certain training session or total time you see them through out the week, month or year. We as coaches have to maximize the time we have with them. 

This brings up the topic of how to proper distribute training menu items to yield maximum benefit. How do we go about doing this? What gets put in and what gets left out? There are times when I add certain menu items and there are times when I take certain menu items out. 

One menu item that is always in is Acceleration work. This can be tricky however because too much Acceleration at max effort can have a detrimental effect. So how do we get around this unyielding obstacle? 

We add Accelerations into almost all of our warm up routines. Now I know that asking an athlete to accelerate with out adequate warm up could be the recipe for disaster. We however do not ask them do execute these accelerations at 100%, they are prescribed at increasing percentages starting at 60% and progression to 80%. The mechanical and technical aspect of the acceleration is exactly the same just at a lower intensity. It is though these lower intensities that we are able to increase the number of accelerations with out adding any unnecessary load. Five extra accelerations each session on a 5 week day program and you have given your athletes 100 extra accelerations at the end of the month without adding any time to the session. 

A word of caution however, with younger less experienced athletes the tendency its to run them as fast as they can right from the start. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, make sure to cue them as to how the warm up is supposed to go. 

Speed is a learned skill,

Jaxson