I have asked a question previously about speed, and i think i am beginning to grasp the baiscs on speed, strength and agility training, from reading resources online.
I am not sure if any of you are familiar with football [soccer]? And if any of you would know what a stepover is? I will post a small clip if i can, of C.Ronaldo, doing it. Anyway here is my request:
To make the stepover movement faster what would be the best method. Barefoot? 1kg ankle weights on each foot? I will try to upload a clip soon so you know what im on about!
Its just a co-ordination thing. You arn’t going to make it faster by adding weight. In fact this will probably just confuse your nervous system.
I played football for Reading and Berkshire squads when I was younger (so UK county level) and learned loads of little tricks through distributed practice (e.g. little and often). At the time the big thing was doing kick ups and rotating your foot around the ball (maradonna style) in the air as well as a similar move while dragging the ball onto your foot to begin kick ups. I learned them in about 4 months using little but often practice.
When you are practicing skills make sure you are fresh. If you start to get tired or are making loads of mistakes then stop and come back to it a few hours later. This is all there is to it i’m afraid. There are no magic ways of getting good at this stuff.
And i can do my stepovers smoothly etc, i was just wondering if there was a way to make them faster. Eg treat it like a conditioning excercise. Practise 5 stepover with with ankle weight, rest and then 5 stepovers barefoot so as i can do it faster then whilst wearing boots. And maybe do 5 sets. This is an example of what i had in mind.
Just go into your garden or a field, mark out about 10-20m. Perform left and right crossovers there and back. This is 1 rep, perform 5 sets of 5 reps with suffcient rest. There is no need for ankle weights, trust me.
Ok. I have been doing similar things for years. I was just wondering if using a 1 kg ankle weight on each leg for 1 rep and then barefooted for the next rep would teach my body to do it faster?
The thing is i have read bad things about ankle weight so i stopped using them… I was using the twice a week for about 15 mins at a time and my footspeed increased dramatically. Surely a one kg ankle weight wont screw me up?
As ankle weights are below the knee joint during motion the ankle weights increased resistance places uneeded stress on the tendons and ligaments located around the joint.
A main problem caused from ankle weights is 1st degree micro tears in the patella tendon.
The increased foot speed is mostly an illusion - you feel faster because your legs are slightly lighter. I’d be very suprised if there was any actual increase in leg speed.
I’m not sure about the risk involved, but theres a good chance it will have a negative effect on your technique + I’m damn sure you wont get any benefits from from the added weight.
I don’t know for sure obviously… But i did them with ankle weights for one ‘rep’ and then without, barefooted for the next rep. I personally believe this helped me do them faster, but i will listen to you guys and drop the ankle weights.
