After assessing myself through the past couple of weeks, I realize that I have the acceleration and speed endurance to run a decent race in my events (100m, 110HH, 300IH), but I notice that I’m really lacking in the MaxV department. I know that to develop MaxV, you can use flying 10s, 20s, and 30s along with floating sprints.
My question to the rest of you guys is this: What drills/protocols/excercises have you used to help develop you Max Velocity and how effective have the been for you?
I am in pretty much the same situation as you are - good acceleration but feel like I need MaxV work.
I have been doing two things. First, lots of flying sprints. I like to take anywhere from a 40 - 60m run in and then fly through 10 or 20m. I have a automatic timer, so it makes it easier to track progress. I’m not sure how I could even do these type of runs without the timer anymore!
Secondly, I have really been focusing on plyometrics that involve quick reactions of the ankle off the ground. Vertical and with a mostly straight leg. Things like straight leg shuffle / bounding and ankle hops.
My reasoning for the second point is that the largest component to top speed sprinting is how much force you can deliver into the ground in the shortest amount of time. I feel like my hips are doing thier part but my ankle reactivity was my weak link.
As far as effectiveness, I have definitely seen some improvement. Times are getting better (slowly!) but I also seem to be getting more consistency as well.
I think that MaxV is much harder to improve than acceleration (at least for me) so if anyone has any other ideas, I’d love to hear about them!
Skipping (jump rope)could be useful for the ankle reactivity stuff
I have been doing that as well! 
Mostly as a substitute for tempo when the weather is lousy.
Thanks!
speed endurance and top speed don’t go together in terms of development within a season -at least this is my understanding from the forum; accel+top speed, yes and top speed+sp end not so well
i would arrange accordingly the “blocks” of my training to suit my needs, if indeed you really want and is worth now trying to increase top speed, based on some of your events (e.g., hurdles) and time available (e.g., top speed takes time)
also, xlr8 makes good points about the progress of top speed and the vertical nature of plyos
hope it helps!
For drills you can do A and B skips/ runs. Do fast leg drills etc. You need the proper form first. Always do Max V in spikes with a proper warm up first. We do max V for the straights and coast corners on an indoor track.
Thanks everyone for the comments. Currently we have only 4 true track practices a week. As a result, I have the flexibility to add in 1 extra workout of my own every week, and I’m just gonna make that workout a MaxV one. Our coach focues mostly on speed endurance (if you could call it that, hes a big volume guy) and acceleration, but he really neglects the development of top speed. He knows how to do a decent periodization (at least I hope so), and the way I see it if I have one MaxV workout a week for the entire season it wont effect my development in an adverse way.
Xlr8, could you give me an example of a typical plyo routine that you would do on a MaxV day? What excercises, set/rep, recovery, and when in the workout do you do?
Sorry for all the questions…
Generally, I do some light straight leg bounds (shuffles, really) during my warm up. Say 2 sets of 20 foot contacts (fc).
Then the body of my workout for MaxV.
After that, I do a circuit of:
Do the whole circuit 2 - 4 times. The last two exercises are really for my ankle strength for football, so you probably could just circuit the first two if you aren’t as interested in lateral movements.
Sometimes for variety, I’ll do them backwards instead of (or in addition to) forwards. This seems to hit the foot / ankle complex in a slightly different manner.
I realize that this is a lot of foot contacts, but the exercises themselves are relatively low intensity. I focus on quick spring from the foot & ankle. Work your way up to an appropriate volume for your training and goals.
Let me know what you think!
Oh, the other thing I also do (for variety or if I can’t get to the track due to bad weather) is simply do depth jumps off of a stair. However, instead of absorbing with your hip, knee, etc. Try to get all of the absorbtion and spring from your ankle and foot.
Stand on the bottom stair facing up the staircase, then step back and drop off, hit the ground and bounce back up. You should spring up and not need to bend your legs to land back up on the starting stair.
Great, thanks a lot.
Xlr8, I just had to post again to say thanks for those excercises. They were golden this weekend cuz the track and everything were rained out. Especially that depth jump with the calves, that is an excellent drill. Just wanted to say thanks again.
Glad to help! Good luck.