Found this in the Houston Texans player conditioning book. This was copied word-for-word. Perhaps this is a similiar ploy to throw off the competition like the Miami Hurracanes thread a while back.
Running Fast!
Kevin McNair, a respected speed development expert, states, “You don’t get speed through the air, you get it through the ground. Speed is down hard, back, and prolonged. Everything is behind the body.”
When McNair says speed is down hard, he is referring to the front leg driving down toward the ground. Once the foot touches the ground it drives rearward, propelling the body forward. The longer (prolonged) the foot stays on the ground the greater the opportunity to propel the body forward. Speed is gained from the point the foot touches the ground until it leaves. The longer it stays on the ground behind you the better. Stride length is increased behind you, not in front of you.
this statement is true but don’t read in too much detail if you don’t totally understand it.
“the longer the foot stays on the ground the greater the opportunity to propel”
this is a relatively basic statement but to some people this statement will have an inexpereienced athlete concentrating too much on down-time.
as the athlete gets faster the down-time on the ground will decrease.as the athlete gets stronger in strenghtwise and more explosive as in plyrometric wise he/she will spent less time on the ground.
i would rather if the author kevin mcnair stated that sprinting is a total body effort with everything working in unisun.the faster the athlete wants to go the more relaxed he/she will have to be!
We’ve covered this before. The idea is the SHORTEN ground contact time by raising the CG (hips). Full extention is achieved, but, as the hips are higher, this occurs closer behind the center of mass as speed increases. Any effort to prolong groung contact times will have predictably disastrous results!
Don’t take much seriously in that manual. He’s part of that strongerathlete.com group. It’s crazy how many NFL teams have that kind of training. You should see the routines he recommends on the Texans site. It sounds like a Nautilus promo for bodybuilders.
