When it comes to training, I think it is absolutely imperative for athletes to have things they complete every day. Especially if your goal is speed development!
We call these drills EDD’s or Every Day Drills.
In our programs, we do some form of an A-March, A-Skip, and A-Run series every single day. If the training focus is linear, then we do this series linear. Likewise, if the training focus is lateral we do the series laterally. The only difference is that on a lateral day we replace the A-run with a lateral shuffle.
The goal of all this is to reinforce proper movement patterns with our athletes on a daily basis.
What we have found is that young athletes do not know how to run properly. They don’t walk through our doors and understand how their hands correlate to their feet and they do not have an understanding of how their feet need to strike the ground to create forward propulsion.
By doing these EDD’s we are able to allow our athletes to master their movement from a very basic position. Essentially, we want to micro-dose small amounts of high-quality reps in every training session.
So, what is the value in doing these drills each and every day…
- Combine movement mechanics into our dynamic warm-up model
- Reinforce proper movement patterns every day
- Teach athletes how to run with a high level of biomechanical efficiency
- Gain technical mastery of sprint mechanics with an aspiration to prevent injuries by running properly
Now that we understand the thought process behind these EDD’s how do we implement them?
Simple…
On speed-focused days this directly follows our dynamic warm-up. We move into our ‘Speed Mechanics’ block of training. Some people call this the ‘Pattern’ component of speed development. In this block, we repeat the A-March two times for 10 yards, the A-Skip two times for 10 yards, and the A-Run (or shuffle if it is a latera day) four times for 10 yards followed by a 10-yard sprint.
On days where our focus is just strength training, then we use these EDD’s as part of our warm-up. After we go through a series of ground-based movements, we go through 2 sets of our A-March, A-Skip, and A-Run (or shuffle). This is a nice addition because it lets us get our EDD’s in but it also assists in continuing to increase our core temperature.
One thing that we have found is that after a few weeks of doing this (and coaching the living s**t out of the mechanics of each movement) we saw an extreme increase in the technical efficiency of our athlete’s movement. Arm mechanics were better, athletes kept their trunks more sable during sprinting, and they began to grasp the correlation between hand and foot.