Acceleration, three ways

When I asked you what you struggle with most, acceleration came out on top. So this week it's split three ways.

Read the bit that's for you, or all three.

If you're coaching yourself through the winter, acceleration is where I'd put your effort. And you don't need blocks or a track for it. You need a hill.

A hill puts you in an acceleration position without you having to think about it. You can't stand tall and bounce up a slope. You have to lean into it and push, which is exactly what the first few steps of a sprint should feel like.

That's why coaches reach for hill sprints and sled pulls when they want an athlete in those positions.

It's not just a beginner's tool either. Back in 2011, Stephen Francis's MVP group in Jamaica was doing hill sprints twice a week right through general prep.

Find a gentle slope, around 3 to 6 degrees, and sprint 20 to 40 metres up it. Six to eight reps is plenty.

Walk slowly back down after each one, and don't start the next until you're fully recovered. These are sprints, so every rep is fast.

The cue I'd take up the hill with you is simple. Push the ground away.

On the flat it's the same idea. Push the ground back, and let your body rise a little with each step, rather than popping straight up.

My coaching opinion this week is that we talk too much.

It's easy to fill the gap between reps with information. But one message per rep goes a lot further than five.

Find the biggest fault and go after that first, because fixing it often clears up a few smaller ones on its own.

Keep the cue short, and make it about the ground rather than the body. "Push the ground back" gets you further than "extend your hip, knee and ankle", even though they describe the same action.

If you catch yourself giving a body-part cue, try an outward one on the next rep.

Don't expect that to come naturally. In a small survey at the 2009 US championships, about 85% of athletes said their coaches' cues were about body movements.

And sometimes the best cue is none at all. Stu McMillan says his goal each day is to say nothing, and admits he's never quite managed it.

Put a marker down at 15 metres and the athlete has something to aim for instead of a list of instructions. If you see a fault you can't leave, don't shout it mid-rep. Stop, and fix it with a drill.

In a game you're usually moving already. Jogging, backpedalling, shuffling, turning.

From a standing start, the first pushing phase of your acceleration lasts three or four strides. From a jog, it might only last one. So your speed work should include starts from the positions you're actually in on the pitch.

An easy way to do it is with movement starts. Shuffle, walk, skip or backpedal into a sprint over the first few metres, then go flat out to about 20 metres. Have a teammate clap to tell you when to go.

Here's a clip of movement starts from coach Graham Eaton, via SimpliFaster, to show what it looks like.

If your first step goes backwards when you react, don't try to coach it out. Lee Taft calls it the plyo step, and he points out the hips never really go backwards. The foot just gets behind you so you can launch forwards.

Here's Lee Taft showing the plyo step himself, from his YouTube channel.

The other thing I'd tell you is to make some of your sprints genuinely flat out, with proper rest. As rugby league S&C coach Nathan Kiely puts it, repeated sprints aren't speed training, they're conditioning.

Give yourself about a minute of rest for every 10 metres you sprint. If you're blowing hard by the next rep, it's become a fitness session.

I'm trying something new this week. Your answers to the reader survey split you into three main groups. Track athletes, coaches and team-sport players. So instead of one deep dive, each group got its own short section.

Tell me which you’d prefer going forward.