By Strength Sensei CP
While the 40-yard dash and the 100-meter sprint are the gold standard for determining an athlete’s speed, just as important is the ability to move laterally and change direction quickly. In sports such as soccer and football, athletes who test poorly in straight-ahead sprint tests may excel on the athletic field if they have exceptional lateral speed.
Consider moving the ball in the NFL. In a 100-meter sprint, maximum speed is achieved at about 65 meters. While the long passes and runs make the highlight reels, the truth is the average completed pass is about six net yards, and the average run is about four yards. Further, the receivers or ball carriers seldom run in a straight line for more than a few steps.
In soccer and lacrosse, a player may run several miles during a game, so conditioning is important. However, most of these runs are for short distances and involve lateral and change-of-direction movements. Seldom is a soccer player sprinting in a straight-line distance long enough for them to reach maximum speed. And, of course, top speed is compromised when a player is running with the ball. This is why many soccer coaches would place as much, if not more, emphasis on a shuttle run test than, say, a 40-yard dash.
While most strength coaches recognize the value of lateral speed, they often don’t know what they can do in a weightroom to improve it. This leads them to waste their time with gimmicks, such as wobble boards and slide boards. Let’s take a closer look at slide boards.
A commercial slide board is about 8×4 feet, although I know of one strength coach who built 12-foot-long slide boards to make it more challenging for his football and hockey players. The slide board has a slippery surface (often made even smoother with an additional coat of wax) that enables you to easily slide across; special “booties” or (for those on a budget, wool socks) are often worn to reduce friction. At the end of the boards are stoppers to break the momentum at the end of each slide.
There is often a celebrity associated with most strength training fads, and in this case, it is US speed skater Eric Heiden. To this day, Heiden is one of the most recognizable names in the sport, which he earned by winning five gold medals in the 1980 Olympics. Films of Heiden training showed him using a slide board, and as such speed skaters, hockey players, and figure skaters quickly became interested. Later, athletes in other sports recognized its value for improving their ability to move laterally and change direction. Even physical therapists got into the game, seeing it valuable for rehabbing thigh adductors and other injuries. Nice try.
I’ve had the honor of working with Yves Nadeau, a legendary speedskating coach whose athletes have won over 200 medals in the Olympics or World Championships. I didn’t have Nadeau’s athletes use slide boards because this form of training is not biomechanically specific to speedskating. What’s more, the stopping motion at the end of each stroke creates lateral shearing forces across the knee that stress the ligaments as these forces try to pry the knee apart. Over time, these shearing forces may damage the knee and certainly aggravate those who already had issues with their knee health. I should mention that Nancy Kerrigan did not use slide boards to rehab her injury after her attack as many people believe; I understand her primary rehab method was water therapy.
Having cross-offed slide boards, what forms of training can be performed in the weightroom to improve an athlete’s lateral speed? The answer: plenty!
First, address structural imbalances. Often in analyzing their opponents, sports coaches will try to determine if that athlete has a weakness in moving in one direction. For example, a running back may not be able to cut as well on their right foot versus their left, which could influence how a coach lines up their defense to stop him. Likewise, basketball coaches and players will study the movements of the players they will guard to better defend them.
From a strength training perspective, one way to improve structural balance for lateral speed is to focus on unilateral leg exercises. In fact, with new clients, I find their ability to perform bilateral exercises (such as squats) is often affected by a structural imbalance between their right and left legs. As such, before starting a squat cycle, I would have them first perform a program focusing on unilateral exercises such as split squats, lunges, and step-ups.
To change directions quickly, athletes must deal with the forces that want to keep them moving in the same directions, and they must do this while supporting themselves on one leg. Therefore, if an athlete is deficient in unilateral leg strength, particularly eccentric strength, it will take them longer to stabilize their body before changing direction. In other words, they will be slower than an athlete with superior single-leg eccentric strength.
Unilateral exercises, such as walking lunges with dumbbells, are key exercises to improve lateral speed and change of direction. (Miloš Šarčev photo)
While split squats and step-ups are good, I’ve found that athletes will progress faster if they include exercises that focus on the vastus medialis oblique (VMO). The VMO is a tear dropped-shaped muscle close to the knee, and is a key muscle for ensuring knee stability. Further, I’ve found that those who suffer chronic knee pain, such as tendinitis, often resolve their condition with VMO exercises such as the Poliquin step-up, Petersen step-up, and backward sled dragging.
After structural balance is addressed, my go-to exercise for improving lateral speed and change-of-direction is sideways sled dragging exercises. From a biomechanical perspective, lateral speed is expressed when inertia must be overcome, and the fastest way to improve this ability is to use load. I like the slid because you can precisely overload hip adduction and abduction patterns in a dynamic, functional manner. However, consider that what you can pull at a specific speed varies with the implement and the surface it is pulled on due to friction. For example, a tire will produce more friction than a commercial pulling sled, so the weights you can use on each exercise will vary.
Forget about gimmicks! If you want to get faster in more than one direction, focus on achieving structural balance and performing exercises that enable you to apply high levels of force with optimal joint mechanics.
