Michael Sowers - Princeton Photo by Tommy Gilligan

How To Train For Speed In The Gym

Can you train to play like Michael Sowers?

No.

Can you focus on a few qualities that Michael exhibits and potentially get a little quicker to help develop your game more?

Yes, you absolutely can.

First, lets breakdown Michael’s game to assess which of his attributes we can and cannot train for.

A very brief scouting report on Michael Sowers:

-Insane stop/start capabilities (Acceleration/Deceleration)

-Times his rolls/splits very well, can accelerate quickly out of them to beat you topside or back underneath

-Tremendous vision and lacrosse IQ

-Righty/Lefty, excellent and dangerous with both hands

In the gym, we can work on the first two bullet points. The vision, Lax IQ, and the stick skills/capabilities are all areas of your game that you will have to work on outside of the gym. However, the ability to stop & start on a dime, explode and accelerate out of your dodges? We can pick and choose different exercises and training methods to elicit adaptations to make you faster, stronger, and more powerful.

The Principle of Myoplasticity:

The principle that our muscle(s) will and can change and adapt to our lifestyle and how we use them. Your body will create changes at the cellular level deep in your muscles in response to whatever you do with it, and if you repeat those same movements your body will begin to change and adapt in order to become more efficient at performing them the next time around. So if you want to move fast out on the field, why aren’t you doing every rep in the gym or every run on the field fast? It translates.

Let’s analyze this still frame. Notice how low Michael’s body is to the ground as he’s changing direction. We call this lowering your center of mass and it allows you to stay balanced while you decelerate, re-position yourself quickly and efficiently, and then accelerate in a new direction. How quickly you transition between that deceleration and acceleration phase determines how quick and shifty you are as a player.

So how can we improve this in the gym?

Improve mobility: Work on hip and ankle mobility so that you are able to get low enough to the ground to change direction quickly. Before jumping into a strength and conditioning program focused on speed and power, make sure you have prepared your body to handle that amount of stress and training first. Make sure you have mastered the basics first. You should be able to do all basic bodyweight movement patterns (lunges in any direction, squats, crawls, etc.) first without any issues or major compensations. The first several training blocks for most beginners will be focused on mastering basic movement patterns and creating neural adaptations to better and more efficiently contract and utilize your muscles. If you are already an experienced lifter and are entering your first phase of off-season training, a similar block will be used for the first 3-4 weeks in order to rehab the body from a rough season and focus on strengthening your tendons and connective-tissues. This phase for experienced lifters would only last 1-2 blocks (3-4 weeks in each block) depending on their needs. These blocks will include exercises that are multi-joint and put the muscle through its full range of motion.

Training Tip: Tempos can be added to rep schemes to work on mastering movement patterns and add mobility. I like slow lowers (eccentrics) and slow raises (concentrics) for grooving movement patterns and isometric holds at the bottom of exercises to enhance mobility.

Improve deceleration by being stronger unilaterally and eccentrically. Simply put, the stronger you are on 1 leg, especially during the lowering phase of movement, the better you will be at decelerating your bodyweight while you change direction. In order to master deceleration, you need to have built up a significant amount of strength in your legs to handle that load. There’s a reason Jordan Wolf was squatting over 500 pounds and absolutely dusting kids on the field,

Training Tip: Add 4-5 second eccentrics in your 1-leg exercises to train deceleration and pack on lean muscle. Loading eccentrics is more metabolically efficient (not chewing up as much ATP) and stimulates hypertrophy (creates more micro-tears) than focusing on the concentric portion of the rep. You’re also much stronger eccentrically than you are concentrically, but before you begin to load these exercises up make sure you have created a proper base of strength and mobility.

Improve acceleration! A lot of talk is spent on improving speed, but how often are we able to run a clean 50-60yd sprint in a lacrosse game without having to dodge or avoid opponents? The emphasis should be put on acceleration, and really how quickly we can cover those first 10-30 yards. Analysis of team sport athletes by Struzik and colleagues showed that in competition scenarios, 49% of all sprints were shorter than 10 yards, and 96% were under 30 yards. Be fast and powerful on those first few steps, and you’ll start looking more and more like Mike.

Citation: Struzik A, Konieczny G, Stawarz M, Grzesik K, Winiarski S, Rokita A. Relationship between Lower Limb Angular Kinematic Variables and the Effectiveness of Sprinting during the Acceleration Phase. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. 2016;2016:1-9

Acceleration can be improved by working on 3 things:

1) Acceleration and sprint technique (45 degree body & shin angle, triple extension & flexion of ankle/hip/knee,)

2) The amount of force we’re putting into the ground (ie single leg strength/power)

3) How quickly we are producing that force into the ground (rate of force production).

Training Tip: Acceleration & Sprint Technique: Incorporate these pre and post-training. Any variation of wall strikes, skips, and bounds can be used right after warming up to groove good movement patterns prior to practice, lifting, or doing sprints. Incorporate them post-practice/training for 2 reasons:

i. Acts as a low-intensity cool-down. Cool-downs can accelerate lactate removal from the blood, control the decline in body temperature and blood flow post-exercise, and may also benefit the immune system as abrupt changes in body temperature from exercise can leave an athlete vulnerable to illness or minor infections for up to several hours post-exercise.
ii. Helps you work on proper sprint technique when you’re fatigued. When you’re tired, one of the first things you lose is technique; whether thats in your stick positioning, posture, or movement patterns. Doing these after practices or training sessions will help reinforce these techniques so you don’t lose them in the 2nd half come game time.

Free Sample Speed Program

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Day 1 is built for improving acceleration and power. This is a high-intensity lift, every rep needs to be deliberate and explosive!

Day 2 is focused more on mobility and deceleration. Tempos are added to exercises to stress either the eccentric or isometric portions of the movement to stimulate strength and growth.