For both tests I will have an independent judge to time me, and will perform three trials, choosing the fastest time for recording. I will ensure that I have a sufficient rest period between each trial to prevent a build up of lactate and the consumption of adenosine triphosphate. However, it will be necessary to take into account the effect of the body’s tendency to over-compensate in ATP re-synthesis, that could make later trials faster.
Exercises to improve Speed
Speed can be improved by a) increasing the rate of muscular contraction in the muscles used for the sprinting action, or b) by increasing the force produced by each of those muscular contractions.
The increase in muscular contraction force is a result of the hypertrophy of muscle fibres. When a muscle fibre is forced to contract at a higher power level than it is used to, micro-tears occur as a result of this added pressure. It is the Myosin ‘levers’, that contract to produce movement, that get damaged during overload, as the force required is more than the structure of Myosin arms can handle. Hypertrophy therefore is the body’s adaptation to this new set of force requirements. A larger number of Myosin arms are grown so that next time the same force required will be spread more evenly and will not precipitate the same damage. This results in an increased maximum muscular contraction force and a larger cross-sectional diameter.
I can initiate this process by increasing the required force by upping resistance to the contractions during the exercises, thus utilising the principle of overload.
By performing weight-lifting exercises I can target specific individual muscle groups and therefore get the improvement in the areas that need it most. Weights are also easy to use and make progression easy to implement; I just need to increase the weights being lifted. The weight lifting drills I will use include: squats, power cleans, leg extensions, leg curls and calf raises. When performing Weight lifts it is crucial, in order to achieve maximum benefit to use correct technique. The full range of motion should be utilised in order to recruit the maximum number of muscle fibres and when lowering the weight it is important not to ‘rest’ by just dropping the weight. Instead I should lower the weight slowly thusly working not only the Prime mover but Antagonist muscle groups also.
By performing sprints against a gradient I am increasing the resistance to muscular contractions using gravity. Again I can easily increase resistance by increasing gradient.
I can increase the rate of muscular contraction by working on quick steps. Drills to help improve this include:
Using a rope ladder, laid along the ground encourages the fast pick-up of knees and accurate placement of the feet. By moving along the ladder at a fast pace while ensuring that each ‘section’ is stepped in, forces the legs to move quicker than usual and therefore helps improve rate of muscular contraction.
Using a rope to skip quickly again helps to improve the rate at which feet are picked up from the ground as well as improving coordination and leg strength.
It is also possible to use plyometric exercises to improve power. These drills involve the fast contraction of muscles to produce a large force. The most common form is bounding over steps. The only problem with this type of exercise is the possibility of inducing muscular damage as a result of the stretch reflex.
The initial testing session was done on the I achieved these results:
I decided that a suitable goal would be to aim for an improvement of 0.4 secs for the 30m sprint and 0.2 secs for the 20m sprint. This is achievable, realistic and would give me a significant improvement to my rugby performance.
Planning
I needed to consider the volume of exercise already being undertaken when I planned my programme. Existing fitness sessions had to take precedence as in many cases I found that the commitment that I had already made was more important. So here Is a weekly schedule of my existing commitments.
Monday
School practice usually set-piece based or fitness orientated.
Wednesday
School training / match.
Thursday
Caernarfon youth training
Saturday
Match
By looking at these prior commitments it is obvious that the most suitable days for heavy training are Tuesday and Thursday. Friday and Sunday are free but I would prefer not to have challenging work-outs on these days as they would interfere with preparation for and recovery from Rugby matches. I have ensured that I have sufficient rest periods following periods of high intensity work and before match days.
Week 1
Sunday
Monday 04/11/02
- School Rugby training.
- Weights session 1: rest period of 2 mins between sets (supersets not included)
Tuesday 05/11/02
- Weights Session 2: rest period of 2 min between sets (supersets not included)
Wednesday 06/11/02
Thursday 07/11/02
- Weights session 2 : rest period of 2 min between sets (supersets not included)
Friday 08/11/02
Saturday 09/11/02
Week 2
Sunday 10/11/02
Monday 11/11/02
Tuesday 12/11/02
- Weights Session 2: rest period of 2 min between sets (supersets not included).
Wednesday 13/11/02
Thursday 14/11/02
- Weights session 2: rest period of 2 min between sets (supersets not included)
Friday 15/11/02
Saturday 16/11/02
Week 3
Sunday 17/11/02
Monday 18/11/02
Tuesday 19/11/02
- Weights Session 2: rest period of 2 min between sets (supersets not included)
Wednesday 20/11/02
Thursday 21/11/02
- Sprinting session 1: rest period of 2 min between sets.
Friday 22/11/02
Saturday 23/11/02
Week 4
Sunday 24/11/02
Monday 25/11/02
- School Rugby training.
- Sprinting session 1
Tuesday 26/11/02
- Weights session 1: rest period of 2 mins between sets (supersets not included)
Wednesday 27/11/02
Thursday 28/11/02
Friday 29/11/02
Saturday30/11/02
Week 5
Sunday 01/12/02
Monday 02/12/02
Tuesday 03/12/02
- Weights session 1: rest period of 2 mins between sets (supersets not included)
Wednesday 04/12/02
Thursday 05/12/02
- Sprinting session 1: rest period of 2 min between sets.
Friday 06/12/02
Saturday 07/12/02
Week 6
Sunday 08/12/02
Monday 09/12/02
Tuesday 10/12/02
- Weights session 1: rest period of 2 mins between sets (supersets not included)
Wednesday11/12/02
Thursday12/12/02
- Sprinting session 1: rest period of 2 min between sets.
Friday13/12/02
Saturday14/12/02
Results
The final testing session was done on Tuesday 17th of December:
Conclusion
These results show an improvement of approximately 0.2 seconds on average for both sprint tests. This means that I failed to achieve my target for the 30m sprint but successfully achieved it with the 20m sprint. My performance in all sports now should be of a higher standard as I will be better able to exploit space and have more time to perform set skills. Specifically in rugby this will allow me to chase down faster opponents and evade tackling with greater success.
Evaluation
To improve my speed I set out with the precept in mind to first build the muscle fibres through overloading of the stress limit of the actin cross-bridges through weight training. This led to increased muscle mass as the muscle fibres over-compensated by building a greater density of actin-myosin cross-bridges and by growing new muscle fibres, thus increasing the maximum possible contractile force. After the first two weeks I did notice a slight increase in muscle size and definition. I found that this period of training, involving only weights, was the most effective as I stuck to the regime religiously. The improvement in muscle strength can be seen through the gradual increase in weight being lifted on the leg press machine (see recording sheets). I found that it took 2 sessions to set my weights to the required level for maximum stress and exertion. I now know that I underestimated the weights that I could lift and that I should have spent longer testing the set weight values to ensure maximum benefit from the early sessions. I did however, find that especially towards the end of the programme I had to miss a few sessions in order to properly recover from fatigue. Several times during the programme I experienced very low energy levels due to depleted blood, liver and muscle glycogen stores. This highlights a major oversight in the planning of my routine – the need for sufficient recuperation. Perhaps the intensity of my regular training was a lot lower than that of the sessions completed as part of the programme and that is the reason that I underestimated the amount of recuperation time necessary to replace glycogen stores after an intense workout. Another reason for the necessity of the long rest periods could be the amount of muscle tissue repair and growth occurring: almost all of the exercises are based around hypertrophy of muscle tissue to improve the maximum contractile force. If there is not sufficient time to allow this hypertrophy to occur then not only will there be a high level of fatigue but the exercise will not be achieving its goal i.e. there will not be an increase in the power of the muscle. Next time I will fully accommodate for appropriate recovery times.
Once the muscle fibre has been built it is necessary to educate it to contract quickly and in sequence with the surrounding tissue. This is done through the repetition of the action, leading to the development of new neural pathways and motor programmes. So to develop the motor programme protocols to control the sprinting action, I decided to do sets of sprints. This would not only speed up the rate of contraction but also continue developing muscle strength by overloading the required force form the muscle contraction. This part of the training programme is much more difficult to chart progression as I did not include regular testing sessions. The success of this type of training session is dependent on the intensity, effort and professionalism of the athlete. It is a case of ‘what you put in is what you get out’. I do not have a problem with self-motivation so I found that these sessions were highly beneficial, however, during the last 3 weeks of the training routine I had a lot of other commitments that meant I had to miss several sessions. I am sure that this will have affected my overall improvement.
Towards the beginning of the sprinting sessions I found that after most sessions and during rugby practices I was experiencing pain in my right knee. This is most likely due to the repeated, extreme stress being put on that joint through the repetition of high intensity sprints. Since the cessation of such training sessions the pain has subsided. This could point towards either an inherent weakness in the structure of the joint or a technical defect in my running style.
The programme was more successful in improving my acceleration than my straight-line speed as the time improvement for the 20m sprint was proportionately greater than that for the 30m rolling start sprint. I think that this was due to the short-distance basis of the majority of my sprinting. If I had increased the distance of each sprint and decreased the number of repetitions then I may have seen a greater improvement in the 30m time. However the focus of speed for the game of rugby is more often than not the ability to repeatedly accelerate to a high speed. The importance of covering the first 10 metres faster than the opposition is constantly referred to by commentators and coaches, yet pitch-length sprint races are rare for every rugby player bar wingers. Therefore in light of the requirements of the game and specifically the requirements of my position (as outlined in my introduction), my training programme has been highly successful in improving my potential performance.
