Quickness > Physical Quickness > Basics of Acceleration > Basic Acceleration Exercise
Basic Acceleration Exercise
arm Up For Acceleration Exercise
Player should always warm-up before practicing acceleration. In addition to a normal warm-up, a Danish hamstring stretch should be included for players with weak hamstring muscles. To evaluate hamstring strength have player kneel on the ground with a teammate behind them. Have their teammate hold their ankles. Have the player slowly learn their entire body forward 30 degrees (keeping back, buttocks and hamstring muscles in a straight line) and hold that position for as long as they can. Tell the player to fall forward if they can't hold this position. This stretch quickly improves hamstring strength and reduces the risk of injury when learning to accelerate. The hamstring muscles are usually weaker than the quads on the front side of the leg. This imbalance frequently causes a strain in the hamstring muscle. Players who can lean forward at a 30 degree or greater angle and hold the lean for 45 seconds or longer seldom suffer non contact hamstring strains. Acceleration Exercise The easiest way to teach acceleration is to put players into the position that causes their body to naturally lean forward and their feet to naturally push back for acceleration. This approach teaches the basic acceleration position.
Acceleration Coaching Points
Video Taping After a couple sessions have a volunteer or assistant video tape each players sprint from the side. Then review the video. Count the number of times the forefoot hits the ground per second. As boys reach maturity the number of ground contacts should improve to 5 per second and for girls ground contacts should improve to 4.5 per second. See Evaluation of Sprint Videos Players learn faster, avoid unnecessary injuries and perform best when they are kept focused and learning by working in smaller groups. The initial setup for the 3, 4 and 5 player groups that are recommended is:
"Too much practice doesn't make perfect"
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Acceleration ProgressionReturn to Acceleration for Soccer
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