There are countless university exercise science professors and sports-performance-strength coaches, all eagerly ready to be interviewed by some famous sports journalist concerning Albert Haynesworth’s struggle in the 300-yard shuttle. Why can’t he pass it or how should he have prepared in order to pass the easy or hard, depending on the commentator, 300 yd-shuttle test. “He needs more cardio”, “why didn’t his trainer prepare him”, “why didn’t he lose weight”, oh yeah he did lose weight, about 35 lb, “so why didn’t he pass”, or “just because he lost weight doesn’t mean he’s in football shape”, right?

I know all of my former professors, strength coaches, and exercise specialist who have mentored me the past 30 years cringe every time they hear, read, or see the responses from all of the media experts.

The 300-yard shuttle run consists of sprinting 25-yards down and back six times touching the line with the foot in order to complete 300 yards total distance. The times may range from 56 seconds for football receivers and defensive backs to 73 seconds for offensive and defensive linemen. After completion the participant rests 3-5 minutes (3 & ½ for the NFL Washington Redskins) then repeats the test a second time. The times can then be averaged or compared to determine the athlete’s fitness level.

The purpose of the 300-yard shuttle run is to test maximal anaerobic-sprint endurance and/or conditioning. In order to attain a reliable score the participant must sprint at maximum effort and not pace themselves. The general testing populations are sports that involve anaerobic-sprint endurance like-.basketball, hockey, rugby, and soccer.

Now I must confess that when I had to take Testing and Measurement and Statistics decades ago I thought I’d never use any of it but I’ve consistently relied on and utilized the information over and over, especially administering performance assessments and analyzing training data.

All test must be valid, reliable, and objective, all interrelated values and that the measurement must measure the component that it supposed to measure; measure the component consistently; and result in similar scores regardless of the administer.

Let’s look at a quick review of those terms valid, reliable, and objective.

Test validity refers to the degree to which the test measures a specific component that it is intended to measure. The test should contain tasks that reflect those specific components to be measured or it’s content validity.

Test reliability refers to the degree to which the test yields consistent and stable scores over repeated trials and time. Reliability depends upon how strict the test is conducted and how motivated the participant is to perform the test.

Test objectivity refers to the degree to which the test can be measured repeatedly and reliably by various testers with minimum subjectivity.

So in spite of how you may feel about Albert and his conditioning it’s amazing that this test is used to test football players, yet alone a 300 lb lineman. Considering that the average play last between 4-5 seconds, why would you test something that last 50-70 seconds? Does this sound valid, reliable, or objective?

First of all, 4-5 seconds of maximal effort utilize absolute strength, power, and speed, all anaerobic bio-components that involve IIB fast-twitch muscle fibers and alactic-glycolytic energy systems.

Secondly, 56-73 seconds of maximal effort (actually slightly sub-maximal) utilize strength and speed endurance that involves IIA fast-twitch muscle fibers and lactic-glycolytic energy systems. The two are very different in their respective functions and actions.

Thirdly, there is another sub-maximal speed endurance IIA fiber that utilizes a glycolytic-oxidative energy system.

Fourthly, none of these are aerobic which starts to kick in after several minutes of continuous sub-maximal effort that involve slow–twitch IA muscle fibers and primarily an oxidative energy system.

In the exercise science community it really doesn’t make sense. So when these experts see test such as the 300-yard shuttle or parts of the NFL combine test they cringe, shake their heads, and wonder if any of them ever picks up an exercise science journal or text.

In summary the test is not a very good indicator of anaerobic alactic power required for football. It does not make sense to any knowledgeable exercise scientist. A better test for football conditioning would involve maximal efforts of 4-5 second that are repeated numerous times with 15-30 seconds of recovery to simulate the huddle. Watch the game, doesn’t that make more since?

From a anatomical perspective the hamstrings are located on the back of the thigh and attach over the hips and over the knee joints. From a performance perspective, the hamstrings extend the hips and flex the knees.

First from a structural perspective the hamstrings have a synergistic relationship with the other muscle groups that are located near or adjacent or on the opposite side of the joint. So the muscles that attach over the front of the hip (hip flexors) have a relationship with those that attach over the back (hip extensors), the outside (hip abductors), and the inside (hip adductors).

This is important because those neighboring muscles act together to produce desired movement like sprinting, running, or jumping etc. When the hip flexors become tighter or stronger than it’s antagonistic neighbors the hip extensors, it will pull the hips forward and result in an alignment or imbalance issue. Like wise if the muscles that act to counter the excess forward tilt are usually weak or dysfunctional, which further contributes to misalignment or structural imbalance. These imbalances may then cause excess strain on several muscle groups including the hamstrings.

Second there is usually scar tissue or adhesions in the hamstrings and it’s neighbors like the hip adductors and/or hip flexors. In part due to those muscles having to over compensate by assisting the hamstrings from the repetitive use and stress over time. This excess scar tissue will interfere with the proper function and recruitment of these muscles, which in turn produces more scar tissue.

Third the hamstrings are usually weak in comparison to it’s neighbors. Since the hamstrings are part of the motor or engine, along with the hips, for those athlete’s who run, jump, throw, and sprint, they need to be strong. If you want to sprint you need a high performance engine aka, Corvette or Lamborghini or Top Fuel Dragster not a Civic or Smart car. In addition the hamstrings will help support the knee joint during planting, stopping, and changing direction, so they need to be dimensionally strong.

So if you want to reduce or minimize hamstring strains address the structural imbalance, scar tissue, and strength needs early on with a good pre-training assessment or evaluation to identify and optimize performance.

Posted by Mike Florio on March 26, 2010 9:05 In response to Thursday’s comments from Titans running back Chris Johnsonregarding an ongoing desire to race record-setting sprinter Usain Bolt, a source with knowledge of the situation tells us that Bolt’s representatives actively have been pushing the event.

Word of the race first emerged in early January, when ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Bolt’s people and Johnson’s people were working toward setting up a race for charity.  (We suggest calling it the “Usain Bolt Chris Johnson Dunder Mifflin Sabre Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure.”)  Within hours, however, Bolt’s agent said “[t]here is no truth to the story,” and that Bolt “doesn’t follow the NFL too closely.”

So it was odd that Johnson said Thursday that he plans to race Bolt next year.  But, apparently, talks indeed have occurred and continue to occur, notwithstanding the denials of Bolt’s agent, whose word on the matter was accepted as Gospel truth, possibly because agents have an impeccable reputation for honesty.

Per our source, the two sides have not been able to agree on a distance.  Johnson presumably wants a shorter race, and Bolt wants a longer distance.  The folks at NBC Olympics previously have determined that Bolt’s 40-yard split from his world-record time in the 100-meter dash during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing was “a hair slower” than Johnson’s 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine. (end of article).

James’ Response-

Okay, Wlit Chamberlain (basketball great) vs. Muhammad Ali (boxing great) in boxing or  Larry Allen (NFL lineman great) vs. Hossein Rezazadeh (olympic weightlifting great)  in the clean and jerk or Javier Gomez (triathlon great) vs Lance Armstrong (cycling great) in the Tour De France, come on! And I do do not mean any disrespect to any of these great athletes but each talent is specific, especially on a world class level. By the way neither would I reverse the likely hood of the underdog beating the favorite in their respective sports. It’s absurd!

Back in the 1971 their was talk and negotiations for Chamberlain to box Ali. Many athletes considered Chamberlain to be one of the strongest most versatile athletes in the world at that time (basketball, arm wrestling, volleyball, track, weightlifting, et) but getting in the ring with Ali would have been a foolish thing for Chamberlain, and he was fortunate to have someone like his dad and Jim Brown (NFL legend and great all around athlete) to talk him out of it, preventing him from going down in athletic history as the man who got beat up, knocked out, or made a fool of in the ring instead of being a basketball legend. Jim Brown knew since he dad challenged Ali himself. One morning Ali met Brown during his morning roadwork and Brown attempted to hit Ali with a flurry of punches and couldn’t , while Ali hit him at will, which convinced Brown how absurd it was!

I think Larry Allen is a great and future Hall of Fame football player and exceptional power lifter but I don’t think that he could come close beating Hossein Rezazadeh in the clean and jerk at 263.5 kg. Like wise, Javier Gomez is a great world class triathlete but I am willing to bet that he wouldn’t beat Lance Armstrong in the Tour De France!  It’s facinating to read and hear about sports writers and enthusiast who embellish such non-sense.

According to The IFFA’s biomechanical analysis of Bolt’s world record 100m sprint, the split times (st) are as follows: reaction time (rt)=.146, 20m st=2.89, 40m st=4.64, 60m st =6.31, 80m st=7.92, 100m=9.58 seconds. If Chris Johnson said he could beat Bolt then he needs to start running to beat these times. I think that Johnson’s best High school 100m time is 10.38s. I thnk that he’s faster now so he needs to enter a race to get accustomed to the blocks, spikes, track, pre race pressure, reaction time (rt), start phase, drive phase, maximal acceleration phase, etc. Chris needs to race against  other top sprinters from that race such as, Tyson Gay (rt=.144, 20m st=2.92, 40m st=4.70, 60m st=6.39, 80m st=8.02, 100m=9.71s, now his best is 9.69s) or Asafa Powell (rt=.134, 20m st=2.91, 40m st=4.71, 60m st=6.42, 80m st=8.10 , 100m=9.84s ) and Richard  Thompson who had the best reaction time in that race at .119 and ended up with a  100m=9.93s. Chris could start with the USA Indoor Track and Field Championship series with the 60m, since that would give him a credible time.

Consider this, only 40 or so various sprinters have run sub 10 second 100m at meets  in recorded history, with some of them running sub 10’s several times during their careers, Chris Johnson has not yet broken the sub 10’s barrier, until then it’s an absurd discussion. It’s like Bolt saying that he could break Johnson’s NFL records, with out putting in the time to have football skills…it’s absurd!

On Friday on Dan Dakich’s show in Indianapolis, Lewis did chide those who go through unusual steps of preparing for the combine, saying that the way most go about it is “asinine”.The Bengals did show last year, with the selection of Andre Smith, that a disastrous combine won’t wreck their chances of being selected. And for that case, neither does the pro day.Among other things from the interview, courtesy of our friends at Sports Radio Interviews:

On players who leave school to workout and prepare for the Combine: “The other one that just kills me is that they spend three or four years with a strength coach on a college campus and as soon as the season’s over they go somewhere else to some guy who doesn’t know them from a hole in the wall and pay this guy a bunch of money. It doesn’t make any sense at all. It used to be that they had to pay for it and now it’s part of the agent deal. They’ve cultivated a whole industry out of it. It doesn’t make sense. It’s actually asinine that if I go to school in Florida, now I have to go to Arizona to train. If I go to school in Arizona, I have to go to Georgia to train. These guys have the best facilities and the best people working with them year round and now all the sudden they got to go somewhere else. You don’t need to go away. A football player is a football player.”

On how much stock he puts in workouts at the Combine: “The workout becomes a confirmation for a lot of players. It’s got to be judged individually with the player. The number one thing is what that guy has done on his college campus. So as these college players who are going to be underclassmen who may be listening to your show should know to take stock in what they do on the football field their – junior and senior – their last two seasons and not get all caught up in what this is.”

On what the NFL Scouting Combine is: “This is just a confirmation; that I can run. I weigh this much. I’m smart enough. I can carry on a conversation. I can learn. I can understand. And I’m a good person.”

AE Response:
I respect Marvin Lewis and agree with his opinion about the best current evaluation of a prospective football payer is their game film. Although you can always find exceptions to this with those players with little or no game film such as Willy Parker, Mike Lewis, and Ray Crittenden to name a few.

I also agree that many college strength programs are top notch and do a wonderful job at preparing athletes. Though I disagree with Marvin’s premise that athlete’s shouldn’t seek out additional help to increase their stock especially since with the current system there is so much money and opportunity involved.

First, most college football programs involve over a 100 athletes it’s difficult to address the specific needs of individual players or a select group each week while neglecting everyone else.

Second, those athletes may have specific needs involving strength, speed, power, mobility, flexibility, agility, nutrition, technique, structural integrity, soft tissue health, etc.From a logistical perspective most of these issues cannot get addressed per individual. Therefore a critical evaluation or assessment is vital.

Third, If any of these specific needs is not addressed the athlete will be at a disadvantage and unable to display their best performance on possibly their biggest stage. Unfortunately some of them go into the combine, pro-day, or camp ill prepared by innocently overlooking their specific needs and is released. Many do not receive a second chance.

Again most college strength coaches or programs by themselves do not have the resources or time to address this individually. So under the current system the athlete needs to do whatever is legally or ethically necessary to increase their opportunity.

I see trainers and athletes performing them but with incorrect concept and technique that does something altogether different or that may lead to an injury.

You Tube has a few great instructional videos that explain the concept and correct technique. Please search these: Tommy Kono-former Olympic weightlifter, coach, and judge has a great instructional six part video and several others; Chad Ikei-former Olympic weightlifter and strength-performance coach has a two part series; and Cara Head-recently retired Olympic weightlifter has several training videos that shows great form and technique.

Lift safe, correct, and get results!

Training techniques used by pro athletes can help you shave strokes off your golf game or minutes off your marathon time.

“I always believed you’re either fast or you’re not,” says Tami Lenox, 50, a recreational-soccer player and former girls-soccer coach. Lenox began to rethink that assumption after she sent two of her slowest players to work with James and Monica Walker. Their business, Athletic Excellence, trains athletes.

Lenox hoped the girls would get fitter and become a little faster. Eight weeks later, she was stunned: They were among the fastest sprinters on the team.

She decided to see if James and Monica—he’s a former strength coach at the University of Maryland, she was a college sprinter who competed at the 1996 Olympic trials—might be able to help her, too.

Lenox had always been fast; in her twenties she outran just about every opponent she faced, and her soccer teams won amateur national championships. She slowed down in her thirties and forties but figured there wasn’t much she could do about it.

After six months of training with the Walkers—during which she learned a new running form and did strength training—she was able to sprint as fast as she had 20 years earlier, possibly faster.

Athletic Excellence, in Chantilly, is among a handful of local companies that offer what’s called “sports-performance training.” It became popular a decade ago and has been fueled largely by competition among high-school and college athletes but also by adult weekend warriors.

The idea is that by doing workouts designed by experts, you can improve more quickly. Sessions, which can be one-on-one or in small groups, incorporate techniques used by Olympic and professional athletes.

The format is similar to personal training, but instead of trying to tone your muscles, the goal might be to get more rotation in your golf swing, jump higher on the basketball court, or shave ten minutes off your marathon time. Like Lenox, many athletes say they were surprised to learn how much better they got through smarter training.

Beyond Cardio

During his first session with Xtreme Acceleration in Bethesda, Josh Sorbel sits with sensors on his ankles, wrists, and chest as a computer analyzes his heart rate, brain waves, and other physiological indicators. Sorbel, 33, played soccer in college and is getting in shape for recreational tennis.

When the test is finished two minutes later, Vernon Boyd, one of Xtreme Acceleration’s cofounders, reviews the results.

Called Omegawave, the testing system provides information on aerobic and anaerobic capacity as well as other fitness indicators. Little research has been published on the system—which became available in 2000—and some experts are skeptical, but it has been adopted by collegiate and professional teams, especially in Europe. Boyd and his business partner, Shawn Vass, are also sales representatives for the system.

Sorbel’s aerobic system—responsible for endurance—is strong, according to the test. He has a high VO2 max, a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen his body is capable of using in a given time.

Sorbel seems pleased until Boyd explains that his aerobic capacity won’t help much on the tennis court, where points rarely last more than 30 seconds. The bursts of power required in tennis come from the anaerobic system, the body’s mode of producing energy at high intensities without using oxygen.

It’s a common mistake among amateur athletes: Believing that any cardio work will help performance, they don’t differentiate between aerobic and anaerobic training.

But working on one system will decrease your capacity in the other, says Todd Miller, a professor of exercise science at George Washington University. Two years ago, one of his students demonstrated this phenomenon. A professional endurance athlete with very high aerobic capacity, she was able to jump only a few inches off the ground because she had so little anaerobic power.

To improve Sorbel’s anaerobic capacity, Boyd and Vass will have him do exercises such as sprinting and jumping to get his heart rate very high for about 15 seconds, followed by a rest period.

Physiological tests can determine at what heart rates athletes’ bodies work within the aerobic and anaerobic training zones. With a heart-rate monitor, athletes can then make sure they’re working at the right intensity. Aerobic exercise occurs at a steady heart rate and at an effort you can maintain for a long time; anaerobic work happens at higher heart rates that are sustainable for short spurts.

Most sports require a combination of aerobic endurance and anaerobic power. In soccer, which involves both sprinting and jogging, players need a balance. Even distance runners can benefit from a small amount of anaerobic work; it helps them run uphill or sprint to the finish.

Endurance athletes should spend most of their time training at lower heart rates than most realize, says Ken Mierke of Fitness Concepts, who coaches runners, cyclists, and triathletes. By staying at a pace at which you can hold a conversation, you increase endurance and burn fat. Speed up a little bit, Mierke says, and you dramatically increase the strain on the body.

“When you’re working on endurance, work on endurance,” Mierke says. “Don’t try to do two things at once.”

A Different Way to Stretch

At Athletic Performance in Millersville, Maryland, owner Stephen Vaught guides Richard Ambrose through a series of exercises with an eight-pound medicine ball.

Ambrose, a 45-year-old recreational golfer, holds the ball over his head, then sweeps his arms down and back up in a circular motion. With the ball over his head again, he pivots and repeats the exercise—which Vaught has nicknamed “big circle”—in the opposite direction.

The movement doesn’t look anything like what most people picture when they think of stretching. But, Vaught says, such exercises will improve Ambrose’s flexibility by warming up muscles and moving them through the range of motion he uses in golf.

“Watch the movement in his hips and shoulders,” Vaught says. As Ambrose swoops down, his shoulders rotate in their sockets and his weight transfers from one hip to the other, much as it would in a golf swing.

Ambrose demonstrates how much farther he can rotate through his swing now, a difference of about 20 degrees. With the extra flexibility, along with improvements in strength and conditioning, he’s cut his scores by about ten strokes.

Movement-based flexibility is a staple of sports-performance training. At Velocity Sports Performance in Alexandria, classes begin with a 15-to-20-minute warm-up that includes things such as high knee skipping and deep lunges, which improve range of motion.

These exercises are popular in part because research has shown that traditional static stretching—in which you reach and hold—causes muscles to lose elastic energy, meaning they can’t contract as powerfully.

“You stretch the muscle outside the range of motion you’re going to encounter in the activity,” says GW’s Miller of the traditional method. “When you go to contract that muscle, it’s longer, so it takes more time to generate force.”

Miller recommends using both kinds of stretching. Dynamic stretches can be done anytime. Static stretches are best after the muscles are warm and may not be a good idea right before a competition.

Running Lessons

With a harness strapped to his trunk, Marlow Morgan drags a sled loaded with 230 pounds of weights. Accelerating forward, he leans against the harness and raises each knee high, his foot landing below the hip, his leg extending back and pushing off. Smooth and powerful, the motion makes his legs look like pistons.

Morgan, 37, plays minor-league football for the Virginia Kings. Pulling the sled is a way for him to practice the sprinting form that James and Monica Walker taught him. James shouts reminders and corrections as Morgan makes his way down the track.

The exercise also strengthens the muscles in the lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. Though many runners focus on the quadriceps, it’s actually muscles in the back of the body that generate forward speed.

Morgan says his running technique is more efficient than it was when he started working out at Athletic Excellence. He used to step with his foot in front of his hips; reaching forward felt as if it gave him a longer stride.

This is a common mistake, James says. Reaching forward breaks the body’s momentum and puts stress on the knee. “If my foot hits underneath my hip, it pushes me forward,” he says. “When you do it correctly, it’s easy.”

Other mistakes include landing on the toes or heel instead of the ball of the foot and not swinging the arms, which provide more power than most people realize. Running efficiently improves top speed and conserves energy in long races.

Tami Lenox recalls the frustration she felt during her first weeks of training with the Walkers. Running had always seemed easy to her, but they told her she needed to change five or six aspects of her form—including her knee lift, foot placement, arm carriage, and forward lean. She’d fix one thing and forget about another.

Some changes seemed counterintuitive, such as lifting her knees high instead of taking big steps. “You think if you do what they say, it’s going to slow you down,” she says. But when she stopped thinking about taking big steps, her stride actually got longer.

Everything eventually came together and, through repetition, felt natural. When Lenox faces off against twentysomething men in her coed soccer league, she can’t always beat them to the ball. But, she says, “I give them a run for their money.”

Fast Footwork

At Virginia Therapy & Fitness Center in Reston, Larry Grine places four plastic circles in a row on the floor. Grine, a physical therapist who also offers strength-and-conditioning training, is helping Taj Alvaranga, a soccer player, prepare for his upcoming season.

Alvaranga moves in a pattern through the hoops, landing on one foot, then the other, pausing every fourth step. He has good forward speed but needs to work on agility, a critical skill in soccer.

One way to improve agility, Grine says, is to speed up what’s called the “amortization phase,” or the time it takes to go from absorbing your body weight to pushing off again. If you were to jump off a step and back onto it, the amortization phase is the time between landing and taking off. Working on it helps you change directions quickly.

Plyometrics—explosive movements such as jumping or bounding from side to side—are good for reducing amortization time but require lots of strength. Alvaranga was injured two seasons ago, and though he’s healthy now, Grine wants him to get stronger before he does plyometrics.

This hoops exercise is a gentler way for Alvaranga to practice controlling his body weight—smoothly decelerating and accelerating as he moves back and forth. Eventually he’ll add weights and cut out the pause; he’ll also do exercises that improve single-leg strength, a key to lateral agility.

When Alvaranga finishes with the hoops, Grine lays out an agility ladder, which looks like a rope ladder with plastic slats connecting the two long sides. He shows Alvaranga a pattern to practice, stepping into and out of each rectangle with both feet. “I want your movements to be as quick and soft as possible,” he says.

Grine chose this drill because it’s similar to movements soccer players often make. “You try to find agility exercises that imitate what they do on the field,” he says. “When they rehearse those over and over, it becomes automatic.”

Form is critical in agility, says Vernon Boyd of Xtreme Acceleration. He says he often sees tennis or basketball coaches leading drills without teaching their players correct technique. The players’ mistakes become ingrained in their muscle memory.

“I’d rather have you do nothing,” Boyd says. As Sorbel, the tennis player, works on an agility-ladder drill, Boyd shouts out corrections: “Head up! Toes up! Quicker, quicker, quicker!”

Training Forgotten Muscles

At Athletic Excellence, James Walker watches Marlow Morgan, the football player, lift eight-pound weights in patterns that work his rotator cuff and scapular muscles. It’s not a sight you see often: a 250-pound guy working with tiny hand weights.

Walker says training these smaller muscles will allow Morgan to increase the weight he can handle on the bench press without risking injury and will give him support when he charges into opponents on the field.

Stabilization muscles are also critical for controlling the way you move a joint, says Mateus Manoel, who until recently was strength-and-conditioning coach for DC United and sports-performance director at Velocity Sports Performance.

Consider a baseball pitcher’s shoulder, Manoel says. He’ll get power from primary muscles such as the pectorals and the latissimi dorsi, or lats. But the shoulder joint itself is anatomically unstable.

“You need the muscles around it to support it whenever there’s an explosive effort on that joint,” Manoel says. Without them, the pitcher will risk injury and not have as much control. In soccer, the muscles supporting the ankle are important.

Kathleen Robinson, 43, a golf pro at Hilltop Golf Club in Alexandria, found that working out at Velocity helped her strengthen muscles she wouldn’t have gotten to on her own at the gym.

Especially helpful were exercises that improved her lateral stability. In one, she and her trainer each wore a harness with a stretchy rope between them. While he stood in place, Robinson had to slide sideways and back without toppling over. As she got stronger, she was better able to maintain her hip position in her golf swing, a change she says gave her more power.

Sports-performance trainers also teach athletes ways to engage more or different muscles. That’s something Erica Reynosa learned when she asked the trainers at Velocity to help her work on her pushups.

Reynosa, 36, plays on the offensive line for the DC Divas, a professional women’s football team. Although she made the team two years ago, she spent most of her first season on the bench. The next year, she wanted to impress the coaches. Among the drills included in the tryouts that year was a test of how many pushups each athlete can do in one minute. Her first year, Reynosa did only about ten, while the top women completed around 100.

Instead of just doing lots of pushups, as she would have on her own, the trainers had her work on bench presses, throwing a medicine ball against a wall, and other exercises that build muscle. Then they taught her to change her pushup technique from a steady effort to a forceful thrust.

“Tradition has that if you want to get better at something, you should just do that thing,” Manoel says. But often there’s a more efficient way to reach your goal. By doing explosive strength training, he says, Reynosa was able to work on her fast-twitch muscle fibers, which can be strengthened faster than slow-twitch fibers. By speeding up her pushups, Reynosa could engage more of those fast-twitch fibers.

At the next year’s tryouts, she did 41 pushups in a minute—more than she’s ever done, even while serving in the military in her twenties. Says Reynosa: “I was just thrilled.”

Where to Train

To find good sports-training facilities, we found out where high-level athletes train. You don’t have to be a pro to train with these firms—we also got recommendations from amateur athletes.

Athletic Excellence, 4125 Lafayette Center Dr., Chantilly; 703-488-9860; athletic-excellence.com. James and Monica Walker train elite athletes, including NFL players and Olympians, as well as amateurs. Group sessions cost $55 to $60, one-on-one training $85 to $200.

After the initial assessment we focused on improving his explosiveness, lean muscle mass, his lower core function, sprint technique, and reminding him of the correlation between all of those things and his speed. We simultaneously addressed scar tissue in his shoulders, rotator cuff, and lower legs, along with a few flexibility-imbalance issues. Nick never has had an issue with body-fat ratios or scores, in the off season his body-fat is 6% and in season 4%. That year Nick’s initial 40 time was 4.41 seconds, when he left it was 4.35 seconds.

By 2003 we wanted to make him completely healthy, muscular, and strong from the previous season’s injuries. By camp with the Jaguars Nick was performing 135 lb dips, 50 lb close grip pull-ups, and 225 jerk presses, all for 3 reps. Likewise his sprinting technique was superb, with excellent angles, tempos, power, and  limb placement. His best 40-yard times were 4.28 and 4.23 seconds.

Since then we’ve worked with Nick through and around injuries to the elbow, shoulder, and lower leg, team off-season training restrictions, releases, transitions, and new team auditions. Through it all he has learned to be disciplined, consistent, knowledgeable, healthy, and prepared in all phases. Nick has been one of the fastest players on each of his teams.