By Dr. Greg Shepard

Speed and Plyometrics should be done on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the off-season with the BFS System.

PLYOMETRIC TRAINING The BFS Plyometric Program also takes ten minutes.

When athletes are in-season, Speed and Plyometric Begin by taking ten quality vertical jumps. Do the workouts should also be done twice per week. vertical jumps by a wall or basketball standard.

The first thing athletes should do is the BFS Dot Drill. It is an agility-quick foot drill designed as a warm-up. It’s great. It only takes 60 seconds. We have developed national standards: Under 50 seconds is blazing, 50-59 seconds is great for a lineman type, 60-69 seconds is fair, 70-79 needs to work on it daily, over 80 seconds is unacceptable. A coach should time his athletes about twice a month and record the progress and results. measure the first jump and then try to improve with each successive jump. A minimum of 15 seconds should be taken between vertical jumps. program is to do three sets of three successive standing long jumps.

High School standards are as follows:

22 feet, Good - 25 feet, Great - 28 feet.

Jump and the Standing Long Jump should be tested once phase.

Assuming you have boxes, begin by doing five jumps STRETCHING — FLEXIBILITY from a 20 inch box and just land in a hit position. Next, After the BFS Dot Drill, all athletes can begin the BFS jump in the same manner but this time recoil straight up 1-2-3-4 Flexibility Program. If the athletes are stretching as quickly as possible. On the next series, jump from one on their own on M-W-F weight training days, this is an box, to the floor to the next box and repeat 5 times. Now excellent time to check on the technique of each you are ready to get after it. Follow the same procedure flexibility exercise. Once a month the Sit and Reach test but now do it as rapidly as possibly.

You should have should be administered to monitor flexibility progress. four to five boxes each about 21 inches high. As you The class time elapsed is now only about 12 minutes become more advanced, you can raise the height of the after doing the BFS Dot Drill and 1-2-3-4 Flexibility last box. A good jump is between 36 and 40 inches.

Programs.

A fourth phase is to jump high on a box froma SPEED TRAINING Athletes should be tested for speed twice per month either on a 40 or 20 yard sprint. Times should be stand.

It will create interest and enthusiasm for plyometrics. You may wish to test a Standing Box Jump once a month. The final phase can be a bounding drills. All these phases may sound like a lot to run at 75-90% speed and then give three timed sprints. do in just ten minutes but if you are organized, it’s Record the best of the three times. amazing the amount of work that can be done. Divide a recorded and progress charted.

Sprint training workouts last about ten minutes. Five class into two main groups: one group will work on of those minutes should be concentrating on technique. If speed, while the other will work on plyometrics. Divide you use the BFS 8-point Sprint Technique System you the speed group in half with one group working will be successful with form. Concentrate on one form technique and the other working sprints. The plyometric weakness at a time. Whether it is head, eye, back, arm, group can also be divided into two groups. Half of these leg or foot plant position; only work on one technique at athletes can do Bounding, Vertical Jumps and Standing atime.

A great way to know what specifically to work on Long Jumps. The other half then works on Box Jumping. is to use video analysis.

It can be a tremendously productive period. themselves and it really heightens their awareness of proper sprinting technique. The remaining five minutes should be devoted to ten Any remaining time left can be devoted to a fun activity, motivational period or learning-lecture period.

The more wisely this time is used, the better you'll be. all-out quality sprints from 10 to 50 yards. About 30 seconds rest should be given between sprints. When the weather is bad, do not stop sprinting. Let THER SPEED & PLYO INFO. your competition do that. In Minnesota that would mean avoiding sprints for six months. Replace the 40 yard sprint with 20 yard sprints indoors. There is about a twosecond difference. Therefore, a 3.0 twenty is equivalent to a5.0 forty.

From BFS Magazine — November/December 1989. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).