Writing the Perfect Athlete Program

As I write this, the Coaches in our 12-week Sports Performance Mentorship are completing the week of strength training. Undoubtedly, this will bring on the common question of…

“How do you incorporate speed development AND strength development?” 

Well, let me tell you the two ways we do it. 

The first, and most optimal way, is to conduct speed and strength as separate sessions. I call this the ‘off-season’ approach, because 9 out of 10 times, the athlete must be in a less intense sports calendar, typical of the off-season. If you’re a Performance Coach reading this from a private sector point of view, chances are this is when the bulk of your athletes are training anyway. 

Here’s how that training week presents. 

Monday – Linear Speed

Tuesday – Strength

Wednesday – Linear Speed

Thursday – Strength

Friday – Multidirectional Speed

Saturday – Strength 

Sunday – Off

Before you start pondering too hard, here are the answers to two very common follow up questions. 

Yes, you could swap around the speed days. 

Yes, you could cut strength training down to 2 days if you wanted/needed to. 

Keep in mind I am not here to talk about WHY the training week presents in that way. If you want to have that educated discussion, catch me in Parisi’s Sports Performance Mentorship. 

Remember, the point of this blog post is to talk about the optimal ways to include both speed and strength development. I think we can both agree that conducting sessions dedicated to speed training and conducting sessions dedicated to strength training is the most optimal way. 

But what if you don’t have that luxury? 

What if you had to combine skills? 

How would that look?

Well, the most optimal way in this case would be to implement a template approach that incorporates speed and strength development. Then, take that session template and lay it out on the training days you have available to work with that athlete. 

Here’s the template I would use…

Active dynamic warm up (10-12 minutes): Prioritizing movement skills related to the speed genre you are coaching in the session

Foundational teaching (5 minutes): Utilize one specific movement to teach and reinforce the skill of the speed movement being coached in the session. 

Speed work (15-20 minutes): This would be a substitute for power development since the athlete(s) is expressing near maximal effort and high neurological output movements. 

Strength work (20-25 minutes): The strength work would focus on 3-4 compound movements in a total body structure. 

Can you coach strength and speed together? 

Sure. Is it the most ideal? No. 

If you’re like me, then you know your bills are paid by having to get outcomes for your athletes. At times, especially the way sports schedules dominate the calendar year, you have to coach speed and strength in the same 60-minute session. 

If you want to get an indicator on what those movements look like, and how we present it, we have a 7-day free trial for our Train To Win program now available. This program will show you our training week, the key movements we use to teach speed, and how we structure our total body workouts. Definitely check it out and see for yourself!