James Wild on The Art and Science of Sprint Profiling and Specific Strength Thresholds

Today’s show is with James Wild. James is a coach, an applied researcher and a performance consultant. Currently, James leads the speed program for Harlequins rugby men’s team and is Head of Performance for England Women’s Lacrosse. He also leads modules in skill acquisition and strength & conditioning at the University of Surrey. James is in the final stages of completing a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of team sport athletes during sprint acceleration and is the author of “Strength Training for Speed”. When it comes to speed, it’s always helpful to look at things from both the perspective of the coaching eye and applied biomechanics, and then on the other end, from more raw perspectives of strength and data points. When we look at both the qualitative and the quantitative, we can get a fuller total picture of what it takes to maximize an athlete’s speed potential in a manner that sticks over time and gets results. James is not only great with sprinting data points, but he has also been in the trenches coaching athletes for 20 years with many high level athletes, and his combination of the data, as well as in the art of coaching offers valuable insight for any coach. On the show today, James and I talk about his process of building an acceleration profile for athletes, rate vs. stride-length dominance, foot vs. hip dominant strategies in sprinting, resisted sprinting, minimal explosive strength standards for sprint performance, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 4:38 - James’ main objective with his PhD work 6:30 - The results of James’ sprint acceleration polls on social media 9:53 - The effects of acute, verbal interventions on sprinting improvement 13:34 - How to analyze and experiment with athletes’ sprinting using continuums 17:45 - How to allow athletes to experience continuums 23:47 - Running with low knees vs. high knees & Variability in performance 27:11 - The importance of incorporating experiential nature into training 29:05 - Key markers and components of acceleration profiles & Cluster analysis 34:58 - 4 main strategies for sprinting & Exploring athletes’ reliance 39:36 - The quickest way James has facilitated change in sprint acceleration performance 44:46 - The role of technical changes vs. improving strength qualities 51:51 - 3 strength measures & Single leg jump in place test 55:56 - Analyzing hip and foot-dominance in athletes 1:00:12 - How does DRF help project horizontal force or convert force to a horizontal acceleration? & Using a sled to train “It’s certainly not been my experience that there is this one size fits all, classical model [of sprinting] that we can shoehorn everyone into and that they will run faster as a result.” “One of the things I do will be to longitudinally track their spatial/temporal variables and try and look at essentially what it is that they’re doing when they’re running their fastest. So, it’s this concept of finding out the athlete’s reliance.” “If I’m working with an athlete for the first time or the first few sessions… whilst I’m collecting that data, I want them to experience what it feels like to move along that continuum of greater step length or greater step rate so that by the time I’ve finished some kind of analysis and have an understanding of where their reliance is at… they’ve got prior experience now with adjusting according to that continuum, so it just makes coaching a lot easier.” “They’re never gonna sprint the same way twice in a game, really, so they need to be able to adapt to those novel situations… they’re never going to produce exactly the same step… there’s going to be variability in everything they do, so sometimes exploring that variability is quite important.” “You’ll never find a single strength quality that’s going to be repeatedly related to sprint acceleration performance across all athlete groups.” “Some of the regression analysis I’ve conducted; big hip extension torque, single leg reactive strength index, and peak power during a squat jump, for example, those three measures combined seem to consistently relate to a reasonable amount of variation in sprint performance.” About James Wild James is a coach, an applied researcher and a performance consultant using a blend of strength & conditioning and biomechanics techniques with skill acquisition and motor learning principles to help address sports performance problems. He has worked with coaches and athletes across a full spectrum of abilities over the last 20 years, including medal winning teams and athletes at major international competitions. Currently, James leads the speed programme for Harlequins rugby men’s team and is Head of Performance for England Women’s Lacrosse. He also leads modules in skill acquisition and strength & conditioning as part of the University of Surrey’s BSc in Sport & Exercise Science degree programme. James is in the final stages of completing a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of team sport athletes during sprint acceleration, is a book author (‘Strength Training for Speed’), and has published several articles within scientific journals”