Acceleration speed

In order to achieve out-and-out or optimum skill/sports speed, a period of

acceleration is often required. A sprinter, for example, must leave his blocks
from a crouched start position, a footballer may need to turn and sprint to get
onto the end of a pass from an equally static or off-balance position, while a
tennis player must deliver his serve from a stationary base. Developing this
accelerative ability calls for different training methods and practices from
those used for out-and-out speed and other speed types.
These abilities and the techniques used to hone them are covered in the
various practical training chapters – see particularly chapters 6, 8 and 9.
Endurance speed
Speed training is often neglected by endurance athletes, such as marathon
runners and triathletes. Yet speed is crucial to their success. For the faster an
athlete is:
The easier it will be for him to cruise at slower speeds during training and
competition
The more power he will have for hill climbs;
The better he will be at surging during a race to burn off the opposition
The more he will have in reserve for a killer sprint finish.
For the purposes of this PP special, I will define endurance speed as the
ability to sustain repeated powerful and fast muscular contractions over
predominantly aerobic race and training conditions; (see chapter 2 for
definitions of aerobic and anaerobic).
Response speed
In many sports, a skill has to be performed in response to a cue. This cue could
be aural, as with a sprinter reacting to the starting gun, or visual, as with a
boxer avoiding a punch, a footballer responding to a change in the opposing
team's formation, or a cricket batsman reacting to a ball.
1 W H AT I S S P E E D ?
2
Speed tip: It would not be productive for a marathon runner to train like a
sprinter, as he would not develop the necessary heart and lung capacity to be
successful. However, it would benefit all endurance athletes to 'borrow' some
of the training elements that sprinters use in order to enhance their endurance
speed, speed endurance and out-and-out speed.
Speed endurance
Speed endurance can be defined as the ability of the body to perform an
activity at a very fast speed under conditions where a high level of anaerobic
energy production is required (see chapter 2). Examples include 800m running
and tennis match play involving long rallies. It differs from endurance speed
in that the training methods used to develop it are usually more short-lived
and focus on the anaerobic energy system. Interval training is a key training
method for speed endurance.
Interval training basically divides periods of 'effort' up with periods of rest.
Performing 6, 40m sprints, with 3 minutes' recovery between efforts is an
example of an interval training session, in this case one that would develop
out and out speed.