Plyometric Trainig is what is what can be reffered to as the secret sauce ingredient that can blast your speed and agility training into the stratosphere. I’m going to talk about: plyometrics — exactly what it is and what it is supposed to do, the general benefits you can get from it and finally, ways in which this sort of training can be used for the purposes of speed and agility.

Let’s explore what plyometrics actaully are
Originally popularized in the Soviet Union and adopted worldwide to its spectacular training effects plyometric training has the purpose of linking speed of movement with strength resulting in greater power.The idea is that if you use more of your strength, faster, the power will shoot through the roof.In basketball for example plyometrics are used to increase an athletes running vertical jump.
To achieve results plyometric focuses on:
– your bodies ability to absorb and store force;- the efficient release of that force (producing a motiong that has a lot of power);

Traditional sports endeavors who have benefited a lot from these types of exercises are those that involve throwing, kicking, jumping and lifting.

Speed and Agility are Improved by Plyometric Training
The first thing that plyometric training does is strengthen your muscles and tendons. The second thing is that it improves your nervous control over your body. This crosses over into improvements in speed and agility — gains are improved in individuals who already have good muscular development.

The conditioning of the nervous system is the reason plyometric training produces very quick results. This is why it is critical to perform plyometric exercises following these guidelines:
never train unless properly rested
focus on each and every rep
remember to keep your rep number under 20 — this is regardless of the drill you are usingwhatever the difficulty of the exercise do not perform more than 3 sets for a particular exercise

Drill this into your head: Train HARDER, not looonger.

Gains in the long term will rely on body composition — this is why a focus on nutrition and avoidance of injury are critical with regards to plyometrics. Plyometric training will change the structure of your muscles and tendons.You should be aware that practiced over a longer period of time, the results of plyometric training will make your muscles and tendons and make them have more spring.
Here is an explanation of how a plyometric movement works:

* first the body absorbs and stabilizes the force from a negative (eccentric) contraction
* as it does this, it  loads up your muscles and tendons with force (think of it like a compressing a spring)
* your body releases this energy in the opposite direction

Here’s an example,when you cock back your arm to throw a rock the natural thing you do is to first cock your arm backwards.  The effect of this is that the muscles of your arm and shoulder muscles lock, forcing your tendons to stretch thus storing a lot of force in those tendons and essentially turning them into loaded springs. When you throw, the stored force is released, allowing the rock to be accelerated at a rate which is higher than your normal rate of force development.

The reason plyometric training was so big when it came out in the 70 ’s is that it allowed athletes to specifically train their muscles and tendons to be more spring-like. You naturally use plyometric movements but before plyometric training came out there was no clear cut way to train for this. That is why it was thought for so long that jumping for height for example was an innate ability.
To summarize, plyometrics kill two birds with one stone: they teach your nervous system how to correctly perform movements at higher speeds and they condition your tendons, ligaments and muscles to aquire more spring-like characteristics allowing for greater acceleration. These benefits directly translate into gains in general speed and agility.To further support this process you should also learn about:speed and agility training and strength
How do I adapt the principles of plyometric training to my sport specific speed and agility needs? You have to take the basic movement you want to improve and inflic a pattern of force absorbtion and controlled force release upon it. I know that this isn’t a totally enlightening answer, but the truth is that the answer depends on the sport in question. I have provided a link though. Click here to learn more about: Speed and Agility

This article has discussed:

* what plyometrics are
* how plyometrics work
* the role of plyometrics as part of your speed and agility training
* the benefits you can expect when introducing plyometric drills into yours speed and agility training

You should also check out this awesome exercise for speed and agility training improving coordination

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