To be competitive in the sport of football, athletes need to be explosive. Explosiveness refers to the rapid generation of force output (aka Power) and in the context of football, can involve sprinting, jumping, tackling, cutting and even throwing and kicking. Strength coaches across the country strive to improve power in their football players in effort to enhance on-field performance. In the December issue of NSCA’s Strength and Conditioning Journal, two pioneers in strength and power research, Dr. Michael Stone and Dr. Gregory Haff, published an article on power development in football players. This post will briefly summarize the key points of this article.
- Power is built on a foundation of maximal strength and sufficient muscle cross-sectional area. Stronger athletes tend to run faster and jump higher. Therefore, coaches should focus on the development of hypertrophy and maximal strength first to optimize improvements in power. A traditional linear periodization approach is suggested where phases of hypertrophy and maximal strength development precede a power phase.
- Olympic lifting provides greater transfer to football-related performance variables than traditional maximal strength training. Coaches should ensure that some of the Olympic lift derivatives that they use should include the double-knee bend in order to develop the stretch-shortening cycle. The speed of movement during Olympic lifts is more similar to the speed of football actions compared to conventional exercises.
- Plyometric training can lead to improvements in static jumps, countermovement-jumps and reactive jump performance. Each of these could be considered performance indicators for the sport of football. When plyometric training is used in conjunction with strength training, improvements in power are further enhanced. A minimum squat 1RM of 1.5 times body weight is a good general goal for athletes to achieve prior to engaging in intense plyometric training.
- Lastly, the authors discuss the usefulness of strength-power potentiating complexes. Alternating sets of strength work (i.e., heavy squats) or power (i.e., heavy Olympic lifts) with high velocity movements such as short distance sprints or vertical/horizontal jumps enable the athlete to take advantage of post-activation potentiation. Sufficient rest should be provided following the heavy movement so that fatigue does not affect the subsequent high velocity movement.
A common theme throughout the entire article is the importance of maximal strength for optimizing power. Therefore, for younger and weaker athletes, simply improving strength will go a long way in improving power.
Reference:
Haff, GG, & Stone, MH. Methods of Developing Power With Special Reference to Football Players. Strength and Conditioning Journal , 37(6): 2-16
