On January 22, 2015 I met with Lance to discuss change of direction. There are two different workout type days at Michael Johnson Performance Center, “A-Day” and “B-Day”. On “A-days” the coaches primarily focus on sagittal movement with their athletes. A-Days are often referred to as linear movement days, meaning they focus on forward and upward movements. On “B-Days” the coaches focus on change of direction and angular positioning. The two different days allow the athlete to practice not only power, but also how to transfer their power into multi-purpose movements.
In many agility drill, coaches tell their athletes to run in a straight line then “cut” a sharp corner to change direction (this movement usually happens in football.) Lance explained how every time an athlete runs in a straight line and decelerates (the cut) it increases the athletes time tremendously. Instead of having the athlete “cut” and make the sharp turn, the athlete will have a faster time if he/she runs at a round curve. The science behind it is actually quite simple. If the athlete has a large amount of momentum while running straight, then he/she will be unable to maintain the amount of momentum while changing direction (deceleration.) Instead of decreasing the momentum it is more redirecting it to create a curved path. He/she will then maintain the speed throughout the run, allowing for a faster time.
Some coaches argue that if the athlete runs on a curve instead of a sharp corner than this will cause the athlete to run slower. This thought is incorrect. The athlete is actually running the same distance, it is just on a curve instead of straight line and then stopping to make a sharp turn. Pretend the athlete is running a “figure eight” as demonstrated in both figure 1 and figure 2. Figure 1 shows a path for an athlete who has a very little amount of deceleration, because the athlete is running on a constant curve. In figure 2 however, there are two points where there are straight lines and then a change of direction. Running in a straight line is bad because once the athlete gets to the point where he/she needs to turn, he/she will need to decelerate to stop themselves from flying forward. In figure 1, the athlete never decelerates because he/she is running on a constant curve which allows him/her to pick up speed and never lose momentum.
Figure 1 Figure 2
Before this meeting, I underestimated the time it took to positively impact someones sports performance. This is something that really goes unnoticed. It is much more complex than it appears to the average person. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into action when designing each workout.
