Putting Plyometrics to Work

As far as paradigm-shifting moments in a coach’s career, it’s hard to beat the "aha!” realization that just getting players stronger is not the same as getting players BETTER. Truly helping athletes get faster, more athletic, and more injury resistant, is a multifactoral problem that, yes, includes improving strength, but also requires a wide variety of other biomotor abilities... things like speed, power, agility, balance, stability, mobility, and sport-specific fitness. For many players, it's when you begin working on all of these other elements that you really start seeing on-field movement improvement.

To address real improvements in athleticism, one training modality that is commonly found around the world in youth academies and professional teams is a type of high speed calisthenics called plyometrics. Plyometrics (or "plyos"... because who has time for all those syllables) are, essentially jumps, hops, bounds, and even sprints, that stress your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nervous system to adapt to become stronger and more explosive. Think things like jumps over hurdles or bounds up stairs: explosive, dynamic actions that, in a wide variety of ways, help your body produce more force, faster, in the right direction, and over the optimal range of motion to be more athletic on the field.

Like all training that is truly effective, we have reams of data that shows how plyometric work can help soccer players move faster and be more injury resistant on the field. One great research study from 2018 looked at high level youth athletes in Europe who went through a planned, progressive plyometrics program found that the players not only improved their sprinting speed, but also their change of direction agility, and were more injury resistant. Faster, fewer injuries, and more agile? I'll take a team full of those players any day!

While there are incredible devils in the details for how to best implement plyometric work (in our work with the professional soccer team, the Richmond Kickers, for example, the plyo work we give our goalies is very different than the work we give our strikers... and still different is the plyo work we give our injured players as they complete their rehabs), there are a few guidelines you can you use to effectively put plyometric work into your training today! The best research, and years of practice, has shown that a good plyo program will do the following:

- last 6-8 weeks (minimum)

- have 1- 2 sessions per week

- have, roughly 80 foot contacts (or reps) per session

- ensure proper rest between reps (around 5-15sec) and proper rests between sets (at least 60sec-90sec

- plan for adequate rest between sessions (at least 48hrs)

Here are three plyometric activities we use weekly with our athletes at ATSC to help improve straight line sprinting speed.

Double Linear Ankle Bounce: While these look a little funny, the fastest people on Earth do these every day as part of their warm-ups; if they’re good enough to help the fastest of the fast get more explosive, we encourage you to think if they could help you as well! We suggest doing them for 2-4 sets of 10-20yds.

The Standing Long Jump is a great tool for improving your ability to sprint faster over shorter distances, as they are deeply effective at teaching your body to produce more force, more explosively. Try to do these for 2-3 sets of 4-8 repetitions, taking time to walk back and rest between each repetition: remember, the research shows that speed work isn’t fitness work… you need to do this type of work with maximal effort and little fatigue.

The Depth Jump is a more advanced plyometric activity, one that is best suited for players who have mastered proper landing (aka, force reduction) mechanics. But for those players who have progressed to this activity, it’s a great exercise for helping you not just produce more force, but producing that more force faster! Try these for 2-3 sets of 4-8 repetitions, taking your time between reps so you can be as explosive as possible in each jump.

There’s no magic exercise, secret training plan, or hidden program that only elite athletes know. What there is, however, is focused work, over time, that can lead to excellence. Plyometrics aren’t a special elixir that will solve all athletic development challenges, but they do play an essential role in helping you be the most explosive, most prepared athlete you can be!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us through our Contact page here and, for more general and sport-specific training information, visit our Instagram at: atsc_solutions. We also have a vault of proven, effective programs that we implemented at the Division I and professional sports levels for purchase on our Products page here. And if you’re looking to take your game to your highest levels, click here and let’s work together either in-person if you’re in the Cape Fear area or here if you’re interested in our individually-specific online training!