Matt Van Dyke - Optimal Power Development

 Matt Van Dyke addresses rate of force development and the importance of training power for the high velocities that happen on the field.

Transcript: 

Rate of force development: the ultimate goal is to produce power in the competitive event. Sports are going to occur at the highest velocities possible. So, competition velocity is way down here on that force-velocity curve; on a 100% max to 0%, it’s going to be {...} almost at 0, maybe slightly above {...}. We’re never going to mimic those {velocities} in the weight room. The idea of being sport specific and recreating those is ridiculous. Your goal becomes to provide the athletes with the physical tools necessary and the adaptations required to then go apply that on the field. So, that’s the energy systems that we’ve talked about earlier; the strength, power and speed. And you can train those in a specific manner based on the sport {...} or based on {the athletes} needs, how advanced they are. All of those can be considered, but the idea that we’re recreating sport specific movements in the weight room, it’s just not there. You can still prepare muscles for the high velocities, but not necessarily the actual sport itself.

We’re trying to maximize force production in the minimal time available. With the idea that maximal force requires 0.3 to 0.4 second and elite sprinters ground contact time is between 0.08 and 0.12 second, obviously that’s not enough time to produce max force. So, absolute strength is critical {...} but, we do have at some point to shift away from the max strength idea and get more into power and speed.