Improving Explosiveness in Female Athletes

14 Apr Improving Explosiveness in Female Athletes

Explosiveness = power

To get scientific, it is the ability to exert force as fast as possible.

To get mathematical, speed + strength = power

This means female athletes must be both strong and fast to become explosive. They must have strength in these main muscle groups:

– Hamstrings
– Quadriceps
– Gluteals

Once they have strength, they can optimize power in these sport actions:

– Accelerating
– Sprinting
– Throwing
– Kicking
– Changing Direction

Make sure girls don’t do strength training alone.

They need to complement getting under the iron with movements that target fast-twitch muscles needed for the game’s electrical actions. Their nervous system must be exposed to a rapid stimulus consistently.

Accelerating, changing direction and sprinting are all movements that last less than 6 seconds, so they need to be trained under this duration.

Please keep the energy system utilized in these actions in mind, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PC), because enough rest time needs to be given to the athlete so she doesn’t get fatigued to perform her next set in a slow manner and hinder her gains.

According to the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning and The Physiology of Training for High Performance, creatine phosphate can deplete up to 50–70% during high-intensity exercise lasting between 5 and 30 seconds (Carmer et al 2015). This means a female athlete who performs a set of jumps can wane in her output shortly after the exercise. Expounding further, this also means a period of 3–5 minutes is required for the complete recovery of the adenosine triphosphate-phosphocreatine (ATP-PC) energy system (MacDougall et al 2014). Sometimes, greater than 5 minutes is needed, especially on a high volume max velocity day to ensure speed times don’t wane.

Girls must take their rest after any explosive effort to truly reap the physiological gains from power and speed training.

Here are some sample movements that must be done with max effort and as rapid as possible:

Vertical Jump

Side Shuffle to 10 Yard Dash

Forward Tuck Jumps

Notice how each video is less than 6 seconds. Please do not claim power training when female athletes are slogging around for more than 30 seconds and minutes on end. That’s conditioning.

For more on female athlete training…

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REFERENCES

Carmer J, Herda T, Haff G, Triplett NT. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2015. pp. 43–63.

MacDougall D, MacDougall JD, Sale D. The Physiology of Training for High Performance, Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2014.