Jumping is for cats not for cows.

Speed is the one quality that all coaches are in constant pursuit of, and this is precisely why we wanted to have Hakan Andersson on the docket. Hakan Andersson is an athletics coach in Sweden, who Henk Kraaijenhof has referred to as the most creative coach he’s ever met. After a brief geography lesson Hakan dives right into his past and how’s he’s gotten to where he is.

Then he gets into the gold, discussing the importance of understanding WHY the athlete has issues with their running technique, how important physique is to the technique of sprinting, and compares elite and high-level sprinters in techniques explaining how the factors that seem to be relationships may not be cause and effect.

Hakan then breaks down the four phase of the race (Acceleration 1 (Drive Phase), Acceleration 2 (transition phase), Top End Speed, and Deceleration) and what’s important for development to improve those phases. Not just WHAT is needed to develop the specific qualities and characteristics of each phase of the race, but shows actual examples of what he looks for, and exercises he uses to improve or “correct” these issues IF they need to be corrected. He closes out talking about a topic near and dear to strength coaches that has become more debated of late, and that is what is the role of strength training in speed development. This includes what exercises (and the progressions for some of them) he chooses to use with his athletes and the principles he follows with this aspect of training.