Speed vs. Strength | How to Increase Speed in the Weight Room (Part Three) 

Both the FTC and ATG system are built on the idea of reverse engineering what freaky athletic people can do naturally. Tony (Ben as well) sees that freak athletes can sprint fast, jump high, jump far, react quickly, and absorb force, and therefore implements his X-Factor days with certain plyos. Tony also has some bodyweight circuits to keep the hips mobile. Ben Patrick has measured that those same freak athletes have certain strength numbers on certain lifts (like nordics, hip flexor lifts, single leg back extensions, calf raises, tibialis raises), and those lifts (which coincidentally mimic more closely the motions of sprinting/jumping) are proportionately (to the athlete's weight) much stronger than even the big meatheads that Tony calls slow. Ben has numbers showing that freak athletes are pound for pound much stronger everywhere and in every muscle group than most people. Ben also has a system of proportionate strength from the ground up, meaning you aren't allowed to have a massive deadlift on top of super weak feet, shins, calves, and knees, otherwise knee injury could result. Ben also trains speed and jumping and sport through intense microdoses while fresh, but his business is more related to weight training, so he isn't as vocal about that as Tony is. Ben is chasing infinite RELATIVE strength, and in proportion from the ground up, alongside touching max speed and jumping about 1-2 times a week, which is why he continues to get faster, jump higher, and remain injury free. Still waiting on Tony to interview Ben! That would be an AMAZING convo! Would love to hear Tony and Ben discuss Stefan Holm's deep squats or Jonathan Edwards' Nordics, and the effects on their respective training.

@@malachitisch7494 great post and insight, I feel like using bens system to address weak links will help so much while sprinting and jumping 1-2X per week especially for those who are over 30 and looking to improve athleticism and speed. I can attest that hip flexor work with cables and the monkey foot, Nordics, tib raises, KOT calf raises, straight leg calf raises, RFEE Bulgarian split squats, hill sprints, and step ups have been great while keeping hip mobility a priority with internal and external rotations, fire hydrants, frog pumps, pancakes and 90 90s have helped me at 37 get faster

Just because I don't use sleds does not mean they are not of value. If I used them, I would do them in small doses on x-factor day. If anything, I have "proven" you can get fast WITHOUT sleds. The word "proven" is fascinating. I question if sleds have ever been "proven" to work. Nebraska once did nothing but lifting for eight weeks and said that their football team got faster. That really doesn't "prove" anything. I would never lift-only for eight weeks, I don't care what Nebraska "proved". I have tons of respect for those guys who promote sleds. I also know fantastic sprint coaches like Ernie Clark who never use them. Thanks for the post!

@@coachtonyholler Tony please reach out to Ben Patrick I would love to hear you two chat!!

@@malachitisch7494 incredible write up! Well said

They all (elite sprinters) don't prioritize lifting. The did a lot is core work, because the core is a true priority not just assistance. And before someone says heavy barbell lifts train the core. No they don't train it the way sprinting does. Not even close.

@@Leonidas-eu9bb thanks for sharing

having done lifting and now sprinting exclusively..I agree. It shows all your weak points in your entire core..humbling@@Leonidas-eu9bb

Good catch.

No, don’t eliminate eccentric movements. But, in-season concentric and isometric do not produce soreness.

Prioritize movement (especially max velocity) and then get generally strong as hell.

@@coachtonyholler that's the secret

Jamaica, with only 3 million people, has produced as many elite sprinters as the US with over 100x the population (332M). To attribute Jamaican success to their weight lifting is, IMO, not seeing the big picture. Read “The Sports Gene” by Epstein. I promise you that Jamaican sprinters don’t outlift American sprinters. The opposite is true. If you want an Olympian, find the fastest 15 year olds in the world, grow their skills and teach them hydration, nutrition, and sleep. Get them strong without chasing hypertrophy and infinite strength. trackfootballconsortium.com/strength-vs-speed/

Yes, Alec Holler is my son.

Atomic is atomic… not optimal. Of course it’s better to do more. Atomic creates the HABIT.

@@coachtonyholler So atomic would be a starting template and then xfactor and speed days are the “main workouts”where everything would come together.

@@rafaelsantiago142 EXACTLY. Creating the HABIT comes first.

Once a week. Sprint up the hill 10-20m at full speed. Never long slow hills.

⁠@@coachtonyhollerHow many times the 10-20m? How much rest in between, 20 meter = 2 minutes?

@@sergedupon7903 3 1 min per 1 sec sprint

@@coachtonyhollerThank you coach for your quick reaction. I am from the Netherlands and a 46 year old male. I was a middle distance runner and since 6 months switched to the 400 meters. I train by myself on the track. I now run 57 sec on the 400 meter. My goal is to improve to 55 sec and then compete in the masters. I find it realy difficult to program my strength, plyos and sprinting and not get injured. I think i am doing way to much at the moment. That is why i now want to follow your program/set up/ coaching. So i am watching and reading all your content. I realy think it makes sense and i think it would fit me well. Maybe you can tell me if am going the right direction with my 400m training in general: 2 days a week do your 10 sprint drills, followed by 3 sprints (40’s or 10 flys) @100% followed by strength and plyos (upperbody and 3x3 concentric deadlift superset with pogo or hurdle jumps). 1 day a week do your 10 sprint drills followed by 1 of your 3 lactate workouts followed by strength and plyos (upperbody, deadlift superset with plyos). The other days take rest or do 1 more lactate workout since i don’t run competition yet? Maybe do some more plyos? Is this the right way to go (in general) or am i missing out on something? My feeling says (because of all the Information and many opinions out there) that i need to do more strength and plyos….

@@sergedupon7903 sprinting in small doses, plyos, and strength should be the focus. One lactate workout every 7-10 days.

Find a place that feeds the cats or similar. UWO or Madonna U in Michigan or South Dakota State or New Mexico.

​@@coachtonyhollerhi coach, any options in the north east?

@@NYCDurrani unaware of any

But I have to go slow riding my bicycle, to not make it an endurance work!

Riding my bike up a steep hill regularly as kid in elementary school built the strength in my legs to be able to jump high and run fast in middle school and high school (I grabbed a slightly bent rim at about 5'5 1/2" tall around my 15th birthday then grabbed a regular rim a few months later when I was probably 5'6").

Legit sprinter.

Do spreed drills first, then 3x 40 or 3x 10m fly (timed) then supersetted deadlifts.

@@coachtonyholler Thanks! I’m trying to find the video with all your speed drills. Do you mind sending it?

Sorry one question. How many sets do you recommend when lifting?

@@yale335 look up Atomic Speed Workout

@@yale335 three

No argument here (but the weight room doesn’t make people fast 🙂).

@@coachtonyholler I may be speaking for the wrong point after some thought, the weight room alone doesn’t make people fast agreed there, but in conjunction with speed training, when done with specific intent (working with proper %’s and rep schemes as well as intent to move fast) plus proper recovery it escalates the speed and strength gains for sure. Again love you’re stuff coach I’ve learned a bunch about speed training and sprint technique from you🫡

To keep body weight managed with heavy lifting manage your food intake. Your macros should be spot on. If you are already at your fighting weight for track getting bigger won't help. Feed your desired weight and account for the fuel required for training so there is little to no weight gain. Strength gains will come about thru nervous system improvements.

@@dennisrobinson8008 Getting Stronger doesn’t mean getting bigger and running only gets you so strong is what I’m saying

@@itsjimmybuckets A agree. Weights calisthenics core work are required to build the highest performance athlete.

Or four.

@@coachtonyholler thanks for the reply! I also have another question, could I swap out conventional deadlift for TrapBar?

@@Bcuuu Hard to do concentric-only with a conventional deadlift. ???

@@coachtonyholler convential strains my back and my neck due to injurys from football so I try to focus more on trap bar

Not many people are world record holders in the 100m (Marcellus 10.40 age-14 world record). The point being… there are outliers. Unicorns. Just because YOU haven’t personally witnessed unique inexplicable athletic exploits doesn’t mean they don’t happen.

@@coachtonyholler I believe in your philosophies and I’m a big fan. But I have a lot of experience in the weight room and with strength sports. I know how often people end up fudging the truth about numbers. Especially when they are inexperienced.

@@jameshegeman5660 no doubt

@@coachtonyholler To be clear - I think your lectures are outstanding and, like I said, I’m a big fan of yours.

@@jameshegeman5660 Thank you!

Yeah I agree with a lot of what this guy says but he’s a bit too dogmatic. Plenty of research and evidence has shown resistance training is helpful not only for relative strength but also for tendon health, muscle durability, etc. Different coaches see different things though 🤷🏽‍♂️

Your right....sadly I never really tried resistance training....my coach just said do cross country.....I did it once....never did it again....slow training makes slow running.....I also believe soccer is a good sport....I knew a hand few of soccer players that where silly fast on the track

One of the dumbest statements ever made. Peter Weyand is brilliant, and you… 🥴 Gravity is, BY FAR, the biggest enemy of speed. Max velocity sprinting is almost ALL vertical force (acceleration is mostly horizontal).

So you really think vertical force and gravity are more important than horizontal force and inertia. Explain why wind has such a huge influence on running speed although it's horizontal resistance/asistane! On the other side bodyweight has very little to no influence on running speed. Some athletes even gain weight and still run faster!! Just because there are high vertical forces does NOT mean they are the cause of faster speeds. For example I can produce huge vertical forces and also huge spikes just by doing pogojumps in place. That's basically what jumping is all about (arge vertical impulse). But sprinting is mostly about horizontal impulse. The inability to further apply enough horizontal impulse results in no more acceleration aka hitting topspeed. So to run faster we must continue applying horizontal impulse to accelerate and finally achieve a higher topspeed. Vertical impulse is only needed to stay in the air just long enough to reposition our limbs. Indeed too much vertical impulse can be very bad if the COM get raised so much that it will fall down again to achieve proper position wich leads to lots of energy loss (bouncing up and down). I really thought you know this already. You should read the work of JB Morin instead of Weyand. But from what i read i think you are not the person who is open for new things or will ever admit a mistake. @@coachtonyholler

@@Leonidas-eu9bb At max velocity sprinters are putting 5x body weight of vertical force into the ground with only a .08 sec ground contact time. Wind is a BS argument. Gravity is not variable… it’s ever-present. Wind is variable, so we are far more aware of it. Acceleration is mostly horizontal, max velocity is mostly vertical. This argument has little to do with the coaching of sprinters because we must work on both forces. We jump high AND jump far. Most important, we sprint.

Sometimes we must change the way people think. Everyone wants a recipe, this wasn’t a recipe presentation.

I’ve coached sprinters 43 years. They put up to 5x body weight into the ground in 1/10 of a second. Many of them do this without ever going through serious weight training. I assure you, the world’s best sprint coaches would not see this statement as “ridiculous”.

A very specialized strength lifter is not going to be fast. At least not to by competitive standards. There are too many variables that impede that ability. However a sprinter can be strong and at a competitive level. He won’t be the strongest and that’s because his training is around being fast, to do that he’d have to incorporate some level of strength training. Not specialized like a strength athlete, however still part of the training and done enough to create strength in that speed athlete.

@@coachtonyholler don’t bother replying to uneducated comments. You just replied to someone who goes by slap Nuts 🤦‍♂️

@@osamaalshareef491 “Slap Nuts” is not a legit learner? 🤣