Power development is of primary importance for athletes of virtually every sport. The ability to generate force in a short amount of time in order to accelerate the body and/or an implement is central to most sporting endeavors. In designing a program, there are many variables, but only a relative few will create a training effect of power. Power development involves some load/resistance and a lot of speed of movement. The load can be as light as body weight or as heavy as up to 60 even possibly 70 percent of a one rep max in certain speed – strength exercises.

In Olympic style weight lifting (which is speed – strength in nature) as the load increases, the nature of training will move from speed – strength to strength – speed as the movement slows with the corresponding increase in resistance.

In order to maximize the power output (or the speed variable in speed – strength) then two things are paramount in selecting the exercises, drills, protocols and modalities. These are the load, which must be kept relatively light (depending on the exercise/drill selection) and whether the skill involves release

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of an implement or leaving the ground. If at any point in the drill the movement slows more than 10% from optimum then the power output drops dramatically. In the case of release skills such as throwing a medicine ball or squat jumps, the power output can be dramatic and measurable.

Any type of plyometric training is by its very nature power development. Boiled down to its simplest form, almost every sport is based on some type of jumping, hopping, bounding and throwing. Sprinting is bounding from foot to foot. Cleans, snatches, jerks are jumping with weight. Squatting is a very similar movement, but you don’t leave the ground. In order to create power, you would need to do squat jumps, the same movement as squats, but with “release” off of the ground and a much greater power output. Medicine ball training can be plyometric in nature such as mediball bench press, twist toss and crunch sit – ups with a toss. Mediballs can also mimic cleans with forward and reverse scoop tosses. The load is much lighter than cleans and snatches and the implement is released so the power output is greater with a very similar movement.

As with any quality training parameter, the rest/recovery bout should be long enough to allow for maximal restoration in order to keep the quality of the efforts very high in regards to speed and/or distance. The volume is relatively low in total and especially within each set. Remember, less is more in regards to volume in relation to power development. In Olympic lifting the optimal rest is 2:00 for snatches and up to 3:00 minutes for heavy cleans. Sets in Olympic style training usually have reps that are generally 2 + or – 1. I have taken the same approach with mediball training, if it is total body exercises. Remember, power training is for quality, not quantity of effort. How many times do you come out of your stance as a football lineman every 40 seconds? How many times do you come out of the blocks as a sprinter in 2:00? How many times in a row do you jump for a rebound if you were a basketball player? 3? 5? If it’s 10, maybe you are training the wrong basketball team.

The order of training is critical in a day as well as within the week. In a workout, the order is warm – up, loosen – up and build – up to sport speed. This warm – up is followed by technique work, speed training, and power development. Strength training and work capacity, fitness or conditioning is always last. In any particular week, the order is speed first, followed by power second. After this (or the second day) then there is some leeway in the composition of the final days of the workouts based on time of the year, training age of the athletes and number of days left in the program for the week. If it is based on the European week, then Wednesday is fitness, Thursday is recovery, Friday is strength and Saturday is fitness, again. In America, it usually is Wednesday is recovery, Thursday is strength and Friday is fitness.

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