8 Training Exercises For

The 40-Yard Dash

See video above for exercise demonstrations

1. Ankling to Butt Kick Series - Jump to exercise

2. Absolute Speed A-Run Series - Jump to exercise
3. Moving Claw Series - Jump to exercise
4. Prowler Sprint - Jump to exercise
5. Linear Acceleration Wall Drill - Jump to exercise
6. Assisted Sprint Series - Jump to exercise
7. Linear 3-Part Start Technique - Jump to exercise
8. Kneeling Arm Drill - - Jump to exercise

1/Ankling-to-Butt
Kick Series
Ankling is the first part of absolute speed training. During the first
part of the 40, your body will be in a forward lean and your legs
will be going through a piston-like action.

Step-By-Step: First 5 Yards

Push toe to top of sneaker

Lock ankle

Move forward

Keep arm action in line

Make sure hand breaks waist/hip

Head is going to be tucked

Move forward for five yards

5 yards completes the cycle

Full range all the way down and foot will clear the opposite ankle

"Eventually gravity dictates that your body has to stand up. When you do that, you might not actually be
traveling at your true, absolute speed potential, but your leg is now going through a cyclical action, not a piston
action. We call that 'absolute speed mechanics'."

Step-By-Step: Last 5 yards

5 yards of Butt Kick

The range increases

10 yards completes the cycle

Rest period is the walk back

Do 2,3,4,5 cycles ... depending on how the athlete responds to the activity

"If you're looking at the absolute speed mechanic, or that cyclical pattern, the Ankling-to-Butt Kick series is the
first progression to competently teach that type of leg motion."

2/Absolute Speed
A-Run Series
The next progression is the A-Run. Ankling initiates that recovery
phase that happens as soon as your foot comes off the ground in
that cyclical pattern. You want to reduce that time as much as
possible in order to get quickly into your recovery phase.
The A-Run not only completes the cycle, but after you transition to
the top, it gets into a ground preparation phase.

Step-By-Step: 30 total yards: 10 yards fast jog; 20

yards accelerated A-Run

Start off at first cone

10-yard build-up jog, then ...

Combine the components of Ankling and a Butt Kick:

Push toe to top of sneaker

Head is tucked

Pull that ankle through

Increase to the Butt Kick

Hands push through

Give leg a full cycle reflex to the front

3-5 reps ... depending how the athlete looks in the drill

We're training Ankling/Butt Kick, coming back around to that

cyclical pattern of the leg action, into that A-Run.

3/ Moving Claw
Series
The Moving Claw Series is the best ground preparation phase that
ties it all together. Your leg can actually travel through the air at

almost an identical speed of when you're running at that absolute speed mechanically, from the 20-to-40-yard
line.

Step-By-Step: Lower body

Push toe to the top of the sneaker

Butt Kick all the way to the top

Clear the knee

Relax the quad

Attack the ground

Step-By-Step: Upper Body / Arms

Give it a rapid 1-2 motion

Punch and follow through

Don't leave the arms behind!

The exercises tie into each other. I wouldn't say one exercise progresses into the next one, but if you're efficient
at Ankling, you can be more efficient in Butt Kicking. If you're more efficient in Butt Kicking, you're more
efficient in A-Run. If you're more efficient in the A-Run, you're more efficient in the Moving Claw Series.
Alternate legs; be balanced
You're not joint loading and moving fast-forward, you're just undergoing the properties of that powerful leg
whip around the cycle of what happens when your foot comes off the ground until your foot comes into the
ground.
When you start to master the complexities of the moving claw series ... we start to see the transfer of athletes
starting to run like their body is intended to run through the all-important finishing point of the 40.
It's one thing to do drills. It's another thing to do drills that will actually apply to your running form without the
athlete thinking about it. Typically, when we start to see the mastery of the Moving Claw Series, we start to see
that transfer.

4/Prowler
Sprint
Pure acceleration is the goal. As soon as you come off the line, your
body is in that forward lean, with your legs moving through that
piston-like action.
Strength, especially high-speed strength, greatly enhances that
motion.

Step-By-Step: 10-yard Prowler Sprint

Walk to prowler
Place hands mid-to-top on bars

Feet together

Ankles locked

Toes pushed to the top of the sneaker

Engage glutes

Hold for 5 seconds ... Go!

Knee-up, piston action

Knee-action in front of body

No Butt Kick whatsoever

Accelerate forward

Rest ... 10, 20, 40 yards ... rest ... increase plate weightload

People always talk about form running and joint angles, but let's just talk about strength. The stronger you are,
the more force you have that's able to be applied into the ground, the faster you're going to move.
I think the limiting factor is definitely rate of force development, not how much force you can apply into the
ground, but how much force in a limited amount of time.
Not only will you get stronger in the prowler series, enabling you to get that piston-like action, but if you look
at the angle of the ankle joint, that is the rate-limiting factor in terms of rate-of-force development.
If your rate-of-force development can be enhanced, you're going to be faster and more powerful through the
acceleration phase.

5/Linear Acceleration
Wall Drill
Step-By-Step

Nice forward lean (45 degrees) against the wall/fence

Feet together, push toe to the top of the shoe

Get glutes to contract

Lift one knee

Drive straight down, attack the ground

Switch legs, left, right slowly

Then hammer it out rapid fire with feet

Stop

3-5 seconds depending on progression of athlete

6/Assisted Sprint
Series
This is the most controversial topic in the industry. A lot of people
shy away from it, because it's dangerous. A lot of people limit it
because they're talking about research and force application.
I base my whole program around it. I think it is the most dangerous
thing you can do, but I also think it can be the most effective.

Step-By-Step: Athlete Instructions

You use a machine

It's a pulley system

It's not a stretching cord

It's a straight cord, tied to the fence.

Belt on an athlete

Athlete is hooked to the belt by a karabiner

The athlete will start 40 yards down

The coach will be 30-40 yards away from him

As soon as the athlete starts to move, the coach will start to run and pull him forward

We'll decide how far we'll pull that athlete

If he's going 40 yards, you want to pull him about 20 yards

It has to be a constant assistance, which is why you we use a pulley system as opposed to a bungee system.
It can only assist you in very minute levels above your maximum ability to run. On average you'll only see 3-7
percent assisted faster. The people who go against it talk about over-striding. Yes, over-striding could happen
with this device if you don't micro-progress into it.
When I say that I mean the Moving Claw series, again, is the exercise. If you can master that and complex it
back and forth between the actual assisted running itself, then you can be effective.

Step-By-Step: Coach Instructions

I'm down, holding the cord

The athlete will move out of his 2-point stance

I'll start to sprint with that athlete

I'll pull him so many yards

Then I'll rip the cord off

The athlete will be propelled in an over-speed training manner forward

Once you've done the over-speed running, you have to do a lot of neuro-muscular work right after it, as well as
get back into those moving claw series, and so on. I like to "complex" back and forth.
It's the most effective horizontal plyometric you can possibly do because of the rapid-stretch reflex occurring in
the posterior chain. Not only do we do it with our combine athletes, we do it with all our veterans. I think we
understand how to teach that speed.

7/ Linear 3-Part
Start Technique
It is trying to get you into position to ...
1. Go within the rules of the NFL combine
2. Allow you, without any pausing or decelerating steps, to get
into your drive, your acceleration phase as quickly as
possible.

Step-By-Step: Lower Half of Body

Two feet on the line: toe to ankle bone

Right foot: 4-6 inches

The right hand is going to come right in the line

Left hand: on fingertips

Nose to the knee

Load the left leg

Contract the right glute

Left hand up

... one thousand one ...

... one thousand two ...

Fire out!

You have to load the front knee with the shin angle as low to the ground as possible to try to mimic that same
type of drive shin angle when you come out. It's got to be a 2-foot jump, which is why you see us load the back
foot without straightening the knee.

Step-By-Step: Upper Half of Body

Block the sun

Fire the elbow

I believe the arm up serves as a powerful lever forward, which is why we straighten the arm, so once the downaction of that arm comes down, you can actually come out. You flip the arm up to almost block the sun out of
your eyes. When you flip and rotate your hand, it can act as a powerful stretch-reflex lever to propel your upper
body into proper position.
It's an aggressive technique. The hardest part is after you get the powerful jump. Can you accelerate out? It's
very difficult to teach to a football player because they don't have that track background. I think with assisted
running complex, with this technique, it can be very effective. If you really want o maximize your gains, doing
those two things will achieve it.

8/ Kneeling Arm
Drill
In all running motions, the arms lead the legs. If you can increase
the efficiency of the strength-reflex properties of the arm, you can
increase the efficiency of the stretch-reflex properties of the legs.

Step-By-Step

Left foot in front

Right knee down

Engage

Keep head down

Start a long, pendulum arm swing

Start to jog (arms only)

Start to run (arms only)

Start to sprint (arms only)

Force reduction stretch reflex (hand-clearing the hip)

Switch Knees: Put your body in a good position to completely eliminate the legs and focus on that
upper-body type of action. There's no better way to do that than the kneeling-drill series.

4 Components
1. Start with long levers
2. Slowly progress into jog
3. Slowly progress into run
4. Mimic how efficient your arms can run

a. Takes the legs away

b. Doesn't fatigue the legs
If you have good arm action, it might help propel your legs (which might be in a fatigue-state) into proper mechanics.