Get started with Velocity Based Training (3-week program)

If you’re researching Velocity Based Training, you will read that VBT can be used to prescribe intensity, drive intent, manage fatigue, test athletes, and individualize programming at scale and many other applications. Simply put, VBT is a way to test, monitor, and prescribe precise programming to athletes in a way that assures the coach’s intent is met. Yet, how does a coach get started with Velocity Based Training? How can a coach ensure VBT is effective and has the desired impact? That’s the point of this entire article. 

By Travis Mash

How to get started with velocity based training

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Introduction

In this article, I am going to give you an idea how I simply apply all the major VBT principles to my high school athletes. For the first three weeks, all of my athletes perform a similar program that allows me to gather all the pertinent information needed to then prescribe individual programming at scale. At the end of three weeks, I am equipped with data to categorize my athletes into three groups: gorillas, kangaroos and cheetahs, and prescribe according to athletes’ areas of improvement. Intrigued? Let’s start with the program and its application first:

Day 1 Lower Body Squat Focused

Get started with Velocity based training - Day 1 Lower Body Squat Focused

Start with the first 11 exercises to warm up. In week 1, use the number of reps and sets in column “week 1”. In week 2, use the number of reps and sets in column “week 2” etc.



After the warmup, you can start with the first power and strength exercise: trap bar jumps.

As you can see, there is a testing purpose for every exercise prescribed; some being more fitting than others. Most coaches are assessing their athletes throughout each and every movement, but the key is taking action. As far as the warm-up goes, the gold standard for my athletes is the overhead squat. If an athlete can perform the overhead squat, they have an optimal range of motion at just about every joint in the body. 

Duration for Each Section:

  • Warm up 10-minutes
  • Jumping 5-Minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)
  • Strength Work 45-minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)

Countermovement Jump vs Concentric Jump

I start assessing with my GymAware RS during the countermovement jumps (CMJ) and concentric/static jumps (SJ). This simple test combo alerts the coach and athlete of two important athlete qualities:

  • Use of the Stretch Shortening Cycle (SSC) in conjunction with elasticity
  • Starting Strength or ability to overcome inertia

The CMJ will normally be higher than the SJ for most all athletes, but an out of norm difference points to the focus. How much is too much? The best way to look at this is by measuring all of a team’s athletes and determining the average difference for all the athletes. If an athlete has less difference than the average, a focus on plyometrics, bounding, and speed strength would be the strategy. If an athlete has a greater difference than the team average, it would be wise to focus on strength and power production (trap bar jumps or the Olympic lifts).

Lower Body Static Power

Trap bar jumps are a great way to assess lower body power production from a static position, but this time under load. Like the SJ, the trap bar jumps are a look at starting strength which is an athlete’s ability to overcome inertia. Thinking about this from a sport specific perspective, a baseball player stealing second base, or a 100m sprinter exploding out of the blocks. An even more specific athletic event is two football players exploding off the line of scrimmage making contact with the athlete in front of them. For collision athletes, this is a very important marker.

Lower Body Absolute Strength with SSC

The back squat is the first look at absolute strength. Using GymAware RS or FLEX units allows the coach to assess an athlete’s absolute strength without worrying about the danger of taking an athlete to failure. The 1RM prediction parameter located in the GymAware cloud and in the FLEX Stronger app (iOS and Android) is a much safer testing tool. 

I like taking the three weeks to familiarize the athletes with the movement and to acclimate them to my standards. Once I have a solid 1RM Prediction, thanks to the GymAware Cloud, I then performed two important athletic tests without any extra work:

  • Dynamic Strength Index (DSI) – a look at an athlete’s use of force production during a ballistic movement compared to an absolute strength movement. On this day, the athlete will have performed a CMJ earlier, so now compare it to back squat. Read the prior article to understand this test in greater detail.

Reactive Ability

Once you have recorded the athlete’s drop jump, you will be able to formulate their reactive strength index (RSI), which is a close look at the athlete’s SSC and elasticity. The ground contact time along with the height of the jump highly correlates with athleticism, especially speed and change of direction. Once again, collecting the data for three weeks gives the athlete time to acclimate to the actual drop jump required to figure the index. The reason why it works so well to perform the test over three weeks is because the drop jump is also great for improving an athlete’s reactive ability. 

The final two exercises are simply accessory movements designed to strengthen the athlete in all planes of movement. However, side lunges will alert the coach to whether or not the athlete has healthy functioning hips. The medicine ball will tell the coach if the athlete performs rotational power with efficient movement patterns. 

Day 2 Upper Body Strength and Power

Get started with Velocity Based Training - (free 3-week program) - Day 2 Upper body strength and power

First, the warm up is the same on all three days, sinceI want to create standards for retesting to decrease variability. After the three week testing accumulation phase, you might consider being more specific with warm ups and mobility.

Duration for Each Section:

  • Warm up 10-minutes
  • Jumping 12-Minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)
  • Strength Work 40-minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)

Horizontal Ballistic Force Production

In my experience, the broad jump is more directly correlated to faster sprint times than the vertical leap. I assume that relationship is due to the hip mobility required for maximum broad jumps. With this measurement, you will need a measuring tape. The start line is placed at the tips of the toe line, and the distance is measured between that start line and the heels of the feet in the landing position. 

Unilateral Jump Repeats for asymmetries and individual Reactive Ability

Performing unilateral squats will show asymmetries right to left in height and reactive ability. Height will show the efficiency of the SSC and power production, and the contact time will show the reactive ability in each limb. It’s important to look at the differences in contact time and the eccentric contraction of each limb in both length and duration. If you think about sports, this variable might be the most important. It’s showing the breaking ability of each leg, which is where the majority of injuries take place. 

With the GymAware RS along with the Cloud, all of this information is available to you. Collecting the data over three weeks will demonstrate if the asymmetries are improving due to the repetition of the exercise. A lot of times, a weakness isn’t muscular or a connective tissue weakness, but instead, it’s a coordination issue. 

Upper Body Power with the Push Press

I love the push press for demonstrating upper body power because the movement originates from the hips and legs leading to upper body power, which relates more to sport movements. If you think about it, all upper body sporting movements originate in the lower body like swinging a bat, blocking a linebacker, or even a straight right hand punch in UFC.  

The reason why the Olympic lifts or variations of the Olympic lifts are so good for power development is because there isn’t a need for deceleration. If you are squatting or benching, athletes will subconsciously slow down near completion to avoid the bar leaving their back or hands. The very nature of the push press eliminates a need for deceleration. 

Here are some keys for the push press:

  • Take the same jumps each week in increments of 5-10kg of 10-20lb. Depending on the strength level of the athlete, they will start with 10kg or 20lb jumps until the weight starts to get difficult, and then 5kg or 10lb jumps become necessary. 
  • I suggest using mean velocities because Coach Dan Baker has some solid evidence showing that the mean velocity from 70-80% of an athlete’s 1RM is around .85m/s for all increments (70%, 75%, and 80%). The thing about Olympic lifts is that there isn’t a real variation in velocity because a specific height is required of the barbell. 
  • This happens to be the rate at which power seems to be most functional in sport.
  • You will probably notice that the peak velocity is also the same across the board between 70-80%, but I don’t have the data to give you exact numbers. 
  • In week 3, the athlete is allowed to hit the desired velocity because they will be familiar with the movement allowing for better motor unit coordination and synchronization.
  • I would compare my athletes’ power output based on the position they play as well as overall on the team with power watts per kg (pound for pound power).
Get started with velocity based training - Athlete comparison report gymaware cloud

Upper Body Absolute Strength

I chose the bench press to measure an athlete’s absolute upper body strength because it is widely popular. However, I don’t consider it superior to other exercises, so feel free to use whichever movement you find most effective.

The key once again is making the same jumps each and every week. The importance of keeping the jumps consistent will be made clear in my summary. Realize by the end of the three weeks, you will have a solid force velocity profile that will help guide you with individualizing the program at scale. Once again, I will make that point clear in the summary for specific benefits that are common among all three days.

Once week three is complete, you will have:

  • Force Velocity Profile for prescribing loads and velocity loss hypertrophy
  • 1RM Prediction
  • The Rate at which Power is Maximized

The drop step medicine ball punch is simply an accessory movement in the transverse plane designed for improving power production in a rotational manner. Of course, the coach will be able to make note of coordination and force production in that rotational vector.

Upper Body Relative Strength

Make no mistake about it, if you aren’t tracking relative strength, you will not have a clear picture of current athletic performance and future improvement. If an athlete increases their bench press 50 pounds because they gained 25 pounds of body mass, they probably became a worse athlete. If you want to know who your fastest athletes are, simply measure the amount of pull-ups they can perform. It won’t tell you the final 1-3%, but relative strength will set aside your top speedsters. Plus, if an athlete is getting stronger, it’s important that relative strength is increasing in a proportional manner. 

If you are coaching advanced athletes, it’s important to monitor weight and body fat composition. However, if you are working with young high school athletes, I am not sure that stepping on a scale is helping them with mental health. I will leave that up to you. I can tell you that if they are able to move their body weight around with pull-ups and dips, then their body fat isn’t that important.

Day 3 Lower Body Hinge Focused

Get started with Velocity Based Training - free 3 week program - day 3 lower body hinge focused

Duration for Each Section:

  • Warm up 10-minutes
  • Landmine Split Stance Push Press 10-Minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)
  • Strength Work 40-minutes (2-3 minutes rest between sets)

Upper Body Unilateral Power Production

We already measured the push press, but most upper body power is produced from one side or the other. I use the landmine push press from a split stance to test my UFC fighter Brad Katona. The split stance mimics the stance a punch is delivered from, not to mention the split stance is used with swinging a bat or club, throwing a ball, or swinging a racket. 

Using the GymAware RS unit, you can measure an athlete’s unilateral power production. You can choose to perform this exercise with speed strength or strength speed as the main quality of strength. The example I have shown in the program above is more of a strength speed protocol important for wrestlers or Rugby athletes. If you want to know more about the difference in speed strength and strength speed in reference to power production, check out “Improving Power Production in Athletes”. For my fighter, I would test and train with a similar protocol as above as well as a protocol for speed strength detection. For speed strength, you might use the following protocol:

  • 10-20% of body weight on the bar
    • Perform 3-5 max effort reps
    • Measure Peak Power
    • Or max reps in 10-15 seconds to measure peak power and any power drop off for power endurance

Lower Body Power Production with SSC

Lower body power production under load is important for sports like football, rugby, and wrestling. However, just like in the countermovement jump versus the concentric squat jump, there are some differences in what the movement is measuring and improving physiologically. The static trap bar jump is great for starting strength, acceleration, and rate of force development in athletic endeavors such as the start of a sprint, start of a swim race, and jump ball in basketball. 

However, if you are going to throw an athlete in wrestling or break loose from a tackle, there will be a SSC present. Here I have chosen peak velocity because I have the data. Due to height, this will be a bit harder for some athletes than others, but adding variables due to height simply complicates things. The important thing is establishing starting points and measuring improvement. None of those loads will be anywhere near a failure point. I would add that there are two important factors to the protocol:

  1. To eliminate variation in the test results, I suggest a depth of right below the knee.
  2. Once again, use the same jumps each and every time.

Lower Body Absolute Strength Concentric only

I love the trap bar deadlift because it is simple to implement and about as safe as it gets due to the optimized center of mass of the system. Basically the center of mass is equal to the center of gravity optimizing the distribution of the load throughout the joints involved. Just like I compared the CMJ and the back squat to get the Dynamic Strength Index (DSI), I will compare the trap bar deadlift to the concentric jump from day 1 for the DSI comparing static movement force production. 

Lower Body Relative Strength

The pistol squat and the nordic leg curl are two ways to measure lower body relative strength. The problem is that hardly any of the athletes will be able to perform either. Therefore, you will need to develop testing protocols that scale. For example, most athletes can perform a pistol squat to a bench or box limiting the range of motion. Step one is finding the height that the athlete can perform 5-8 reps of the pistol squat. 

For the nordic leg curl, you can also create distance regressions by placing a bench or pad at greater heights making note at what height an athlete can perform 5 solid nordic leg curls. This test will help the coach determine the exact protocol needed to ensure a healthy athlete is being created. Strengthening the knee in both extension and flexion is important for avoiding common injuries like noncontact ACL, and for maximizing athletic performance. 

Important Keys for all three days

Fatigue management

Now I can tell you why it’s important to use the same warm ups and load increases for the different exercises. After three weeks of this ‘Get started with Velocity Based Training’ program, the coach and athlete will have solid data for what a velocity should be for any particular load. Whether the athlete is performing the back squat, trap bar deadlift, push press, or bench press, there will be average velocities for each load. It will be up to the coach for which load will be the determining set for monitoring fatigue. Let me give you an example:

  • Normally on the back squat, athlete 1 squats 80kg or 185lb depending on the units at .7m/s, so what happens when things change?

    – Today they back squat 80kg or 185lb at .595m/s, which is 15% slower than normal. I suggest pivoting to some light bodybuilding and going home.

    – On another day they are at .65m/s or 7% slower than normal, you might want to trim load and volume by 10-20%.

    – What if they squat it at .85m/s? You might want to push things a bit.

You should be able to do the same thing on any of the exercises that utilize velocity. I’d recommend that you read more about this at ‘Daily Readiness‘. Additionally, you could even use the CMJ or the Concentric Jump to monitor fatigue as well by simply looking at the height if you don’t have velocity just yet. 

Prescribing Based on Force Velocity Profile

Once you have all the data, you are able to prescribe based on velocity versus an arbitrary percentage. You will also be able to match athletes up based on strength levels. Not to mention, you will have created an easy system by preparing the athletes to take similar warm ups sets and progression jumps. However, one of the biggest benefits is the ability to individualize at scale.

Individualized programming at scale

By the end of this ‘Get started with Velocity Based Training’ 3-week program, you will have all the information you need to classify athletes into three groups:

  • Gorillas- strong but need to work on speed
  • Kangaroos- powerful
  • Cheetah- fast but need some strength

You will have performed the following tests:

The program doesn’t have to look completely different. Here are some suggestions for each:

  • Gorillas- focus on speed, plyometrics, and strength speed while staying away from max loads or repetition failure.
  • Kangaroos- balanced attack between speed and strength
  • Cheetahs- get strong and jacked

I recommend these articles to get some ideas for simple program variations that will score big with adaptations:

Conclusion

This ‘Get started with Velocity Based Training 3-week program’ / data gathering guide was designed to help coaches more easily implement VBT. Whether you are brand new to VBT or have been using VBT, this is a simple way to implement and utilize VBT in a highly effective way. The data will be captured. as long as you run the above plan Then you simply need to run the reports. I will show you how to better run the reports and assess the data in the accompanying video. 

There are four major advantages of implementing this three week guide:

  1. Allows the coach to individualize at scale– the program doesn’t have to look completely different. Small changes can make huge differences, and I outline those small changes in “Practical Uses for the Dynamic Strength Index”.
  2. Establishes a baseline to monitor progress– the GymAware Cloud will monitor a lot of the progress simply by collecting the data ongoing. 
  3. Easy to assess new athletes coming into the program– by making the testing protocol look like a typical training block, it’s easy to onboard a new athlete along with a current group of athletes.
  4. The immediate feedback from the GymAware RS or FLEX will increase effort– this point is well documented especially with the visual feedback supplied by either app. 

Lastly, I want to be clear about one major point. A coach or their current program cannot be replaced by Velocity Based Training. It enhances the coach’s program with objective data making the system more precise. Moreover, this training method allows coaches to show athletes, parents, and athletic directors clear data regarding the improvements their athletes are making. Buy-in has never been easier. An experienced coach has already developed an eye that can see velocity improvements and bar path, but none of us can give exact numbers. VBT is a way of giving the rest of the world a look into what our brains already see. 

References

  1. MacSweeney NDH, Shaw JW, Simkin GP, et al. Jumping Asymmetries and Risk of Injuries in Preprofessional Ballet. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2024;52(2):492-502. doi:10.1177/03635465231218258
  2. Van Hooren, B., & Zolotarjova, J. (2017). The Difference Between Countermovement and Squat Jump Performances: A Review of Underlying Mechanisms With Practical Applications. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 31(7), 2011-2020. https

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    Coach Travis Mash

    Travis Mash

    Being a World Champion in powerlifting, Travis competed at a world-class level in Olympic weightlifting and has coached professional Olympic weightlifters alongside Don McCauley and Glenn Pendlay at Team MDUSA. Now Travis coaches the most successful weightlifting team in the USA.