Velocity-Based Training in American Football: From research to real on-field results

Discover how Velocity-Based Training (VBT) transforms American football performance by using bar speed to guide load, manage fatigue, and boost power on the field. Learn practical strategies, position-specific insights, and research-backed metrics to train smarter and get measurable results.

By Travis Mash

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Introduction

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m passionate about merging the worlds of strength training and performance on the field. Velocity-Based Training (VBT) is one of the most exciting tools we have for doing just that. I am seeing more coaches jumping onboard daily making now a great time to write this article.

VBT is simple in theory: instead of programming loads based solely on a percentage of a 1-rep max (%1RM), you program and adjust loads in real time based on how fast the barbell or body is moving. We’re talking bar speed, not just weight. This method doesn’t guess how an athlete feels today, but instead it tells you with hard numbers.

The Strength & Conditioning Journal published an article by (Mann, J. Bryan, et al., 2015) looking at all of the research and evidence regarding VBT’s potential uses in American Football to create a statement of its effectiveness and possible limitations. The statement found the data was clearly in favor of implementing VBT to create profiles for individual athletes, and then creating protocols to target the adaptations of  the individual athlete based on their VBT profile and position on the field. 

VBT is the best tool we have for dialing in the right load to stimulate the specific adaptation whether it’s strength, power, or speed. It helps manage fatigue, keeps athletes locked in with real-time feedback, and improves power production by the very nature of the immediate feedback encouraging maximum effort. At the end of the day, more power means better results on the field.

Image 1 Explosive Power

It was two years ago when I first became Head of Sports Science at Rise Indoor Sports, and I was watching our athletes perform squats. It was everything that coaches have come to expect with high school football athletes: ego lifting, no specificity in regards to their sport, and no specificity in regards to the individual. I immediately implemented VBT with GymAware RS units along with specific technical demands (full-depth, maintain neutral spine, minimal change in torso angle, and knees aligned with toes), and the change was immediate. 

The athletes had something to chase besides load, and that was a specific velocity. They were also judged based on relative power (power/kg) versus 1RM with an ongoing leaderboard to entice healthy competition based on velocity and load. At that moment, we had a whole new culture.

For football, this is a game changer. Coaches all agree power, explosiveness, and reactivity are what win the day on the field. VBT gives us a precise method to test, monitor, and train those qualities while accounting for readiness, managing fatigue, and adapting to the specific demands of each position and individual. 

VBT has never been more available making this the perfect time for this article. VBT is already in most universities, and now VBT is finding its way into several high schools. The principle of specificity, also known as the S.A.I.D. Principle makes it clear that specificity should be the first consideration of any performance program. It’s important to be strong, but it’s more important to be able to create force at high velocities. High amounts of force at high velocities apply more to jumping high and running fast than simply being strong. VBT is the only way to ensure that your athletes are trending in the right direction to maximize overall power production and athletic performance. 

GymAware has made it affordable for high schools to implement VBT with the FLEX unit. The main point I want to stress is that I don’t want any of you coaches or athletes getting left behind by not implementing this simple method. The time has never been better than right now.

The case against %1RM: why football programs are moving to VBT

For decades, strength coaches lived and died by percentages of 1RM. But here’s the problem: %1RM doesn’t account for how an athlete feels today. Stress from practice, school, relationships, or even just a poor night’s sleep, all of that affects performance. The %1RM you wrote on the whiteboard doesn’t account for any of this. The barbell velocity does account for these extra stressors.

Limitations of %1RM

  • Ignores daily fluctuations in neuromuscular readiness
  • Doesn’t reflect true intensity on any given day
  • Can lead to overreaching or undertraining without feedback

What VBT offers instead

  • Auto-regulation in real-time: No need to wait and see how hard a set felt. The bar speed tells you.
  • Immediate feedback: Athletes love seeing numbers climb. Motivation skyrockets.
  • Precise loading: Tailor training daily, aligning with the athlete’s current capacity, position on the field, and his individual needs.

Breaking down Dr. Bryan Mann’s VBT research for football

In (Mann, J. Bryan et al., 2015), Dr. Bryan Mann and his colleagues’ work is foundational in bringing VBT to football. Their research shows that velocity correlates tightly with improving power outputs, detecting readiness to perform, and ensuring the optimal amount of daily stress is being applied. Their findings? Traditional programming misses the boat when it comes to day-to-day adjustments, and football athletes, from linemen to skill players, respond better to training aligned with bar speeds that reflect the demands of their position.

Takeaway for Coaches

  • VBT makes it easy to be specific. Linemen don’t need to be moving weights at 1.0 m/s; skill players do.
  • Training at appropriate velocities yields better transfer to performance.
  • Fatigue management becomes measurable, not guesswork.

If you’ve followed strength and conditioning in American football for any length of time, then you’ve likely heard the name Dr. Bryan Mann. His work is really what brought Velocity-Based Training (VBT) into the mainstream for our sport. What he did was take the guesswork out of bar speed and show us, with hard data, how training with specific barbell velocities directly impacts the qualities we’re trying to build in football athletes: power, strength-speed (power development), and speed-strength (explosive strength).

Dr. Mann’s research pointed out one of the biggest flaws in traditional percentage-based training: it ignores the athlete’s readiness on a given day. You might write down 85% on the sheet, but the bar speed tells you whether that’s 85% today or 95% because the athlete is fatigued. Dr. Mann and his colleagues make it clear that on any given day an athlete’s 1RM can vary 15-18% up or down. That means on any given day, 85% of an athlete’s 1RM might be 67% or 103%, a 36% swing makes it difficult. VBT solves that problem with real-time feedback.

Here’s the big takeaway: velocity gives us a reliable, objective measure to ensure we’re training the right quality with the right load at the right time. Whether it’s max strength, power, speed-strength, or hypertrophy, there’s a velocity zone and an optimal amount of velocity loss that aligns with the adaptation we’re chasing.

Why It matters for football

Football is about producing force fast. Period. If your weight room work isn’t transferring to faster sprint times, better jumps, and more explosive change of direction, then you’re missing the mark. Bryan Mann’s work showed that when athletes train within specific velocity ranges, power output goes up and that translates to on-field performance. Collegiate programs using VBT have seen measurable improvements in power metrics, which directly correlate with better acceleration and top-end speed.

Key points coaches should understand

Auto-regulation

VBT adjusts the load to the athlete’s readiness on that day. It captures how external stressors like school, practice, & life outside of football impact performance. VBT outperforms more subjective methods like Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and Repetitions in Reserve (RIR) because these subjective methods can’t be used until an athlete has performed a work set and potentially causing even more fatigue. VBT will detect excessive fatigue during the warm up sets allowing coaches to implement specific protocols for different levels of fatigue. Example:

  1. typical velocities for specific warm ups sets are 0-5% slower than normal and require no change in programming
  2. 5-10% slower than normal and requires a decrease in volume and/or load of 10-20%, and
  3. Velocities greater than 10% and requires a complete change in programming to a concentric only recovery protocol.

Specificity

Each position group linemen, skill players, specialists, etc. train at different velocities to reflect their unique demands by increasing the amount of force produced at specific given velocities. Example 1 (.75m/s to 1.0m/s) for linemen to maximize strength speed and high velocity power production, example 2 (1.09m/s) for receivers exploding off of the line of scrimmage, and starting strength is the athlete’s ability to overcome inertia which is best displayed between 1.3m/s and 1.8m/s with the gap reflective on the amplitude of the exercise (smaller amplitude movements like squats and benches is closer to 1.3 m/s and greater amplitude movements like hang cleans at 1.8m/s). Plus, velocity loss thresholds let us dial in whether we’re pushing for power retention or hypertrophy. Football is made up of a very diverse group of athletes with each position requiring very specific athletic skills and specific anthropometrics. Specificity in the way each athlete is coached is an absolute requirement.

Immediate Feedback

Athletes are competitive by nature. Seeing live data fuels intent and effort. This works in one of a few ways: the ding from the bell signifying the rep met the intended velocity along with the actual velocity for the rep, provides immediate feedback motivating the athlete to push even harder during the succeeding reps, the data displayed on a leaderboard motivates athletes by inducing competition between athletes, and finally the collection of data from past workouts motivate athletes to exceed velocities recorded during preceding weeks. Read more about the basic benefits of VBT in our article ‘Velocity-Based Training’.

Objective Fatigue Management

VBT helps the staff, especially during the season, to monitor the varying levels of fatigue experienced by the different athletes (starters, second string, redshirts, etc), and to prescribe the appropriate load based on that level of fatigue. Fatigue management protocols make VBT difference makers for the strength coach, possibly preventing injuries from excess fatigue levels while providing the ideal stimulus to induce the desired adaptation.

In my own coaching, I’ve seen the same thing Bryan Mann did. VBT, applied properly, leads to athletes moving better, producing more force, and staying healthier. It keeps us from overshooting or undershooting, and it gives athletes something tangible to chase every session. It also ensures that each athlete is trained based on their specific position and individual needs.

At the end of the day, it’s not about technology for technology’s sake. It’s about getting results on the field. That’s why VBT belongs in football. Dr. Mann has been a major mentor to me, and has immensely influenced the way I use VBT and coach my athletes. I wanted to highlight his insights first, and now I want to go into some of the more recent uses of VBT.

The science behind VBT: key metrics that actually improve football performance

If you’re serious about using VBT in football, you must understand these tools because this is where the magic happens. We use these tests to identify the specific strengths in each of our athletes along with identifying the areas that need improvement. These tests allow for a bit more specificity.

Testing for Specificity

Load–Velocity Profiling

Establishes how an athlete’s speed changes with load. Crucial for setting baselines and adjusting daily loads based on fatigue. Each quality of strength relates to specific physiological qualities, which identifies potential areas that need addressing. For Example:

  1. Starting Strength >1.3m/s with weakness in this area relating to rate coding, muscle fiber type, muscle coordination (Antagonist/Agonist), and Stretch Shortening Cycle/Elasticity (when using dynamic movements with a concentric and eccentric portion). You can read the adaptations that take place during concentric contractions and the ones during eccentric contractions to understand these a bit better.
  2. Speed Strength 1-1.3m/s or explosive strength and the ability to move light loads at a high velocity. This is a measure of high velocity driven power, so rate coding, SSC, and elasticity are still important.
  3. Strength Speed .75-1.0m/s is where maximum power is normally produced with ~.83-.88m/s being the goal because this will relate to high velocity driven power that is functional on the field of play.
  4. Accelerative Strength .5-.75m/s which relates to strength specific hypertrophy, improved tendon quality, and high threshold motor units maximized for synchronization.
  5. Absolute Strength happens at <.5m/s and relates to Peak Force Capability.
Dynamic Strength Index (DSI)

Tells you whether an athlete needs more strength or more speed work. It’s a test of an athlete’s maximum capabilities of peak force production versus how much of that capability is used during explosive movements like jumps and runs. Here’s a complete look at the test, how to implement it, and how to respond to the results: Practical Uses of the Dynamic Strength Index.

Reactive Strength Index (RSI)

This test looks at the neuromuscular system including the SSC efficiency, rate coding, elasticity, connective tissue, and all physiological components that resist stretch and lead to massive amounts of passive force production. RSI is a true measure of explosiveness, SSC (stretch-shortening cycle) efficiency, and is a close look at the components responsible for extraordinary athleticism. Athletes like Usain Bolt, Michael Jordan, and Barry Sanders are all going to have massive RSI’s. Here’s a look at how to implement RSI testing and the proper response to specific scores: ‘Reactive Strength Index in Sports’.

Minimum Velocity Threshold (MVT)

MVT is linked to true max strength. Once you know an athlete’s MVT, you can better estimate an athlete’s true 1 repetition maximum along with daily fatigue and strength levels. For example, the MVT for a back squat is .3 m/s for most high level football players and .18-.2 m/s for the bench and deadlift. Knowing that athletes fail at these corresponding velocities allow us to estimate the percentage of 1RM that a given load corresponds to on any given day. 

These MVT’s also allow us to estimate 1RM’s for an athlete without actually having them risk injury with maxing out. This is another benefit that isn’t emphasized by (Mann, J. Bryan et al., 2015). I personally use 1RM estimations for testing my athletes’ DSI. This allows me to monitor trend improvements without maxing out every four to five weeks.

Velocity Loss Thresholds

Velocity loss thresholds are touched upon in (Mann, J. Bryan et al., 2015). This is a look at the difference between the velocity of the first one or two reps and the final rep in a set. A certain amount of velocity loss is required for hypertrophy, but not really for power and speed. 

  • ≤20-25% loss: maximizes a high degree of hypertrophy and strength gains while maintaining power outputs and muscle fiber type.
  • 30%+ loss: Chase hypertrophy or fatigue-based adaptations
    If you’re coaching football, understand this: not every session needs to fry your athletes. VBT tells you when enough is enough. I explain velocity loss in a bit more detail in my article ‘Muscle Hypertrophy: Theory to Application’.

Overlooked mechanisms in VBT

Here are three more uses of VBT that could directly impact football.

Eccentric Velocity

Essential for AEL (accentuated eccentric loading), the eccentric velocity or time has to be measured to truly implement AEL. If you read my article about ‘Adaptations from Eccentric Contractions’, the adaptations from really emphasizing this contraction mode are all very important to power driven athletes: Type II Hypertrophy, improved elasticity & SSC, improved rate of force development, improved deceleration and acceleration, increased motor unit recruitment, and improved overall strength and power production. These adaptations are important to all football players particularly in offensive/defensive linemen, linebackers, and running backs needing resilience under load and athletes needing change of direction. Remember, you need to be testing, monitoring, and implementing specific protocols to ensure any type of adaptation.

Leaderboard/ Power-to-Bodyweight

Nothing fires up a locker room like competition. Once again, Dr. Mann mentions the importance of motivation in his research that I have referenced already, but he didn’t mention this element. It’s hard to compare a 300 pound lineman with a 180lb running back, but using GymAware’s leaderboard feature along with the power/kg of bodyweight really gets the energy flowing. This is where GymAware automatically takes the athlete’s power production divided by the athlete’s bodyweight to give a pound for pound power production score. This will ensure that each of your athletes will move any specific load as fast as possible.

Not only will this feature maximize power output, but it will also ensure maximum compensatory acceleration. Dr. Fred Hatfield taught all of us that we should accelerate throughout the entire range of motion of any lift, but the truth is that we rarely do that. However, if you read my article ‘The Size Principle’, compensatory acceleration is so important for maximum power, max strength, max connective tissue, and maximizing the rate of force production. All of these adaptations are crucial for athletes.

Bar Path tracking

Ensures technical efficiency especially important for athletes who aren’t “lifters” first. This is the most underutilized feature that is rare in the VBT world, but GymAware sports a great bar path feature for the GymAware RS unit and the FLEX unit. It’s a great tool for teaching intent & technique and getting buy-in. You tell an athlete to ‘sweep the bar in’ for the clean and ‘back and up off of the chest’ for the bench all you want, but an athlete has to see it.

When an athlete sees their bar path while watching their video performing the lift with the velocity output, it’s a great way to teach technique and get buy-in all at the same time. Plus, if an athlete is continually performing under the prescribed velocity, this is a great feature for determining if the velocity is due to fatigue or technique.

Why is the bar path important to football? Let’s look at the clean or snatch as examples. If you don’t perform the movement properly, the adaptations expected from the movement will be limited. If you want to perform a max lift with the greatest rate of force development, the barbell must travel in towards the body as it moves off of the floor. Plus, the athlete must stay over the bar during the first lift driving their feet through the floor for as long as possible to maximize acceleration, RFD, and power. Learn all about the bar path feature in this article: ‘Bar Path Tracking’.

How VBT directly impacts football players by Position and Type

Not every athlete on the roster needs the same training. That’s the beauty of VBT — it scales to the individual and the position. Let’s take a closer look.

How VBT directly impacts football players by Position

  • Linemen: Train heavier, slower movements to increase strength and to maximize hypertrophy (0.3–0.75 m/s) rarely going below .5m/s in the squat and .4m/s in the bench or deadlift to avoid failure and minimizing potential injury. Think squat, press, and deadlift/pull with as much AEL work as possible. They also need plenty of time between .75-1.0m/s to maximize power in preparation of collision at the line of scrimmage.
  • Power Driven Skill Players (linebackers, tightends, and running backs): Concurrent training for the most part with quality time at (.4-.75m/s) to maximize strength and hypertrophy. Train to move faster with lighter loads (1.0+ m/s). Think jumps, sprints, and weighted jumps. Of course maximum power is the main goal, so the focus really is .75m/s-1.0m/s with cleans, hang cleans, and/or trap bar jumps.
  • Speed Driven Skill Players (widereceiver and DBs): Concurrent training is still important with some time at (.4-.75m/s) to improve strength and hypertrophy. However, the majority of the focus is to train with faster, lighter loads (1.0+ m/s). Think jumps, sprints, and Real Plyometrics (Depth Jumps/Drop Jumps). Power is still important for acceleration off the line and in preparation of a collision, so some time is spent .75m/s-1.0m/s with cleans, hang cleans, and/or trap bar jumps.
  • Specialists: Hyper-specific, tailored to maintain explosiveness without unnecessary fatigue.

How VBT directly impacts football players by individual archetype

I also love the Gorilla, Kangaroo, Cheetah framework. I use the Dynamic Strength Index primarily along with the Force Velocity Profile to classify each individual athlete.

  • Gorillas: Strong, slow, grind-heavy athletes. These athletes need to spend quality time in the speed strength and starting strength zones along with a major focus on Plymometrics (Depth Jumps and Drop Jumps). Strength-speed is still very important. Finally, accelerative strength and absolute strength are still a part of the program, but the least amount of focus is placed here.
  • Kangaroos: Reactive, explosive, and what I call perfectly powerful. They need a more concurrent focus to continue moving the needle in this same trajectory.
  • Cheetahs: These are your speed demons but they lack force production. They need to get stronger and add some hypertrophy. They lack power production. They need more peak force production because they are currently utilizing nearly all of their available force capabilities.

VBT allows us to program for these archetypes simultaneously at scale. Programs don’t have to look completely different. For example, all of the athletes can back squat, but the gorillas will utilize slightly lighter bar weights for their squat with bands making up 25-40% of the load to increase the eccentric and concentric velocities. The cheetahs will use greater loads along with weight releasers. Kangaroos will squat with a progressive overload approach with concurrent plyometric work.

Building a VBT program for Football: from Profiling to Power

Step 1: Baseline Profiling

Analyze: What quality of strength should the athlete focus on improving? Each athlete should have velocities assigned to all specific loads. Loads will have maximum velocities assigned. Each athlete will be assigned daily readiness protocols with the lighter loads, and auto-regulation and fatigue management guidelines. Finally, how much attention should be given to reactive properties.

Step 2: Select Training Zones based on Archetype

  • Accelerative Strength (0.5-0.75 m/s): Cheetahs
  • Strength-Speed for Max Power (0.75-1.0 m/s): Kangaroos
  • Speed-Strength ⇒ Starting-Strength (1.0+ m/s): Gorrillas

Remember, each archetype will spend quality time in all velocity zones, but now each archetype has his focus. Then integrate plyometrics, throws, resisted sprints, and/or assisted sprints aligned with test results.

Step 3: Auto-Regulation and Daily Readiness

  • Warm-up bar speeds dictate adjustments
  • Velocity-loss thresholds protect from unnecessary fatigue and ensure proper adaptation.
  • Real-time feedback keeps athletes locked in, motivated, and competing.

Using VBT to prevent overtraining in Football and Managing Stress

Here’s the reality: football athletes aren’t just lifting weights. They’re managing class, practice, games, relationships, and life. VBT helps you see through the fog.

  • Daily load adjustments prevent overreaching during finals week, during increased loads from games or spring practice, or after an abnormally tough practice.
  • Life stressors impact bar speed—let the data guide you.
  • Fatigue Management Tools:
    – I go over each of these in the article that is linked above. Briefly, trap bar jumps are an easy test for the neuromuscular system at the beginning of each session right after the warm up. Subjective questionnaires are great for teaching athletes to understand levels of fatigue, and they help open up conversations with athletes for the coaches. Finally, warm-ups are assigned velocities to confirm readiness:
    -> Trap Bar Jumps for neuromuscular readiness
    -> Subjective questionnaires synced with objective VBT
    -> Warm-up bar speeds to confirm readiness

Top VBT tools & practical tips for Football

Common VBT technology types

  • LPTs
  • Laser-based
  • Camera-based
  • IMUs/ Accelerometers
  • Smartphone Apps

In early 2020, I was trying so many different velocity units because for one I wanted to implement VBT with my athletes, but more importantly, I wanted to spend my time working on my Masters in Exercise Science studying VBT. The problem with the camera systems and the accelerometers was the lack of accuracy and missing reps. That simply wouldn’t work for research or monitoring my athletes. Here’s a look at a VBT Buyer’s Guide I created: ‘VBT Buyer’s Guide’.

Data Logistics

The GymAware Cloud is a must if you are coaching top athletes. It’s imperative to monitor trends as a group and individually. Otherwise you are simply guessing. When an athlete or parent of an athlete asks me about their progress, I can tell them with an exact amount. Here are a few highlights:

  • Cloud-based tracking
  • Athlete profiles updated automatically
  • Easy integration with team management platforms
  • Tracks PRs, Testing, and makes monitoring easy.

Read my article about the GymAware Cloud to get all the details.

Data-based anecdotal evidence in Football

Here are two very simple ways to apply VBT that we have been using for the past two years with great success. 

1. Trap Bar Jumps at 50, 75, 100% bodyweight:

We have found direct correlations with improvements in power, jump height, and acceleration on the ShredMill and at the end improved 40-yard dash speeds with improved velocities at specific percentages of bodyweight. We measure the mean velocities of 50%, 75%, and 100% of each athlete’s bodyweight as the loads on the trap bar jump from the floor with a concentric focus on one day and trap bar jumps from the hang on another day later in the week. We wave load certain percentages of bodyweight past 100%, and then we allow the athlete to find their max load past bodyweight at specific velocities no slower than .75m/s mean velocity.

2. Back Squatting 100% of Bodyweight at a Velocity >1.0m/s:

Here’s the thing. First, the athletes that I am about to refer to are all double bodyweight back squatters. I must add that I am referring to below parallel squats performed with controlled torsos and demonstrating little to no knee valgus. Therefore, if your athletes don’t meet those requirements, step one is to work towards those standards.

After reaching those standards previously mentioned, we have found that back squatting with  100% BWT at >1.0 m/s yielded athletes with the faster sprint times, better verticals, and the greatest amounts of peak power development. To get them squatting at those velocities with 100% of bodyweight, we spent typical progressive overloading with loads greater than 100% and loads lighter than 100% of bodyweight to encourage higher rate coding. We used a lot of the previously  listed testing to determine exact protocols. One last note about this population is that their peak athletic performances came with peaking their mean velocities of the back squat with 100% of their bodyweight. You might consider this bit of information when writing your performance blocks within your macrocycles.

Team sport context

If you want proof that VBT works in real-life settings, look no further than this review of the research: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/10/5257.

Włodarczyk, Adamus, Zieliński, and Drapała (2021) looked at multiple studies across elite athletes, soccer, rugby, volleyball, even kayaking, and the results were clear. When athletes train using lower velocity-loss thresholds (10–20%), they make bigger gains in strength and power without accumulating unnecessary fatigue. I’ve seen the same thing in my own athletes. You keep that bar speed up, you keep the quality high, and you’re going to see results where it matters: squat numbers, jump height, and sprint speed.

What really stood out from this research was how powerful training in specific velocity zones can be. Whether you’re chasing strength-speed or speed-strength, dialing in those velocities helps athletes improve key explosive qualities like sprinting and jumping. 

Once again using real-time feedback, show similar gains as the Mann report with velocity feedback, leading to stronger, faster , and more powerful athletes on the field. Seeing that bar speed number pop up fires athletes up and pushes intent through the roof. 

When not to use VBT

Really, the only time I wouldn’t use VBT is when a coach isn’t familiar with the equipment. The coaches need to spend some time onboarding, so they’re not slowing practice down trying to figure things out. Otherwise, I recommend getting solid equipment like the GymAware RS or FLEX unit, and spend some time understanding the application and implementation. 

I would love to help any of you with application and implementation. Just email me at Travis@GymAware.com.

Conclusion: what I wish I knew starting out

If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this:  “Your athletes don’t need more weight on the bar. They need more power on the field.”

VBT offers a precision lens into each athlete’s performance, allowing us to load smarter, train harder, and keep our athletes motivated and progressing. If you want to see how I utilize VBT within my program to improve sprinting, you can check that article out here: ‘Improving Sprint Performance in the Gym’.

It’s not just science for science’s sake. It’s about wins on Friday nights and Saturdays. It’s about helping athletes reach their true potential without burning them out along the way.

Whether you’re coaching high school, college, or the pros, this tool is here to stay. Train smarter, compete harder, and use VBT to guide the way.

References

  1. Mann, J. Bryan PhD, CSCS1,2; Ivey, Patrick A. PhD2; Sayers, Stephen P. PhD1. Velocity-Based Training in Football. Strength and Conditioning Journal 37(6):p 52-57, December 2015. | DOI: 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000177 
  2. Włodarczyk, M., Adamus, A., Zieliński, J., & Drapała, J. (2021). Effects of velocity-based resistance training on strength and power in elite athletes—A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10), 5257. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105257
  3. González-Badillo, Juan & Pareja Blanco, Fernando & Rodriguez Rosell, David & Abad-Herencia, José & Ojo-López, Juan & Sánchez-Medina, Luis. (2014). Effects of Velocity-Based Resistance Training on Young Soccer Players of Different Ages. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000764. 
  4. Banyard HG, Nosaka K, Haff GG. Reliability and Validity of the Load-Velocity Relationship to Predict the 1RM Back Squat. J Strength Cond Res. 2017 Jul;31(7):1897-1904. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001657. PMID: 27669192.
  5. Jovanović, M., & Flanagan, E. P. (2014). Researched applications of velocity-based strength training. Journal of Australian Strength & Conditioning, 22(2), 58–69.
  6. National Strength and Conditioning Association. (2021). Velocity‑based training: From theory to application. Strength & Conditioning Journal. Retrieved from https://www.nsca.com/contentassets/7fc346ec744044b6871541e5a6ee5c63/velocity_based_training__from_theory_to.99257.pdf
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.