This year Immaculata High School added a Sports Academy program for volleyball, soccer and basketball. And Okanagan Peak Performance Inc has been helping out with the strength and conditioning for this program. This morning we spent a good portion of the training session working on speed. And there a number of cues for speed to apply to almost every sport. Below are a number of things that were shared with the athletes to improve their speed 1. Knee Up - Toe Up One of the biggest factors that distinguish a runner from a sprinter is the degree of knee lift. The best sprinters in the world will flex the knee and hip to lift the frontside leg. [caption id="attachment_5282" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Knee up toe up on the front side leg. Runners on the other hand have minimal frontside knee and hip flexion. [caption id="attachment_5286" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Runners have less knee lift compared to sprinters. As for the toe up position this is what we refer to as a dorsi-flexed position. Toes pointed down is called plantar flexed. In order to take advantage of the stretch shortening cycle and elastic potential of the foot and ankle we want to be in the toe up position. 2. Longer is StrongerA longer core is a more stable core. If you trace from your tail bone to the base of your skull at the back of your head you can get an appreciation of the length of your spine. A taller posture lends to more stability than a shortened or slumped posture. The next time you watch a race pay attention to how tall the better athletes are compared to the later finishers. What I mean by tall is whether or not they get shorter with ground contact or not? If they can stay tall they...