Force or Velocity? Pack Both! by Colin Masterson

Force vs. Velocity: What's the difference?

When it comes to sports performance coaches like to pick one side of the fence or other. Some will want to train for force (using heavy mass and low acceleration). Others will stand on the other side of the fence, track coaches, and train for velocity (moving something light, fast)

What if we trained for both?

I get it people will say you should have phases of training. Maybe you do a hypertrophy block, followed by a strength block which leads you into a power/velocity block. Check this out; what if we ran a vertically integrated model where all characteristics were present.

✅ Strength
✅ Speed
✅ Power
✅ Hypertrophy

When I train my youth athletes, that is generally how I will train them. With my more advanced athletes, high school/college, they may train for a more specific adaptation over the course of 4-6 weeks, but I usually run vertical integration with them as well.

Here’s how I accomplished this:

Sunday - Recovery, Sweat, Correctives
Monday - Off
Tuesday - Total body Strength - Lower
Wednesday -
Thursday - Total Body Strength - Upper
Friday - Speed/Power
Saturday - Gameday

The two lifting days usually look like this:

5-8 mins warm-up
7-10 mins - Power/Speed (Medballs, plyos)
10-12 mins - Strength Block
10-12 mins - Strength Block
5-7 Mins - Hypertrophy/correctives
1-2 min cooldown/breakdown