Contents
Guide
Pagebreaks of the print version
Velocity-Based Training
How to Apply Science, Technology, and Data to Maximize Performance
Nunzio Signore
CSCS, NASM, FMS
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Signore, Nunzio, 1962- author.
Title: Velocity-based training : how to apply science, technology, and data to maximize performance / Nunzio Signore.
Description: Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics Inc., [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020054190 (print) | LCCN 2020054191 (ebook) | ISBN 9781492599951 (paperback) | ISBN 9781492599968 (epub) | ISBN 9781492599975 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Athletes--Training of. | Sports--Technological innovations. | Speed.
Classification: LCC GV711.5 .S56 2022 (print) | LCC GV711.5 (ebook) | DDC 613.7/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054190
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054191
ISBN: 978-1-4925-9995-1 (print)
Copyright 2022 by Nunzio Signore
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This book is dedicated to my wife, Tracey, and my daughter, Maia, for putting up with my crazy and constant desire to learn and create, which can render me temporarily unavailableeven when Im home and many times in the same room. This was no more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we quarantined for four months in our home in New York.
Contents
Foreword
Nunzio Signore is one of the most passionate, intelligent, and infinitely curious coaches in the strength and conditioning profession. As he proves in this book, he is rapidly becoming a pioneer and one of the go-to guys for everything related to velocity-based training (VBT). His work has been an inspiration to us here at the Florida Baseball Ranch, where we train high-level throwing athletes. We have been utilizing VBT for a little over a year, and our results are remarkable. The introduction of VBT to our process has amped up our trainings specificity while providing objective, measurable feedback and fresh motivation for our athletes.
When it comes to getting the best return on training time, specificity rules. Most coaches and instructors would agree that to get the most bang for your training buck, the activities you choose should be as specific as possible to the performance outcome you desire. Throughout strength trainings history, many well-intentioned coaches with incomplete information (myself included) have overused, misinterpreted, and misapplied this concept of specificity. Somewhere along the way, in our pursuit of specific outcomes, solid strength training practices morphed into a load-averse process that became known as functional training. The original idea may have been sound, but its application watered down the results.
Nunzio Signore understands that while a solid foundation in traditional slow, heavy lifting is vital for any athlete, it doesnt address the temporal dimension of specificity. For high-intensity sports skills that present significant time constraints, traditional strengthening may not be enough to train an athlete to produce force quickly enough to meet the demands of competition. VBT, by providing external feedback on the speed at which we are moving either our body or an object, brings attention to not only the force side of the power equation, but the velocity side as well, helping to solve this dilemma.
VBT also takes care of the biotensegral dimension. Muscles dont sit on bones ready to produce power, coordinate and control your movements, or protect inert, non-contractile tissue (such as ligaments, bones, fascia, and joints). They hang off like a sagging rope. Before you can express power, coordinate and control your body, or protect inert tissue, you must remove the slack from the system. In a high-intensity, athletic movement, the best way to remove muscle slack is through isometric co-contraction of all the muscles around a joint or limb. When co-contractions are properly sequenced and synergized throughout the kinetic chain, several benefits are attained: sheer forces are dampened, power is amplified, and connective tissue is protectively wrapped in a blanket of stability. The movement becomes smooth and effortless, and the athlete can accomplish task-related goals while conserving energy and minimizing injury risk.