By Tom Robinson, NFLHS.com
NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Bill Parisi has the same goal as many coaches and training specialists.
Parisi wants to help the athletes he works with become faster.
As Parisi told those in attendance at the NFL Youth Football Summit, sometimes pursuing the opposite goal can help develop speed.
"Deceleration is the most critical motor skill to demonstrate game speed and prevent injury," said Parisi, the founder of Parisi Speed School, during his Performance Training Methods for Football educational session Wednesday.
Parisi, a former track All-American, had examples that football enthusiasts could understand.
Pictures of Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders flashed on the screen behind him. They have more in common than occupying the top three spots on the National Football League's list of career rushing leaders. Their common traits have Payton and Sanders in the Hall of Fame, just miles down the road from the seminar, and Smith, the game's all-time leader just waiting for his turn.
Together, Smith, Payton and Sanders rushed for more than 50,000 in their careers (18,355 for Smith; 16,726 for Payton; and 15,269 for Sanders).
"Put them all at the goal line and ask them to sprint 100 yards and they were not going to win a race with their teammates," Parisi said. "What they have in common is the ability to stop better than anyone else. They slowed down better than anyone else."
That observation left Parisi with a key question to the youth and high school football coaches that were invited to come in from all 50 states to attend the summit.
"Have you ever thought about deceleration training?" he asked.
Chances are most of them are thinking about it now.
Parisi would be the last person to dismiss the importance of a 40-yard dash time in assessing athletic ability. In addition to helping develop young athletes, one of the strongest claims that he can use to back the effectiveness of his approach is that he has helped prepare more than 100 athletes who went through the NFL Combine on the way to being drafted.
"Maybe you think about it on punt and kickoff coverage, breaking down and knowing how to decelerate," Parisi said. "The ability to slow down determines how quick you can change direction.
"The faster we can slow down determines how quick you can be inside that 20-yard box. So much of all sports is about a 20-yard box."
Changing directions and speeds within those tight confines can translate to success just as pure speed does.
Among Parisi's suggestions are ending each sprint with breaking down into a position ready to change directions rather than going full speed to a certain point and then not giving thought to the process of stopping from there.
Parisi demonstrated the proper mechanics, including a low center of gravity, to develop the explosiveness needed for changes in speed. To help develop that process, Parisi encouraged rethinking the types of stretching done at the beginning of a team practice or individual workout.
The proper warm-up, according to Parisi: triggers key joints to increase range of motion, raises the core body temperature; and increases blood flow to local musculature. All of these put joints in the proper position to produce speed.
More information about Parisi's suggested training methods can be found at www.parisischool.com.
Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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