Year-Round College Football Training with the 1080 Sprint: An Interview with Director of Speed Development John Shaw

About John Shaw: John is currently the Director of Speed Development for the University of Washington football team. Previously, he held this same position at the University of Arizona and University of Missouri. Prior to joining the college football ranks, Shaw spent 12 years coaching and mentoring high school athletes in Alabama and Mississippi

Q: How are you using the 1080 for assessment?

A: Yes, assessment is a key aspect of establishing our speed programming. Like many 1080 users, we also create a Load-Velocity Profile. Our protocol includes four sprints of as follows:

15m @ 15kg

20m @ 10kg

25m @ 5kg

30m @ 1kg

From here, we find each athletes strengths and weaknesses and bucket them as either Force Deficiency or Velocity Deficiency. However, each player has their individualized load to accomplish and enhance the qualities we are attempting to improve.

Q: Let’s start with the off-season. Tell us about your winter strength & conditioning program.

A: Winter programming is used to build a foundation and prepare for the demands of spring practice. This phase is focused on gradually building sprint capacity while focusing on acceleration and maximal velocity technique to improve biomechanical efficiency.

Q: Clearly, the summer months are an important training period to prepare for the demands of the pre-season Fall camp and the competitive season. What is your plan during this phase of training?

A: Yes, stepping back into spring for a moment, we will continue to build capacity to lead us into the intense and focused summer training phase.

The Summer training phase starts with a focus on Force/Power (Acceleration) and moves towards Speed-Strength and maximal velocity, what we call MAX V or Velocity, as we get closer to Fall pre-season camp at the start of August.

More specifically, we split our programming based on position. Bigs (offensive and defensive lineman) will spend more time in the Force/Power phase, while the Mids (tight ends and linebackers) and Skills (running backs, defensive backs and receivers) move into our speed-strength and Velocity phases a lot quicker due to the demands of their positions. We also have an Advanced group that will move to Velocity quicker than everyone else and also include some assisted sprinting using the 1080 as well.

Q: I know that you are big into “Game Speed”. Tell us a little about this idea.

A: As I mentioned, we are focusing more on MAX V towards the end of the summer, but it’s not only linear speed development. We really start to focus on Game Speed, which is really the most important because what the athlete can do between the white lines during the game is ultimately what matters.

In this phase, we apply our newfound linear sprinting speed to the actual game of football. We want to create better athletes and football players, not just guys that can run fast. We need our players to play fast not just run fast linearly!

Q: Ok, now you have developed linear sprinting speed in the off-season and transitioned to Game Speed during the pre-season. How do you maintain or continue to develop speed during the competitive season?

A: We actually focus on continuing to improve our ability to sprint fast during the in-season. We aim to reach our fastest sprinting speeds of the year in our last week of the season. This year we were able to do so with several players hitting new personal records the week of the Bowl game in December.

In order to achieve this goal, we move in and out of each phase (Force/Power, Speed-Strength, Velocity) based on each player’s current profile. What we have observed is that our athletes are practicing faster and feel primed and ready to compete on game day after our speed sessions.

It’s important to note that the speed sessions are conducted during our weight room sessions. The strength training session is programmed in conjunction with the speed work, which is very important in this process. The head strength and conditioning coach, Tyler Owens, has created a system in the weight room that has allowed our players to continue to get stronger and more explosive in-season. I program the speed work based on the weight room plan which, in my opinion, has allowed us to accomplish our goals. Without the weight room work the speed work doesn’t accomplish what we need to get done – this integration is an integral part of the success of the program.

Q: Are you using the 1080 in Return to Play protocols to get players back on the field following injury?

A: Yes, we use our 1080 sprints in conjunction with our sports medicine department, who do a tremendous job keeping our players healthy and ready to go. We use the data and numbers we have from our 1080 sessions to get players back as soon as possible. We have created a plan that has served us well and given us opportunity to not only get players back, but we have even seen players come back better than they were before.

The 1080 allows us to know exactly where a player is, it takes the guess work out of it and has also helped us get players over the mental hurdle they face returning from injury. They are able to look at the data and see exactly where they are, which only confirms what our Sports Medicine Team has already told them.

Our Return to Play Running Plan consists of gradually introducing technical work, which moves into a gradual re-introduction into sprint work until we are back to full sprinting speed. Importantly, this program has allowed our players to gain full confidence in their ability to compete at a high level on the field.