Speed/Agility/Plyo Program
 

So I'm planning on putting together a hybrid speed/agility/plyo/oly program (ya i know lots of things I'm trying to address), kinda like Gant's hybrid program but more focused on speed and agility (I play soccer for UIC). I know I need to watch out for over-training and doing too much on one day since sprints, plyos, and oly lifts are all CNS taxing. Any other things I need to watch out for or tips you guys and gals might have for when I'm putting the program together? I've been reading a bunch of articles online and on here and Xfit so I got a good base to work off of. Also does anyone have a program similar to this something I could take a look at? Thanks for all any any input.

I'm also trying to figure out a way to make that mix work out right. I'd be interested in seeing the routine you come up with.

Plyo probably 2x a week max (maybe less, heh) if you're also doing lifting/sprinting/agility.

Why don't you talk to an S&C coach for say a college program or something?

Ya I'm gonna start working on it tomorrow. Only problem I'm really seeing is that most of msprinting is conditioned based i.e. shuttle runs, not 50 or 100m sprints with full rest, so I won't really be working on speed by doing that. I have the full summer conditioning program our trainer gave us and it has 7-8 different "sprint" workouts, so I'm thinking I'll just sub 3-4 of those "sprint" workouts with real speed work.

Okay so I'm initially thinking of doing 2 or 3 weightlifting workouts a week, MWF. I was thinking M and F do oly lifts and W do some sort of WOD.

Monday: plyo/agility work followed by oly lifts
Tuesday: sprint conditioning
Wednesday: LSD run (I'll explain this more later) followed by possible WOD
Thursday: plyo/agility work
Friday: sprint work followed by oly lifts

This however brings me to a question. With so much sprinting/plyos/agility would it be smarter to just do 2 oly workouts a week and not do any lifting on W? My thinking is that with so much CNS taxing work 2 days of oly lifting should be enough and an extra rest day couldn't hurt.

Also my LSD run consists of running a mile at a 7:30 minute pace. However each week I will be adding on an extra quarter mile and making sure I stay on a 7:30 pace (in order to accomplish this each quarter mile must be completed in 1:52, which in actuality is a 7:28 minute pace). I am doing this because my goal by the end of March is to run 8 miles in 60 minutes (this is a good test of conditioning in the soccer world). I'm thinking I'll be able to handle this workload since my LSD run progresses pretty slowly so by the time it does hit higher mileage my body will have adapted to the load.

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I have a nice list of plyo exercises to pick from, and on the days I will be doing plyos it will only be 2-3 max exercises done with full rest. Same thing goes for my sprint speed work. I'll be doing sprints at various distances of no more than 50m (maybe occasionally a few 100M), with full rest, timing them and stopping once my times stop decreasing. I have a speed parachute which I'm looking forward to using

I have the UIC soccer summer program and I'll be honest most of it goes against everything I've learned here and on Xfit. They perform long weightlifting workouts MWF which don't really focus on oly lifts followed by "sprints" which are all sprint conditioning, there is no real speed work. Same thing goes for some of the agility work but ill just be modifying those by adding more rest. And most of the coaches at my school are too busy to sit down with you and put together a personalized program.

so someone on the Xfit boards just replied and said my LSD run isn't a good test of soccer conditioning and said that trying a:

Run 40 seconds: rest 20 seconds x 16 for distance

would be a better test of true soccer conditioning. I like that idea :D

I'd say:
Sun: Agility
Monday: plyo work followed by oly lifts
Tuesday: sprint conditioning
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: plyo/agility work, (rest break >1 hrs), LSD work (soccer cond)
Friday: Oly lifts, sprint work
Sat: Rest

~Better rest split up instead of two consecutive days.. allows better recovery.
~Focus on agility when fresh once, another when fatigued (thurs)
~LSD after plyo/agility after a rest break
~Sprint work before oly is.. a good way to get poor technique/movement patterns. Reversed that Fri.
~Maybe add something else Sun if it's too easy.

Once again Steven, thank you so much for your input I can always trust your judgement. One quick questions. How many exercises should I do on oly days and should they vary each time? Should i do the same lifts for lets say 3 weeks and then rotate them with another group of lifts and keep rotating lifts every few weeks? Thanks again.

I can agree with what Steven recommends.

As for which lifts. That's always a tough choice. Some will say stick to a few. I'd recommend doing deadlift on only one day, squatting and pressing each time, and doing power cleans at least once a week (this based on its ability to really increase your jumping power). Can always bench too.

I do think that another legitimate option for you is to do a starting strength type of program for a couple months and then slow start including speed/agility work (or as I think I said at CF do starting strength + 1 WOD/speed/agi workout