As a first for our Online Academy, we’ve now published a course developed by an external education partner. Here, our Alex Bonell presents PhD student, college professor and experienced coach Matt Ibrahim’s lecture on science-based deceleration training.

In today’s modern sports performance training, athletic performance is focused on power and rate of force development (RFD), with methods like velocity-based training (VBT) gaining a lot of interest and having a massive impact in S&C at the highest level. Evidence is abundant and overwhelming: we need to get stronger, we need to get faster and more explosive to perform. Yet these approaches tend to forget the “other side” of the force velocity curve, and that is where most injuries tend to occur. Fast deceleration after sprinting, landings and changes of direction (COD) are just some of the most common high-fast eccentric actions we see in the fields and courts.

Being fast and able to produce high concentric forces is as important as being able to absorb them in a controlled and safe manner. Think of it this way, would you feel safe driving a Ferrari with no brakes? That’s what I thought…

“Would you feel safe driving a Ferrari with no brakes?”

If you want your athletes to perform and remain injury-free throughout the season, you need a well rounded approach that covers and ticks all the boxes. Strength has many forms, and so has the preparation and work you put in the weightlifting room.

Flywheel training covers most of the aforementioned aspects, offering maximal concentric, isometric and eccentric contractions in a controlled and safe environment. On top of that, flywheel technology has been scientifically proven to be an effective method towards hypertrophy and gaining strength.

Both the kBox and kPulley make it ridiculously easy and accessible to attain high concentric and eccentric loads, while tracking the force and power output via the kMeter feedback system.

We recently partnered up with PhD student, college professor and coach with 10+ years of experience, Matthew Ibrahim, as we want to offer you an evidence-based approach on deceleration training and its practical applications in the real world.

In the new course Building The Brakes: Deceleration Training, Matthew takes you through the latest research on deceleration training for the purpose of maximizing athletic performance and reducing the likelihood of lower body injuries.

As we dig deeper into the science and research, you’ll be given numerous training examples with progressions and regressions, that will help you better understand the importance of deceleration, force absorption and landing mechanics.