RATE OF FORCE DEVELOPMENT

Rate of force development (RFD) is probably the most important aspect of training for athletes. Unfortunately most athletes today have been brainwashed by bodybuilding magazines. Coaches for that matter also. Bodybuilding is a great sport, but it is unique to itself.
RFD is defined as the ability of an athlete to be explosive in as little time as possible. When you see a talented wide receiver run a slant, and the corner bites, and then just as quickly the wide receiver cuts back outside, you understand RFD. I believe it all starts with Sir Isaac Newton's law F=MA or force equals mass times acceleration. When you walk into a commercial gym and see the average person working out, it is rare that you see any explosive lifting. These people are only working the M side of this equation. If A stays the same and the M is increased, then F will increase. Unfortunately if you don't train A what will happen? A will actually decrease and lessen the chance of F increasing. If the individual would train to improve M and A simultaneously or alternate focusing in on improving M or A then the force the athlete could deliver would be much improved.
Speed of movement or A can be measured in a few different ways. Some clinics have a Cybex machine and a variety of other measuring devices that unfortunately are prohibitively expensive or not practical from a sports perspective. This can be referred to as angular velocity.
You will go to track and field events when timing of the 100m, 200m, 400m, etc take place. Unfortunately that technology is not for such short and explosive movements as the squat. But, we still have the mighty stopwatch. I have used this to measure squats and bench presses, as I have mentioned in previous articles. Great stuff.
But another way is to assign numbers to the various segments of the movements. Ian King and Charles Poliquin assigned numbers to the eccentric or E (lowering), transitional or T (at the bottom of the squat, on the chest in the bench), and the concentric or C (against gravity portion of the bench and squat) portions of the lift. When you see the numbers 3/2/1 that would represent the E/T/C portions of the lift.
The C portion is the part of the lift most people absolutely ignore. It drives me crazy wacko nutso delirious. I think you get my point. You have to be explosive in that portion. As Ian King says "The power athlete cannot afford to spend more than 10-20% (as a generalization) of their total strength training time using a number greater than 1 as the third number". He also states "try to go fast". "This is rarely done". That hits me right between the eyes. Kids especially do not have the foggiest idea on that. RFD is only developed when you train explosively. Start training like "the numbers" or get that stopwatch out and start timing your reps!
Most of the articles that you read in bodybuilding magazines and many personal trainer programs either discourage speed lifts or makes no mention of it. Very disappointing when you think about it.
I will always be discussing this in a variety of ways within different topics. I will be writing something on neural versus metabolic approaches to training. Any question, I can be contacted at acudave@yahoo.com.