Like any sportsperson, Dr Ian Jeffreys was obsessed with speed. Whenever he trained, his eternal quest was to understand how he could get faster. Jeffreys soon doubled up as a researcher of sorts on the playing field, experimenting with his own strength and conditioning drills, which he realised held some of the answers.
But over time, it dawned upon him that speed was just one component of what made a complete athlete. For instance, a quick change of direction coupled with blistering pace would make a player quite a handful for any opposition. As he delved deeper, he realised the shortcoming of sports science that was so heavily reliant on numbers, as compared to building vital skills that could make all the difference on the field.
It drove him towards formulating his own theory of Gamespeed, complemented by an elaborate yet efficient warm-up routine called RAMP. This is a result of the many hours that Dr Ian put in to formulate the idea – first as a player and then as one of the top strength and conditioning exponents of the world. And over the last four decades, it has helped individuals and teams around the world get better at their craft.
Gamespeed decoded
A common assumption in sport is that an athlete who moves the fastest is the best. But developing raw speed doesn’t necessarily translate to success, especially in a team sport.
Where Gamespeed differs is that it focusses on speed related to the specific tasks that hold the key to success in a particular game. The athlete has to be able to move not just with speed, but control, precision and efficiency. It allows them to apply the skills and techniques that are integral to the game and develop an awareness that requires both time and practice.
Dr Ian believes these factors that determine success are often hard to measure, but they are important concepts that bind together the skills and tactics in a sport.
“Some of the greatest performers in sport are those who also move well. That’s not necessarily saying that they are going to be the fastest when it comes to straight line sprint. But they can stop and adjust their motion when needed, and are able to pull off a play through a combination of technical and movement skills,” he says.
Customised for different sports
While Gamespeed comprises common components and generic patterns that can help develop a wide range of movements, its eventual application is specific to each sport. This also involves focussing on decision-making activities that can help in situations during the game. The effective implementation of the two will eventually translate to success on the field and to fully understand success, we need to consider performance, not just in the tactical and technical domain, but in relation to the quality of movement.
“Most people tend to evaluate sports performance from a tactical or technical perspective, when it could really be down to the lack of individual skills. Say you’re evaluating a goal conceded from a corner in football. One could look at the implementation of a man-to-man defence as compared to a zonal system. But it could simply be down to the marker’s starting position being all wrong. And how that first erroneous step resulted in other bad decisions that eventually led to the goal,” Dr Ian says.
“This awareness is often missing. And unless you realise it, you won’t necessarily train for it,” he adds.
Gamespeed goes beyond the purview of simply working on skills or strength for a sport. An athlete needs to develop the ability to perceive the situation and make good decisions that allow them to get into promising positions. Over time, Dr Ian noticed a substantial improvement in the physical scores of his wards as well as a remarkable improvement in their on-field performance.
Effective warm-ups
A training session across any sport is preceded by a warm-up routine. What Dr Ian discovered was that most of them were inefficient in terms of preparing for performance, especially given the time spent on it.
“When you put all warm-up sessions together, say over a month, it adds up to a considerable period of time that could be used effectively,” Dr Ian says.
RAMP is an acronym for Raise, Activation and Mobilisation, and Potentiation. The fundamental emphasis of the RAMP warm-up is to engage in activities that complement the main training session for the day. And in the long term, it also helps cultivate useful skills in the athlete, especially in games such as basketball or football that feature multiple movement patterns.
Raise
The basics of any warm-up drill is to increase the core body temperature and improve muscle elasticity to prepare for the day’s workout. Effective warm-up directly impacts performance in the next session.
RAMP recommends a combination of simple transitional movements and generic activities that target movement capabilities and skills. These can be chosen in relation to the athlete’s general needs and the requirements of the upcoming session – say for instance, dribbling in football or passing for basketball.
“It starts with simple transitional motion such as moving forward and back and sideways, then a combination of these movements. This structure helps raise your body parameters and it can be very meaningful when one can develop specific movement patterns or useful skills through it,” he says.
Activation and Mobilisation
Once the body temperature has been raised, the next step would be to extend the range of motion through dynamic motion, rather than static stretching. The activation and mobilisation phase features patterns of controlled movement, which progressively increase over time. This would allow for activation of key muscle groups and mobilise important joints and specific motion used in a particular sport.
Some examples of key movement patterns are a lunge or a squat, which effectively mobilise key joints in the body. Once a basic lunge is practiced, it can lead to dynamic variations that demand an increase in effort and greater movement such as a walking lunge or a lunge with more reach.
“Once you’ve got the rise in body temperature, it’s a great time to extend the range of motion by activating muscles based on movement patterns that will also be used during the game,” Dr Ian says.
Potentiation
The final step sees a substantial increase in the intensity to ready the body for the main session. Some of the basic capacities that the potentiation phase could be designed for are power, speed or agility. It should allow for a smooth transition from the warm-up session to attaining game-related goals.
This in turn also means that the range of movement patterns in the potentiation phase could be specific to the theme of the session that is to follow in order to maximise performance. However, this is never the sole consideration as this phase allows for a more general development approach. This often features drills that are likely to be excluded from the main session, but which complement the overall development of the athlete.
Say for instance, when the focus is on defence, the potentiation phase could feature drills that involve jockeying, backtracking or side shuffling. Or in case of speed work, the drills could range from low to high intensity acceleration, followed by change in direction during sprints.
Customised sessions
The time dedicated to each element of RAMP depends on the level of the athlete. For a beginner, the focus would be on fundamental drills while advanced players could be taken through more technical workouts that need application. Precise planning also allows for the warm-up session to assist the efforts of the head coach to achieve important goals.
“I’ve often been asked to plan extended RAMP sessions. The results have been evident during competition and it’s really effective for the overall development of a player,” Dr Ian says.
“But you also have to be very aware of what you’re putting the player through during each session to ensure that fatigue doesn’t set in,” he says.
As a result, Dr Ian believes that while every player can design and customise their own RAMP session, it works best under the guidance of a good strength and conditioning coach.
“If you can find a coach who understands movement and is able to structure the sessions well, it’s when the outcome is really evident,” he says.
India beckons
About a decade ago, Dilip Heble, MD & CEO at Gayo Fitness Academy, first heard of Dr Ian and his theory of Gamespeed. There was an instant connection with the idea and he decided to bring down Dr Ian for an interaction with his students.
“There are several components at work when it comes to playing a sport. Dr Ian’s idea of combining all these elements of physicality to improve performance is what I connected with. It’s been greatly beneficial for those who’ve attended sessions with him,” Dilip says, having worked in the field of fitness and sports conditioning for close to five decades.
Over the years, Dr Ian has made four trips to India on Dilip’s invitation to work with athletes as well as strength and conditioning coaches.
“I’ve seen a lot of coaches simply work on the strength aspect in the gym. However, Dr Ian’s focus is on agility and speed to enhance performance. This is even more relevant for Indians, who are not as strong as Americans, but possess good speed. And Dr Ian teaches you the methodology to put his theories into practice, which makes all the difference,” Dilip says.