A foundational component in the athletic development process for athletes is harnessing the ability to efficiently sprint (accelerate), slow down and stop on a dime (decelerate), and then change direction to take off again (re-accelerate).
Another viewpoint of what this looks like can be seen during the sequence of an athlete going up for a jump (force production) followed by landing in a controlled and organized manner (force absorption).
This constant change of position, height, direction, and velocity places a big emphasis on the athlete being strong and durable to withstand these demands and stressors on a repetitive basis. This is why we must begin with mastering the basics of deceleration and landing, first and foremost.
Here's a good starting point for improving athleticism through a set of deceleration skills below:
After you’ve mastered the list above of entry level deceleration skills, you can then move on to adding in timing, tempo, and rhythm. This will ultimately increase the challenge, but will allow you to feel more reactive as you would in a real, game-like environment.
Adding rhythm into these deceleration skills and drills places the athlete in a position where he or she can be reactive in nature and remain prepared for the next move. This type of situation mimics what they do in sport, which makes it an underutilized strategy when coupled with plyometrics.
Here's a progression series of bodyweight variations to begin with:
Next up, we have resistance from the band around the waist, which acts to overload each of these 3 exercises and increases the overall challenge:
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