In a previous article I talked about resisted sprinting, specifically parachutes and sleds, this month I will continue in this area but utilizing a very versatile pieces of equipment that should be an essential tool in your conditioning armoury, the WEIGHTED VEST.   There have been many attempts over the years to weight the body to provide an overload and thus stimulate gains in acceleration, similar to the use of loading in strength training. Previously, most attempts were limited to weight belts similar to divers belts which tended to shift around and the weight was not evenly distributed causing some negative reactions from players and conditioning coaches.  Now with the use of weighted vests the problems have been solved and a snug fitting vest arrangement allows for the weight to become almost part of the body, which is a significant step forward allowing for a range of exercises to be performed with increased safety. A popular use of the weighted vest is in acceleration training, moving a body from rest quickly and efficiently.  The “tall-fall-accelerate” drill is one such drill where the vest is an added progressive method of enhancing the effectiveness of the drill. In this drill the athlete, rises up onto the balls of the feet and allows the body to fall forward whilst keeping good straight line body position from the top of the head down through to the ankle joints, this will lead the athlete into a good acceleration position and they will sprint out for about 20 – 30 metres and then walk back and repeat.  This can also be performed with a partner. Have the athlete incline their body as in the first example but this time a partner places their on the chest of the athlete and leans them over further, with the vest on, the athlete will need to be strong through the core, so watch that there is no collapsing through the mid point of the body. Have the partner step to the side and allow the athlete to accelerate out from this inclined starting position. There are a range of drills that can be performed in this partner style using the vest to add resistance is the next stage up in a progressive overload program to ensure that the athlete is continually challenged. These progressions include, having the athlete drive out against minimal resistance of the partner and then release them, also provide initial resistance and then release and race the partner to a set point, and finally in the sequence adding an agility component have the athlete attempt to tag the other athlete and turn and race back to the starting position.    All agility and speed drills will be enhanced with the addition of the weighted vest, since it will increase loading on the body and thereby induce an adaptation to the occur in the musculature responsible for producing force in contact with the ground surface, working on the principle of “action – reaction”. Another use of the weighted vests is in combination with plyometrics drills, particularly using plyo boxes for single or repeat jumps. Be careful for these exercises are very stressful on both the neural and the muscular systems and the joints as well. So adding loading is progressive over time and should not be rushed and since the important key in plyometric training is to minimize the ground reaction time you do not need to be slowing the response down.  So the use of the vest is an important tool for the more advanced and stronger athlete as this will enhance the eccentric loading which is the primer for the next concentric action. As a famous Strength coach, Louie Simmons once said, “if the only tool you have is a hammer then everything becomes a nail” so it is important to have a few different methods of achieving a similar result and work with the athlete to see which h method suits them the best. A session utilizing the weighted vest and plyometric boxes would be as follows: General dynamic movement drill warm up 10 – 15 minutes in duration, try and make it as continuous as possible, as muscle contraction occurs best when the muscles is well warmed, drills such as marches, skips, hops, jumps, high knees, butt kicks, cariocas and the like are all excellent to ensure that you work the muscles through a full range of movement and prepare them for the workout stress. Plyometrics (75 – 125 foot contacts) Tuck Jumps 3 x 10 no vest, used as a specific warm up Jump Ups onto plyo Boxes single jump step down with vest on 3 x 5  Repeat plyo box jumps 5 in a row and have the heights of the boxes randomly assigned as this produces an excellent response in the neural system with weight vest on for 5 sets. 4 x 40m Bounding, no vest Acceleration (with weighted vest on) Tall – Fall – Accelerate over 30m x 5 Hold and Go 20m x 5 Hold, drive out, release and Go 40m x 3 Hold, drive out, release and race 50m x 3 Hold, drive out, release, chase, tag and race 50m x 3 STRETCH – static stretch of major sprinting muscles 10 – 15 minutes