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I'm still playing with Newton's Second Law (a=F/m) and how you can use it to improve accelerative ability in your athletes and players. Simply interpreted you can improve acceleration by increasing force capability or decreasing body mass. We have looked a little at force capability previously, so let’s now look at this mass or anthropometric component.

The mass we really want to decrease is non-contractile fat mass as it is dead weight for the body to carry around. This is not to say fat mass is not important, for example in collision sports a certain percentage of fat mass is fundamental to players absorbing the forces of contact. However, excessive fat mass will slow your players down.

A National S&C coach I know believed monitoring player skinfolds (skinnies) was one of the most important fitness qualities to monitor. Players hitting certain skinfold targets meant 24/7/52 discipline around diet. If players get that right, then putting one or two training sessions in a day is usually not an issue. So an easy gain for improving accelerative ability is reducing excess fat mass - by getting the skinnies right, you might enjoy a more disciplined and organised athlete?

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