The Frappier system is a more mechanised version of SAQ – think Terminator rather than Tarzan – which was described in detail in a previous issue of this newsletter (PP169 August 2002). It relies on high-tech kit like the ‘Plyo-Press’, the ‘Multi-Hip’, the ‘Upper Body Implosion Unit’ and the ‘Super Treadmill’. The system is the brain-child of American John Frappier, who began developing it in the 1980s. After gaining an MSc in sports science, Frappier spent a considerable time in Russia with the US junior gymnastics team and gained valuable insights into how the former Soviets trained for speed and power (a great deal of contemporary speed and power training theory is owed to the boffins behind the former Iron Curtain).

Back in the States, Frappier began working with top NFL (American Football) players and opened his first Acceleration Training Centre in 1986. Today there are more than 100 such centres, mostly in the United States but with one in the UK (see below).

The Frappier system applies the principles of controlled overload to speed development. All athletes, whatever their sport, are put through a six-week ‘level one’ programme, which identifies their individual strengths and weaknesses and introduces them to the programme’s protocols, and particularly the use of the ‘Super Treadmill’. Those in search of scintillating speed are progressed through a 12-level programme, while those seeking sustained speed endurance work through six levels. Both programmes use eight-week training cycles, with 3-4 sessions a week. Speed workouts use the treadmill, while conditioning routines involve other items of specialist kit as well as more ‘everyday’ sports and speed conditioning drills.

After the six-week introductory course, the Frappier system claims that you can expect, on average, a two-tenths-of-a-second improvement in 40 yards time and a 2-4 inch improvement in vertical jump ability.

The 28mph Super Treadmill is the key to the Frappier system, since it allows for the performance of flat and inclined running (up to 40%) under controlled conditions. The acceleration coach is able to stand alongside the athlete, offering verbal and uniquely physical support. A carefully-placed hand to the lower back can ‘spot’ or support the sprinting athlete leading to the maintenance and development of biomechanically correct form.

The Plyo-Press is perhaps the most interesting of the other specialist pieces of speed-enhancing equipment employed by the Frappier system. It combines weight-based resistance training with plyometric training in one hit, allowing athletes to strengthen their muscles in a highly speed-specific way. You select the appropriate weight from the weights stack in the same way that you would on a piece of standard fixed weight equipment, then lie on your back with the machine’s pads behind your shoulders within a sort of track. From this position, you are able to generate the power to push yourself towards a footplate that you then ‘react’ against through your lower and upper legs to launch yourself back up the track.

Conditioning this ‘stretch/reflex’ is perhaps the key to developing the power to move over a playing surface like a racehorse rather than a donkey. In sprinting, there are three stretch/reflex reactions, occurring at the ankle, knee and hip. If you can succeed in minimising the ‘amortisation phase’ (the gap between impact/stretch and power expression/contraction) you will be a faster, more powerful athlete. The Frappier system is designed to help you achieve this.(1)

For further information on the Frappier system within the UK, telephone Sportdimensions on 020 8563 0007, or go to: www.sportdimensions.com.