This week we evaluate your progress and introduce advanced change of direction skills.Continue building on previous skills while adding new elements. (New additions are in bold).
You've reached an important milestone in your Performance Plan journey. Five weeks of consistent technical work has reshaped your movement patterns and developed new athletic qualities. Now it's time to measure your progress with a second video assessment.
This mid-program assessment serves several purposes:
Follow the same protocol you used in Week 1 →
Just as with week 1, look for your technical running elements at all stages of your running technique PLUS, compare your video and technique today with your Week 1 videos.
Many athletes are surprised by how much their technique has improved in just five weeks. Don't worry if some elements still need work – the remaining weeks will continue refining these patterns.
While straight-line speed and curved running are important, the ability to completely reverse direction is crucial for most sports. This week introduces the 180° cut – one of the most challenging but valuable movement skills for athletic performance.
The ability to rapidly change direction while maintaining control and minimizing energy loss separates elite athletes from average ones. Effective cutting:
Many athletes are fast in a straight line but lose significant time and energy during direction changes. By mastering cutting technique, you'll maintain more of your speed through transitions – a huge competitive advantage.
The 180° cut involves completely reversing your direction of travel. The technique breaks down into several key components, this video goes through them all.
When doing your cuts in your workout, you will perform 4 cuts for each rep in the workbook, that means you will:
sprint 10m →
cut 180º back on your left leg → (cut 1)
sprint 10m →
cut 180º back on your lefright leg → (cut 2)
repeat for 1 more cut on each leg (4 total changes of direction), this is a single repetition.
When learning cutting technique, watch for these common errors:
Start practicing cuts at lower speeds (60-70%) to master the technique before increasing intensity. Quality of movement is far more important than speed at this stage.
The cutting technique doesn't exist in isolation – it's part of a continuous flow of movement in game situations. As you get more confident with the cutting you might try integrating cutting with the acceleration skills from previous weeks:
These combination drills bridge the gap between isolated technique work and game application, preparing your body for the chaotic demands of competition.
At this stage, feel free to phase the metronome running out if you are finding the field work is becoming too long and tiring – especially if you are in-season. Many athletes find that after five weeks, their improved cadence is becoming more natural, requiring less conscious focus.
Congrats on making it this far in the program, next week is our final week of progressions, along with a forever program to help you maintain your skills, speed and fitness beyond the 3 weeks.