I first heard this 30 years ago at age 17, when my trainer Jay Schroeder DRILLED it into my soul. I still remember the day we met. He told me, “I don’t want you to squat 450 pounds in 3 seconds… I want you to squat 350 pounds in ½ second. THAT’S power.”
To train with him, he forced me to write a daily training log that timed the concentric portion of EVERY rep, EVERY set, EVERY exercise with a stopwatch. I did this for 6 straight months before he allowed me to train at his gym.
It took over an hour daily to write the log, but what I learned about my body and performance was invaluable. Training with this intent changes everything: to move max weights at high speed, EVERYTHING matters. Technique and position must be flawless, no power leaks. You learn to eccentrically LOAD, not just drop with gravity and momentum. My body awareness skyrocketed.
Speed is king. Details and intention matter. I stopped caring about increasing my max and started caring about moving my max FASTER. It’s the primary reason I transformed myself from a walk-on who ran 4.8 to a first-round pick who ran 4.3.
Division 1 football players training in a compensatory acceleration style (CAT) upper body strength regimen were compared to a traditional regimen in their off-season. The CAT group was instructed to perform the positive rep as explosively as possible. The traditional group performed repetitions at a traditional tempo.
At the end of both off-season training programs, both power and strength were assessed. Power was tested with a seated medicine ball throw and a force platform plyometric push-up test. Strength was assessed by a one rep max in the bench press.
Both groups increased strength and power. The group that trained in a Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT) style improved their bench press by nearly double the amount of the traditional group. Average power, as expected, increased significantly more in the group that trained explosively.
Jones, K. K., Hunter, G. G., Fleisig, G. G., Escamilla, R. R., & Lemak, L. L. (1999). The effects of compensatory acceleration on upper-body strength and power in collegiate football players. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (Allen Press Publishing Services Inc.), 13(2), 99-105.
Practical Application
Fred Hatfield was ahead of his time advocating Compensatory Acceleration Training. It is simply superior! Training adaptations are not just a result of weight on the bar. Adaptations from training are a byproduct of tension and duration. You respond to how much force produced, how fast the force was produced, how long you produced it, and how many times you produced it. Force=mass x acceleration. More tension is result of greater bar speed. Maximal strength training and power adaptations can result from lifting weights with maximal force; one more reason to compensatorily accelerate weights.