Enhance Speed

[Pablo Tatts]

Userscan move faster than the peak members of their species, making it very difficult for one to be able to react to them. The users of this ability are also very resistant or even outright immune to the side effects of moving at such speeds. These effects include, but are not limited to, g-force, inertia, intense heat build-up, massive kinetic energy build-up, etc. They are capable of running 66-1235 km/h (41-768 MPH).

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(a) Sketch of two fish swimming in diagonal formation while interacting through vortex wakes. (b) Experiment consisting of two hydrofoils that are flapped up and down in a water tank (not shown), with each foil free to revolve about an axle. Flapping leads to forward propulsion, which takes the form of large orbits around the tank. (c) Definitions of the chord length c, lateral spacing L, streamwise displacement d, and trajectory wavelength λ. (d) For prescribed but variable lateral spacing, possible emergent formations include side-by-side (red), tandem (blue), and diagonal (purple) states.

(a) Multiple stable formations are observed in experiments of two swimmers with fixed lateral spacing and flapping kinematics. (b) Time series of streamwise separation distance normalized by wavelength d/λ. Side-by-side (red) and multiple, diagonal (purple) formations are attained by varying initial separation d0, and four trials are shown for each state. (c) A histogram of the distance between foils shows that more separated formations exhibit greater positional fluctuation. (d) An external impulse is applied to the follower in a diagonal formation at t=0, forcing a transition from diagonal (d>0) to side-by-side (d=0) formation. The side-by-side pair experiences an increase in swimming speed U. (e) Swimming speeds for formations with different lateral spacing L/c compared to the speed U0 of an isolated foil.

There are other tools available for adding or removing resistance, such as the 1080 Sprint, but most coaches do not have access to that type of tool. Even if you do have one, it can be difficult to cycle groups of athletes through any one piece of equipment. Bands provide a relatively cheap and effective way to improve speed and power for individuals or groups of athletes.

Any piece of training equipment is only as good as the manner in which the coach applies it. For the most part, bands are an underutilized piece of training equipment. They are great for adding resistance, but they can also be a fantastic tool for removing resistance when necessary. I always look for ways to minimize verbal cueing to get my athletes to move how I want them to move, and bands allow me to do just that. For example, if I need an athlete to create a more powerful initial push, I can have them perform a drill where they have to overcome band resistance at the outset of the movement.

Progressing speed drills using bands is as simple as increasing the distance you cover within the drill. More tension on the band equals a greater distance to overcome if you are moving away from the anchor point. If you are moving toward the anchor point, the more stretch you have on the band, the more you will increase your acceleration toward the anchor. When performing a drill where you are continuously moving out and back, a greater acceleration toward the anchor will make the change of direction much more difficult.

Video 2. Train deceleration with bands by using them to accelerate the athlete into an abrupt stop. Then progress that drill by adding in a sprint out of the change of direction.

One of the methods I like to use prior to performing a drill where an athlete moves out and back is just to have the athlete sprint toward the anchor and perform an offset stop with a high amount of acceleration from the band (the first drill in video 2). This allows the athlete to get used to handling higher amounts of force over shorter distances. If you are in a gym with minimal running space, this is a great way to simulate running at slightly higher speeds. Once the athlete performs that drill a few times, you can progress it by having them sprint toward the anchor, slam on the brakes, and sprint back out in the same direction they came from.

Getting in and out of a change of direction quickly like this requires high amounts of power, strength, and stability in this position. The bands provide a great tool for athletes to demonstrate this type of positional strength.

I particularly like to use band-resisted three-step bursts with my athletes. Starting with a little bit of resistance encourages my athletes to stay low and create a good angle of projection. With each step, the resistance from the band increases a little bit, which continues to encourage my athletes to stay low and push hard to maintain horizontal projection.

The same principles that apply to using bands with speed training can also apply to using bands for power development. You can use bands for power development in all directions by employing lateral, anterior, posterior, and vertical forms of resistance.

Video 5. This is a great drill to use at the beginning of a plyometric program. It helps develop tissue quality while allowing the athlete to take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle.

Bands can be particularly effective for training young athletes. Progressing younger athletes from countermovement jumps to depth jumps over the course of a single off-season is not a smart progression in terms of long-term athletic development. Going right into pogo jumps can be a little too difficult for younger athletes to execute effectively because they lack the elasticity to take advantage of the stretch-shortening cycle and get off the ground quickly.

This is where band-assisted drills can be beneficial. Performing a drill like a band-assisted pogo jump is a great place to start in terms of getting athletes to develop a sense of using the stretch reflex. Drills like this are also great for larger athletes, such as American football offensive and defensive linemen. Larger athletes are known for being able to produce a lot of force, which is great, but their tendon strength may not be developed enough for jumping right into an intense plyometric training program.

A general consensus for progressing plyometric training is to either add load to the jumps or increase the eccentric force on the landing of a jump. This is often done by stepping down off a box and performing a jump vertically. While this is great for improving force vertically into the ground, it does not account for much of the horizontal nature of power in field sports.

I previously mentioned how rare it is for an athlete to run in a straight line for an extended period. Therefore, it is imperative that athletes improve their ability to develop force horizontally in all directions. Effective change of direction happens when an athlete plants their foot into the ground away from their center of mass. By doing this, the athlete creates a better angle for projecting out of a cut. Striking closer to their center of mass will lead to a more vertical shin angle and less effective acceleration.

An athlete performing a drill like the one you see in video 6 should focus on getting as much distance as possible horizontally while spending as little time on the ground as possible. That same concept leads to better deceleration and acceleration when changing direction.

A further benefit of using bands is that you can easily increase or decrease the resistance by simply moving closer to or further away from the anchor point. It is important to note that too much resistance is not a good thing. Are you training speed or strength? Think of a sled. If the sled is so heavy that you have to march with it, are you really improving your speed?

The same concept applies to training with bands. If you put too much tension on the band, you may notice that the speed drill you are trying to perform begins to look a little sloppy. Put just enough tension on the band to challenge the athlete, but not so much that it greatly affects how they move. Begin each drill with a model of the movement you want to see performed. Adjust the band accordingly to challenge the athlete while still performing the model of movement you want to see.

Search heads don't actually perform searches - they coordinate the actions of indexers, which do the real searching. To enhance search performance, add more indexers then redistribute your data among them.

I am currently working on a project where we are using Snowflake as our primary data storage, and we need to visualise and interact with large datasets in ArcGIS Pro. However, we have been facing massive performance issues, as the layers are taking a significant amount of time to render and update (15+ seconds). The data is small and not complex (10,000 points, ABP data) and when we query the data I can see Snowflake is responding in under 1 second, so it's Esri side that is slowing it down (roughly 15-20 seconds to draw). Same experience when the layer is published to Enterprise, still very slow.

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, we are still experiencing slow drawing speeds. If anybody has any known limitations or workarounds for connecting Snowflake data sources with ArcGIS Pro, it'd be much appreciated.

I've been doing a bit of testing on this and have pretty good performance using ArcGIS Pro (3.2.2). I loaded GB Address Point data - 30.4 million points into Snowflake. I have an X-Large warehouse and importantly my Snowflake is hosted in the UK - EU (London) as that is where I am too using ArcGIS Pro.

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