What if the reason your athletes struggle to change direction has nothing to do with their final step? Jesse Green, Director of Performance Science at 1080 Motion, joins us to unpack how 1080 sprint athlete development and motorized resistance are changing the way practitioners test and train speed. We explore how 1080 sprint athlete development can reveal the phase of deceleration most coaches overlook, why handing everyone the same load quietly fails half the room, and how to keep driving real adaptation when a packed 82-game season leaves almost no window to train.
1080 Sprint Athlete Development: A Smarter Coaching Approach
Seeing More Than a Stopwatch
High-performance coaching today is moving beyond stopwatch results. In Jesse Green’s discussion, the 1080 Sprint is presented as a practical way to see how athletes create, absorb, and redirect force. Its motorized cable applies precise resistance while the encoder records movement, giving coaches insight into both performance and strategy.
One Tool, Many Applications
The device supports sprinting, change of direction, deceleration, and rehabilitation. That range matters because athletes rarely fail for one simple reason. Two players can post the same sprint time while using different force patterns. Therefore, the coach can use the data to decide whether an athlete needs more force, more speed, or a better movement solution.
Teaching Better Deceleration
Deceleration is one of the clearest examples. Green describes early and late braking, separated at a 50 percent velocity decrement. Early braking reduces speed before the final plant, so the last contact can redirect force instead of carrying the full braking demand. This approach may improve control and reduce stress on the planting limb during sharp changes of direction.
Using Resistance to Shape Technique
Resistance can also become a coaching constraint. When the 1080 pulls an athlete forward into a deceleration, the athlete naturally learns to place the center of mass behind the base of support and find more useful shin angles. Consequently, technique changes become something the athlete feels, not just another list of cues. Velocity decrement profiling then individualizes the load: a target such as 50 percent speed loss challenges each athlete appropriately, unlike a fixed ten kilogram prescription.
Training Through a Busy Season
Finally, slow isokinetic work offers a valuable option during congested seasons. Controlled concentric actions can provide a strong stimulus without excessive fatigue or movement speed. For example, a belt squat can combine light resistance with an ascent around 0.25 to 0.35 meters per second. Ultimately, the 1080 connects measurement, coaching, and context, helping teams develop athletes with greater precision.
🔑Highlights from the episode:
– What is 1080 Motion
– Early vs late phase deceleration
– When to change a deceleration strategy
– What is Velocity Decrement (VDec)
– How to use isokinetics effectively
🎥 Watch full episode on YouTube
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/@preparelikeapro
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