There is no doubt that one of the most fascinating aspects of sport is speed. When you see it- you know it. It can break open games or save games. Speed can change how a team runs its offense or designs its defense. It may surprise you that what really separates the fast athletes from the rest is how quickly they decelerate.

Now this certainly isn't the case for track athletes, but I am speaking more of court and field sport athletes where being elusive is key.

What exactly am I speaking of when I say deceleration? Do I mean stopping, changing directions, or slowing down? Yes! That is what I mean. Most fans watching competition may not even notice the deceleration that takes place. They just see the athletes pulling away with great quickness or getting caught from behind by even greater quickness!

Deceleration is the act of no longer accelerating or maintaining speed. It comes in many shapes. When we see a basketball player perform a change of direction off the dribble they had to decelerate to make this change of direction occur.

What determines the amount of deceleration, a complete stop or a slight hesitation, is due to several factors. The first being the speed at which the athlete has coming into the change of direction. Obviously the faster the athlete is moving the more control is needed to decelerate the body. Secondly, the angle at which the change of direction is going to be made. If the basketball player is going to change direction at an angle of 10-15 degrees the deceleration doesn't need to be as great to control the body and to make the cut or change efficient as if the angle was 90 degrees. The third factor that determines how much deceleration is needed is the implement or equipment control (ball, stick�).

Staying with basketball as the example for a moment, let's say the ball handling abilities of the player are limited. This player will need to decelerate much more than a player that can change direction with the ball easily without any loss of control. If we look at a sport like lacrosse where many times the stick is in both hands and the ability to change directions, with great body control, will change due to not having the added benefit of the arms to help control the balance of the body.

The final factor I look at that determines how much deceleration is needed is strategy or tactic. Great offense players know that getting the defender of balance is important in beating them. If the deceleration move is so subtle that the defender never has a chance to react to it, it probably won't be effective. Now if the deceleration is aggressive the defender will most likely decelerate as well, now you've get em! So you see deceleration training has a little more to it than just stopping and starting.