By Bill Bradley, contributing editor
Famed NFL executive Bill Polian likes to say that you can't teach speed. Ryan Flaherty quickly disagrees.
Flaherty is a speed coach. With a background in kinesiology and USA Track & Field research, he trains more than 80 NFL athletes to increase and maintain their speed.
"Everyone will say, 'You can't teach speed,' " Flaherty said. "The problem is no one is paying attention to the science and research. The science and research is there. I'm just saying open your eyes.
"When you look into the science, it's very simple and very clear. Many people try to make it too complicated. But I can take anyone who doesn't know anything about sports and make them faster. It's that basic."
This winter Texas A&M quarterback and NFL prospect Johnny Manziel has been one of Flaherty's prized pupils. Manziel ran the 40-yard dash in 4.68 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine last month. That would put Manziel in the same neighborhood as veteran NFL quarterbacks Andrew Luck (4.66) of the Indianapolis Colts and Cam Newton (4.59) of the Carolina Panthers.
More important to Flaherty, Manziel's quickness was on display at the combine. The possible No. 1 pick was second among quarterbacks in the three-cone drill (6.75 seconds) and first by 15 seconds in the 20-yard shuttle (4.03 seconds).
"Johnny is as quick as it gets," Flaherty said. "He is the quickest (quarterback) in this draft by a lot. If you look at the shuttle and the three-cone run ... the only guy who might be quicker than him is (Northern Illinois quarterback) Jordan Lynch -- and he will probably play receiver in the NFL.
"Quickness is what football is all about. Yeah, the 40-yard dash time is great for the defensive backs and the wide receivers, but no other player on the field is ever going to run past 10 yards -- and if they do, it's rare. I was pleased with Johnny's 40, but more of the focus needs to be on his agility drills. That's really what his position is doing."
Speed and quickness is a way of life for Flaherty. He is the founder and CEO of Prolific Athletes, an athletic performance training company based in Carlsbad, Calif.
According to his website, his athletes at the 2013 combine had the fastest 3-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle times in three different position categories: quarterback, offensive lineman and linebacker. He prides himself on his ability to drastically increase the speed of NFL players by improving their sprint mechanics.
He said his work isn't done after the combine. He is now training NFL prospects for their pro days. Then, he said, more than 60 veterans will return to see him for speed training during their offseason conditioning.
"It's all body mechanics," he said. "All that force you can generate getting into the ground in a way that's going to push you forward is the key to it. Just learning the technique is what helped me understand it, kind of breaking it down like a golf swing.
"When I got into college, I had two ACL injuries. Both injuries forced me to get surgeries and they kind of thrust me into understanding why I got hurt ... and what would have prevented this from happening."
He became a kinesiology major at Utah State and received his master's degree in bio motor and human movement science.
"That's what got me diving into how athletes are trained and where the training is falling short," he said.
He worked for USA Track & Field as its director of development for three years, studying science and research in speed. There he found the top indicator for speed by elite sprinters was their force-to-weight ratio. In other words, the greater the force they exerted -- in some cases up to a 10-1 ratio to their body weight -- the faster they ran.
He also found a correlation in lower-body deadlifts, discovering he could increase athletes' speed by building their power in their legs with heavier weights and shorter repetitions. He learned that would build the proper muscle mass without causing the body to face a long recovery period. And the athletes don't come back sore the next day.
That's the philosophy he took to improving Manziel's speed.
"We focused on improving his deadlift while keeping his body weight the same," said Flaherty, who also has worked with the Whitfield Quarterback Draft Academy. "If he was to gain 20 pounds and his deadlifts went up 80 pounds, the ratio would stay the same and he would not get any faster.
"The key is keeping the volume in the weight room low so they don't tear down the muscle. ... We do our deadlifts in reps of two or three or five with lots of rest in between to make sure they're not breaking down the muscle and don't add lean muscle mass. But they just create better muscle fiber and better motor units to help withstand the heavier stress and the heavier load."
Flaherty said when Manziel came to his studios after the season he had a 515-pound deadlift maximum. Manziel left for the combine with a maximum of 680 pounds.
"You could give me any athlete -- I don't care their genetic makeup -- and in six weeks I could improve their 40-yard dash by half a second," Flaherty said. "It's all because of force-to-weight ratio. I'm not just training them for the combine.
"The speed that they're developing in the weight room and on the field, it's to help them to become better football players for their career. This is real speed. Once I get that ratio to where I want it and where they feel like it's the best for them as a football player, that's what they'll maintain for their whole career and that will keep them the same speed."
So who among this year's rookie class will burst onto the NFL scene because of speed? Flaherty says it will be another one of his students -- and Manziel's Texas A&M teammate -- wide receiver Mike Evans.
"Everyone going into the combine thought he was going to run a 4.65 and he ended up running a 4.47 (unofficial) and a 4.53," Flaherty said. "He is a monster. He could be one of the top receivers in the league in his first 2-3 years in the NFL based on his size, his speed and his ability.
"I've worked with a lot of really good receivers. And he is going to be as good if not better than all of them."
