“Fast Force”

The idea that velocity is an independent quality, especially in terms of physics, is a little erroneous. We often, including myself, label exercises as “force” or “velocity” movements. However, such statements are used to simply label the quality we are targeting and not necessarily to identify the underlying mechanism.

Movement occurs from forces acting upon an object; there is no way around it. However, the way we display these forces can vary quite a bit. As noted in the breakdown of F=MA, one can quickly see that in order to improve the magnitude of the movement, and ultimately its velocity, we have to apply more force.

We could theoretically increase the working range of motion and therefore time of movement to allow for a larger total impulse, but that is not very logical for someone trying to win the first step. Instead of looking at force and velocity as independent qualities, velocity is simply an output (dependent quality) and we should understand that “velocity training” in regards to sports training is simply “fast force” training.

Force can be developed in a multitude of ways (absolute velocity, speed-strength, strength-speed, absolute force). Each of their independent qualities will determine the amount of force one can produce in a given time.

So yes, “force is king” is a correct statement, but again this may be too vague to highlight some of the specific underpinning psycho-neuro-physical mechanisms.

The second picture is an example of what might go into “fast force”. There are many more aspects, but it is important to note that skill plays a role as well.