One law I abide by is that the body conforms and adapts to the intensities it is habitually subject to. If your training is slow on a regular basis, you’ll recruit slow twitch muscle fibers. Eventually, those slow twitch contractions will lead to a slower athlete. On the other hand, if your training is regularly fast, you’ll regularly recruit fast twitch muscles to become a fast, explosive athlete.

A few keys to remember when working to develop your explosion during conditioning:

1. Avoid slow activities that are long in duration—that’s not how sports are played.

2. Perform a variety of drills, like sprint intervals and change-of-direction exercises. They teach the central nervous system to fire quickly and elicit muscle contractions that invoke the highest level of explosion.

3. Rest is important. Without a sufficient amount, your training changes from anaerobic to aerobic. Use a rest time similar to what it’s like in your sport. If you move for 15 seconds and rest for 35 during a game, that’s how you should condition.