Increasing Speed

jojo75

Hey guys,

Just looking for some advice, I have posted this in a few other forums also but thought I might have better luck here. I am training for football and I usually play in the full back line which requires a lot of sharpness, quick on the turn and a good burst of speed over 10 - 15 yards. This is my first year back playing after 2 years off due to college and I find my fitness increasing week by week by still lacking in the other areas, i.e. sharpness and speed. Has anyone any tips on how to increase my speed and sharpness over them first few yards, is there any specific weights exercises I could be using or any extra training I could be doing? Sorry if this has been asked before.

Thanks

thirtyfoot

In simplest terms what you could do is after a good warmup -

4 runs of 15-25m as fast as possible. From a standing start drive as hard as you can with the aim to get to top speed as soon as possible. Take 3-4 mins between each of these. May seem to easy but it will work on your speed. This will help your acceleration.

Then,

On GAA pitch start at end line and stride up to the 21m line and when you hit this let her rip and hit full speed until you hit the 45m line. This will help improving your top end speed. Again 3-4mins between each run.

Do these when fresh and at start of training.

When your top end speed improves combined with your acceleration improving (ie, getting to your top end speed in the shortest possible time) you should see improvements.

There are also many other things to work on too. Improving your overall body condition and ensuring your are strong and fit enough to train. Weights, circuits help here. Squat, lunge, deadlift, cleans. I find cleans are fantastic for improving or aiding explosiveness. When strong enough you can do bounding or plyos. Sprinting drills and sporting specific stuff would be required too like multi-directional stuff. Rememebr you get strong in the gym but fast on the pitch.

As a starter try maybe the acceleration and top end speed workouts.

jojo75

Tingle,

Some good advice there, many thanks. The only thing is I would have to do speed training in between football training which would mean training nearly every night, would this be bad and not give the body time to rest? Also some people mentioned plyometric exercises, have you have any experience with these?

thirtyfoot

jojo75 wrote: »

Tingle,

Some good advice there, many thanks. The only thing is I would have to do speed training in between football training which would mean training nearly every night, would this be bad and not give the body time to rest? Also some people mentioned plyometric exercises, have you have any experience with these?

Ideally you should do speed when you are fresh. May not be an option as it may lead you to looking like a clown but could you do a speed session before group training some night. Speed like above will probably only be done once a week anyway sometime twice. It takes times and improvement may not be obvious but since you are coming back from a break you should see improvements in the first 4-6 weeks especially.

Plyos are really just jumping and bounding. I see plyos as firing up the strength you have gained in the gym or channelling the strength as some people refer to it. Plyos can cause injury if you have weaknesses or your overall strength isn't good. An old wives guide is to be able to squat 1.5 times your body weight before plyos. Also take it gradually. For example, if you do a standing long jump ensure you can 'stick' before you move onto continous jumps or bounds. So, starting at the end line on the pitch again with feet together do a bound as far as possible and landing with feet together. If you can stick you are ready to do continous. If not and you fall or stumble you need to work on your strength. Continous would be 'bunny hop' type bounds. These can be done on single leg again then using the same progression protocols. These are basic plyos but a good starting point.

RJC

Shouldn't we be sorting out the club/county thing first before giving advice?