3 Speed Training Tips

Since speed is one of the pinnacle measurements of great sports athletes I am going to cover some critical speed training tips.  As young athletes we are exposed to a myriad of methods to improving our athleticism or fitness. Parents may have got good or bad ideas from their parents who got them from their parents. More than likely in this situation the younger athlete is exposed to methods that are just downright horrible. The ideas were good at the time but we've progressed to a good point where many old training methods are gone. With that as a backdrop lets get started.

Tip #1-Make it fun for kids

For goodness sake this is a game, especially for young kids. Don't take the fun out of the sport by teaching young kids boring mundaine speed drills. Let the kids play and have fun while learning. I would also advise against over coaching. The body knows how to move and if you see kids moving right let them be.  Use games like freeze tag or red light green light to teach movement skills.

Tip #2-Strong Athletes are Fast

This may or may not counter what you learned from your parents who learned from their parents. Don't let anyone tell you soccer players should not lift weights.  Don't let anyone tell you soccer athletes should not be strong. Those are both misnomers.

Let's compare a soccer player to a rocket. I know I know, just bare with me. If you have a 165,000 pound space shuttle with small rockets and a 165,000 pound space shuttle with large rockets which do you think will get to space faster? The one with the large rockets. Its really basic physics and the body follows the same rules.

You weigh 150 pounds and are 5'10". Let's say you are trying to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Will weak legs or stronger legs get you there faster.  You see, your legs are your rockets.  They are there to move you forward. And the stronger the rocket you have on your legs the faster you will get to where you want to go.  Its basic physics.

So how do you get stronger? Do you do 3 sets of 10 reps all the time?  Soccer is an endurance sport isn't it?  First of all, 3 sets of 10 all the time is not appropriate. An untrained soccer athlete should get stronger with 3 sets of 10, for a while. But to get strong, I mean really strong (In the long haul) you need to lift heavy weights and keep the repetitions low.  It's usually when you get into the higher reps and medium weight that you get bigger.

Its important to work your way into the exercise program. If you have not been lifting don't go straight for 4 sets of 3 reps with a boatload of weight. So how heavy are we talking? You will be lifting in the 85%-95% range, or around those numbers. You should keep the repetitions low.  In fact, if you are lifting really heavy you wont be able to do as many reps anyways.

Tip #3-Understand what soccer speed really is

To be honest I believe soccer speed is different than Usain Bolt 100 meter dash speed. In fact, they are not close. I think most of the time training for soccer speed should require short distances.

The reason strength is so important is because it helps you accelerate faster. And a lot of soccer speed is the ability to accelerate fast to get to a ball first, recover quickly, stay with an offensive man on defense, working give and goes with your team and more.

You have enough other stuff to work on like soccer skills that you should spend most of your speed training time on how to be fast in short distances.  This includes agility.