Speed Training Methods

To perform well in sports, there is no substitute for raw athletic speed and agility. While learned skills, such as shooting a basketball or dribbling a soccer ball, are important, the ability to move quickly will give any athlete an advantage regardless of skill level. Speed is, to some degree, an inborn trait, but proper athletic training and workout drills can increase speed and agility, regardless of natural ability.

  1. Wind Sprints

    • A simple way to work on foot speed is to add wind sprints into a training regimen. Wind sprints are short runs of around 40 meters, completed at top speed several times consecutively. Between sprints, allow a minimal rest period of 30 seconds or less. As you continue your sprints, the leg muscles will begin to fatigue and demand oxygen, increasing your heart rate. By doing 10 or more sprints, you will strain the legs and heart simultaneously forcing them to adjust to the strain of being used at high intensity with little oxygen. This will promote cardiovascular endurance and leg strength, allowing you to run faster and further before feeling tired.

    Agility Training

    • Agility is the ability to move the body into different positions quickly. Agility is an important aspect of speed in many sports where jumping, changing direction and contorting the body come in to play. One way to train agility is to employ drills that force you to change directions often, such as running between a series of cones. Hopping on one foot in different patterns will also strengthen the legs and increase agility. Jumping exercises are also useful for training agility, such as leaping back and forth over a hurdle as quickly as possible or jumping side to side over an object with at least 1 foot of height and width. You may also wish to employ sport specific agility exercises, such as dribbling a basketball or soccer ball through a series of cones. These exercises will help you combine speed with skills relevant to your sport.

    Weight Lifting

    • Lifting weights is an important part of building raw power and speed. The stronger the muscles are, the quicker you will be able to accelerate and perform explosive changes of direction. When lifting to build speed, you should focus on lifting heavy: try to lift 70 to 90 percent of your maximum for any given exercise, and do 2 to 15 repetitions. Good lifts for building sprinting speed are squats, hamstring curls and toe raises. Strive to tax your leg muscles until failure during every workout; forcing the muscles to failure makes the body adapt by increasing the size and strength of the muscles. If you are able to complete your goal for a given workout, increase the weight for your next workout.