chrisnz

I play soccer and the worst part of my game is my speed. I play back and mid, and it's especially bad as back when I'm up against fast strikers. I'm the slowest in my team and I really need to pick up some speed.

How can I go about getting faster at sprinting without a personal trainer or spending too much time doing it? I go to the gym 4 times a week so I could fit in some speed-related workouts.

WarWagon

When I played basketball, I would run/jog with either ankle weights, or wearing weight around my shoulders. Worked surprisingly well.

imp

run with little kids hanging on to ur feet and arms!!!!!

chrisnz

Hmm, wouldn't that have sort of the same affect as doing leg presses and leg curls (what I already do)? Or would it be entirely different because it works on endurance rather than reps of 12-8 which is what I do...

hilbert25

Find a moderately steep hill, about 200 meters long, with maybe a 50 meter flat part right before it. Sprint up it. Jog half way down, walk half, repeat like 10 times. You want to be sprinting full speed when you hit it, and try to keep that turnover on the uphill, since you won't keep the actual speed up. Do that maybe a max of one time a week, and nowhere near when you have a game. If you do it right, you feel like throwing up during/after it.

Also, practice running on your toes for sprints, that's how the fastest runners go (see Marion Jones, her shoes don't actually have heels).

JStrider

what he said above me...

or just get out on the track at the local highschool and do sprints...

full throttle for X meters then rest... repeat

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Rudel73

If you want to get faster make sure you work on doing sprints, not distance running or anything like that.

Cowman

If you're in highschool, join the football team.

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chrisnz

Thanks for the help, I'll start working on it straight away

almostaugust

Hill running is very good for speed. Id also encourage more running in general. Maybe try to get a 4-5km in a week. Also, as a back try to give your man a few extra feet when man marking.

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minusthesoul

As a defender, just play more physical against the faster guys.
There is a good size hill near my house that I use for sprints. It is really hard if you do it right but has great results.

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Lunchbox7

Dont run with weights on your feet. You will only injure yourself.

The components of speed is stregnth and co-ordination. You have to be strong enough to move your body that fast. But you also have to have good enough muscle co-ordination to be able to move the muscles that fast repeatidly. Watch drummers play. That is mostly co-ordination.

To build up stregnth you have to train for explosive power. Hilbert25's gave some really good advice. But mix in downhill sprints too. That will not only promote better co-ordination at high speeds without the strength requirements to such a degree, but it will also help you to improve your flexibility whilst running. The longer your stride, the faster you will go with the least energy expended. I think the olympic sprinters do the 100m in 18 strides. Stregnth will help improving stride length but so will technique. Concentrate on lifting you knee as you bring it through.

In soccer the most strikers are really good at sprinting off right from the start. Meaning they dont need to speed up. You could work on your reaction speed to help cover them. But there are other techniques. Stand a few yards back and when you see them take off you will stay in front of them. The problem with this is if they are good players they will just hold it up and feed the midfields who are running through with the overlap. I dont know many central midfielders who mark tightly enough to not put a back in the fucked up position of choosing which guy to go after. You could stand right on him and play a bit shiftier by holding their shirt or puting them in an armlock. You have to be carefull that the ref sees this. If you stay so close to them that you chest os on them then the ref will probably not see. If you hit hard that will probly work. Faster guys are usually the more elgent players. Elegent players usually only need a few good hard hits to put them out of the game for good. You psyche them out and you win every 50-50 ball. Its amazing how many players and coaches dont even acknowledge the benefit of the psychological game. It slows down most fast players. I hope it helps.

hilbert25

Knee lift is great, it's what all sprinters work towards, but you have to be careful you are not overstriding. Work on raising your knees, but do not try to reach out with your legs any more, especially while going down hill. Overstriding just leads to injuries. Thus the key to a longer stride would be to not consciously make your stride longer, but rather try to strengthen your legs for the takeoff, and make them more flexible for the kneelift. When your legs get stronger and more flexible, your stride will be naturally longer.

Other things to try would be bounding drills (though I can't say the validity of these particular ones, they are a start): http://www.tflinks.com/articles/a001_010/a00002_1.shtml

greyeyes

get a few books and duct tape them together. Stand on these said books and hold the wall or something stable. Your toes should be on the edge of the books and your heel should be hanging off. lift yourself up and down using your calves till you can't anymore (you wont last as long as you might think), do three sets of these. After a week you will notice not an increase in your speed but also in your vertical leap (make sure that you use your calves when you run this is something that most people do not do).

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Cowman

I played a number of years of soccer, and can agree with Lunchbox that you can successfully intimidate other players and slow them down. However, I played striker and was always a pretty big kid, so it was usually me that was scaring the defenders, not the other way around


PS. If you are in front of a striker, and he is coming at you at a high speed and you know he's going to beat you eventually, really do try and use the psychological game. Chances are, at that high of a speed, the guys not going to have great footwork. If you make him flinch, or even just second guess himself for a second, he'll usually open up a bit and allow you to knock the ball away.

However, idealy this should never happen as you should be pulled up further as to force him offside..=p

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Scipio

Nobody's said plyometrics yet? They're exercises designed to increase, among other things, running speed. Because they're high impact, there's an injury risk, so be careful, but they do work.

http://www.weightsnet.com/Docs/plyometrics.html

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kingal

Listen to Scipio. SMART!

Plyometrics does the trick. Teach your body explosive movement. The key to plyo working is to have a partner or "coach" facilitating the drills.

I've done both (with coach and w/o coach) and I always work harder and have greater results with that facilitator.

pocon1

Go to the library or bookstore. find Sports Speed, by George dintiman and Bob Ward. These are the guys that made the Cowboys so effective in the seventies and eighties. They cover the gamut from stretching, training for power, ballistics, plyometrics, and overspeed training. They are the masters.

limey

Some good things said here. Basically you need to develop your fast twitch muscles in your quads as these will produce the speed you need. You can do this with weights by the form of legs lifts, quad presses or squats, or, as mentioned before, by sprinting up a steep hill. I've played alot of soccer and we used to do the hill sprints all the time and it works wonders. The best exercise I found for developing quads (without weights) is to crouch down and then jump forward about 2 yards to the crouching position again - kinda like a frog, and then do it again and again about 5 times so that you have jumped about 6-8 yards. At the end of the last jump get up and run about another 8-10 yards as hard as you can. The sprinting through the lactic acid build up that you will have will also develop you muscles ability to deal with fatigue. Repeat this exercise about 4 times and I gaurantee that your legs will be like jello at the end.

gorilla

I know the advice is for chrisnz, but I'm gonna steal it and use it for myself... muhahaha. I have the most perfect sprinting hill about 1/2 mile from my house. It would make Walter Payton jealous.

edit: God rest his soul.

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