How Do You Train “Speed”?
“Speed Kills”
Have you ever thought to yourself, “man, if only I was faster I would have made that play.” Or has your coach ever told you that you needed to be more explosive? Are you not seeing results from your current speed training?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re in luck. Here’s how I helped high school & college athletes increase their top speed by 0.5+ mph in 3 WEEKS.
Over the course of the summer, our team implemented 2 days/week of “speed” training. We began with an initial assessment by having the athletes wear Statsports GPS monitors. From there, we did a number of sprint tests using weight sleds as a form of resistance. We then built out a program based on the test results & kept working. Now, why did we use weight sleds?
Numerous scientific studies have outlined the benefits of resisted sled-sprints for increasing speed in athletes. Recent evidence from The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests,
“Training with a heavy sled load significantly improved acceleration and horizontal force beyond that of a group of players training with unresisted sprints,” (Cahill et al., 2020).
This means that those who trained WITH heavy resisted sleds improved their power or “first step quickness" more than those who trained WITHOUT the resistance. So, if you’re looking to get faster within your first 10yds - sleds/bands are your friend.
Not only do sled sprints induce a physiological adaptation, but they also teach the proper technique for acceleration. The 2020 study goes on to note,
“The orientation of the force application in a horizontal direction has also been shown to increase with load during sled pulling,” (Cahill et al., 2020).
Basically, how you strike the ground matters. If you want to move FORWARD quickly, you must push the ground BACK aggressively - resisted sprints teach you how to do this. Think about performing a broad jump. In order to cover the most distance you need to push the ground horizontally (forward/back). In contrast, if you were to try to jump as high as you can onto a box, you would try to push the ground vertically (up/down).
This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to speed training. If you’d like to learn more & experience these results or training methods yourself, click or tap the button below to sign-up for a FREE speed training consultation with New Wave Performance. Let’s build!
