3 Ways Footballers Can Increase Their Running Speed

3 Ways Footballers Can Increase Their Running Speed

On the football field, tearing past your opposite number at top speed on both sides of a counterattack can be the difference between winning and losing! Here are 3 tips to increasing your maximal speed!

 

1. Strengthen Your Core


Starting with strengthening your upper body when talking about increasing maximal speed might seem bizarre, but a huge amount of forward momentum can be lost due to a floppy and unstable mid-section! When landing at maximum speed you need to be as strong as possible (especially in the mid section) to keep you moving in the right direction as fast as possible! Drop the traditional crunch variations and explore loaded carries, cable variations and single arm pushing and pulling movements.

 


2. Develop Specific Hamstring Strength


Top speed running will put a lot of stress and strain on your hamstrings (as you will have noticed after a sprint), developing both eccentric and isometric strength (they are types of contraction) of your hamstrings will help to protect as well as propel you. Try to stay functional with your hamstring work, bodyweight exercises, barbell and dumbbell variations are a must over more traditional machine-based actions. Hamstrings can be one of the first muscles in the body to let you know if your suffering from fatigue, keep your fuel topped up with Fuel90® around training and games.


3. Get Powerful


Just like your upper body (but perhaps more importantly), your lower body needs to be exceptionally powerful if you’re going to run fast. Each time you hit the ground you will lose momentum if your legs dip too much on impact, losing momentum and slowing you down. Fast acting plyometric drills are great ways to increase power and in turn speed. After all, F1 cars don’t have the springs of a rally car … and which is faster in a straight line?