Introduction
Speed kills on the field. The team who can create more break away opportunities in competition are more likely to win the game. Equally so, the team that can prevent break away scoring opportunities are also more likely to win the game. The problem is most strength and conditioning coaches have a PhD in the weight room, and a high school diploma on the field. Coaches will have every progression and regression or teaching framework for the Olympic lifts. Yet they do not understand the difference between acceleration and max velocity. Or they do not understand the difference between agility and change in direction. This article will be a step in the right direction for those coaches.
Speed CAN be taught
First things first. Get rid of the saying you can’t teach speed. Yes there are some people who have won the genetic lottery and will be faster than most due to his or her genetic makeup. As a coach you can still help that athlete get faster. You can also help a slow athlete (like myself) get less slow. Playing into this - you need to know the training age of your athletes. Just as you do within the weight room you should have your more refined athletes performing advanced speed training methods compared to your foundation level athletes. What does this look like?
Overspeed sprinting, fly float fly, and contrast sprints are not modalities that foundation level athletes need right away. They need to work on the basics. Teach them that acceleration is horizontal and high force. Whereas max velocity is vertical and high speed. Then, help them train these skills with their on field and weight room stressors. Pair broad jumps with resisted short (10-15 yard) sprint work. Then pair these lifting with deeper angle static to dynamic lifting - deadlift, pause squat, etc…
As a coach you also need to understand the different surfaces your athletes will be training on. I am not talking about turf or grass having higher injury rates. We already discussed this and showed that more Achilles injuries in the 2023-2024 NFL season happened on grass. Click here to learn more on that topic. What we are talking about is if you live somewhere cold during the winter months and do not have an indoor facility. You are running a risk for soft tissue injuries if your athletes are sprinting on turf one day, and then sprinting on multipurpose courts the next.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN ATHLETES WILL GET HURT RUNNING INDOORS. What we are saying is the surface of a field turf (or grass field) is softer than a multipurpose or basketball court. Be aware of this if you do have to go inside for training sessions during the winter months. The indoor surface is harder - resulting in higher GRF back into the lower leg. I have seen an increase in foot/calf/shin soft tissue soreness/injury from increased work indoors during winter months. Additionally, if you are programming sled sprints indoors be aware of friction. The same weight you programmed outside might not slide as well indoors. MAKE SURE YOU TEST OUT WHAT YOU WILL BE ASKING YOUR ATHLETES TO DO.
Finally, within teaching speed work you need to know what are your facility constraints. Those programs with indoor facilities adjacent to the weight room - we are not talking to you. This comment is for schools like I was at with Towson. Our field turf was a 10 minute walk away from the weight room - and we had to walk uphill from the field to the weight room. Is this the end of the world? No - but it is something you need to be aware of as a coach for when you program your training sessions.
Not all speed is created equal
Something that many young strength coaches struggle with is understanding the basics of sprint work. The issue lies in the universities pumping out undergrads and grad students without educating them properly. This is why SCN exists - to bridge the gap from what is taught in the classroom with what actually happens in the weight room. If you are not a member click here to try the site out for 24 hours for $1. How many bachelors or masters classes teach the difference between acceleration and max velocity running? Or teach classes on curved running? None. And certainly no class in college/university that I know teaches students the difference between agility and change in direction speed work.
Understanding the differences here is KEY for all coaches. In the off season take time to work on all of these qualities. During your week, if you have athletes that can handle it, you have the opportunity for 3 high CNS days - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Take these days to focus on speed work for each quality. Concentrate one day of speed work to acceleration work. Pair it with the proper jump and med ball training like we discussed in the introduction.
Do the same with your max velocity day of speed work. The final high CNS day of the week focuses on curve and change in direction speed. This way all qualities can be trained with concentrated effort by your athletes. It also allows you to have a primary speed focus for the day - which makes your progression and regression for your refined vs foundation level athletes.
Individualized speed training
The position your athletes play will also guide the speed work you program. Does your goalie need to do the same speed work as the rest of the team? No shot. What about football linemen, do they need to do the same sprint work as the skill players? Again the answer is no. How about basketball players. Do they need to do as much max velocity sprinting as say a soccer player or lacrosse player? You know the answer - it is no. Basketball players do not have a large enough court space to reach the same speeds as lacrosse or soccer athletes. Thus they do not need to spend as much time training max velo. They need to train like a football OL/DL or rugby prop - more acceleration focused.
Once you understand this central idea, then you can focus on individualizing with force and velocity specific training. But understand, only once you know how to train your athletes individually based on his or her training age, sport, and position can you train their force or velocity imbalance. Too many coaches jump right to the fancy stuff before they understand the basics. Do not be one of those coaches.
Speed prescription
So what should it look like? Below will be my example of speed work using a MWF high low approach with football athletes. This idea came from knowing the athletes, facility, and time constraints put on my staff and I. You need to understand your specific situation before simply plugging and playing.
Monday - acceleration focus | 10-15 yard | heavy sleds ~50% BW | broad jump progression DL-SL-Band | MB broad jump throws | weight room trap bar deadlift and lunges
Wednesday - max velocity focus | 20+ yard | fly sprint | >10% BW sled | Vertical jump progression DL-SL-Lateral-Rotational | MB throws overhead | weight room dynamic effort
Friday - curve, change in direction, and agility focus | 505 sprint | modified 505 | S curve | C curve | Rotational MB throws | weight room frontal plane loading
This was done because my group of athletes would not always recover over the weekend. When we monitored their readiness via drop jump performance - numbers increased during the week. Therefore we put their highest velocity and GRF speed work when they were the freshest.
On acceleration days we would hit a minimum of 8 reps. Additionally, we would not teach the 3 point start until pro day training. Why? Because find me a football play when anyone on the field lines up in a track start and takes off running. Oh yea, it never happens. So we didn't waste time perfecting the 3 point stance. Does this mean we never ran acceleration reps from a 3 point stance? Nope. They still got reps from a 3 point stance. They also got acceleration reps from lying on their stomach and getting up to a full speed sprint. We would mix in various start positions within the reps of acceleration.
Record, rank, and publish your speed work
Like Tony Holler talks with Fed The Cats - we recorded, ranked, and published all speed work. We invested money into our timing gates so logistics did not slow us down on the field with timing. Yes timing is important - but if you have 1 timing gate and want to get flying 10s on 50 athletes - you have a logistical issue. You need to break that group down - or get more timing gates.
We would time acceleration, max velo, curve, and change in direction work. Then we would record the jump distances paired with each of the speed reps. All of this data would then be ranked, and published to the team, coaches, and support staff. Emails, texts, and paper copies were sent out so EVERYONE knew how the team performed.
Conclusion
Like we said earlier - this blog will steer you in the right direction if you have no idea about speed work. This should help you understand some of the key building blocks and things to focus on with your athletes. For a deeper dive into the topic of speed you need to get inside our membership.
At SCN we have over 175 lectures covering every sport and every topic in strength and conditioning. You can get a look inside of our membership for 24 hours for only $1 by clicking here.Or, if you want to save $60 on the year price sign up for an annual membership to SCN. Clicking here you will sign up for a year membership which helps you save 2 months payment ($60).
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