In-season or out-of-season, coaches want to help their athletes get faster, stronger, and ready for game day. In just about every sport, speed training helps athletes by improving their agility, acceleration, balance, and, of course, their speed.
Being quick on their feet gives athletes an advantage in football, soccer, lacrosse, and other sports. Coaches can help their athletes train for speed—and other vital athletic skills—here in the indoor fields at Extreme Studio Performance.
Separate Speed and Burn Training
If you’re training specifically for speed, the main goal isn’t to tire out your athletes with burn training. Rather than going for all-out effort, use a 1:20 work-to-rest ratio. For example, if your athletes are doing 20-yard sprints that take three seconds, have them rest for 60 seconds between each one. Those certainly aren’t the only workouts you’ll want to do, but they will help increase speed.
Use Hill Running
When someone runs up a hill or sets of stairs, they naturally use the front of their foot. That’s the part of the foot used to drive quick bursts of speed. Hill running also makes a runner lean forward, and naturally trains them to use the best sprinting position. Plus, it strengthens leg muscles.
Remember Strength Training
Athletes need strong legs to power the speed you’re working on when training to make them faster. Make sure to include workouts focused on strengthening quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, and ankles. That improved strength will pay off with increased speed. Just make sure you’re also balancing muscle gain with training for sport-specific performance.
Emphasize Form and Function
Training to the point of exhaustion isn’t going to do much good on its own. Sure athletes will get tired, but the focus should be on training with good form and giving maximum effort rather than training while fatigued. It’ll be useful to work on training speed, agility, and conditioning separately during the off-season until close to the time when your team will start playing.
Train on Indoor Fields
Indoor training fields mean coaches don’t need to worry about extremes in Texas weather conditions affecting their training plans. It’s never too hot, too cold, or too stormy to train inside. Here at Extreme Studio Performance, two indoor fields—a full soccer pitch (121×55 ft; 6655 sq. ft.) and a soft training field (84×54; 4536 sq. ft.)—offer ample space for team and individual development. Soccer, football, and lacrosse teams can easily adapt the field spaces for their various needs.
In addition to these fields, ESP has full, clean, well-maintained locker rooms and state-of-the-art workout equipment. To schedule a tour and see how training here can help your team, contact us today.