Why Do You Need To Train for Speed
Getting faster or training for speed is important in almost every sport, fast feet in boxing, sprints in football, land training against the clock in swimming, your PBs are often measured by your time to demonstrate progress.
Speed training also improves balance and stability, training for speed can not only help you perform better but also decrease the chances of injury.
Momentum is an important element of fitness and measuring your improvements using speed is a great benchmark for personal bests and progress. Whilst speed is an obvious goal for track and field sports and swimming where you are competing against the clock, speed is also important for combat sports, such as MMA, and team sports where being faster than your opponent/s is an obvious advantage.
4 Ways To Get Faster
Each performance coach will have exercises and programs to increase your speed and muscle strength for your specific sport, but here are a few exercises to help you get faster overall.
- Train your ankles & hips – there is a reason Achilles vulnerable spot was his ankle, your ankles are the first point of contact and are susceptible to injury when running. You need to strengthen your ankles so they can absorb force as you run. Strong ankles will you help reduce injury and move faster. Many athletes neglect their hips, however having a good range of motion in your hips will allow you to move faster, and have full access to that important lower body strength. Movement, agility and flexibility in the hips will help you move faster and reduce injury.
- Train for lower body power – whether you are running or swimming, speed comes from your lower body, quads, glutes, hamstrings etc. By training these important muscles you can create greater force which in turn creates speed. This force from your legs can help you move and punch faster and is applicable in any sport.
- Train Explosiveness – Explosive Speed Training drills and Plyometrics help your body to increase fast twitch muscle fibres – these allow you to access that power quickly and in fast bursts. Training to increase elastic power with drills and bursts means you will be able to access powerful muscle contractions in an instant. To optimise your speed development in training, make sure you have good rest periods in between reps, speed training is different to conditioning training.
- Do Single Leg Training – We all have a dominant side, one leg that is stronger than the other. This will prevent you from full speed and also make you imbalanced which can increase injury risk. Single leg training will help you ensure both legs are working to 100% and strengthen both sides equally. This will help you strengthen your joints, improve balance and make you a much better athlete.
For more sports specific training, why not learn from the top performance coaches in their field, take a look at our professional training programs and follow a course to improve your performance.