Well, its worth a try! The best you can do is start from where you are at and progress as fast as possible. Spend as much time as possible working on exercises that will stimulate reactive / explosive triple extension. I know that the general advice is to keep depth jumps at low heights because ground contact times get much longer as the heights increase, but for acceleration sports (such as football where you rarely get to max speed) I believe that longer GCT are ok for developing first step quickness and early acceleration.
Yes, and the cool thing is that there are a number of different ways to do them. Three that I like:
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Start from a parallel squat and explode up. This minimizes elasticity but would help for stuff like blowing out of the blocks with no wind-up.
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Standard counter-movement jump. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, then quickly bend your knees and explode up.
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Step - close jump. Take a step or two (or more) to get a bit of velocity, then plant, close so that both feet are together then jump.
You will probably find that variation 1 will give the lowest jump heights and variation 3 the highest.
If you aren’t concerned about landing forces and would like some deceleration / force absorbtion training, then once you are up on the box, you can turn around and drop off trying to stick the landing like a gymnast with your feet either parallel or in a lunge.
I own a Speed Step system (which I don’t think is available anymore…the closest equivalent is the Speed Trap 2) with 2 photocells, so I can automatically time all kinds of runs including flying intervals (10s, 20s, etc).
I time my speed work every time I run. It doesn’t feel like speed work if I don’t time it 
That timing system was one of the best investments I ever made (right up there with CFTS!)
What a great thread this is. As a swimmer (sprinter) I’m having a tough time transferring my strength too. I’m a lot stronger than I was a few years ago, but maybe a little slower.
I’ve gone to a much more radical recovery schedule - I sprint and lift every 4-6 days now, in accordance with DB Hammer’s recommendations. In between I do lots of slow tempo work.
We’ll see what happens.
I’ve been leaning toward a Speed Trap 2 system for a while. It’s just a matter of financial priorities. I’ll probably get one later this summer. Doing speed work without regular times is like lifting weights without knowing how much is on the bar. “That felt easy, I guess I’m really strong!”
That’s the one! I got the Speed Step 3000 system sans the vertical jump mat. However I didn’t pay anywhere near AU$2250 (US$1500) for it! I got mine many years ago and I think it was about half that.
You won’t regret getting an automatic timing system if you often train alone. They aren’t cheap, but if you look at the overall cost of participating in T&F versus other sports, it’s easy to argue that the cost of a timing system amortized over all of the years and training sessions is well worth it.
I do almost all of my training alone and in the evenings, so getting consistent times is pretty much impossible without an auto timer. Even if I found someone to time me consistently they wouldn’t be able to see me in the dark.
I really want to see Charlie’s input on this issue. I’m sure he’s see the thread by now.
"What a great thread this is. As a swimmer (sprinter) I’m having a tough time transferring my strength too. I’m a lot stronger than I was a few years ago, but maybe a little slower.
I’ve gone to a much more radical recovery schedule - I sprint and lift every 4-6 days now, in accordance with DB Hammer’s recommendations. In between I do lots of slow tempo work.
We’ll see what happens."
I suggest the heads up drill like this…
10 x 50 heads up 25y (two strokes down) to a bergan kickout 25y(six on back, six on side, six on front) to a surf kick…
intra set recovery is as follows ( 25 easy backstroke to get the oxygen and then super slow swimming popov style).
Mike we are trying to go under 21 in the 50y !
Clemson, thank you for sharing one of your drills! When you say “heads up drill”, do you mean swimming with your head out of the water ala water polo? What is “two strokes down”? What is a “surf kick”? Thanks for your help!
Under 21 is fantastic if your swimmer can do it. That’s rare speed indeed. I have only been under 23 one time - a 22.96.
Thanks again man, I’m getting to it and I’ll let you know how things go …
mike the drill is the workout…since the intensity is high and the stroke rate will deplete you fast…yes like water polo but the last two strokes before the turn are heads down to speed up the flip.
Surf kick is a streamline kick with the hands on top of each other with the chin near in the water.
Do this all out with 3-4 minutes of active rest…