Well i am nearly 16 and very slow. I have spent the last few weeks doing weights to build a strength base. I have been doing max strength.
I am currently in week 6 and have one more week to go before a 1 week taper from weights. Then i am going to start plyos and sprint work. I have a form running problem, which i am addressing with band excersises. It causes me a biomechanical problem - basically one leg is shorter then the other due to a tight hip flexor. It is slowly improving.
At the end of my eight weeks of max strength this is my question to those in the know:
What is the best way to improve speed for football [soccer] ? In particular i want to improve 1 step quickness or acceleration, as well as vertical leap overall speed and agility [which i guess ties in somewhat with the other aspects].
I was thinking perhaps 1 session on plyometrics, with a few explosive excersises such as squat jumps, and perhaps just normal squats as well.
And one session on sprint work. Now for the first month or so at least, i will be doing certain sprint drills to improve my running stride. eg one of them is short steps through stepladder and then 50 metre sprint x 10.
I was thinking just two sessions a week for the start, as i don’t need more injuries.
Also, due to the technical nature of my sport, and the player i wish to become, it is necessary [also due to my non exsistent talent] to spend as much time as possible practising and mastering certain techniques. Now some of these pose quite alot of stress to the body such as kicking drills which have the potential for injuries, coupled with the conditioning. I will try and ease into all these things [when biomechanics is 100%] to minimise soreness and injuries.
So is two days a good amount to improve speed? Should i do three?
Any help AT ALL is much appreciated. I hope i explained my issues properly.
Man, I’m not going to tell you anything technical about how to train or anything. All I’m going to say is that when I was your age I was running 14.1s in the 100m. 8 years later I was participating at the world indoor championships. If you want it, then do it. If you love speed just for the sake of speed, you will do it. The first time I saw a 100m I was so amazed at how fast a human can go on two limbs. I worked for the 1st two years just like that. I just tried to mimic his speed. I had no spikes no timing, nothing at all. I just go to the near by track and sprint. I didn’t know anything about warm up, cool down, weights, plyometrics or anything!!! I ran 11.12 after these two years. Then I started learning everything through the hard way, lots of injuries and months spent at home. So after all I know that someone at my place 8 years ago would do much much much better after reaching a site like this. Man you can do anything, you can run any time you want, you can become a superstar and look back at the days and smile. all you need is the burning fire inside. And sadly, that can’t be taught. It just keeps bursting everyday until you reach newer hieghts and when you think you have satisfied it, it keeps on burning more!
good luck and may we see you one day in Real Madrid may be
Man that makes me so happy to here that! You improved so much! Here are my stats tested a few months ago.
50m - 7.55
20m - 3.5
standing long jump - 2.06
10m shuttle run with 5 m running back - left foot - 3.53 right foot - 3.33
1 leg standing long jump - RL - 1.67 LL - 1.58
Triple hop - RL - 5.83 LL - 5.52
6m hop for time - RL - 1.80 LL - 1.59
agility test [http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/illinois.htm]
RL turn 16.53 LL turn - 16.23
Very slow i know. The only thing is injuries and overtraining.
How can i monitor if im overtraining or not? Because soon i will start to work on my skills again for many hours a day.
And thanks so much for the inspirational talk. It really really gives me hope!
Your not too slow… Those are fairly good times for a football player (I read a few of your other posts) I was running mid 11’s when i was 16 and broke my knee cap in a football game and had to take a full year off and came back running high 13’s. And I came back my senior year to run an 11.1sec 100m…
Try incoperatiing jummping rope into your workouts. 5 min a day will build your foot speed alot. Athletes.com is pretty good to they have alot of info about ALL sports on there
I will jump rope later on when im working on my lactic threshold, i find it pretty hard so i will include that later when i want to improve my recovery.
Here are my stats after 8 weeks of max strength work [no sprinting] :
50m - 7.35
20m - 3.35
standing long jump - 2.24
10m shuttle run with 5 m running back - left foot - 3.31 right foot - 3.09
1 leg standing long jump - RL - 1.85 LL - 1.89
Triple hop - RL - 5.93 LL - 5.92
6m hop for time - RL - 1.35 LL - 1.31
agility test [http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/illinois.htm]
RL turn 15.81 LL turn - 16.00
Tested these about three weeks ago i was pretty happy with my results!! Um do you guys think those are good tests for the aspects of speed , needed in soccer?
Another thing. I dont know how to attach a file to this website. soooo if anyone would be willing that is knowledgeable [as everyone here is] could they please give me there email and i can send them my conditioning history, and my current program?
I would very much appreciate if anyone would be willing just so they could just, glance over my training history and advise me on my current program.
