Speed Training… 6 New Drills for Explosive Speed

speed-trainingSpeed Training for athletes can sometimes be controversial as to the way you train speed. Some gurus say it’s all hip extension and hip flexion. Some say you need to mimic game play and it’s all about an explosive first step.

I personally as a coach believe the best speed workouts are the ones that really translate to the particular sport or actual competition the athlete is participating in. There are many drills and different ways to train speed from form and technique, power drills, to good ol hardwork.

Many coaches have many different opinions but let’s apply these 6 in your training this week to start improving your SPEED. Which to me is linear and lateral because you need your body to respond in all planes because that is how competition is. Watch this video and then read how I break down the actual workout…

1. Power Extension/ Quick Flexion
This drill mimics the natural linear speed movement. Here you will train to extend your hips forcefully using your hamstrings and glutes. Next when facing the box you will train your hips to quickly flex and tap the box by using your hip flexors quickly.

2. Quick Feet Drills
These are simply drills that get you coordinated to fire your muscles quickly across various planes. It also trains the rebound in your achilles to quickly bounce back and forth and connect each jump which trains your nervous system and foot eye coordination

3. Lateral Reaction Drill
This is training your hips to forcefully move fast and react to a ball basically training your hips laterally while sharpening your reaction speed. To advance this just have the coach say switch in between the cones and shift your direction.

4. 1 Leg Triple Jump
The triple jump trains your body to rebound and powerfully explode your body through a series of three jumps. It attacks power in the hips, rebound connection time in the achilles, and overall explosiveness.

5. V-Cone Drill
Set the cones up staggered but in a V shape as seen. Have the athlete really explode up and laterally toward the other cone progressing through the entire drill. A key point is to have the athlete push powerfully out to the cone and stick the landing, pause for a second, then using no momentum explode to the next.

6. Med Ball Knee Jumps/ Tosses
This is very similar to the drill just emphasizes very quick hip flexion in the knee jump and then a very explosive extension while throwing the ball.
Mix these in with your workout and substitute a similar drill you already have in your training. The trick is go 100% intensity and keep the reps low.

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