What's the best way to teach speed?

Question

I have a 9 year old that has all the strength and natural physical talent but he needs to improve his speed. Any ideas? He plays football is why I ask.

Answer 1

I will first give the caveat to be careful about overtraining. A nine-year-old boy has a lot of physical development ahead of him, and training him too hard at this stage may hurt his development down the road. There are plenty of nine-year-old superstars who don't carry that into even the high school level.

That said, the keys to increasing leg speed are increasing strength, explosiveness, and turnover. Strength is the easy one - and also the easiest area in which to overtrain a young athlete. Leg weight training, squats, hill training and the like will help in that area. I would put more emphasis on calisthenics than weights at his age, because weight training breaks down muscles to allow them to build back stronger.

For explosiveness, an earlier answerer suggested plyometric training, and I wholeheartedly agree. It helps athletes learn to generate power quickly - which is key for not only generating speed, but for starting fast. A football player needs to get to top speed quickly, and plyometrics will help.

The best answer I can give for improving turnover is something that worked for me as a high school distance runner looking to improve my sprinting speed: use downhill training. The uphill work builds strength, but running downhill in training runs forces the legs to turn over faster, and carrying the speed several meters beyond the base of the hill makes sure the legs are continuing that turnover even after gravity is not doing the work. This is a relatively easy workout impact-wise, and thus probably safe for a 9-year-old so long as he doesn't overdo it (e.g., run too many reps in a day or more than 2 such workouts per week).

Answer 2

Plyometrics (like jumping from one place to another--like jumping up to the first stair, then down and then back), the BFS (bigger, faster stronger) dot test, and dead sprints. do intervals of various distances, like 15, 40, 100 yards, timing them so you can track progress. Ever hear of suicides? those are great. Furthermore, hills and cross country sprinting are great because it keeps the muscles in the body guessing. and don't forget about agility. It goes hand in hand with speed and coordination needed for a good pace. an agility ladder is a good way to become lithe and graceful while maintaining top speed. Just make sure to mix it up and make it fun! He is still a little kid, so if working out seems like a chore, he won't be into it. He'll realize how much it improves his game and want to do it all the time (hopefully).

Answer 3

There is an old coaching saying, "The one thing you can't teach is speed". All of the drills and training in world will only moderately improve someone's speed. Your son's speed will increase normally as his body developes but don't expect to turn him into a world class sprinter if physically his body type isn't along those lines.

Answer 4

U should try searching for drills that athletes do on the internet.
Drills are more effective than running each and every day ..
Some of them are
-running fast with small steps;
-taking long steps as u can while maintaining constant speed;
-etc...

Answer 5

go to the library and get a book on running form u would be surprized at how much running form matters. also run up hills, run in sand, run with a wieghted vest on, but the best way is to just run many 40 yard wind sprints

Answer 6

The simple answer would be leg exercises...plus, that would help out with his cardio too

I do hill sprints and lots of jumproping for boxing, and i also play flag football and am one of the fastest players in the league.

Answer 7

make sure u teach him the proper running form... thats the only way u can teach it....other than that just got to get him doing sprints and pushups and situps and the iron chair cuz he is too young to start lifting.

Answer 8

u cant teach speed.... but u can build up his stamina by doining sprints, long distance runs, and any other leg work that u need

Answer 9

Wind sprints, sprinting up hills or inclines.