THIS is How to Get Faster

I received this email the other day:

Hey Troy,

I am a 14 year old on-baller from Qld. I have great endurance but my 

sprinting needs much more work. Could you please send activities or 

a workout on how i can improve this? I am willing to do a lot of work.  
 
Thanks AJ

Speed is King.

Having great endurance is fine but if you can only go at 1 pace, you 

will seldom win the ball. I went into this in greater detail in my 

"You Must Train Like This In 2012" article.

What we'll focus on in this article is what you HAVE to do to 

improve sprinting speed.

Now really there are 2 things to do to get faster.

Thing 1 - Use the right muscles at the right time

Thing 2 -  Make the right muscles stronger.

Doing these 2 things alone will increase your sprinting speed above 

all else, even if you're fast already.

Speed is a product of how much force you can put into the ground 

with each step. The harder you can plant your foot down, the harder 

the rebound which translates into greater horizontal propulsion. 

Think of throwing a rubber ball into the ground as hard as you can 

and seeing how high it can rebound into  the air.

Now in order to be able to develop the ability to plant with great 

force, you need muscular strength, power and coordination.

The muscles you need to focus on initially are the glutes and 

hamstrings, the 2 most underdeveloped muscles in footballers all 

over the country. 

A lot of people will harp on about the quads for lower body which 

is true, but the posterior chain is where speed is developed.

As well as developing the muscles of the posteriour chain, you also 

need to develop the action of hip extension, which is the action of 

the leg going back behind the mid line of the body. I go into great 

detail on it here.

So here's what we need:

1 - Activation of the posteriour chain muscles and hip extension 

action (glutes and hamstrings).

2 - Strengthening of the posteriour chain muscles and hip 

extension action (glutes and hamstrings again) 

To activating the posteriour chain muscles, perform the exercises 

from this video for 1 - 2 sets of 10 - 20 reps each 

To activating the hip extension action you have 2 options 

depending on what equipment you have access to. If you 

have access to a prowler, sled or a partner, then you can 

perform a push or drag exercise like this:

If you don't have a prowler or sled, than you can use a 

partner variation where you just try and push them 

backwards while they try and resist you. The aim is to 

push through complete hip extension each step and try 

and clench your arse cheeks with each step. Your 

partner should only apply minimal resistance as you 

actually want to do it, not just push against an 

immovable object. Also don't forget to raise your 

knees up as high and far as you can, such as when 

you're sprinting. Do this for 2 sets of 10 - 20 steps. 

If you can't do this as you train alone then you can 

stand with your arms on a bar about sternum height 

and just push your feet through the floor while 

squeezing your cheeks as hard as you can through 

the back leg:

To strengthen the posteriour chain muscles you can't 

go past deadlifts. Keep these to low reps per set, no 

higher then 6 but you won't need to go lower then 3

either. We're training to get faster, not for 

powerlifitng.

If you've never done deadlifts before then please get 

a qualified coach to show you (although my video 

does a pretty good job!) and start with bar at a mid 

shin height too, such as the rack pull showed in the 

video above at 2mins:50secs.

To strengthen the hip extension action in a sprinting 

motion, the prowler drag video is it. As most people 

don't have access to a prowler or sled, again you can 

go with the partner push or even a car push. This time 

your partner can now apply a lot more resistance but 

again you still want to be able to do it. 

Put these methods to the test but also continue to sprint!

Get your prowler from Underground Elite.