The best way to get fast is to sprint. But what should a speed programme look like?
Here’s the how you can create your own in 4 steps:
WHY SPEED TRAIN?
Playing your sport alone, isn’t enough to get fast.
Freeman et al (2019) investigated “The effects of sprint training and the Nordic hamstring exercise on eccentric hamstring strength and sprint performance in adolescent athletes”
They found “Adding linear sprint training increased max velocity in just 4 weeks (an average of 0.12s faster in the flying 10). Despite already being in running based sports.”
You need to be sprint training.
SESSION PREPARATION
- Heart Raiser
Begin with a general heart-raiser to increase blood flow to the hamstrings, calves and hips
Something like this – athlete warm-up.
2. Low-level Plyos
Develop your spring, whilst getting a feel for interacting with the ground i.e. multidirectional pogos
3. Sprint Drills
Utilise sprint drills to develop your specific technical and physical weakness’
4. Sprint
Pick whether you want to focus on acceleration or top-end (you can do a mixture), then use the volume guidelines below:
ACCELERATION
Distance Per Sprint: 5-40m per rep
Rest Per Sprint: 60s per 10m
Distance Per Sprint: 120-240m
TOP-END SPEED
Distance Per Sprint: 6-40m per rep (at top speed)
Distance Per Sprint: 20-60s per 10m
Distance Per Session: 200-300m
EXAMPLE:
Heart Raiser: General dynamic mobility and multidirectional skips x 10minutes
Low-level Pogos: Vertical Pogo Jumps x 2 x 10, Lateral Pogos x 2 x 10, Backwards Pogos x 2 x 10
Sprint Drills: Band Resisted March x 2 x 20m, Band Resisted Bound x 2 x 20m, Alternating Bounds x 4 x 20m
Main Session: 8reps of 20m with 2minutes rest between sets
Want to know how you build speed work into a programme? Read this.
