Soccer speed training to enhance performance

Speed of recognition: Recognizing the game situation and its many possibilities.

Speed of anticipation: The ability to anticipate the development of both offensive and defensive possibilities in a game situation.

Reaction speed: The ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations, especially unforeseen ones.

Speed of changing directions: Moving with or without a ball, creating space offensively and closing down space defensively.

Action speed: The ability to carry out game specific actions under pressure of defensive and offensive situations.

Although every player needs to be able to respond to all the game's situations, it is the key areas of play making that require the most knowledgeable and experienced players.

Most of the qualities that make a player fast come from concentration and power. These are game specific techniques that are developed with constant on the ball activities. These qualities are game specific and are refined through game situations and practice sessions.

Training is only successful when the techniques are constantly challenged under realistic situations. The key is to combine ball-handling skills with increases in speed. This is because good acceleration skills interfere with fast footwork. The challenge is to develop power training techniques with constant touches on the ball.

Interesting Points

• Training intensity must be kept at a high level or it only benefits endurance and doesn't increase speed.
  

• The rest intervals are important to monitor as the anaerobic alactic energy system is being utilized during this training phase.
  

• Speed training without an extensive warm up and stretch will likely produce injuries.
  

• Speed training is useless when the athlete is tired as a result of a threshold, or has reached a plateau. This only produces speed endurance and is the aerobic phase of the athletes physical condition.
  

• The development of muscle mass is the obvious key to increases in speed and gaining of power.
  

• Sprinting with weights at a moderate incline increases speed.
  

• Speed is more trainable post-puberty than pre-puberty as it relates directly to muscle gain and mass.
  

• Understand the energy systems and how flow will aid in the design of an effective training regime.

The design of a practice should have all these points incorporated into it to optimize the athletes' ability to perform.

Speed Endurance - Increase Burst of Speed.

Speed endurance - the focus is on holding good technique, even as an athlete gets tired. Program as follows:

• 3 sets x 20 seconds at 80% top speed with 1 minute 15 seconds rest

• 3 sets x 15 seconds at 80% top speed with 1 minute 25 seconds rest in between

• 3 sets x 10 seconds at 80% top speed with 1 minute 35 seconds rest in between

• Hill run for acceleration - 8 yards at ~30 degree incline x 3

Power endurance - focus on technique even as the athlete gets tired.

Line up all 6 medicine balls in a row about 5 yards in between each ball.

• Athlete performs squat push press explosively with each ball running to the next once ball is released.
  

• Athlete then runs to the retrieve the balls and squat back tosses each one.

This sequence is performed 3 times with 5 minutes rest between sets.

I know it sounds like a lot of rest, but try this and you'll understand the rest break!

The following sites will be very useful at this stage Stretching and speed training, Speed and flexibility, and peak speed with combined training, For a more links on this, go to Soccer Speed Training Links.