What is one of the first things most athletes will train? Of course, they want to get stronger & bigger but the number one thing on every athlete’s plate is speed. Every athlete wants to be faster than the year before. However, most athletes don't know to perform the proper movements to help increase their speed. In this article I’m going to give you 3 movements that’ll help increase your speed to sharpen your game.
1. Seated Box Jumps
The 1st movement is going to be Seated Box Jumps. Yes, I said it, Seated Box Jumps. I know most of you are wondering, how exactly are Seated Box Jumps going to increase my speed, so I’m going to tell you how to do it & why its important. This movement can be performed with a your bodyweight.
To begin, you would want to get a Box that’s about 30 inches in height. Next, sit back into your hips onto the box. After that, stand back up from the seated position, pressing from the tripods of your feet to jump up as hight as you can. After you land your jump in squat position, switch back to standing position and repeat the entire motion, again. Box Squats are important for increasing an athlete’s speed because forces an athlete to be more powerful from a seated position. Also, sprinting is a hip dominant movement & so is Box Squats. Box Squats forces an athlete to explode from the seated position through their hips an using the tripods of their feet. If you want to make it more challenging, you may also use a Barbell to rest over your shoulders or Dumbbells to hold at your sides, as well.
2. Acceleration Wall Drills
The 2nd movement is Acceleration Wall Drills. Acceleration Wall Drills is a movement that can be done anywhere (as long as you have a wall around). This movement is extremely beneficial because it allows the individual to practice their sprinting form. To perform this exercise first you will need a wall. Next, you will want to put your hands on the wall with the arm parallel to the ground. Your feet should be behind your hips and you will want your body at a 45-degree angle to the ground. Keep a straight torso with your core engaged and hips forward. While in this position you are going to perform a marching motion. When you bring one foot up from the ground you want to keep that core engaged & dorsi-flex with the top foot raising and plantar-plex the bottom foot. This movement is beneficial to increase speed because athletes can learn how to properly utilize their hips, reaction time from the ground and practice the form as if he/she is going to run.
3. Hill Sprints
The 3rd movement are Hill Sprints. This movement is straight forward. Typically, you want to find a steep hill for you to get the most of this movement. When performing, you will want to run up the hill as if you’re going to run on a field, track etc. When running up the hill, the key is, ARMS, ARMS, & more ARMS. I can’t stress enough how the hill will force you to use your arms more than running on a flat surface. Pumping the arms while performing hill sprints is a perfect movement for runners to increase their speed because it increases leg strength, running drive, force & more effective arm movement due to the resistance of the hill.
So that’s it folks. Those are 3 movements that can be used to increase your speed. Implement the 3 movements I provided in the article into your program, and you’ll see those running times drop. The goal of an athlete is to become bigger, stronger, faster & better than you were the year before.