2 Simple Steps to Soccer Speed

Date added: 2022-09-17

When it comes to improving soccer speed today, there's a lot of different experts out there telling you different things on how to do it. Some recommend parachutes, sleds, medicine balls, etc, and trust me, they can all be very useful for improving soccer speed.

However, we need to slow down a bit and make it less complicated and stick with the basics. You don't need to invest several hundred dollars to become a faster and quicker soccer player.

Here's exactly what you need in order to improve your soccer speed:

- Access to a soccer field

- Soccer shoes or running shoes

That's really all you need (okay, you need to get your clothes on too, of course). Using sleds and resistance based running is great once you really reach that ceiling where you can't seem to get any faster. For most young soccer players, this is not the case, not by far.

So what I recommend in this article serie is 4 simple steps you can use to improve soccer speed right away. You get the first 2 steps here today, and the other 2 steps in a couple of days.

1. Start with a proper warm up

Yeah, that really is 1 of the 4 steps, it's that important. And when it comes to warming up, jogging a few laps around the field and then stretch does not count as a proper warm up.

No, what you can consider a proper warm up is to perform several exercises that will improve your mobility and flexibility, turn on your muscles and get your body ready for soccer practice.

A few examples to that are the following exercises:

- Jogging

- Heel and Toe Walk

- High knee run

- Butt kicks

- Backpedal Run

- Knee Hugs

- Side shuffle

- Hip Circuits

- Split Squats

- Lateral Squats

- Plank and Side Plank

- Carioca

- Frankenstein Kicks

- Defensive Shuffle

- Power Skips

If you perform each of the exercise for 15-20 meters or 4-6 reps/side and throw in some jogging in between some of the exercises, then you are most likely going to be ready for soccer practice. The warm-up should take approximately 10 minutes to perform.

The warm-up will work both as a way of getting the body ready in the short term (for practice), as well as in the long term (improving mobility and flexibility).

Never skip your warm-up before practice, it really is your 1st Step to improving soccer speed.

2. Soccer speed at the beginning of soccer practice

When you are trying to improve soccer speed, the key really is to get warmed up at first (Step #1), and then perform some true speed work right afterwards, before your soccer practice starts.

- Why you want to perform speed training that early is because you really need your body and your central nervous system to be fresh in order to get most out of the speed training.

Soccer speed is improved in a state where you feel fresh, so trying to improve speed at the end of a soccer session simply is a waste of time.

- You need to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to speed training. Performing sprints for 20 minutes with short rest in between will not lead to optimal results.

What I recommend is 10-15 meter sprints, and a total of 6-10 sprints is often what most players can handle. Rest 45-60 seconds between every sprint, and if you feel tired and need more rest, then please add in some more rest.

In order to progress and get faster, you need to be able to perform your sprints at at least 90-95% of your maximum speed, and what that means is that if you don't rest enough or simply run way too many sprints, then you won't be able to keep that speed during your sprints.

So keep the total volume rather low, and make sure to rest enough between each sprints so you'll be able to run really fast.

Okay, there you have it, the first 2 Simple Steps for Soccer Speed. The next 2 steps will be presented here on the blog in a couple of days.

Author: Jonas Forsberg

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