How to improve your speed | Great tips on how to do this on your own

19.04.2018

Written by Zlatko

Have you ever wondered on how you can improve your speed without needing to go to practice at your club, or using a lot of fancy gear? JayMike has a solution for you! He went to Prioritet Serneke Arena where he teamed up with Tanner Speed Academy who gives some nice tips on how to improve your speed on your own, and drills that helps you!

Tanner Speed Academy are some guys that knows how to run fast. The drills on this guide is all made by these guys and are all things that you can do by yourself and without any expensive gear! But how do you improve your speed to become even faster? Well, you have to keep these things in mind when running. Firstly, try to never have your heels touching the ground while running and thereby always try to run on the front part of your foot. The second important thing is that you always have to try to be as upright as possible. Try taking Ronaldo as an example, he’s almost always upright in his body posture. The third thing is that you have to remember to use your arms. Get your arms to support your movement, because with every step your arms will automatically move as well. So, the faster arms you have the faster legs you get! All these things will be trained and become better with the following drills.

Drill 1: Rolling Feet

This drill is used to active your muscles in the feet, which is very important if you want to run faster or want to jump high. The drill is very simple! Firstly, stand still and push your right knee up while lifting your foot to the front, then do this same movement with your left leg. After doing this with both legs, then start running with the same motion and in a straight line.

An important thing to remember while doing this is to use your arms and make them work together with you, while doing the motion. Run with in this motion for 20-25 meters and then slowly run back to your starting position and get yourself ready for another run.

Drill 2: Cross-Step

Before doing this drill, then start off with imagine a straight line which you have to run on. Move your right foot, in a sliding movement, in front and a bit to the left of your left foot. Then move your left in the same motion in front and a bit to the right of your right foot. Do this faster and end of with running in this motion.

An important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t be running on your heel, this will just simply slow you down. Also try not to make wide steps crossing your entire body over. Just try to keep your center of the body upright and in a straight line when stepping, and don’t start shaking and move sideways.

Drill 3: Backwards Cross-Step

In football you don’t only move forwards. For example, if you are a defender then you often move backwards, so it’s important to keep this in mind when improving your speed. Many of our movements on the pitch often start backwards, before turning around running after a ball or opponent. Basically, this drill is the same as the second, just done backward, so have all the things above in mind while doing this one.

When doing this then you have to lean a bit backwards, not too much just slightly, because this is a natural thing to do when moving in this direction. It’s just like when you lean yourself forwards when running straight.

Bonus Drill: River Dance

This drill is all about coordination and improving your core stability, feet, hip stabilization which makes the River Dance a perfect drill to improve your speed. Start off by doing this standing before adding movement to it. This can quickly become confusing, so try following slowly! Touch your right foot heel with the left hand behind yourself, then touch your right heel with right hand and still behind you. Now move your leg in front of you and touch it with your left hand again. After this switch leg and do the same movement with your other hand. When you feel confident with this, then add a jump every time you touch your foot.

This was four drill that can help you to improve your speed on your own. Keep the drills and how to improve you speed in mind. A bit confused on how to do the drills correctly, or do you want to see how JayMike handles them or need a thorough guide from Tanner Speed Academy. Then head over to our video just below here for some great tips!