Introduction
Being fast in football or soccer (I will use them interchangeably herein) is of course advantageous, and training to become faster comes with plenty of additional benefits to your athleticism besides increasing your speed.
So, how can soccer players get faster?
Soccer or Football players get faster by training just like sprinters do. This means running on a running track with sprinting spikes, using resisted sprinting exercises such as sled sprints, and supplementing this with plyometric and heavy resistance gym-based exercises.
In this article I’m going to be covering every aspect of actual speed training for soccer players (no agility ladder or fast feet drills), as well as explaining the additional benefits that speed training brings for soccer or football players.
This article is a big one, so feel free to use it as a reference when improving different aspects of your sprint performance for soccer. There will also be an FAQ section at the end that summarizes the key points made throughout this post.
Firstly, let’s explore some data taken from professional-level soccer matches so that we can determine how important sprint performance is for soccer players.
Sprinting in Soccer/Football
How Important is Speed in Soccer?
Speed in soccer is important. Even a fraction of a second can decide who gets to the ball first, which can make all the difference.
To get some numbers involved, let’s inspect this study titled “Straight sprinting is the most frequent action in goal situations in professional football”. As the name suggests, this study found that whenever a goal was scored, in 45% of cases the action preceding the goal was a straight sprint (which was compared to a change in direction, a jump, rotations, no powerful action).
“Most actions for the scoring player were straight sprints (n = 161, 45% of all analysed goals, P < 0.001) followed by jumps (n = 57, 16%), rotations and change-in-direction sprints (n = 22, 6% each)”
This supports the conclusion that being faster is advantageous for soccer players.
Another aspect of getting faster for soccer is that training to run faster has many indirect benefits. For example, becoming faster at sprinting often results in an athlete becoming more powerful – both in the sense of striking the ball, and in terms of ‘soccer strength’.
This is because running fast is all about producing larges amounts of force quickly, which can of course generalize to other actions on the pitch.
For the same reason (and some others, that I will address at a different time) training speed also typically results in an improvement in agility.
In other words, improving sprinting abilities → improves force producing/power output abilities → improves ‘football strength’, agility and ball striking power.
Improving your speed can also have implications for your endurance on the pitch, due to a concept known as ‘speed reserve’. I will return to this idea later in the speed endurance part of this article.
Now that we appreciate why speed is important in soccer, let’s dive into what ‘type’ of speed is most useful for soccer players.
What Type of Speed is Important for Soccer Players?
If you’re reading this article then you most likely already appreciate the fact that speed is important for soccer players.
However, knowing exactly what aspects of sprint performance is important too, as this can assist us in focusing our training. To determine this let’s inspect some data present in the literature.
For instance, consider the study titled “Activity profile in elite Italian soccer team”, in which the researchers monitored the activity profile of professional football players in the Italian National League.
The researchers then analyzed the percentage of walking, jogging, running and sprinting actions taken throughout the course of a game. It was found that roughly 10% of the total distance covered was while sprinting, and importantly:
“In our study, 93 % of high-intensity displacements are between 2 and 19 m. Given the duration of each sprint and the number of sprints, we can determine that the mean duration of effort is 2.2 s”
This is extremely important as it highlights the fact that by far most sprints throughout the course of a soccer match are less than 20m.
This implies that for soccer/football players, most training should be targeting the acceleration portion of sprint training.
That being said, we should not ignore our top-speed training either, as the two are not mutually exclusive. I’ll expand more on this in the ‘How to Improve Your Top Speed for Soccer’ of this article.
Before we move onto how to improve specific aspects of sprint performance (such as acceleration, top-speed etc…), we must first cover the overarching and fundamental principles of sprint training.
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How to Improve Your Speed for Soccer? A General Answer
The answer to this question is: to sprint.
You may have heard this before but let me clarify what I mean by this.
When I say sprinting, I do not mean putting your runners on and running down the road as fast as you can.
I do not even mean putting you soccer boots/cleats on and running as fast as you can at your local pitch.
At the start of the article, I said that to improve our speed we must train like sprinters. That means that we must head down to a running track and use sprinting spikes to run.
If you are not familiar, sprinting spikes are a special type of shoe that have metal spikes coming out from the bottom that allow for maximum traction on a running track.
The reason I say this is that because sprinting on a running track with sprinting spikes is a completely different stimulus than running with soccer boots on turf.
If you want to improve your speed for soccer, running on a running track with sprinting spikes is much more effective than running on turf.
The added traction that sprinting spikes provide, and the bounce provided by the running track mean that training on one is entirely different compared to ‘regular’ running.
To give an analogy, imagine someone who only ever does resistance, strength-based training with resistance bands instead of in a gym. The additional resistance and load that can be provided at a gym (for example, a 150kg back squat) can simply never be provided by resistance bands alone.
This is how I see ‘running’ vs sprinting. The stimulus is completely different, and hence much greater adaptations can be made with sprinting spikes and a track.
If you’d like to read more about this topic, then check out this article here where I expand on the uniqueness of running on a track with sprinting spikes.
So, if you are a soccer player looking to get faster, if there is one thing to take away from this article it is this:
If you want to get faster for soccer, the first thing you should invest in is a pair of sprinting spikes.
Running with sprinting spikes on a running track is the most important and general principle when it comes to improving our speed. As I said at the beginning of the article, if we wish to get faster, we must train like sprinters.
This does not mean that every single time we sprint we have to be running in spikes on a running track. For example, the weighted-sled sprinting that I will introduce in the next section can also be done on grass. However, sprinting on a track should be incorporated into our training at some point.
Now that we have set that as an overall guiding principle, let’s move onto the exact implementations of this to improve the different aspects of our sprinting performance.
Sprinting spikes. If you’re looking to get faster for soccer, invest in a pair of spikes and do most of your sprint training at your local running track.
Improving Your Acceleration for Soccer
As we have previously seen, acceleration is the most important aspect of sprint performance when it comes to soccer players.
So, what is the best way to improve your acceleration?
I believe that the best way to improve your acceleration is with resisted sprinting, and in particular resisted sled sprinting.
This is basically where you start sprinting from a static position, whilst being tied to a sled with some additional weight on it.
Very roughly speaking, the reason that this exercise is so great for improving your acceleration is because it acts as a method to improve both your power-output capabilities as well as improving your sprinting form.
One of the best exercises to improve your acceleration for soccer is weighted sled sprints.
If that doesn’t quite make sense to you, I have written a whole article on this type of training.
In the article I provide the background theory for what makes it such a great exercise, as well as specific sets, reps and weights to use. So please check out that article as it will have everything you will need to know about resisted weighted sled training.
After you finish reading that, invest in the necessary equipment (sprinting spikes, sprinting sled, weights if you don’t already have any), and you will have everything you could need to improve your acceleration for soccer.
That equipment and workout alone (in the linked article) is sufficient to make a drastic change in your speed as it relates to your soccer performance. If I had to pick a single ‘speed’ exercise for soccer players, it would be resisted weighted sled sprints on a track.
However, as I have previously noted, top speed and speed endurance also have a role to play improving your speed for soccer, so let’s move onto those aspects now.
Improving Your Top Speed for Soccer
Is Top Speed Important for Soccer?
Given the statistics that I mentioned earlier, you may think ‘why is top speed even important in soccer?’ After all, if 93% of all sprints in soccer are less than 20m, then do we even achieve our top speed?
The answer to this is most definitely not.
Our top speed is achieved under perfect conditions, 0 fatigue, and focusing solely on sprinting as fast as possible. In the context of a soccer game, players are almost certainly fatigued while sprinting, and whilst sprinting must also simultaneously focus on various other aspects of the game.
So, if we never truly achieve our top speed during the game, what is the point of improving it?
This worry stems from the false assumption that top speed is independent from other speed qualities. In other words, training our top speed may help us in other areas of speed performance – and indeed I believe it does.
Training Top Speed Improves Your Acceleration
This may sound counter intuitive but training your top speed can improve your acceleration. Simply put, improving your acceleration will not necessarily improve your top speed, but improving your top speed will likely improve your acceleration.
This is because your top speed is the limiting factor.
For example, if you run the first 10m in 1.80 seconds, and your top speed is 30km/hr (18.64 miles/hr), then if will be impossible for you to run the first 20m in under 3.00 seconds, since you would be required to run the 10m-20m portion in 1.20 seconds (which is your max speed of 30km/hr).
It should be noted that these numbers are very unrealistic (1.80s to 10m is very good for someone with a top speed of 30km/hr and virtually nobody reaches their top speed during the 10m-20m portion).
However, the fact is that even if you were to focus exclusively on your acceleration, if you have a relatively low top speed, then your acceleration abilities will be limited.
Another way to think about it is that acceleration is a % of your top speed over distance.
So, say that over the first 10m you achieve 50% of your top speed, then over the second 10m portion you achieve 80% of your top speed and so on. These numbers represent your acceleration, and there are two ways to improve this: either increase the %s, or increase the value of your top speed. Hopefully this explains why increasing your top speed can improve your acceleration.
Another important point to note is that top speed sprinting has been shown to be a great ‘prehab’ exercise.
Every year millions of dollars are spent on soccer players’ hamstring injuries; exposure to top speed sprinting has been repeatedly shown to have potent injury-prevention effects, especially for the hamstrings (click here for more information).
Top speed sprinting is one of the best ‘prehab’ exercises out there for soccer players, and athletes in general
In summary, yes, acceleration is more important for soccer players than top speed; however, we should also work on improving our top speed as this has implications for how good our acceleration can become as well as being an amazing injury-prevention exercise.
The Best Exercise to Improve Your Top Speed
Well that’s all great – but how do we go about improving our top speed?
The best way to improve your top speed is by regularly sprinting with maximal effort and reaching your top speed.
For most people it takes around 30m-40m of acceleration (on a track with spikes) to reach your top speed.
Note that this is very different from trying to improve your 1RM on a movement in the gym. For example, if you wanted to improve your 1RM on a barbell back squat, you likely wouldn’t attempt a new PB every time you go to the gym.
This is not the case with sprinting. If you want to improve your top speed, you must reach your top speed on a consistent basis.
A great exercise that achieves this are flying sprints.
What are Flying Sprints?
If you’re new to sprinting, you may have not heard of the term ‘fly’. For example, a ‘10m fly’, as in ‘flying sprint’.
A fly is how long it takes to run a certain distance given that the athlete is given an initial acceleration distance of their choosing.
For example, a 10m fly would be the time that it takes to run 10m after the athlete has been allowed to accelerate for 30-40m (this distance could vary depending on how long it takes the athlete to reach their top speed).
An example of myself doing a flying sprint. The ‘fly zone’, where you are supposed to reach your top speed, is between the two yellow cones.
Flys are a great way to train your top speed. You can either train the fly ‘in isolation’, in the sense that you take a gradual run in where you slowly build up speed till you reach your top speed. This is what I did in the video above, as I wasn’t sprinting with 100% intensity right from the beginning.
However, you could also combine your acceleration and top speed training where you accelerate at 100% effort, before reaching your top speed at around ~30m-40m.
A sample combined acceleration + top speed workout might look like this: 8 x 40m sprint with 5 minutes rest in between each sprint.
I know that doesn’t look like a lot of running (only 320m total!), but that’s the nature of sprint training.
It’s all about quality over quantity, especially when it comes to top speed training (I go into more detail in this article here if you’re interested).
Roughly speaking, that’s really it when it comes to top speed training – sprinting spikes + track + reaching your top speed on a regular basis (~2 times a week).
Follow those basic principles and your top speed will improve (given that you’re not already a seasoned sprinter!).
Now that we have covered acceleration and top speed performance for soccer players, let’s move onto the final aspect – speed endurance.
Speed Endurance for Soccer
What is speed endurance? In the world of track and field, speed endurance refers to the ability to sustain your top speed (or close to it) for relatively long periods of time.
For example, person A and person B may have the same top speed; however, person A may be able to maintain that top speed for 2 seconds whereas person B may be able to only maintain it for a fraction of a second. In this case person A has better speed endurance than person B.
Now clearly speed endurance in this sense is not very relevant for soccer players. After all, soccer players do not even reach their top speed during a match, let alone sustain that speed for long periods of time (as per the statistics cited earlier).
So, what type of speed endurance is important for soccer players?
Soccer players must perform many sprints throughout a game, often without much rest in between.
Repeated Sprint Ability
The quality that is extremely important for soccer players is repeated sprint ability. This is the ability to perform repeated sprints in a short amount of time, with minimal decrease in performance.
For example, the 100m sprinter will be able to run 20m very fast, but they may not be able to sustain that level of performance if asked to repeat a 20m sprint 10 times over the course of a couple minutes.
Soccer players on the other hand play for 90 minutes and will have to perform many sprints throughout the course of a game. There is no use being great at accelerating if your performance greatly declines after a couple of runs.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) can be used to improve our repeated sprint ability.
Roughly speaking, HIIT involves performing high intensity activities, with brief periods of rest in between. I won’t elaborate on HIIT too much here since there are plenty of resources out there.
This is of course in contrast to, for example, a 30min run where a constant pace is held throughout. Of course, this type of training has its place in the general aerobic conditioning of a soccer player; however, when it comes to training to perform repeated sprints, HIIT is more game-specific.
Increasing your Top Speed can Improve your Repeated Sprint Ability
Another way to improve your endurance as it relates to speed if by increasing your top speed. This idea is also known as ‘speed reserve’.
The concept of speed reserve is best demonstrated with an example. After Usain Bolt’s races he runs past the finish line and is seemingly jogging around at a low intensity and is still going quite fast.
A common comment you might see is “His jogging is faster than my sprinting”.
The idea here is that since Usain can run so fast, running at the speed that others consider ‘fast’ is easy for him.
Usain Bolt’s jogs faster than most people sprint.
Imagine that your top speed is 30km/hr. In this case, running at 26km/hr is probably quite difficult for you and uses a lot of energy.
Now consider someone who’s top speed is 36km/hr. In this case, running at 26km/hr probably still requires some effort, but overall doesn’t require as much energy as in the first case.
This means that, all else being equal, the second person will have greater repeated sprint abilities than the first person even if neither player reaches even close to their top speeds throughout the game.
This is somewhat of a simplification, but nonetheless demonstrates how improving your top speed can improve your repeated sprint ability throughout the course of a 90 minute game.
Now that we have tackled the ‘big 3’ of speed performance: acceleration, top speed, speed endurance (repeated sprint ability), let’s move onto another very popular topic when it comes to improving your speed for soccer – drills.
Speed Drills for Soccer
Soccer players love their drills, and when I’ve researched this topic in the past, I have found various ‘drills’ that claim to improve soccer players’ speed.
In general, most of these drills are ineffective. I will not cover an exhaustive list of every drill I’ve come across here. Rather, I’ll say this.
Being fast is all about producing force quickly and applying it in the correct direction.
If the type of training/drills you’re doing does not address any part of this equation, then it will not help you get faster.
To give one example: the agility/’speed’ ladder. This piece of equipment can be great for athletes to use to warm up and improve their coordination, however it certainly will not make you faster.
Tapping your feet quickly, without any significant force production and without mimicking correct acceleration or top speed running mechanics will not lead to any improvement in speed (you can see an Instagram post I made on the topic here).
Is the speed/agility ladder a good piece of equipment for developing speed for soccer? No….it isn’t.
So, in general, avoid any gimmicky drills you may come across that don’t relate to either power production or correct running mechanics.
If you’re not sure about a particular drill and would like an opinion on the matter, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll get back to you.
Let’s take the statement I made earlier: Being fast is all about producing force quickly and applying it in the correct direction.
There are two components to this – producing force (quickly) and applying this force in the correct direction.
These two components will make up the final two topics covered in this article: gym-based exercises and sprinting technique or form.
Exercises to Improve Soccer Speed
Long gone are the days where most people thought that training in the gym will get you ‘too big’, and hence that soccer players should steer clear of resistance-based training.
Nowadays the majority (I hope) realize that gym-based exercises can supplement one’s training well by developing an athlete’s force-producing capabilities as well as preventing injuries.
It’s also been shown that general gym-based strengthening routines have a positive impact on change of direction and agility abilities (for instance, see this article here).
Nowadays it is well understood that resistance-based strength training can be highly beneficial for soccer players
However, very often I see it recommended to soccer players to do a bunch of exercises using resistance bands or bodyweight exercises. These are fine. However, if you want to get faster, this type of training alone is insufficient.
So, what are the best exercises for getting faster at soccer?
The best exercises for getting faster at soccer are squats, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts (RDLs), jump squats, Olympic-style lifts etc…
General strength building compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, RDLs as a supplement for sprint training are the best exercises to improve your speed for soccer.
Truthfully, there are many exercises that I could have listed. The main point I’m making is that traditional, compound movements can form a good strength basis to supplement your sprint training (Remember: by far the most important aspect of sprint training is sprinting on a track with spikes. Gym work is simply supplementing this training).
I wrote this article that investigates which muscles are the most important for sprinting – you might like to use it to select which exercises you focus on in your gym work.
The topic of gym-based training for improving sprint performance is a complex one, and many sprint coaches are thinking of every little detail they can change to help their Olympic-level athletes improve their 100m time by 0.01 seconds.
However, for soccer players wanting to improve their speed, the principles are much simpler:
- Sprinting comes first. Gym supplements sprint work.
- Focus on low reps, high force production
- Lift both heavy weights, as well as light weights fast
Sprinting Comes First
The first point relates to sprinting being the priority. If you want to run fast, you must be sprinting. Gym work can help improve your sprinting, but if you’re not sprinting in the first place then you will not improve. If you only focus on the gym, you’ll end up like this guy.
Gym work should compliment sprint training – sprinting should always be the priority.
Focus on Strength and Power over Hypertrophy
The second point refers to the idea that we want to be able to produce more force, whilst also not putting on plenty of mass. If person A and person B can both produce x amount of force in y number of seconds, but person A is 60kg and person B is 80kg – who do you think will be faster? Person A of course.
Therefore, we want to focus on getting stronger and more powerful, whilst at the same time not putting on loads of muscle.
To achieve this, we should be focusing on a low number of reps at heavier weights. For example, doing 5 sets of 5 reps of back squats at 70-80% of your 1RM would be more appropriate than doing 3 sets of 12 reps at 60% of your 1RM.
If you would like to learn more about these concepts, try searching for ‘hypertrophy vs strength training’.
Lift Heavy, and Lift Fast
The third point relates to the idea that we want to focus on lifting both very heavy weights (for example, a back squat with 85% of your 1RM) as well as lifting lighter weights (for example, a back squat with 40% of your 1RM) as quickly as possible.
To demonstrate this point, consider this study titled “The Effect of Heavy- Vs. Light-Load Jump Squats on the Development of Strength, Power, and Speed”.
In this study, the researchers found that lifting a light-load at a very fast rate was more effective for improving 20m sprint performance than lifting heavy weights slowly.
“This investigation indicates that training with light-load jump squats results in increased movement velocity capabilities and that velocity-specific changes in muscle activity may play a key role in this adaptation.”
In general, we should aim to do both – lift heavy weights slowly and lift light weights fast.
This principle can really be applied to any exercises I previously stated, and not just squats/squat jumps.
I know you might be frustrated to not find a specific number of reps, sets and exercises listed here. However, if you follow the principles outlined here, your gym work will most definitely be helping you become faster as well as a better athlete in general.
Now let’s move onto the final aspect of sprint performance that I will cover in this article: sprint technique.
How to Improve Sprint Technique for Soccer Players
Earlier I alluded to the idea that producing high amounts of force alone is not sufficient to be fast, since you must also know how to properly apply those forces. This is where sprint form and technique come in.
The fastest sprinters in the world are not only capable of producing larges amounts of force quickly, but they also know how to apply those forcing into the ground in the optimal way.
Being fast isn’t just about being powerful – it’s also knowing how to direct that power. This is the art of correct sprinting technique.
So, how can you improve your sprint form?
The best way to improve your sprint form is to have your sprint footage reviewed and critiqued.
This can of course be done by yourself, which is why I would encourage you to gain an understanding of sprint mechanics so that you can accurately self-critique yourself when you watch your own sprinting footage.
I wrote this article on acceleration mechanics that you might like to read so that you can know what to look at when reviewing your own acceleration sprint footage.
However, building up your knowledge of correct sprint mechanics (for both acceleration and top speed) can take some time. Also, hiring a professional ‘speed coach’ or such can be expensive.
Get Your Sprint Footage Reviewed for Free!
That’s why I am currently offering a free personalized form critique for anyone that’s interested in improving their speed.
If you are interested in finding out more then read this article here where I expand on the problem of improving your sprinting form and view the video below to see an example of a sprinting form critique.
If you would like to have your own sprint form critiqued, film yourself sprinting and send the footage in to [email protected]
Conclusion
The research literature has shown that sprinting, and therefore speed, is important in soccer. Specifically, sprinting distances of 3m-20m is the most important for soccer players, and hence soccer players should primarily focus on improving their acceleration.
However, improving your top speed is also very beneficial for soccer players, as it raises your acceleration limits as well as improving your repeated sprint ability (speed endurance) through increasing your speed reserve.
Soccer players must perform many sprints over the course of a single match, and so repeated sprint ability is a crucial aspect of soccer performance. Soccer players can improve this quality via HIIT and improving their top speed.
Gym work can provide a great way for soccer players to supplement their sprint training with the objective of increasing their power output capabilities whilst preventing injuries – however the correct exercises must be selected.
Another important way for soccer players to improve their speed is through improving their sprint technique. This is best done through reviewing your own sprint footage; however, this can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Get in touch and I’ll hopefully be able to help on that front.
It has been hard to condense every aspect of sprint training for soccer players into a single article, but hopefully the information provided here gives a good overview. The fundamental idea is that to get faster, you must train like a sprinter.
This means that, even as soccer players, you should invest in a pair of sprint spikes (and potentially a sprint sled too) and get down to the track.
