How to Increase your Speed - How do you get Faster

How do you get faster? This soccer tutorial will teach you ways to get faster and how to run fast!

Key Points:

Run on your Toes, not heels
Drive your Knees Up, don't just move your feet fast
Use Proper Arm Technique

Exercise Player Can Do: 

Set up a start cone and end cone about 10 -- 15 yards apart. We will now do 5 speed exercises to work on our proper running technique. 

1st Exercise -- Heel Over Knee Walking -- 2 Sets

Hands on your hips, drive your knee up and down, walk down to end cone and light jog back. Point your toe up when driving your knee up, come down on ball of your foot, do not let your heel touch the ground.

When jogging back make sure you are jogging on your toes, not flat footed. A coach needs to look at you and think, that player's got good technique. 

2nd Exercise -- Heel Over Knee Skipping -- 2 Sets

Hands on your hips, drive your knee up and down with a little skip in between. The faster our knee goes up and down the faster we will go. Make sure your knee is past your waistline. 

3rd Exercise -- Heel Over Knee Fast Knees -- 2 Sets

Hands on your hips, drive your knee up and down as fast as you can.

4th Exercise -- Heel Over Knee Walking with Arm Technique -- 3 Sets

Does it matter what are arms are doing when we are running? Yes, it does matter! You shouldn't be swimming on the field and you shouldn't be looking like you are carrying luggage! 

You want your arms cocked at a 90 degree angle. Drive your elbows back and forward, do not straighten your arm on the way back. Do not have your arm motion going sideways, you want it going forward and back. Last point your hand should be going through your hip. So not up high by your chest, but through your hip. 

The faster your arms go, the faster your legs will go!

To practice, sit down with your legs out in front, sit up tall, arms cocked to the side and start practicing your arm technique slowly. Then go fast. Rest and repeat a few times. You are sitting down because if you straighten your arm out, which you are not supposed to do, you will hit the ground. 

Now lets bring it all together for the exercise. Heel over knee walking using arm technique. Right arm, left leg. Left arm, right leg. This sometimes gets confusing for players so don't get discouraged if you mess up a few times. 

5th Exercise -- Running Strides -- 3-5 Sets

Now that we have our running technique down lets bring it all together. Do a few running strides, not sprints, at 80 percent across your field working on running technique. (do key points, then do strides for camera)

What Player Could Be Doing Wrong: 

Make sure you are driving your knees up when running. I see a lot of players moving their feet fast but their not going that fast because their knees aren't coming up. Drive your knees up; your thigh/hamstring holds the power, not your feet!

Bonus Tip:

These speed exercises are good to do as part of your warm up when practicing in your backyard. Practice them often because being fast in soccer isn't everything, but it sure helps! 

This Video Covers:
How to Increase your Speed - How do you get Faster - Soccer Workouts - Speed Exercises - Soccer Conditioning - 
Soccer Conditioning Drills - Soccer Fitness - Soccer Fitness Drills - Drills to Improve Speed - Soccer Workout