Speed & Acceleration

[blinkreallyfast]

I want to gain more speed and acceleration. I play Running Back on my football team and need some simple exercises to improve my stop start acceleration along with general speed. You could explain it yourself or give me links. Oh, and I need some tips on running form also.

[dancetomdance182]

Work on agility. Ask your coach for recommendations. To get faster, in your football field spring 10 yards, jog 5 and spring 10 again. Keep doing this. Also, lifting weights will also help because you will have more power.

[seanman99]

Ouch you don't want to ask me for running form but anyways for a RB its best to be low to the ground so you can change direction quickly. Run on the balls of your feet, and fall forward when your're going down. That half a yard/full yard is a big difference at the end.

[dancetomdance182]

Speed is determined by the length of your stride with how much power you have. The more power you have you will be able to support bigger strides. But I think football speed would be different.

[Teh Secksi]

Get an agility ladder.
http://www.eastbay.com/catalog/productdetail.cfm?TID=5555-01080621440101210161218-0&module=sideNav&action=keywordSearch&supercat=other&model_nbr=57491&sku=71696-1&sport=0

The ladder will help quickness of your feet, allowing you to cut on a dime.

Sprint from inside of the numbers to the sideline and back. ie: Start on the G and go to the 5 yard sideline, then to the inside of the 10, and back to the sideline for 30-40 yards.

Liners.

10 yard sprints from your stance, work on explosion and not false stepping.

Sprint ladders work well too: 3 cones, 10 yards one at G, 5, and 10, start at 5, go to G, then 10, then past 5. You can do this in a shuffle as well.

And use the gauntlet if you can.

Almost forgot, have someone keep resistance on you using a harness, 15 yard sprints.

Oh, and weightlift like no other.

[wonder_steve]

A drag sled would help. These are available from www.ironmind.com

Olympic lifts and squatswould be the only lifts I would really recommend. Squats will help with strength in the legs and olympic lifts are the best things for explosive power giving you good acceleration of the mark and from turns.

[Against Miik!]

Try and gets your hands on one of those parachutes used for running sprints, as well as weighted shirts and such. Anything you can do to make running harder will make it easier when you run without the equipment. I'll post more later but I have to go later. I've played football forever and have gone thru tons of conditioning programs, so I know what works and what doesnt.

[seanman99]

Speed is determined by the length of your stride with how much power you have. The more power you have you will be able to support bigger strides. But I think football speed would be different.

Stride length and the amount of times your feet hit the ground. If for every 5 meter stride you take i take two 5 meter strides i win. Stride length + stride speed= total speed,

[CaptainWaits]

Find some tire tubs, deflate them, and have someone wrap one or two around your waste, and sprint 20 yards while your helper restricts you. Do 5-6 of these, with 60 second breaks in between.

Also, another good excerise is to find a good long steep hill, start right at the bottom, and sprint to the top. Once at the top, sprint on the flat ground for a good 50 more yards, keeping the same tempo (not accelerating). Do 6-7 of these, with a 90 secopnd break in between.

For our off-season, we have a program called "Speed and Accel" ran by an olympic bobsleeder (look for the Canadian team at Torino!!) and he's also our running back coach for the football team.

[kamiccollo]

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=374454

theres some good advice in this thread.