If you did not know this, a big portion of your speed is developed in the weight room. You cannot have speed if you do not properly approach your workouts everyday. There are a few specific things you can do and that is what I am going to talk about today.
First things first, you need to develop explosivenes. And you aren’t going to do that by lifting light weight for 10-15 reps. You need to stay in that 1-5 rep range and lift heavier weight. Explosiveness and power will develop your speed. Now what exercises should you be doing? For your legs a lot of squats and variations of squats. Pause squats and jump squats are great for that. Another thing you can do is lunges. Lunges build up your glutes which is where your power comes from.
Now squats aren’t the only things you should do. Like I said power will lead to speed, so power cleans are going to be essential for any athlete. It activates every single fast twitch muscle fiber you have and those are the fibers activated when you sprint. Now another thing, plyometrics will be great for you to develop explosiveness. Box jumps, 1 legged jumps etc. If you can be explosive from a position with no momentum, your speed will develop.
The main point of this article is to teach you guys speed isn’t just developed on the field. The weight room is a HUGE part of it.
