At some point in your life or at most times in your life you’ve probably wanted or still want to get faster, or improve your speed. I mean who doesn’t want to be fast, right?
Like most athletes, you’ve probably tried every method of getting faster that the internet has provided you – ranging from agility ladders, to weight vests, to running down your street with a parachute strapped to your back. In hindsight, I think we can all laugh at how ridiculous we looked sprinting around looking like we just jumped out of a plane!
With the exception of certain intricacies, getting faster just boils down to two major concepts: A) getting stronger, and B) learning how to run properly.
Get Stronger:
The ability to handle and control your own bodyweight is paramount when it comes to athletic movement. If bodyweight squats and lunges are challenging, it’s hard to expect your body to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction efficiently, because during these situations your body weight is actually “increased” by momentum.
Mastering your body weight and dominating strength training exercises will transfer directly to running – & the improvement won’t feel like a stronger run. Instead, it will feel like a more coordinated movement that you have complete control of.
Get stronger, and your speed will take care of itself!
Learn How to Run Properly:
So, you’re now strong and in complete control of our body. You feel and look faster, but you still want more.
LOOK NO FURTHER!
Just run better, bro.
How do you learn to run better? With drills focusing on different aspects of acceleration, like arm action or knee action drills often used during our sessions. The ability to transfer those skills from drill time to full speed running is crucial in improving speed.
The perfect bridge from drill to full speed sprint would be “tempo runs”.
Tempo runs are done submaximal speeds, focusing on form the entire time. Using tempo runs as warm ups before sprints are ideal for skill transfer!
Get stronger and learn to run better in that order, and you’ll be faster than you ever thought possible!
