Football Players: Drills and Exercises that Will Increase Your Speed

There are tons of athletes out there and there always will be. Today's game is about being bigger, stronger and faster than your opponent. I played football for almost 10 years and I have been through so many different drills and work out routines. I would like to talk about speed and the drills I found to work the best throughout my experience as a football player.

Depending on what sport you are doing you may want to focus more on agility than speed. Speed starts out with working hard. Go to some sort of gym and work out your legs. Do different types of leg work outs. Slowly build your work outs to a more intense work out. Also make sure you stretch a lot. The more you're able to stretch the further you're able to stride. Try practicing your strides, just jog but stretch your legs out as far as you can with each stride. Once this becomes a habit you will be able to do it while running full speed.

There are plenty of actual running exercises that will increase your speed. I would like to give you a few exercises that I did to increase my speed. First off I would start by running some 40 yard dashes. Do short yardage sprints. Also I would recommend doing shuttle run type of exercises. Set up some cones about 10 yards apart but set them up diagonally from each other. This exercise will work on your acceleration which is a key part of your speed.

There are many other ways to increase your speed. It's a new world and things are being invented as we speak. Some of my friends used the parachute glider thing. It's like running with a parachute attached to your back. It is like resistance when trying to run which is building strength in your legs. You could also try using ankle weights. Go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap pair of ankle weights. When you plan on doing some running exercises or just going for a jog, throw your ankle weights on. This also builds muscle quickly in the legs.

The last exercise I would like to add is what I like to call the speed box. Take a little box that sets off the ground about eight inches. Make sure it is wide though because for about 60 seconds you are going to be stepping on and off of this box one foot after the other. They are pretty much like walking up stairs but then back down. Do this as fast as you can for 60 seconds. When you're done, wait about 30 seconds and do a 60 second session again. Do this about four times and make sure you are swinging your arms as if you were running.

I'm not a very big person so having long legs is out of the question. I'm about 5'8" and have been for the longest time now. I was one of the shortest kids on the football team but I was the fastest. I stayed in the weight room and worked out my legs like crazy. I was running back so I had to be fast. I did squats and did a work out called the leg press which is like setting in a chair and putting your legs on a board in front of you then pushing it out using your legs. My coach always killed me with this work out but when it came time for us to run our 40's I was appreciative. We would be timed by the coach and my fastest time recorded was 4.4 seconds flat on a 40 yard sprint. All I did was worked out my legs really good and did the exercises I named above. If you do these exercises and work really hard in the weight room on your legs you too can end up being the fastest kid on the team.