Top 3 Football Speed Training Myths
Oh, the myths that surround how to get faster for football...they seem to never end. Maybe it's your cousins lame football speed training theories or what some weirdo told you at the gym...but the whole damn thing just seems out of whack...
Where the hell did we go so wrong when it comes to football speed training? Why is it so complicated to answer the simple question, "How do I get Faster for Football? When did it become acceptable to pass off the hard work that entails training for football speed and replace it with pseudo-hard cone drills and gadgets?
Football speed is about strength. How strong you are and how explosive you become because of that strength is what leads to getting faster for football.
Football speed is NOT track speed. Re-read that...Football Speed is NOT Track Speed. Getting faster for football is not the same as getting faster for track.
I've heard so many track coaches say, "we work with them all off season and their sprinting form goes to hell 2 weeks into the football season." Yea, thank God. The reason is that we run in a perfect straight line, in perfect form, in perfect conditions how many times per game? Seriously, think about that.
Maybe when a RB breaks a long one or when a WR gets a step on a back...but other than that, the game is played in stop and go spurts, hard cuts, plants and jumps, and, of course, tons of hitting.
But, the fun doesn't stop there. There is an entire industry set up to separate players and coaches from their money by promising quick fixes, gimmicks, and perpetuating old myths about football speed training so that you remain weak, slow and broke.
Time to get down and dirty and blow some of these football speed training myths out of the water:
1. Agility Drills Improve Football Agility
Note how I phrased that. Agility drills do improve your agility...in agility drills. NOT on the football field.
Running through cones looks cool...it looks like a hell of a lot of work is being done and it's usually set up to be complicated, thus improving it's effectiveness. Plus, it's usually marketed by big companies who pay models to run through cones wearing their over-priced spandex so that it looks super high tech and gets people to fork over the loot.
But, just because someone looks good doing something doesn't mean it's really worthwhile.
Do yourself a favor, take all the cones and bury them. After the very beginning stages they are only good for parallel parking practice. Sure, you can take a 14-year old player who's never done anything athletic and see improvement by having him zig-zag through cones. But, after a few months the return on investment in the way of getting faster for football will be nil.
If you want to improve foot speed so you're actually faster on the football field, try some Clean and Jerks or even the basic Jump Rope. Not sexy but effective.
2. Lifting Heavy Slows You Down
This is the maybe the oldest of all football speed training myths. I think it was started long ago, in some HIT-Jedi cave on Dagobah. The HIT-ers, Cross Fitters, and various other "strength is bad" fanatics contend that since the bar moves slowly when lifting max weights, the CNS will learn this and turn you into a big, slow, Gilbert Brown want to-be.
We all know that if you apply max force to the bar, even if that sucker is moving slow, the intent to move it quickly will improve both your strength and speed. You should always be applying maximum force to the bar. Your training should be centered around this concept. This is how you get faster for football.
Now, if you bench 200lbs, and you try for 205, it's not going to fly up...it might even go slow. But...the intent to move it quickly is what counts. It trains your nervous system (brain) to be fast even with heavy weights.
It's the same for any kind of lifting, football related or just trying to get bigger/stronger. It also has to do with muscle fiber types, but that's a long and boring explanation.
So, you always want to push/pull/squat the bar as hard as you can.
Or, as Mel Siff said in Super Training:
To increase speed it is necessary to increase the magnitude or duration of the force applied (or both), or decrease the mass of the body. However, for practical purposes, not all of these possibilities can be achieved in human movement. The athlete is unable to decrease the mass of his body or an item of standard athletic apparatus, or increase the duration of t (time) of a given movement. However, it is possible to increase the time of a movement of limited amplitude only by decreasing its speed, which is nonsense. Consequently, only one recourse remains, namely to increase strength. Maximum strength is the main factor determining speed of movement!
3. You Need Gimmick Devices to Get Faster for Football
I'll keep this one short because otherwise I'll go into a rage.
You don't need a parachute unless you're jumping from a plane. If you want to wear "Strength Shoes" with the huge heel in the front, alter them: put the heel in the back and pretend to be a stripper because that's about the only use for a shoe with a 9" block on the under it.
All these gimmick products are good for selling, bad for speed. They have little to no value. Especially when compared to good old-fashioned hard lifting. But, tell a 15-year old sophomore that to improve football speed he need to do gut-busting Box Squats and https://jikimtop.com not go traipsing around with a parachute on and you'll see one disappointed football player!
