Football Speed Training - Acceleration

Football speed training is taking on more important role in football training; becoming king in football. It has become just as important as the weight lifting programs. Coaches and players alike recognize they need power to be faster and the need to incorporate football speed training in their football training regimens, whether it is in season or off season, learning how to run quicker and have explosive acceleration has become important to the game off football.

Coaches are recognizing offensive and defensive lineman need quick acceleration to explode on the LOS. Running backs need to accelerate to hit the holes and receivers to get that step on the defensive backs. Being fast is good, but colleges want more. They are looking for athletes with the most explosive acceleration from the starting position. This article will focus only on the acceleration aspects of speed training for football.

Successful speed training for football must include exercises that will focus on the fast twitch muscles. This muscle group determines your speed and reaction time. Most football speed training programs overlook this facet of training; instead they are focused on strength and power.

Fast Twitch Muscles

Fast twitch muscles are the muscle fibers responsible for speed and quickness and should be trained separately from the muscles you train for strength and power.

An example of fast twitch muscles is the thigh flexor muscles. Frequently this muscle group is overlooked in most football sped training programs. Yet the faster you can raise your thighs upward and forward, the quicker your muscles react and the faster you accelerate, hitting the open hole, getting that step, speeding past a defensive back or just exhibiting break-away speed from would be tacklers.

Exercising Fast Twitch Muscles

How do you effectively train this muscle group? Isometrics combined with resistance training.

Yes isometrics, they focus strictly on one specific muscle group. Resistance training gives them the strength needed for explosive reaction acceleration, whether you are a ball carrier looking for that break-away quickness or a lineman needing to move quickly side to side.

The resistance phase of the isometrics is applied using resistance bands, flexing the muscle fibers. Isometric resistance training develops important muscle memory for that explosive quickness, as you condition your muscles for speed and quickness: you will be training the muscle nuero pathways which create muscle memory.

In conclusion adding isometric resistance training allows you to focus on your fast twitch muscles for your football speed training. This will increase both your speed and reaction time. Fast twitch muscles train faster then the slow twitch muscles that build strength and power. When you are looking at sped training programs, make sure they include working the fast twitch muscles for your football speed training.