TRAIN FAST TO BE FASTTRAIN FAST TO BE FAST This is a vital secret to developing speed in young athletes. You must train fast to be fast ! What I mean by this is during training for speed you must ensure that every sprint is done at near maximum effort. The sprinting muscles contain 2 different types of muscle fibres slow aerobic /endurance fibres type 1 and fast explosive fibres type 2 –within these categories there are a group of transitional fibres that adapt depending on the training they receive to being fast or slow fibres. When training for speed in young players we must encourage those fibres to become fast twitch fibres so that we maximise the muscles potential for speed development. Long aerobic runs which have been so popular in the past at producing an aerobic base have no place in the development of speed –indeed we are training out players to go slower in the longer term. Most specialists now agree that aerobic running has minimal benefit in training for many popular sports e.g. soccer particularly at youth level as it is time that would be better spent doing anaerobic/sports specific training MIKE BOYLE FROM HIS BOOK -FUNCTIONAL TRAINING FOR SPORT says “Aerobic training for most soccer players particularly young developing players is counterproductive. Soccer players are notorious for focusing on fitness at the expense of speed. Although this approach may appear to work at the elite level, it should be noted that elite players already have world class speed and skills. The assumption that fitness over speed approach can work for younger players is both erroneous and counterproductive” Soccer coaches are not alone in running young players round fields repeatedly at a relatively slow pace assuming they are doing good when in fact they are harming their development as a player. So train fast to be fast don’t train slow or you will become slow
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