Basic Beginners Soccer Speed Workout
Phase 1
Speed Training Warm Up:
Start by doing two rounds of 60 seconds light running, with 30 seconds rest interval.Then follow with:
20 seconds each of sideways skips, skip-bounds, backwards running, high knees, continuous vertical jumps, jack-knives; in that order and all at increasing intensities from about 50 to around 80% of max-effort.
Finish with 5 x 10m-Starts, same progression : 50, 60, 70, 80, 80% intensity. Now rest for 2 minutes before going into the actual speed-workout.
Workout:
10x 10m-Starts, 120s. rest
So you do 10 meter starts/sprints, all out, and rest for 2 minutes in between sets. That‘s all.
About twice a week is a good frequency for this, with two days rest in between. The speed-work should always be done first, when fresh. The 1st speed workout might be on a Monday Morning with the 2nd session starting off the Thursday Morning/Noon Soccer-Training. So first thing in the week as well as in the day as well as first in the soccer-session!
Finish with 10 minutes stretching: dynamic, ballistic, and/or static.
The above applies to all phases: same frequency, always twice weekly, always when fresh etc.
All phases last for 6 workouts each, or 3 weeks total per phase. That makes 12 weeks for 4 phases. If you only have 8-9 weeks, simply start with phase 2: there we start increasing the distance.
Here‘s how you periodize the whole Soccer-Speed Training Program:
Phase 2:
8 x 15m, 120s.
Same warm-up, then you do 8 sets of 15m-Starts with 2 minutes rest interval.
Phase 3:
7 x 20m, 180s.
From here on out we increase the rest interval to 3 minutes.
Phase 4:
6 x 25m, 180s.
That‘s all there is to it: a simple, yet effective soccer-speed workout. Even though the number of sets decreases, the total distance covered per sprint and workout increases linearly.
Sprints exceeding 25 meters in distance are rare in soccer, and whilst you can work with absolute-speed(40 meters+) it‘s not really necessary. Also the increased injury-risk(hamstrings especially) might not be worth it. Your players‘ time and effort are better spent in the weights-room, improving strength and power, and consequently their short-term speed.
The above soccer sprinting program is all that‘s required as in direct speed work.
Have fun !;-)
