Speed Training For American Football

Introduction

One of the best ways to excel in American football is to develop power and strength. However, it is the speed and explosiveness that separates the average from the superb football players. A football defender with excellent speed provides more versatility in the team’s defensive schemes. An offensive player with astounding speed can score more points for the team.

History

There are several ways to develop speed in the American football field. The fastest athletes in the world have invested and spent countless hours of training and practice to enhance their speed levels. The adequate training procedures must be practiced if you want to enhance your speed in the field. You must train and develop all the specified football muscle strengths to become a valuable player for the team.

Features

• Create a Muscle Building Program

In American football, the first step to improve your speed and explosiveness is to design a muscle training program that involves core, lower and upper body exercises. You need to develop an overall body strength and not just strong and explosive legs. You need to perform compound exercises for both the legs and the muscle groups in the upper body as well. Barbell squats are the best exercises for developing explosive legs. This compound exercise would help you develop leg muscles such as hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps and glutes. You can also perform other leg exercises such as front squats, leg curls and calf raises.

Olympic lifts, hang cleans and power cleans are also superb exercises to develop full body explosiveness. These exercises would work out all the major muscles groups in the entire body. These workouts are highly recommended for defensive players that want to tackle ball handlers with force and explosion. To maximize the potential growth of your muscles, muscle fitness training must only be done for not more than three times a week. An ideal schedule for weightlifting is Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

• Speed and Agility Drills

Speed and agility drills must be practiced during your off days from weight training. There are several drills that would increase your speed, agility and explosiveness in no time. Drills such as cone sprints, ladder drill and straight sprints must be practiced and included in your speed and explosiveness training program. Alternate the days of weight training with the speed and agility drills. You should include cardio exercises during your speed drills days as well. These drills must be practiced only twice a week. If your schedule for weightlifting is on MWF (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays), your speed and agility drills should be on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

• Proper nutrition

All those drills and workouts are worthless if you do not have the proper nutrition to go along with it. Athletes for American football must have a diet that is abundant in protein and carbohydrates. The best way to enhance your speed and explosiveness is to reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass. Body fats can slow you down and can hinder the proper form of running. It is highly recommended to increase protein intake to develop explosiveness and speed.

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