We all know that it’s important for our wide receivers to be fast. But why?
Speed on the edge is a threat like no other. It’s not only physical but psychological. When we have receivers that can fly, it puts so much pressure on the defense that it is hard to measure. When we have serious speed – our opponent has serious concerns. And they had better.
Want to change the game into your favor? Hit your speedy receiver with the perfect seam rout and watch the game change as he flies between the corner and safety on first down. Stress and worry for the defense comes from not only what’s being played on the field, but also just from knowing that breakaway speed is possible at any time. You’d better believe when teams like the University of Oregon with their fast-break offense come onto the field, the corners, safeties and defensive coordinators get a little worried.
Why? Because of the speed on the edge.
Receivers need to consistently be faster than the speed of football. What do I mean by that?
If the game at your level is played at a level of speed of 10 mph per average play, then the receivers need to have the ability to run at the speed of 15 mph. Sound strange? Maybe, but think of this. If your receivers can consistently run faster than the speed of the average play, then 9 times out of 10, they win the play. Plus, it will be easy for them to play at a slower speed. Additionally, they won’t get as fatigued as slower athletes who have to consistently play at full speed.
Wide receivers and CBs tend to be the fastest athletes on the field (generally speaking). But how do we get the fast guys to get faster?
Here are a couple of tips:
Stress “proper running mechanics” before conditioning (see below for explanation).
Train your receivers on the track.
Do acceleration drills on the curve of the track – 100-plus meters.
Make it “commonplace” to run your receivers 200 meters or more on the track.
Stress proper running mechanics before conditioning drills
We want the stress to be low and the focus to be high – very high. We want them to be able to think well and subsequently, organize the body well while in motion. We cannot do that when players are focused on struggling, sweating, grunting, and working hard. They need to be able to re-correct and re-direct and make mechanical adjustments, all while in motion. We can do conditioning work later. Let’s learn what to move, where to move and when to move it there.
Proper running mechanics
This means the front side knee and thigh should rise up close to parallel to the ground. The same side elbow and wrist should swing smoothly to the back side of the body. The elbow should have about a 95-degree angle on the joint. This action, of course, should happen simultaneously. The body should be tall from the hips yet have a slight tilt forward.
Not only should athletes run off the balls of their feet quickly, but they should work toward having their arms and legs moving into their ending range of motions slightly faster than the speed of their body. In a phrase, the arms and legs should move very quickly into and through their range of motions. All of this while feeling that quick bouncy action off the ground. The specific descriptions can be discussed in a subsequent article.
Train your receivers on the track
It is my opinion that all receivers (and corners) should run sprints on their school’s track team after they have learned proper running mechanics. WRs need to teach the body how to cruise (run) faster than the speed of the game. I regularly take my players off the field and put them on the track to give them the sense of running on a longer runway. I want them to have time (and the calm composure) to correct mechanical errors and make adjustments while running at 80 - 85% speed.
Yes, a football field is just not long enough to fully develop good and accurate body awareness and bio-feedback. To learn to run faster, we not only need more “speed strength” or “force application” but we need to rehearse where to move to improve the accuracy of the application of force. And, we need to make many consecutive strides to give the body a chance to “feel” it.
If you have access to a good track facility, then use it because there is another overlooked benefit. When you run on an all-weather (rubberized) track you get a quicker ballistic response and feedback from the strike of the ball of the foot off the ground. In a manner of speaking, you train the body to feel a quicker bounce off the ball of the foot. This action sequentially transfers that energy up through the chain of the body – quicker. It’s why we invented the “all-weather track” and why sprinters run on the engineered rubber tracks instead of grass. Here are some drills and coaching points:
Build Up Sprints:
1. Distance: 50 – 100 meters
2. Reps: 3 - 6
3. Progression Effort: 25 meters at 70%,
25 meters at 80%, 50 meters at 90%
Do acceleration drills on the curve of the track
Football is not played in a straight line. I regularly train my fastest skill players on the curve of the track. I want them to learn to accelerate and maintain speed around an arc or curve. The length of the curve of a track is 100 meters (depending on the track). We do build-ups at a speed of 60% for the first 25 meters, 70% for the next 25 meters, and then 80% for the last 50 meters. Doing build-ups on the curve gives the WR a chance to experience an increase in speed with a body lean. This helps the feet, ankles, and the entire body to balance while acceleration on an angle or body lean. This is great off-season training for all those fly sweeps and reverses they will be doing in the fall.
Build Up Sprints:
1. Distance: 100 meters
2. Reps: 4 - 8
3. Progression Effort: 25 meters at 60%, 25 meters at 70%, 50 meters at 80 - 90%
Make it commonplace to run your receivers 200 meters or more on the track
Fast 100-meter sprinters generally feel that 40 yards is a very short distance. Yet in football, we use that as a benchmark to determine how fast we are. Top end speed for sprinters happens around the 70 or 80 meter mark. Sprinters get lots of reps to train the body how to run efficiently at top-end speed. They get to practice, per stride, to sustain their speed. This ability, when developed, makes the football field seem very small simply because players get used to sprinting more than twice it’s length. Running 40 or 50 yards to a good sprinter feels like a “lay-up” in basketball. It’s just too easy and too short.
I split the 200 meters into four speed sections. The build-up speed goes up every 50 meters. The first 50 meters is run at 50%, then increase to 60%, 70%, and maintain 80% for the last 50 meters. Also, remember to run the wide-outs in both directions – counter-clockwise and clockwise.
Build Up Sprints:
1. Distance: 200 meters
2. Reps: 3 - 6
3. Progression Effort: 50 meters at 50%, 50 meters at 60%, 50 meters at 70%, 50 meters at 80 - 90%
Speed training for the WR should go outside and beyond the gridiron. Let them experience the quick, consistent and firm bounce or energy return from doing build-up sprints on the track just like our fastest humans in the world. Then, make sure they have a long enough distance to rehearse good running mechanics. Don’t forget the curve. Do build-up sprints around the curve in both counter-clockwise and clockwise directions. p
About the Author: Ken Taylor is a SAQ pioneer and Sport Speed Consultant who has trained thousands of professional, college and HS/JHS athletes for over 20 years. He holds a degree in Exercise Physiology and Sports Science. He was a world class triple jumper and played for the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX team and the San Diego Chargers. He is also the author of “SPEED: How to Run Faster Immediately”. For more information, please visit www.speeddr.com.