Functional Speed Training for Soccer

Bring your speed training to another level by training with the ball. Yes, a lot of the speed used on the pitch is without the ball. But this drill will work on speed both with and without the ball.

Important Point: This speed drill MUST be done at 100% speed and intensity. Soccer players are meant to be fresh each time they do a repetition. Therefore, don't break the team up into two groups each working on different halves of the field. By working the entire team on the same half of the field the rest will be built into drill naturally.

When doing speed work, rest must be adequate to allow for fresh players on each repetition.

Drill taken from Fitness Training in Soccer by Jens Bangsbo

Drill Set up: Half of a soccer field

Organization: Players work in pairs. To make the drill competitive I recommend matching fast players with fast players and slower with slower players.

Description: Two players stand in line. The server kicks the ball towards the goals. The two players will then sprint at 100% max speed to reach the ball. Whoever reaches the ball first is on offense and needs to make a direct run towards the goal to score. The other player tries to stop the attacker. This is not a conditioning drill so make sure players go right after the goal.

Variation: Rather than having a server, the offensive player will start with the ball about 3 meters in front of the defensive player at midfield. Upon a blow of the whistle both players sprint towards the goal. The offensive player trying to score and the defensive player trying to catch up and stop the scorer. This is not a conditioning drill so make sure players go right after the goal.

To view the drill with the CoachFX Viewer

You can view the drill below by downloading a free copy of the CoachFX Viewer. The advantage of the CoachFX viewer is that you can view the drill in different angles whereas on the on screen viewer you only get one angle. To download a free copy of the viewer, click here. Once on that website click on "Free CoachFX Viewer" on the left of the screen to download the Viewer.

After downloading the CoachFX viewer,

Click here to view the functional soccer speed training drill.

Click here to view a variation of the functional soccer speed training drill.

To view one variation of the drill on the screen, watch below. The file may not work in Firefox. The File is large and may slow the download time of this page. Drill taken from Fitness Training in Soccer by Jens Bangsbo. (created with CoachFX Software)

Drill taken from Fitness Training in Soccer by Jens Bangsbo

Player Development

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