If you are truly in the search of making your team better, you have to consider the often unforgotten element of speed. As football coaches, I hate to say it, we love speed, but we don’t necessarily understand it. 

There’s the most common way many of us handle it…

That’s the belief that you’ve either got it or you don’t have it. 

Typically at the start of the season you may time guys in the 40y dash and see what you have to work with. 

Then those times dictate who you pretty much want to try to get the ball to. 

But then we do something I don’t think many of us realize we are doing that hurts everyone’s speed, including our top athletes. 

We practice and run them to death. 

We think they have to get conditioned and the best way to do this is running sprints at the end of practice. 

But those “sprints” are not really sprinting let’s be honest. 

Just ask a sprinting coach. (Guess what, I am actually one!)

What they are really is a sub max speed (because we don’t give them enough rest to go full speed). 

Not to mention it’s at the end of practice when they are already tired. 

So basically we are reinforcing them over and over to run slower than their top speed at distances that they will rarely run in a football game anyway!!!

So what can we do about all this? We have to start thinking more like a sprint coach in our training for football speed.

In my opinion, the number one thing we as a football coaching community need to recognize is that football speed development is the most underdeveloped aspect of football training both in season and out of season. 

If we simple recognize this, we will start to make changes that not only will make every player on our team faster, but will also keep them healthier.

They will also enjoy the game even more because they feel better physically!

Football speed development is basically sprint training. 

So to learn more we need to dive into some basic concepts. 

I could honestly write for days on this stuff, but I’d also like to introduce you to a Hall of Fame Sprinting coach who has a deep background in football. 

I’ve learning a ton from him and credit much of my success developing sprinters for my school into state qualifiers to his methods. 

His name is Tony Hollar and he is also a co-founder of the Track-Football Consortium. 

You may have heard of him and his “Feed the Cats” training. 

If we really want to get an edge with out team, we have to study other disciplines for ideas that may not be accepted yet that will help. 

So if you are open, check out this course by Tony called:

Feed the Cats 101: The Speed Workout

Here’s what it’s about:  

“Feed the Cats is a revolutionary way of training, coaching, and teaching that values specificity, essentialism, performance, and love. After gaining a world-wide following in Track & Field, FTC has now gained a foothold in American football.”

“The Speed Workout” gives the background needed to adopt the “Do Less, Achieve More” fundamentals needed to understand minimalist sprint training. The goal of the course is to give the off-season athlete everything they need to begin training speed three times a week. The videos are simple, detailed, and reproducible. Workouts can be done solo. With the crazy circumstances surrounding the pandemic, athletes may find this course to be exactly what they are looking for.

Take a look and if you have any questions about football speed development, I’d love to help you in any way I can – send me a note because l love talking speed!

-Coach Hahnstadt