You want to help your athlete run faster? The coach in your athlete’s sport says your athlete needs to be faster. As a parent you want to help them. OC Sports Performance is here to help you.
First Step
First, we want to rule out all of the gimmicks that will not help your athlete get faster. Speed ladders, parachutes, speed camps, and any sport-specific fixes and anything that offers you a quick fix, sounds sexy, and is also too good to be true.
My goal with this article is to give you some actionable items and tips that can start making the difference between a “slow” kid and a “fast” kid. These tips will work for all running sports from the 60m indoor sprint, to the 5k and everything in between.
Great information on how to run faster
These article I have written detail speed training and running faster. I have written about “How to make someone faster in a sprint”(https://ocgymbend.com/how-to-make-someone-faster-in-a-sprint-oregon-crossfit-bend-oregon/ ) and “Training Cross Country” (https://ocgymbend.com/training-cross-country/) and “How To Develop Speed” (https://ocgymbend.com/how-to-develop-speed-sportsperformance/) All of these detail how we at OC Sports Performance are able to help decrease times for our athletes and make them faster. Also this article about speed training in Bend, Oregon.
At home options to run faster
If you as a parent want to help your child but for whatever reason your child can’t train in the OC Sports Performance program here are my suggestions. Start having your athlete drag sled – from the waist using a belt – walking – and covering varying distances. Here is a great video on how to build a sled for super cheap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SwAdEkHwRQ and here are a couple of other options: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nVqpFxEvF0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9_-V5pOPKM Depending on the race depends on the distance I would want the sled drag to cover. For a 200m I would drag sled and keep records for the 60m, 100m, 200m and 250m. Constantly, attempting to go farther and faster with weights – by walking! Not running. Remember how we were told, gotta crawl before you can walk and then walk before you can run? A useful comparison with this training choice.
Jump!
Have your athlete complete 80 box jumps or jumps a week. These should be completed in two separate sessions. There are tons of variations that work including, kneeling jumps, seated box jumps(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2VtQPWDX3Y&feature=youtu.be), standing box jumps, broad jumps, standing between box jumps(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyupGhNILcw&feature=youtu.be), hurdle jumps, and finally weighted dumbbell jumps.
Run Less
Don’t run. My first recommendation is to quit running the specific race or distance that you’re trying to do. Our second recommendation, is to try to limit the running. If you have already been doing this method in attempts to increase speed. Here are my running suggestions if you don’t have a lot of other options: Run every distance besides the race distance and try to increase speed at shorter distances. For example for a 100m sprinter don’t run the 100m over and over. Run 10m, 20m, 30m 40m and record times for these distances. Then break these records!
Train the posterior chain
Figure out a way to train your athletes’ hamstrings, using bands like these: or weights performing sumo deadlifts, or with manual resistance like these nordic hamstring curls.
Figure out a way to train the low back, the low back, glutes and hamstrings are key to running fast. Here are some great methods of training the low back. Banded Deadlift(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPxYn7u5Jtk&feature=youtu.be), Elbow planks(https://youtu.be/bnmz4dR_waE), Alternating Supermans(https://youtu.be/kMgZt1pUFuw),
See success
Every parent wants their athlete to increase their top speed, decrease their times in the sport specific race and increase their chances of playing time or recognition. Hopefully, the five suggested methods above will help your athlete reach the success they desire.
Want your athlete to be the “fast” kid on the team? Book a Consultation today and learn how we can help your athlete be faster.
OC Sports Performance is located in Bend Oregon and Central Oregon’s Premier athletic performance facility. We help build athletes! Metric based and Results Driven!
