The Speed Mechanic

Not more conditioning 🙈🤯

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Better Information 👌🙏

🐐 THE GOAT DRILL ISN’T JUST A WARM-UP.

And this is where I think we often get youth speed development wrong.

We see a player struggling to sprint faster…

So we immediately add more force.

More strength.

More resistance.

More exercises.

But what if the problem isn’t simply how much force they can produce?

What if they can’t yet organise the movement effectively enough to USE it?

This is why we use drills like the GOAT drill early in our sessions.

Not because the drill magically makes someone faster.

But because it challenges the player to organise their body through:

⚡ Timing
⚡ Stiffness
⚡ Coordination
⚡ Rhythm
⚡ Sequencing

The nervous system doesn’t just need to produce force.

It needs to solve movement problems.

At speed.

With the right timing.

In the right sequence.

This is particularly important with young players.

Before asking them to produce MORE force…

We should probably ask whether they can organise the force they already have.

Because strength without coordination doesn’t automatically transfer.

And stiffness without timing can simply become rigidity.

The question for coaches shouldn’t always be:

“How do I make this player stronger?”

Sometimes it should be:

“How do I help this player better organise movement?”

Speed isn’t just about bigger engines.

It’s about better organisation.

And sometimes the fastest progress comes not from adding more…

But from improving the quality of the signal.

🐐

What do you think?

Are we too quick to chase force production before developing coordination and movement organisation?

I here a lot of talk around players in the ball, they need to be technical, they need to be competent with the ball.

Now this is partly true, I feel we see this is overemphasised in the football world.

The question for me is how good is the player off the ball?

Can they create separation, escape from pressure, manipulate defenders, support teammates, get in behind?

Here we work on several movements off the ball and explore the speed components that enhance this.

Fun Warm Up Ideas.

Exploring movements is a fundamental part of speed development.

Allowing players to explore affordances (opportunities for action) within different environment’s.

Here are a couple of warm up environments that encourage this exploration.

Identify how you can help the player.

In this example the player crashes as they try and move into space that’s not there.

So we coach them by asking questions of different ways they can manipulate the defender - The answer is moving diagonal to pull the defender out of there defensive position.

This creates more space to explore in order to get in behind…

THE FIRST 3 STEPS AREN’T ABOUT RUNNING FAST. 👀

They’re about creating separation.

And this is where I think we need to rethink how we coach acceleration in football.

The first 3 steps have one big job:

Create space between you and the opponent.

Not win a sprint test.

Not look pretty.

Not produce the biggest numbers on a force plate.

Create separation.

That means we need to ask a different question:

Can the player effectively transmit force into the ground when they actually need to get away from someone?

That’s why we use a band.

The band increases the resistance the athlete has to overcome.

Now the athlete has to organise themselves and transmit more force through the ground to project their body forward.

But here’s the important part…

We aren’t using the band because:

❌ “Resistance makes you faster.”

We use it because it can expose and challenge the athlete’s ability to:

POSITION → LOAD → TRANSMIT → PROJECT

Then we take that capability back into football.

Because the real test isn’t:

“Can you accelerate against a band?”

It’s:

“Can you use that force when a defender is trying to stop you creating separation?”

That’s the difference between training acceleration…

…and training football acceleration.

Coaches 👇

When you watch your players’ first 3 steps, what are you actually looking for?

Force?

Body position?

Projection?

Step frequency?

Direction?

Or simply…

How quickly they get from A → B?

Players 👇

Think about your last 1v1.

Did you lose the defender because you were faster?

Or because you created separation before they realised you were going?

That’s Speed Intelligence.

Don’t just train the sprint.

Train the action.

We don’t just train speed. We test whether what we’re doing actually works.

One of the biggest differences in our approach to speed development is what happens between the exercises.

We don’t simply prescribe a drill.

We don’t assume that because something looks good, it is improving the player.

And we don’t keep doing something just because we’ve always done it.

Our process is simple:

ANALYSE → INTERVENE → RE-ANALYSE

1. ANALYSE

First, we watch the player.

How are they moving?

Where are they losing time?

Is the problem physical?

Perceptual?

Technical?

Or is it coming from the football situation they’re trying to solve?

This is where Speed Intelligence starts.

We look at the interaction between:

BODY → BRAIN → PLAY

Because speed isn’t just about producing more force.

It’s about how effectively a player perceives, decides and organises movement within the game.

2. INTERVENE

Then we change something.

But importantly, we don’t throw 10 different exercises at the player.

We identify the primary constraint.

Then we manipulate it.

Maybe that’s projection.

Maybe stiffness.

Maybe timing.

Maybe separation.

Maybe the player’s perception of space.

Maybe the task itself.

The intervention has a purpose.

We’re trying to create a change in the movement solution.

3. RE-ANALYSE

This is the bit that gets missed.

We go back and look again.

Did the player actually change?

Did they move more efficiently?

Did they solve the problem faster?

Did the change transfer into football?

If yes…

keep it.

If not…

change the intervention.

That’s coaching.

Not defending our favourite drill.

Not proving that our original idea was right.

Finding out what actually helps the player.

Your players don’t need more cone drills. They need better movement solutions.

Here’s a question:

When was the last time your “speed drill” actually forced a player to manipulate a defender?

Because running fast into empty space isn’t the problem in football.

Creating the space to run into is.

In this action, the player doesn’t simply sprint into space.

They drag the defender away from the ball first.

They pull them further away.

Then…

BANG.

They aggressively change direction back towards the ball, attack the space that has just been created, and pe*****te the defensive structure.

That is off-the-ball speed with a purpose.

The movement solution is emerging from the problem:

Move defender → create separation → change direction → attack space → pe*****te.

And this is where a lot of speed training falls apart.

We isolate “acceleration.”

We isolate “change of direction.”

We isolate “reaction.”

We isolate “agility.”

Then we wonder why the player looks brilliant in the drill…

…but doesn’t actually create separation on a Saturday.

Football doesn’t give you cones.

It gives you defenders.

It gives you teammates.

It gives you space.

It gives you pressure.

It gives you constantly changing information.

So why would we develop movement solutions in environments that remove the very information the player needs to solve the problem?

At APFA, we challenge movement off the ball.

Not just:

“Can you run fast?”

But:

“Can you manipulate the defender, recognise the space, and produce the movement solution that the game demands?”

That’s the difference between training speed and developing football speed.

And yes…

sometimes the fastest way to get in behind is to run away first. 🧠⚡️

Understanding your “Individual Intention” that impacts the team intention.

Here Olmo understands his positioning to impact the team intention to get in behind.

Movmeent off the ball is key with 80% of the game been without the ball.