You can't coach speed.

[wildthingRV]

Or can you?

Discuss

[mister b]

Coach it, no.

But I think you can improve it somewhat.

I think the key question is this...is the player fast or does he have game speed? I would want a player with game speed vs a burner.

[GAHS7462]

No!!!!!

[Boonedawg]

If a kid isn't running efficiently, you can fix mechanics and gain some. Other than that squats and sprints is all you can do to improve. I agree though a nose for the ball is more important than just being a burner.

[boogerred]

I agree that you cannot take a kid that runs a 6.0 forty and turn him into Deion Sanders, but I have seen kids take up to a half second off their forty time.

I have seen an athlete take .3 off his forty by training with platform shoes.

I once heard that to get better at something, you need to do it. So, I believe that in order to get faster, you need to run. Deep squats are also very important, but just squatting will not make you faster.

I also belive that speed does not equal a football player. What good is it to have a running back who runs a 4.6 if he will not slam it up in the hole? It also doesn't mean he'll have good field vision.

I would rather have a hard-nosed kid that runs 4.9 than a prima donna that runs 4.6!

[Attack]

i coached a kid at Eastern who ran a 5.8 40 as a sophmore, which was my first year there. (side note, he squated 205 and benched 155 at 5'8 180). he wanted to play tailback. of course he did not start at tailback that year. or his junior year. but this kid lived in the strenght room for 2+ years. he did squats, the kind where you descend slowly and explode up. he did plyometrics, flexibility, foot quickness, and speed drills. in short, he dove into our program whole heartedly. the summer going into his senior year he ran a 4.8 40, sqauted 425, benched 315 all at 5'10" 225. incidently he rushed for 1100+ yards as a tailback, and was a first team all ohio LB on defense. now i am not saying that the program is solely responsible for this kids improvements. of course genetics kicked in, and natrual growth. but had he not trained the way he did, i doubt he would have seen anywhere close to the same results. so i say yes, you can coach speed. more with some kids than others, but some can improve greatly.

[boogerred]

I would say that the situation you mentioned there is very possible. The kids wasn't physically matured yet and trained his but off! Kudos to him!

[madpolecat]

Speed can be improved, or at least a lot of guys getting paid to say so are going to be upset.

[FarAwayFalcon]

You can improve speed, but not create it. Like Ted Ginn Jr., you can't coach that kind of speed.

[BlizzardMan]

John Madden says it best in his video games "Speed kills."
Speed is not coachable, it is a natural gift a person can have.

[earp]

The anwser is "YES" you can!

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometrics.html

[Tigercannon71]

This is a yes and no question. Some people are natural runners and are very fast some arent. You can improve speed by working with technique and hitting the weights and plyometrics. So in that respect you can coach speed, but true speedsters like a Ginn, Bolt, or Harvin you cant coach. Its a God given ability to run that fast.

[Tigercannon71]

Its not God given to be able to squat 1000lb its mechanical advantage to do that. Speed and strength are two different things. Anybody can lift not everybody can run fast. You take someone off the street ad put them in a training regime and give them a proper diet and work ethic and you can make them stronger the same cant be said of a runner. A guy has speed or not. You can only improve it somewhat.

[boogerred]

I think weightlifting and speed are often clumped together because you usually do them together.

And I believe that both strength and speed can be improved with work.

Like I have already said, give me a hard-nosed kid with a work ethic over a prima donna!!!!

[earp]

I guess really it is kind of a yes and no scenario!That link that I posted though can really improve you're overall team speed though!

[MarshallApplewhite]

are not coach and teach synonyms?

Look in Roget's Thesaurus, I believe they can mean about the same thing.

[madpolecat]

I would say coaching and teaching are close enough in meaning that they can and often are used just about interchangeably.

[MarshallApplewhite]

if you dont have it, no amount of coaching can overcome the lack of it.

.

I believe you are mistaken there again. That is a big part of coaching - using what you have (or in this case, what you don't have) and finding a way to win with that talent.

Your statement implies that no team that is slower than another could ever beat a fast team; and that statement is completely wrong. Have you ever heard the term "out-coached"?

[fasteach]

on defence you can teach how to take the correct angle that gives you more time to close. on offence i would take john riggins style power ball over speed. i guess i'm saying a coach has to use what he has to his advantage and minimize his faults. isn't that what coaching is all about?

[Orange and Brown]

I think speed is used at it's best when it is used to get off the line on both sides of the ball. When your talking o-line and d-line first to contact wins the battle most of the time.