Practice Good Technique with Every Acceleration.

Developing Dynamic Speed for Soccer Player's, Step One! Develop Upper Body / Lower Coordination.

When teaching/learning speed for soccer players, you want to look at your body in thee parts:

1) Lower Body - from your hips on down,

2) Core - your midsection, and

3) Upper Body - from your chest, up to your head & out to your finger tips.

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When you look at the sport of soccer, it seems to make sense that to develop/increase speed you would focus on a soccer player's lower body.

Most coaches/players spend hours on drills and exercises that develop lower body coordination and agility but, this is only half the picture.

To find new speed in your players, develop their upper body coordination with these great exercises & drills:

Seated Arm Drives

1) Arm Drives: Sit with legs straight ahead. keep arms at 90 degrees and move at the shoulder quickly.  Try to keep your head looking forward and your torso relaxed.

2) Standing Arm Drives: Stand with one leg in front of the other facing straight ahead. Use the same technique as above. Lean forward keeping your weight more on the front leg. Try to keep your head looking forward and your torso relaxed.

Jogging in Place to Build Upper Body / Lower Body Soccer Speed Coordination.

3) Jogging in Place with Arm Drives and High Knees: Jog in place maintaining the proper technique used in the previous exercises. Focus on coordinating the upper body and the lower body technique.

For an advanced workout, Challenge yourself by holding 1lb. to 3lb. weights in your hands.

Add 1lb hand weights to the activity every time you see this Icon.

These simple exercises are very effective at building the foundation for training speed coordination and rhythm.

Enjoy!

Chochi Valenzuela - Founder of www.SpeedTrainersUSA.com and the STUSA Soccer Speed Systems.