Parallel Performance

Now that the offseason is coming to an end for a lot of you, let’s talk about two of the most beneficial things you can do as a ⚽️ player.

With most of my athletes, we spend a lot of time on loaded accelerations. They teach you to stay in the push phase longer, giving you more time to produce force and improve your acceleration.

The second is tempo runs. These help build ankle elasticity, reinforce efficient sprint mechanics, improve rhythm, and keep the aerobic base you need to recover between high-intensity efforts.

Pair those with a solid strength program, and you’ve covered the key physical qualities that carry over to the field.

Follow for more strength and speed tips for soccer players.

Medicine balls are a great tool for teaching body positioning, bracing, and changing direction under external load. They provide just enough resistance to help you feel the right positions without creating a ton of fatigue, making them perfect for acceleration training.

These are two of my favorite med ball exercises for ⚽️ players learning to improve their first step. The top exercise is more hip-dominant, forcing you to load into the hip before exploding forward. The bottom exercise emphasizes dropping into a lunge position and driving out, reinforcing powerful force production through the ground.

I like adding these to the warm-up on acceleration-focused days. You don’t need a lot of volume—3 sets of 3–5 reps is usually enough to prime the nervous system and reinforce good movement patterns without wearing you out.

If you want to get stronger, faster, and more explosive on the field, give these a try.

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Adductor and hamstring injuries are some of the most common injuries in ⚽️ . One reason is that these muscles are heavily involved every time you sprint, accelerate, or change direction.

There are plenty of ways to strengthen your adductors, but I like this exercise because it requires almost no equipment. All you need are sliders, or even a pair of socks on a smooth floor.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Add a few sets to the end of your training sessions as accessory work, stay consistent, and build stronger, more resilient adductors.

Follow for more strength and speed tips for ⚽️ players.

Adductor and hamstring injuries are some of the most common injuries in ⚽️. One reason is that these muscles are heavily involved every time you sprint, accelerate, or change direction.

There are plenty of ways to strengthen your adductors, but I like this exercise because it requires almost no equipment. All you need are sliders, or even a pair of socks on a smooth floor.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Add a few sets to the end of your training sessions as accessory work, stay consistent, and build stronger, more resilient adductors.

Follow for more strength and speed tips for ⚽️ players.

Single leg reactivity is one of the biggest qualities you’ll see in fast athletes. The reason is simple. Sprinting is essentially a series of powerful single-leg contacts. Every step requires you to stabilize the pelvis while producing force and cycling the leg through as quickly as possible. When those qualities are present, it’s usually a sign of good elasticity throughout the lower body.

One of the biggest issues I see with younger athletes is poor pelvic stability when external forces are introduced. As they sprint, the pelvis moves excessively, energy leaks from the system, and the result is inefficient, less fluid movement. Instead of directing force into the ground, they’re wasting it trying to control their body.

This exercise is one of the best ways to address that problem. It develops single-leg stability, improves reactive strength, and teaches the body to redirect force efficiently. At the same time, it’s an excellent assessment. It gives you a clear picture of an athlete’s current abilities and helps you identify how much untapped speed potential they still have.

If you’re a ⚽️ athlete, follow me for more tips to get stronger/faster.

We always want to put ourselves in the best possible position to succeed. What’s great about this drill is that it reinforces proper hip drive while placing you in an ideal position to learn.

By supporting your upper body with your hands, you’re able to isolate the lower half and focus on driving the hips forward. Taking some of the load off your upper body also changes how your body reacts subconsciously. Because you don’t feel like you’re falling, you naturally stay more relaxed instead of tensing up. That relaxation allows your hips to project farther and helps you achieve better body positions without creating unnecessary fatigue.

Most importantly, this drill reinforces the first step, which is critical for any soccer player or athlete. Mastering that initial push can make a huge difference in your acceleration and overall speed.

If you’re looking to become a faster, stronger soccer player, follow along for more training tips.

The muscles around the hip flexor region are some of the most important when it comes to sprinting. Your calves, adductors, and glute max all play huge roles too, but if you’re struggling to pull your leg through quickly, or you’re bringing it from the backside to the front side too slowly, there’s a good chance your hip flexors are a limiting factor.

One exercise I really like is this one. There are plenty of variations, but I prefer doing it standing because it forces the opposite leg to push into the ground. That’s exactly what happens during sprinting: one leg is driving forward while the other is producing force into the ground.

It’s a simple exercise with a lot of carryover to sprint mechanics, making it one of the best bang-for-your-buck drills you can add to your training.

Save this for your next speed session, and if you’re a soccer player looking to get faster, follow me for more speed training tips.

In most cases be really fast.

When I work with ⚽️ players, one of the biggest limitations I see is the inability to transition quickly from a high position to a low position. The same principle applies to acceleration for field/court sports athletes. As we accelerate, we do not want to consciously cue athletes to “stay low.” Instead, a low body position should be the natural result of pushing the center of mass forward with every step.

So why should we look at acceleration drills any differently than change of direction drills? For field sport athletes, they are closely connected.

That is why I often use a two point stance. It teaches the athlete to yield force quickly and then overcome it just as fast. It is not about holding a perfect starting position. It is about how efficiently the athlete can move once they initiate the first step.

The athletes who do this best are usually the quickest. Does that automatically mean they are the fastest? Not necessarily. But athletes who are quick often have the potential to become very fast because they possess the movement qualities that speed is built upon.

Start looking at your first few acceleration steps differently. They are not just a way to improve straight line speed. They are an opportunity to develop the ability to rapidly change direction, reposition your body, and apply force efficiently.