If you want to know how to get faster for football, here's the short answer. Find out which part of your speed is costing you the most, train that part at the speeds a game actually asks for, and time every rep. More laps and more gym on their own won't do it, because speed isn't one thing. It has over 100 subcategories, and you need to know which ones are holding you back.
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At the level you're playing at, being a bit better isn't enough anymore. Everyone around you can play. The ones who move up are the ones who get there first.
Speed in football isn't one thing
When a parent tells me their son needs to get faster, my first question is: faster where? The first 5 metres from a standing start? Top speed on a run down the line? Getting out of a turn? Those are different qualities and they need different work.
Here's how I split it. Acceleration, your first few strides, needs strength through the hips and the ability to push yourself forwards, not up. Top speed needs reactivity: a foot that hits the ground and comes off it fast, like a spring. Change of direction needs the strength to brake properly, so you can actually get out of the cut.
So if you're quick over 30 metres but always beaten to the first ball, more top speed work isn't your answer. Does that make sense?
Your club measures the squad. You need to measure you.
If you're at a club that tests, good. GPS tells you how far you ran and how fast you ran. But your club is measuring what the squad needs, because it has 25 players to look after every week.
We measure what you need. When we look at your footage, filmed at 240 frames a second, we're looking at what your foot does on the ground, what it does when it leaves the ground, and where the force goes. Which direction you're actually projecting yourself in. That's usually where the missing step is hiding.
Train at the speeds the game asks for
Here's the problem with most football weeks. Small-sided games and possession work never get you anywhere near flat out. Then one day the ball goes over the top and you need to hit 34 km/h to get to it. Your ankle has never been pushed to that level. Not once. Maybe in a game, but by then you're tired, two runs have already happened, and you're not hitting your max anymore. So why would you get there? You won't.
Your nervous system decides how fast you're allowed to move. If it's never asked to go faster, it doesn't. See?
How to get faster for football: four runs I use
These are four exercises I give footballers. Each one copies something that happens in a game. You can time them with a stopwatch, or film them on your phone and measure afterwards. A "fly" just means you're already moving when the timing starts.
The 10 m fly
Accelerate for 20 metres to a cone, then time the section from 20 to 30 metres. That's your top speed on a run down the line as a winger, or onto a through ball as a striker.
The 20 m fly
Only 15 metres to build up, then 20 metres timed. Less room to accelerate means you have to reach top speed earlier, and the longer timed section teaches you to hold it. A shorter time means faster speed and better speed endurance.
50 m ins and outs
Accelerate for 20 metres, hold top speed for the next 10 to 20, then re-accelerate for the last 10. You're hunting for another gear. It trains both sides of fast running: the hard push and the relaxation in between. Most players only know how to push.
Acceleration into a curved run
Accelerate for 20 metres, then go into a 25 to 30 metre curved run with the ball, using the inside and outside edge of both feet, then re-accelerate into a straight 10 metres. Games aren't straight lines. This works your change of direction and your coordination at higher speed, and it trains the parts of the foot that steer you.
Keep the flat-out reps few and fresh. Running fast all the time doesn't get you faster. Running fast when needed gets you faster. The moment you feel yourself dropping off in a session, stop. Anything after that point is training the slower version of you.
Then fix it in the right order
Knowing what's wrong and fixing it are two different things. The order matters, the load matters, and what your body does when you're tired at the end of the week matters. Get the order wrong and you can spend years doing the right exercises and never get faster.
So the system is simple to say. Assess, find the things costing you the most, fix them one at a time, and measure. Every session we run is timed and reviewed on film, so the work never drifts back into the old habit. That's how Dylan went from 28 km/h to 34 to 35 km/h and into NPL first team football, and how Hais, now our head coach, went from 17 to 18 km/h to 38 km/h.
If your problem is the first step, read how to improve first step acceleration. If it's the top end, start with how to increase top speed.
You can play. The question is whether you get there first.