Power4sports

Speed versus Distance Training 

So you want to increase your speed for your sport (tennis, football, track, etc). So you go to the track and jog a few lapswith other people who are running there, or you go to the gym and
run on the treadmill with the other gym members beside you, or you get on the bike or other device at the gym and exercise right along  with the other gym members.You then go to play your sport and find out that:

1) You are not as fast as the other players you are competing
against.
2) You are tired after a few minutes.
3) You start cramping after a few minutes of competition.

So you are now wondering how can this be happening after all of
the "training" you did.

Well yes, you did train and you did accomplish a level of basic
fitness and health, which is very important starting base for
training.

But you will not be able to compete at any sport requiring speed
while you are running at the comfortable stride and speed that you
jog around the track at, or worked out at the gym at. And those
other gym members you are exercising with are training just to be
healthy, and most of them are not trying compete at any sport.

In sport competition you need to replicate the kind of running you
will do in the sport itself. That means a series of short sprints
intermixed with jogging and walking. You are trying to develop your
fast twitch muscles for these sports, not your slow twitch muscles.
You MUST be able to sprint, rest, sprint, rest, over a period of
time to be successful.

So for tennis you would mark off a 15X15 year area and run sprints
forwards, backwards, side to side and diagonally for period of 20-30
seconds, followed by a rest period of walking for 15 seconds, and
then repeated again, again, again ,etc.

For football the same kind of training would be done except your
would mark of the area for the postion your play ( ex. lineman a 5-
15 year area, linebacker 10-20 year area, receiver 20-45 yard area.
Make sure your run-walk-run-walk for your training period.

The stride you take- the muscles you use- and the balance you need to 
play a sport that requires speed are very different from the
muscles you will develop by doing a easy jogging stride for distance running.

So whatever your sport is make sure you train at the speed of that
sport. This will ensure you will perform at 100% of your capability
when you compete.