Soccer, players do considerable training to increase running speed, one of the most important qualities needed in successful playing. Close examination of the movements of high-level players during game play, however, reveals that the number of runs over 10-20 meters yards is relatively low.
Most often players’ use a quick burst of speed, i.e., they accelerate to be the first one to get to the ball or to evade an opponent. This burst of speed is usually exhibited for no more than 5-15 yards and is one of the main characteristics of a quick and explosive player on both offense and defense.
Quickness is the key to getting away from your defender to be free to receive a pass, execute a kick on goal or simply pass the ball to another player without any interference. If you are on defense, being able to accelerate is the key to keeping up with your opponent especially if they have the ability to accelerate quickly.
Acceleration is also needed to get to an opponent who has the ball and is free for a shot on goal or is getting ready to set up a dangerous situation with a good pass. Because of this acceleration is a key quality that should be acquired by all the players.
Acceleration is not as easy to improve as running speed. But, it can still be improved mainly by improving reaction and movement time (how long it takes the muscles to react after you decide to go into action). To improve your movement time, you should do specialized strength and explosive exercises that are specific to the joint actions involved (which are basically the same as in sprinting).
Specialized strength and explosive exercises develop strength exactly the way it is exhibited in quick acceleration. In other words, they duplicate the motor pathways that are involved, have the same range of motion over which strength is exhibited, and use the same type of muscular contractions.
Your technique of starting is very important in improving acceleration. This means not taking a step backward before going forward and getting your weight (center of mass) forward before you take the first and following steps. This is where specialized exercises such as the lunge and explosive lunge with Active Cords play a major role.
To create the forces needed to explode in a forward direction, you must pre-tense the muscles that are involved in the pushoff (mainly the gastrocnemius of the calf muscles in ankle extension and the quadriceps in knee extension. This is typically accomplished by your weight shift (forward driving of the hips).
Very important in taking the first step, is to get your weight forward before you push-off. This forces you to bring the swing leg up and out faster so that you can place it on the ground more in front and so that you do not lose balance. For the greatest distance on the first step, it is important that you push-off with the rear leg and bring the front leg up and step out in a shortened but still fairly lengthy first step.
Keep in mind that the more ground you can cover in one step, with all other factors being equal, the faster you will be. To assist and improve quickness of the first step you should do exercises such as the knee drive with Active Cords. Initiate initially is done for strength, but later for explosive power. It is probably the best exercise you can do to improve the quickness of your starts
To greatly improve your ability to accelerate, it is necessary to have explosive strength not merely strength or speed. This means that you must be able to explosively move the arms and legs through the ranges of motion needed for the first 5-10 steps.
By doing specialized strength and explosive exercises that duplicate the joint and muscle actions involved, you can improve the key joint actions involved in acceleration. This will then enable you to move the limbs quicker and thus, improve your acceleration.
Some of the key exercises include: the explosive knee drive, explosive calf raise, and developing the ability to not only react faster from a ready position, but to go into motion faster. For more detail on the actions involved and how they can be improved with specialized strength and explosive exercises, see Women’s Soccer: Using Science to Improve Speed and the second edition of Explosive Running.