Why Individual Speed Training Is A Non-Negotiable for GAA Players

Feb 18
2 min read

If you actually want to get faster this year, you need to be doing speed training individually. Here are 4 reasons why, plus a free session you can take away and do yourself.

Unfortunately, team training alone isn’t enough to develop speed.

Why?

Because you simply don’t run fast enough.

Think about it:

To get stronger, you need to lift heavy weights.

So to get faster, you need to sprint near your maximum velocity.

In matches and most team sessions, you’re rarely sprinting long enough or in a straight enough line to reach true max speed. You’re constantly changing direction, carrying the ball, or someone is hanging off you trying to tackle you.

Team training is great for a lot of things.

Pushing the ceiling of your speed isn’t one of them.

If you don’t train max velocity deliberately,

it doesn’t get trained at all.

4 Reasons Why Speed Training Actually Matters

1) It’s a vaccine against soft-tissue injuries

Most hamstring injuries occur at high speeds. By gradually exposing the body to max velocity sprinting, you build tissue tolerance. So when you sprint hard in training or games, your body is ready not shocked. If you don’t, you’re rolling the dice and may be the hamstring snipers next victim.

2) Speed reserve

Raise the ceiling, and you’ll also raise the floor. When you increase your maximum speed, every speed below it improves. This means sprinting in games becomes easier because you’re operating further away from your limit.

3) Use it or lose it

Even if you don’t care about getting faster, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to get slower.

All physical qualities detrain and max velocity is one of the fastest detraining physical qualities (around ~5 days).

If you’re not topping it up regularly, you’re losing it - even in-season.

4) Speed is a skill

Just like kicking, tackling, or striking a ball, sprinting improves with practice. Max velocity sprinting trains the nervous system to move fast and efficiently. This improves coordination, rhythm, and mechanics - so you’re not just moving fast, you’re moving efficiently and not leaking energy.

So now you know why speed training matters.

How To Put The Speed Training Into Practice

Because you took the time to read this, I want to send you a free speed session you can use straight away. This document also explains the reasoning behind each drill so you know the why behind the what!

You can do it on a separate day to team training or even before team training, which means:

one less night out of the house and more full rest days during the week.