Coach ,

I don’t think I have ever headed into the summer without thinking about how to make my team faster. Yes, I wanted stronger and bigger, but speed on the field is the game changer when it comes to winning football games.

But I admit, early on I was confused…I though weight room was the number one priority. We always trained in the weight room first.

I thought we had to grind them down to make them tougher…gassers, repeat 40’s a tone of volume running were part of what we did.

Then I started talking with track coaches and saw a different perspective, and started changing the way we did things. This was around 2009 for me…

I’ve talked speed coach Tony Holler on the Coach and Coordinator Podcast to talk about setting up off-season training to create “Apex Predators.” We talked about these ideas in regards to the pursuit of speed and power for your athletes.

Here are the main tips he shared:



#1) Treat all of your players as athletes. This means the big guys as well. He explained that the top 10 offensive tackles in the NFL average 6’5” 309 and run a laser-timed 4.9-second 40-yard dash. Speed is important in every position!

#2) Train speed before you have them lift. It fires up the nervous system and produces better results in the weight room. More importantly, to get fast you have to train fast, so sprinting after lifting doesn’t allow that. Coach Holler believes that this must be a priority. He points out how two elite NFL players, Adam Thielen and Christian McCaffery made speed the priority and it did not hurt their strength.

Video: Adam Thielen: One Priority

Video: Christian McCaffery: One Priority

#3) The work to recovery ratio is critical. Coach Hollers explained how in the workout they did that afternoon, a 55-minute session with 50 athletes, each athlete had about 90 seconds of work total. 

That seems counterintuitive, but in order to increase speed, the body needs to recover between sprints. While it seems having them tired by the end of the workout is a good measure, understanding the effect of what it does to them is important. Coach Holler explains how renown speed coach Vince Anderson calls this a 14-point turn around.

Video: The 14 Point Turnaround

#4) Record, Rank, and Publish. Measuring what matters is the key to understanding the results and where your team is headed. It allows you to ask the right questions about the training you are putting your team through.

#5) If you have to “crush them” do it at the end of the week so they have the weekend to recover and so that speed development is not negatively impacted.

Coach Hollers explains that while this may seem the opposite of what typically is done in the offseason, where coaches seek fatigue as a measure of how hard the team worked, the results of doing it differently will show up in the measurables.

I know all of this may fly in the face of what we’ve always done, but what’s the most important thing to you on Friday night or Saturday afternoon? If it’s speed to the end zone, speed to the football, speed around the edge, etc, then digging into Coach Holler’s resources can help you prioritize everything in these months leading up to camp.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski