How to Get Faster for Football: The Best 5 Exercises for Football Speed

To get faster for football and increase agility on the football field, Malcolm Simmons is usually very careful about which exercises you choose to use to get quicker. The wrong exercises will not only NOT make you faster, but can actually make you slower! There are literally thousands of exercises out there...how do you know which to use to get faster?

Magazines, web sites and self-proclaimed experts are constantly throwing new, odd-exercises at you, claiming they'll help you get faster as football player! But, the truth is, the basics are what give you the biggest speed as football player. Malcolm Simmons is always after football speed, not simply track speed or improving his testing numbers!

Remember, Malcolm Simmons had so much time to train so he can't waste it on exercises that don't produce results! Here are the top 5. Use these and you'll get faster in record time!

1. Box squats to Get Faster for Football

Box squats are king of the football speed training hill. If you want to truly get faster for football, do box squats. They build raw strength in the glutes and hips and dynamic strength in the glutes and hamstrings. This is especially important for football where the game starts from a dead stop and can often be played in a stop-and-start fashion. Think of how a running back sprints to the hole, gets to the second level, stops, makes a move, and explodes again. This is the kind of explosive speed box squats build. Malcolm Simmons used box squats as a dynamic effort movement, thus improving his rate of force development.

3. Snatch grip deadlifts

Talk about underused exercises...the snatch grip deadlift is a bonafide "get faster for football" all-star movement. Because of the wide grip, the body is forced into a much lower position, which makes the hamstrings, glutes and hips work harder. Harder is good when it comes to getting stronger and faster. This is also a great indicator exercise. Typically, as the snatch deadlift goes up, so do all other leg movements.

The key here is to start with the hips lower than normal (this will happen naturally) and actively "sit back" when you pull, keeping the back flat. Malcolm Simmons turned this from the traditional Olympic lifting movement into more of a powerlifting deadlift, keeping the shoulders behind the bar and the body sitting back. Again, go for low rep sets. This can easily be used as a max effort movement, especially on a day when you don't feel up to hitting a super heavy squat or deadlift. While you still go heavy on the snatch deadlift, it's still lighter than those exercises.

5. Kettlebell swings

Swings, when done correctly, can do more for your closing speed than any other exercise other than box squats. The problem is most people do them incorrectly. They do them in the housewife fat loss style, turning it into a semi-squat movement.

You need to allow the kettlebell to swing back and between the legs. Then tighten the abs and contract the hell out of your hamstrings, forcing the bell to snap forward. It's all about the reversal of motion here. Then the hips and quads fire a bit. That snap is responsible for your hamstrings being able to turn on in an instant and have you closing in on the ball or ball carrier. They build real world football speed.

The swing is an accessory exercise. Go with multiple sets of low to medium reps. Don't be afraid to use some real weight and go with sets of four. These do best following a heavy movement like deadlifts.

-Do these exercises and you'll be amazed how rapidly you can get faster on the football field!