If you want to progress to a higher level in football, speed of play is one of the most important aspects that you need to develop as a footballer. Maybe some of you already experienced it yourself, each time you move to a higher level, there always be a change in the speed of play. It is a tiny little change, but it affects the game massively. There are three aspects that could help you improve your speed of play:
Mental Preparation
You have to set up in your mind that you want to play quicker and switch on throughout training sessions or games. Make a decision in your head that you have to play faster. It could be simply doing fewer touches on the ball or scan the field and know what to do before receiving that pass.
In short, the concept is you want to play with urgency. You don’t want to do it just for the sake of being fast, don’t rush it, combine that speed with precision. The aim is to minimize unnecessary touches on the ball, which comes down to the next point, your technical ability.
Be Technically Sharp
It is great to know what you should do beforehand, but if you don’t know how to execute it, then it becomes ineffective. So, in order to support your mental action, you have to practice your physical action i.e. first touch, passing, dribbling, etc. All these fundamental aspects are essential to help you make better decisions and execute them into actions.
Tactical Training
Watching and analysing high level football matches are crucial. If you want to up your game, watching a certain player in your position would be key. How does he move off the ball prior receiving the pass? Does he scan? If so, which part of the field did he scan? When does he do it? Is it when the other player touches the ball or the opposite? Why does this player make this run? These are the questions that you need to ask yourself whilst watching the game. It would be better if you can pause and predict the action of that player and see if you made the right decision in his or her actual play.
Secondly, you can watch the ball moves during the game if you want to increase the overall tactical team shape. Analysing shape pattern a certain team has against a particular opposition can be beneficial for your game awareness. To find full football matches, you can easily go to YouTube and type “full match Man City vs Arsenal” for instance and you are all set. Otherwise if you rather watch more recent games, I would recommend go to a website called, Football Origin. They provide the latest football matches on demand for free.
Exposure
Now, having those two aspects in your locker is important. But the very most important is that you have to find a way where you can apply those things. Expose yourself to situations that require you to play quicker. It could be playing in tight spaces, 5v5, playing with better players, better team, higher leagues, etc. Ideally, you have to experience those situations yourself which later on force you to play quicker and faster. In short, learning by experience.
I hope you can implement all these aspects to your training regimen and matches, eventually you will improve your speed of play in football without you even noticing. Anyways, stay healthy and safe in this current period, ballers!
