The two oldest boys on the Robbins Athletics team, Spencer and Stephen, have been working on increasing their speed over the past two years.
There is no shortage of speed programs out there. We’ve tried many of them, including ones that use plyometric boxes, speed sleds, skips (A skips, B skips, C skips and variations on those), resistance bands, and lots of other training resources.
One program that we have found works consistently is a 30-day speed program called Twice the Speed. I bought the program for my kids in 2019, and I’ve watched them go through it several times. The first time they did it, my daughter went from being average speed to dominating the field in her Pitch, Hit, Run softball competition in the summer of 2019. The contest evaluates how quickly players can run from home to first to second base. Maylee, who wasn’t even playing softball at the time, came in a full second ahead of any of the other 10-15 competitors, and was able to land herself a Utah state championship, moving on to Denver to compete in the regionals.
The video below walks you through the exercise bands aspects of the Twice the Speed program. Watch as Spencer and Stephen show you each of the exercise band sets included in the workout including the following sets:
Another great drill my boys have seen help them get faster is to load their sprints using a weighted sled.
As you can see in the video below, sled sprints provide overload for your legs and resistance towards the starting process, besides making you stronger even after you’ve accelerated to top speed.
