You only have to watch a senior professional game of football to recognise importance that speed has in game. But there is more to speed than meets eye.

Soccer players are athletes, but unlike a 100m runner where there is explosive speed for 10 seconds in a straight line, there are many other abilities that soccer players need to develop.

Here are 5 key soccer related speed abilities that you should develop in your players.

#1 - Speed of thought

Soccer players have a great deal to concentrate on. There senses are constantly being blitzed with information, which they need to quickly decipher. Here are some examples:

- Where opponents are positioned

- Actions of their team mates

- What's infront of them and their peripheral vision

- The conditions of pitch and weather

- The noise from team mates, crowd, coaches and opponents

- Their tactical position and strategy of team

#2 - Speed of anticipation

Some players have a great reading of game. I have a friend who although he is now in his late 40's early 50's still plays regularly and competes well with players half his age!

How does he do this... because he's played soccer all his life at professional and international level he has built a huge database in his brain of playing situations, player characteristics, tactical situations etc. and he is able to draw on this which gives him superb speed of anticipation.

Sure for explosiveness and reaction times younger players would win every time, but as old saying goes..."the first couple of yards are in head!".

So here it is important that players develop a knack of interpreting actions of opponents and what that means to games development.

#3 - Speed of reaction

As mentioned in last bullet, speed of reaction is vital.

Anticipation is one thing, being able to react quickly is another.

Consider role of goal keeper, their reaction time to a sudden shot, deflection, switch in angle of attack, flight of ball must be very acute.

But how does a goal keeper react and what to? In this instance, goal keeper will react to a number of external stimuli, here's a list:

- The visual element of opponent with ball, are they carrying it, have they got backlift as if ready to strike ball, is opponent in space and is their a clear line of sight on goal

- The auditory element, do they hear strike of ball, is it fizzing, does it take a deflection of a player (thud), a shout from a team mate, maybe a close opponent barracking goalie " he's going to shoot!"

All of these stimuli will have an effect on player.

Once stimulated player should choose best option available to them to react to that situation.

Again we will use goalie;

An example of a short drill as noted by Mike Hartman and Sam Mercurio in ‘STAY IN SHAPE BUT HAVE FUN’ is to “work on little things like stickhandling. Take out a golf ball and stickhandle in driveway for an hour or so. Controlling golf ball will further enhance your hand-eye coordination and, again, you will be amazed at difference when you step back onto ice in fall” (www.hockeycoach.com). For all practical purposes, all you need for stick handling improvement is your hockey stick and something to hit. Common choices for something to hit can be: golf ball (as stated before), tennis ball, roller hockey ball or puck, racket or hand ball, or any comparable sized object in your vicinity. Balls tend to work best for drills off ice because ball naturally returns to shooter, depending on where you are practicing.