2 Advanced Drills to Accelerate Faster: A Guide to Boosting Your Speed

Acceleration is a critical skill for athletes in almost every sport, whether you’re sprinting, cutting, or starting from a standstill position. While foundational speed drills can help improve your technique and build strength, athletes often plateau once they’ve mastered the basics. To continue improving, athletes need advanced drills that challenge their ability to react quickly, push off powerfully, and accelerate under pressure.

In this blog, Chris Barnard of Overtime Athletes introduces two advanced acceleration drills that are perfect for athletes looking to take their speed to the next level. These drills are designed to be used later in the off-season once the foundational movements and mechanics are well established. By incorporating competitive elements and external stimuli, these drills help athletes enhance their reaction time, push-off power, and overall acceleration.

Let’s break down these two advanced drills and explore how they can help you accelerate faster.

Drill Focus: Competition and External Stimuli for Reaction Time

The primary focus of the two drills introduced by Chris Barnard is to improve an athlete’s ability to react quickly and accelerate at full speed. These drills aren’t just about running fast—they’re about training athletes to react to external cues, simulating the pressure of competition.

Reaction time is a critical component of acceleration, especially when it comes to sports like football, basketball, or soccer, where athletes must constantly respond to changing conditions. By adding competitive elements—such as trying to tag an opponent or reacting to a cue to go—these drills mimic the real-world pressures athletes face in a game, forcing them to push their limits and accelerate faster than ever before.

Drill 1: Cat and Mouse – Standard Version

The first variation of the “Cat and Mouse” drill involves two athletes: one starts in a two-point stance (ready to sprint), while the other starts about 1-2 yards ahead in a neutral stance, such as standing upright or in a jogging position. The athlete in front focuses ahead, and as soon as the athlete in back passes, the athlete in front must immediately react and accelerate to catch them.

How It Works:

The athlete in front is given a reactive cue when the back athlete passes. This is typically a visual cue, such as the back athlete crossing in front of them.
Once the cue is triggered, the front athlete must immediately sprint to tag the back athlete.
The back athlete tries to gain as much distance as possible, while the front athlete works on accelerating as quickly as they can.

This drill is effective because it forces the athlete to respond immediately to a stimulus (the athlete passing by) and then accelerate. The key takeaway from this drill is the importance of reactionary acceleration. In many sports, an athlete’s ability to quickly react and then explode into a sprint can be the difference between scoring a touchdown or getting tackled, or making a key play in a game. This drill trains athletes to turn on their speed in an instant.

Drill 2: Half Kneeling Cat and Mouse

The second variation of the “Cat and Mouse” drill is the Half Kneeling Cat and Mouse. This drill takes acceleration training to a more advanced level by starting the athlete in a less advantageous position, forcing them to work harder to generate speed.

How It Works:

The athlete in front starts in a half-kneeling position. This position places the athlete in a lower, more constrained position, requiring them to push off from a deeper, more restricted range of motion.
The athlete in back starts in a two-point stance, similar to a sprinter’s start.
Once the front athlete accelerates, the back athlete begins chasing them, trying to tag them before they reach a designated point.

The half-kneeling start is effective because it forces the athlete to engage their muscles more deeply, particularly in the hips, knees, and ankles. These areas of the body are crucial for acceleration, as they provide the push needed to drive forward from a standstill position.

Why the Half Kneeling Position is Effective

Starting from a half-kneeling position provides a deeper range of motion compared to starting from a standing or even a two-point stance. Here’s why it’s so beneficial for acceleration training:

Engages Deep Muscle Groups: The half-kneeling position forces athletes to engage the muscles in the hips, knees, and ankles, which are critical for producing powerful acceleration. This deep engagement helps train athletes to generate more force with each step, especially when coming from a low position.
Improves Push-Off Power: Acceleration isn’t just about running fast; it’s about generating force and pushing off the ground as powerfully as possible. By starting from a lower position, athletes can train to develop greater push-off strength, which translates to a faster initial burst when they start sprinting.
Develops Ground Contact Efficiency: Acceleration is all about how efficiently an athlete makes contact with the ground. The deeper start position in the half kneeling drill emphasizes a strong, explosive push-off with each step, which helps athletes improve their efficiency when running.

The Competitive Element for Increased Effort

One of the reasons these drills are so effective is because they introduce a competitive element that pushes athletes to work harder and accelerate more aggressively. In the standard Cat and Mouse drill, the athlete in front is chasing the athlete in back, but in the Half Kneeling Cat and Mouse, the back athlete is attempting to tag the front athlete.

This constant competition forces the athlete to stay in high gear and gives them an immediate goal to strive for: beat the other person. This increased sense of competition triggers higher effort levels, making the athlete work harder to reach their full potential.

The psychological pressure of needing to catch or avoid being tagged adds an intensity that simple sprinting drills lack. Athletes will push themselves harder when they know there’s a tangible consequence (getting tagged) for not accelerating fast enough.

Outcome and Benefits: Enhancing Acceleration Mechanics

Both the standard Cat and Mouse drill and the Half Kneeling Cat and Mouse drill are designed to improve key aspects of acceleration:

Reaction Time: By adding external stimuli that require athletes to react quickly, these drills help train the brain to react faster during a sprint.
Push-Off Strength: Especially with the Half Kneeling version, these drills help athletes develop stronger, more explosive push-offs.
Explosiveness: With both drills incorporating competitive elements, athletes learn how to accelerate faster and more powerfully when under pressure.

By incorporating these reactionary elements into acceleration training, athletes can break through their plateaus and achieve faster starts, quicker burst speeds, and more explosive sprints.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Chris Barnard’s two advanced acceleration drills—Cat and Mouse (standard and half kneeling variations)—are an excellent way to take your speed and reaction time to the next level. Whether you’re a football player, basketball player, or sprinter, incorporating these drills into your off-season training can significantly enhance your acceleration mechanics and overall performance.

If you’re interested in more advanced speed training techniques or want a comprehensive program to improve your acceleration, Chris Barnard offers full-speed programs that can take your training to the next level. Check out the link below to find out more and get started on accelerating faster today!