Science meets speed in a bold new way: a few vivid words can make teenage soccer players sprint faster—instantly.
The trick? Metaphors like “push the ground away” that tap into the brain’s power to visualize and move smarter.
Jet-Powered Sprinting Secrets
Picture a young soccer player exploding off the line like a jet taking off. That image alone can make the difference between a routine sprint and a game-winning burst of speed. Researchers at the University of Essex worked with Tottenham Hotspur’s elite academy and found that vivid, environment-focused phrases boosted teenage athletes’ 20-meter sprint times by about 3 percent—an improvement that usually demands weeks of specialized training.
Why does it matter? Those lightning-quick accelerations often decide whether a striker slips past a defender and buries the ball in the net.
Mind-Over-Muscle Coaching
Dr. Jason Moran, a sports scientist at Essex, discovered that young players run faster when they concentrate on what’s around them rather than on their own body mechanics. Telling an athlete to “push the ground away” or “launch like a jet” creates a clear mental picture and frees the body to move fluidly.
“The words we speak to athletes have a demonstrable and instant effect on their performance,” Moran explains.
“It’s long been known that it’s better to direct an athlete’s attention to the environment around them rather than focusing on their body positions, which seems to interfere with the fluidity of movement.”
Ferrari-Fast Imagery Tricks
Moran says, “This could be enhanced even further by using certain analogies, for example, asking a player to ‘accelerate like a Ferrari’ may create a more evocative image in their mind instead of simply telling them to run fast.”
The research used 20 members of the North London side’s academy, all between 14 and 15 years old.
Before taking part in sprint drills, the promising players were given different directions before running.
External analogies telling them to “push the ground away’ achieved better results than “driving their legs into the ground.”
Skyward Acceleration Cues
And top performances were encouraged by players being urged to “sprint as if you are a jet taking off into the sky ahead.”
In coaching, analogies can make it easier for someone to learn how to move their body in the right way by hiding complicated instructions within simple spoken words.
For example, by using analogies, a coach can tell an athlete how fast and in what position their body needs to be, without using hard-to-understand technical terms.
It is thought that this could be particularly advantageous in young learners who may show relatively lower levels of focus.
Grassroots Speed Boosts
Away from elite sport, it is thought these cues and coaching tactics could be used in PE lessons and at the grassroots.
Dr. Moran added, “Although these findings focus on the highest level of youth football, it could easily be used in schools or on a Saturday morning.
“By using a simple analogy, teachers and parents might be able to get the most out of their kids, whatever the sport.”
Reference: “How effective are external cues and analogies in enhancing sprint and jump performance in academy soccer players?” by Jason Moran, Matt Allen, Joshua Butson, Urs Granacher, Raouf Hammami, Filipe Manuel Clemente, Megan Klabunde and Gavin Sandercock, 1 February 2024, Journal of Sports Sciences.
DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2024.2309814
A version of this article was originally published in March 2024.
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