How Can I increase my Speed and Agility?

Just saying, but most NFL players can’t run a 4.3. Still, though, might as well have something to shoot for.

I can’t help you much beyond practice, practice, practice , but this seems to be an OK site.

Are you doing anything like yoga to increase your flexibility?

Some of this is out of your control… do you have a short, stocky frame, or a long lean frame? Genetics go a long way in how much speed and agility you can attain. That said, there are plenty of exercises you can do to improve from your current level. Have you worked with your coach to determine a good plan for you to improve in this area?

Currently i am 6’3” and weigh 185. 20 years old. Most Running Backs or Wide Receivers can run the 40 in about 4.3–4.5.

You could try sprinting a lot…

Because sometimes, somebody just needs to state the obvious.

Maybe squats would help too, to strengthen the muscles you use for running, rather than just doing cardio and endurance training.

Take up a part time job working with wild animals. We tend to run faster when the lioness is chasing behind.

I saw a T-Shirt the other day that said:

“I work with wild animals. If you see me running, try and keep up”

next time you level up, put all your points into dexterity

@brettvdb you beat me to it :D

me too

Try plyometrics.

@Humble
Seconded.
Plyometrics for this particular muscle groups would boil down to jumping a lot. You should try running up stairs with as many steps at a time as you can. Or onto a bench and off it again, alternating between left foot first and right foot first.

By the way, just today I tried jumping while holding dumbbells. It’s not so hard actually, if you hold them in a safe and stable way (i.e. letting them hang, rather than holding them at shoulder height or something). Maybe you could try adding weights as a difficult mode.
You should probably be cautious with this, though, as should I. It’s easy to think of something that could go wrong while jumping around holding something really heavy. I’m particularly thinking of joint injuries when one dumbbell goes in a direction your arm is not prepared to follow.

The article provided by @dverhey is interesting. It suggests that all you need to do is change the set-up before you even run. I would accept that doing all that it says is true… and likely could cut a good half second from your times. However, you may not have the option to start from 3 point and you will still be competing with folks who are still a good second faster than you.

All my experience has been as a distance runner (1–2miler on track), so what we did to gain speed may not apply… what we did though was do fartlek workouts. We would run varying lengths of distance at a sprint with a short jog in between. The other speed workout we did was to do 8–10 sprints of 220 or 440 yds with recovery of 100 yd jogs in between.

For a shorter distance you could do 10 yds at your fastest speed with 5yd recovery through the 40 yds. Another thing to try is change your stride length. A lot of folks try to sretch their stride too long. For short sprints take shorter strides. Not too short, just enough that you get more power driving through the entire distance. Also don’t forget to move drive your arms as much as you do your legs… as your legs have to be synched with your arms as you stride. If they are lagging your stride can only go so fast. Last for a distance like 40 yards you should be up on your toes the whole way. If you are hitting heels at any point you will be slowed down.

Squat Squat, Squat, Squat. Deep squats have helped me so much. Get to about your ankles in this squat. It helped me so much.

i suggest mybe goin to the gym and goin on the treadmill 4 bout an hour straight and mybe go to sum yoga and lots of sprinting.. im 13 and i play football for an under 14s team, no not american football the kind u call soccer lol im in a team which won the league twice in a row and won the cup just this week and i scored the winning goals in ⅔ of the final matchs i got 3 goals in the cup game and 2 in 1 of the final games to win the league and ders this kid gym dwn the road which is for 12yrs to 15yrs which i go to every tuesday, friday and saturday im a striker for my team and im not boasting but im pretty fast and can do bout an hour n a half on the treadmill and the cycling machine and i got man of the match in the cup game and player of the season so it looks like all my hard work paid off so i reccomend doin that only 4 a bit longer. and yes i am british and im from Belfast, Northern Ireland

i suggest mybe goin to the gym and goin on the treadmill 4 bout an hour straight and mybe go to sum yoga and lots of sprinting.. im 13 and i play football for an under 14s team, no not american football the kind u call soccer lol im in a team which won the league twice in a row and won the cup just this week and i scored the winning goals in ⅔ of the final matchs i got 3 goals in the cup game and 2 in 1 of the final games to win the league and ders this kid gym dwn the road which is for 12yrs to 16yrs which i go to every tuesday, friday and saturday im a striker for my team and im not boasting but im pretty fast and can do bout an hour n a half on the treadmill and the cycling machine and i got man of the match in the cup game and player of the season so it looks like all my hard work paid off so i reccomend doin that only 4 a bit longer. and yes i am british and im from Belfast, Northern Ireland