Football
ESPN staff 9y

Michael Johnson says young UK footballers lack speed and power

Young footballers in Britain are lagging behind in terms of speed and power, according to former U.S. sprint great Michael Johnson.

Johnson, who won four Olympic gold medals for the USA from 1992-2000 in the 200m and 400m, is now working with the FA to help clubs learn more about players' athletic development and has welcomed Arsenal to his Texas-based performance centre in the past.

"Everybody is trying to get as much as they can out of their athletes," Johnson said at the Laureus Sports Awards in Shanghai. "Trying to find out where you can find that expertise and new training methodology that's going to help us more effectively bring athletes through. 

"Obviously in the football world they know the skill and they really understand the skill, while we [in the US] wouldn't know anything about that.

"But we specialise in youth athletic development and so we train thousands of athletes every year from age nine through to 18 years old in the States in all different sports. We're seen as the experts, I guess, in athletic development."

However, Johnson has seen that young UK athletes do not quite match up to their global counterparts in a couple of areas.

"In strength, there's some real pretty cutting-edge stuff coming out of the UK," he said. "Multi-directional speed and quickness and power, however, I'd say there's a little bit of a lag there.

"Once you get into athletic development, you start to look at speed, strength, power, agility, suppleness -- all of those different things -- and pick the ones that they [youngsters] are really interested in.

"Strength has always been a big one in the UK. There, I would say that the UK is right up there with everyone else. But in terms of speed and power, there's a little bit of a lag there."

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