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Football · Speed & Agility · Ages 13-15

Football Speed & Agility Practice Plan for 13 to 15 Year Olds

At 13 to 15, football speed becomes a measured, two-part asset: MECHANICS (plant angles like ski edges, single-leg landing control, braking that survives full speed) and REACTION (cuts fired off live cues, because games never announce anything). Acceleration gets dedicated development, the 5-10-5 gets planned and reactive versions logged separately, and landing control graduates to non-negotiable, this being the growth window where knees get protected or spent.

This is a 75-minute workout with markers, chalk, a stopwatch, and a caller. Sprint rules are adult: full rests, capped volume, the last rep matching the first. Football rewards this work brutally well: the sport is played in six-second bursts of exactly these shapes, and the combine drills waiting at the high school door are literally on this page.

Practice Plan

Full Workout: Edges, Cues, and Iron Landings

Plant angles that turn speed, cuts fired off live calls, and landings that guard the knees through the growth window. The log keeps all of it honest.

Warmup · 10 minutes

Ramp and Springs

Duration10 minEquipmentmarkers, chalk

Build-ups to near-full, A-skips, lateral shuffles, the hop circuit silent, then loading: tuck jumps sticking the last, broad jumps sticking all, five lateral bounds per side stuck two seconds. The landings open the session because the session runs on them.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Today runs on your landings. Wake them properly."

Block 1: Acceleration · 20 minutes

Ten-Yard Builders

Duration10 minEquipmentmarkers

Six ten-yard max-intent starts from the two-point stance on varied cadence, full rests, low and punchy. Two flying twenties feeling acceleration versus cruising. The ten-yard burst IS football speed; forty-yard times are mostly this drill wearing a longer costume.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Ten angry yards. The game is played inside them."

Timed Tens

Duration10 minEquipmentmarkers, stopwatch

Three timed ten-yard sprints, best logged and dated: the program's report card. Then two starts from a three-point stance for the combine-adjacent feel, graded on the first two steps staying low.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "The watch believes low first steps."

Block 2: Plant Mechanics and Reaction · 25 minutes

Angle School

Duration10 minEquipmentmarkers, chalk

Cuts at 45, 90, and 180 degrees, five per side at building speed, mechanics graded: plant foot outside the turn, shin angled in like a ski edge, hips dropping through, exit step short and flat. Ten seconds of phone film per angle coaches the shin better than any sentence.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Shin like a ski edge. Its angle IS the turn."

Live-Call Cuts

Duration8 minEquipmenta caller

In a lane, reacting instantly to pointed calls: left, right, back, "UP" (jump, land soft), "GO." Twenty-second bursts, six rounds, honestly random. Solo: a shuffled voice memo. The eyes and feet train together from here on or the mechanics stay parade-ground.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Eyes read, feet answer. No guessing."

React 5-10-5

Duration7 minEquipment3 markers, a caller, stopwatch

The shuttle with the first direction called AT the start. Three timed reps, logged separately from planned runs (slower is expected and honest). The reactive version is the one the sport actually plays.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Same turns, new question every rep."

Block 3: Iron Landings · 10 minutes

Single-Leg Bank

Duration10 minEquipmentchalk

The knee-insurance block at full attention: five single-leg lateral bounds per side stuck, knee over toes, no inward cave; five single-leg forward hop-and-sticks per side; three fall-and-catch reps per side. Distances chalked and dated. Through the teenage growth window this block is the difference between building an athlete and borrowing one.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Knee over toes, every landing, no exceptions."

Finish · 10 minutes

Chain and Close

Duration10 minEquipmenteverything

Two full chains at game effort: cadence start, ten-yard burst, two-step brake, live-called cut, reactive shuttle turn, backpedal, hip-turn, sprint through. Then the ritual: three perfect quiet single-leg landings per side, and the log read aloud: ten times, shuttle pair, bounds.

Coaching Cue

Cue: "Close on iron landings. Quiet is the last word."

What to watch today: the gap between the planned and reactive shuttle times. That gap is the honest measure of whether the mechanics have become football movement or remain choreography. It shrinks with live-call volume, and watching it shrink, dated in the log, is the most motivating page in the whole notebook.

This plan was written for every 13 to 15 year old. ParentEdge writes one for yours.

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Common questions

How much can a teenager improve their ten-yard burst?

Meaningfully: with dedicated acceleration work, full rests, and maturation cooperating, a tenth or two per season is a normal outcome, and in football terms that is a step of separation on every snap. The order of returns: start mechanics, brake-and-plant quality, then general strength as the frame fills.

Planned or reactive agility: which matters more for football?

Both, logged separately: planned reps build the mechanics cleanly, reactive reps make them game-usable, and the gap between the two times is the honest progress meter. By 15 the reactive number is the one that predicts Friday nights.

Why is single-leg landing work non-negotiable at this age?

The teenage growth window is where knees get protected or spent: single-leg landing control with the knee tracking over the toes is the best-evidenced protective work there is, and it doubles as performance (the leg that lands strong cuts strong). Ten minutes a session, forever, cheap at the price.

Speed & Agility plans for other ages
Ages 7-8Ages 9-10Ages 11-12
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