Speed is often the difference between winning and losing. The ability to sprint past opponents at blazing speeds seems to be the best skill anyone could have on the field. As I trained hard, lifted heavy, and did as many sprints as I could, year to year, my sprint would make small improvements but rarely could I perform at the level I wanted to. It wasn’t until I began coaching that I figured out how to properly improve speed through training. This is what any athlete should do if they are trying to reach new speeds.

 

Strength

​

Without a solid base of strength, athletes limit their ability to succeed in any part of the sprint. Much of sprinting fast is about putting force into the ground. In 2000, biomechanist Peter Weyand and his colleagues found that athletes who reach greater sprinting speeds apply greater amounts of force to the ground (study). A typical person would not be able to handle the same amounts of force elite athletes put into the ground when they sprint. High-level sprinters can fabricate peak forces of up to 5 times their body weight on multiple ground contacts. This is even more impressive when considering this force is often created in under a tenth of a second. 

 

An athlete cannot produce more force than they are capable of. The best way to enhance an athlete’s speed is to first make them stronger. Many studies have found that athletes with greater relative strength (weight lifted compared to their body mass) are more capable of higher movement speeds. The best way to increase relative strength is by resistance training at high intensities.

 

The human body works in a way that it will adapt to any stressor placed upon it to reduce the amount of stress from similar events in the future. This stress could be meeting new people, having a debate, or playing in front of a crowd. Every time you do something stressful, your body will make adaptations so you can be more resilient against the stressor in the future. Exercising is one way to stress yourself and bring about positive adaptations. To adapt to the stress of exercise, you will become stronger and more efficient in completing the movement so the next time you do the same exercise it won’t be as difficult.

 

It can take months to significantly enhance your strength. Consistency is the most important part of achieving any goal. In the first few weeks of resistance training, significant improvements are mainly obtained from neurological adaptations like enhanced motor unit recruitment ability and improved coordination (study). The physical body doesn’t change much at first, but athletes still experience initial increases in strength. After 3-5 weeks, increases in strength are led more by increases in muscle size (study). 

​

Force production in all athletic movements is, in part, dictated by the maximal force-producing capability of the muscle fibers being recruited for the action. Muscle fibers are often split into two broad categories based on their contractility speeds: slow-twitch muscle fibers and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Slow-twitch muscle fibers, called Type I fibers, are resistant to fatigue, recover quickly, contract at slower velocities, and are used for lower-intensity, long-duration movements. Think of jogging, swimming, and biking. Fast-twitch muscle fibers, most commonly Type IIA and Type IIx fibers, take longer to recover, contract more forcefully at greater velocities, are larger than type I fibers, and are used for short-term, highly-intense activities. Being that the sprint is a short-duration, high-intensity activity, fast-twitch muscle fibers will affect sprint performance the most. These are the muscle fibers that we want to improve for this task.

​

By training according to the demands of the athletic movement you are trying to improve, the positive adaptations received from training will be more catered towards improving that specific movement and those that are similar to it. To improve a short-duration, high-intensity movement like the sprint, training with short-duration, high-intensity exercises are necessary. One study found that short-distance (30-80m) maximal sprint training at 90-100% effort may increase the proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Another study found that weightlifters who consistently train using heavier loads (80-95% 1-rep max) experience preferential hypertrophy of fast-twitch muscle fibers when compared to those who consistently lift at lower intensities. When training to improve a maximal-effort movement like the sprint, it is best to train maximally.

​

Here are some exercises that translate the best to improving force output for sprinting when trained at high intensities:

​

• Squat 

• Split Squat 

• Trap Bar Deadlift  

​

A base of strength is required for any athlete that wants to run fast. If you don't have this, then increasing your strength is the first place to look. 
 

Technique

​

The fastest athletes are not always the strongest in the room. Imagine we have two athletes who are the same age, height, and weight. Just because one athlete can squat more than the other does not mean they will sprint faster. 

 

It initially surprised me when I would see younger or weaker athletes who could run as fast or faster than their older or stronger peers. There was something these athletes had that their peers didn’t. Better sprinting technique.

 

The best way to enhance sprint ability is to sprint. There is no other way around it. If an athlete were to lift weights for months without ever sprinting, they would just become strong and slow. Each time you sprint, adaptations will be made enhancing your ability to complete the movement at a given distance in the future. This could be by refining your rate of force development, increasing the number of muscle fibers recruited, or adjusting your technique. There are adaptations an athlete gets from sprinting they could never get from just lifting weights.

 

Earlier, I stated that a lot about sprinting fast correlates with how much force you can apply. This is partially true. What really matters is how you apply that force to the ground. A fast athlete must be able to produce a high amount of horizontal force during acceleration to initially reach high velocities then produce a high amount of vertical force during max speed to maintain the velocity created. Both of these forces are present throughout a sprint at different ratios, and both must be applied to the ground with each ground contact.

 

A study found that the technical ability to apply forces and horizontal force production were significant factors in 100m sprint times whereas, total force production was not. Faster athletes are not just naturally fast and athletic. Nor is a high amount of strength required for them to be fast. Fast athletes know how to apply force to the ground better than others.

​

Sprinting more does not guarantee an athlete will have a better sprinting technique. An athlete could still have bad sprinting techniques even if they do it more than others. Bad sprint technique could be from a lack of strength inhibiting the ability to produce force and maintain positions. On the other hand, an athlete could just be repetitively using bad form whenever they sprint. Sometimes it may be best to consult a coach about your sprint form. Another option could be to watch and take note of how elite athletes sprint in comparison to how you sprint. Comparing your form to other athletes can be a slippery slope. We all have different sizes and shapes; no two athletes are the same. Trying to find general similarities in how various high-level athletes move is the best way to compile information to apply to your own sprint. These are what I’ve found to be the most consistent traits in the sprinting technique of fast athletes:

 

• They strike the ground near the balls of their feet

• They strike the ground under their hips rather than far in front

• During acceleration, they have a forward-leaning posture (shoulders past hips)

• During maximal speed, they have an upright posture (shoulders directly above hips)

​

Incorporating sprint drills into training can help an athlete understand the activity more. As someone who hadn't known how to sprint correctly for years, consistently performing sprint drills is what helped me fill in the gaps in my flawed technique. Two effective sprinting drills are the "Wall Switch” and "Resisted Sprint". The Wall-Switch is begun in a near horizontal posture pressed against a wall with your hips pressed out and feet behind the hips. The athlete, with one leg in hip flexion and the other in hip extension, then progresses to switching each leg from hip flexion to hip extension simultaneously while maintaining a good posture. Resisted sprinting enhances an athlete's ability to produce horizontal force (because of the added weight they need to pull forward) and can teach them how to project their body correctly during acceleration (because it keeps them in the acceleration phase longer).
 

Specificity of Training

​

Depending on your sport, your training needs may be different from other athletes. Consider this:

 

90% of sprints in soccer are shorter than 5s.

 

College-level American Football athletes reach top speed at around 20 meters (compared to track sprinters who reach top speed at around 50 meters).

 

68% of sprints in rugby are shorter than 20 meters.

 

To transfer training improvements directly to your sport you must train more specifically to your sport's sprinting needs. If most of the sprints in your sport are short-distance sprints, then focusing on short-distance sprints in your training would be better than doing full-field sprints every workout.

 

Studies have found that heavy lower-body strength training significantly correlates with short-distance sprint performance. As the distance increases, the influence of strength on sprint performance decreases. This could be due to the fact that early sprint ground contact times are longer than maximal speed and late sprint ground contact times, allowing the athlete more time to apply muscular force. At longer distances, the tendons and ligaments are much more relied upon to absorb and redirect force. The ability of connective tissues to absorb and redirect force is your “elasticity”. Athletes who often maximally sprint over short distances may benefit from focusing more on maximal weight training and short-distance sprinting. Athletes who will sprint longer distances may benefit from focusing more on improving their connective tissue elasticity and efficiency with plyometrics. To sprint fast, all athletes need to be good in both their early sprint and late sprint performance, it is up to them to decide what is most important.

 

Sprints are anaerobic activities, meaning they are short-duration activities that don’t require the use of oxygen. Anaerobic activities cannot be maintained for a long time because they are so taxing on the nervous & muscular systems. Your body requires more out of you to sprint 10 meters at max intensity than to jog 100 meters. Your body also requires more time to recover from a sprint compared to a jog. 

 

Long rest periods are necessary when training for speed. Short rest periods will limit your ability to enhance your speed because it will be more difficult to train at maximal speed when fatigued. Sprinting with shorter rest periods is important when you are closer to the season and must condition for repeat sprint ability but not when you are trying to increase your speed. A general guideline for rest periods when sprinting is 45 seconds of rest for every 1 second of sprinting (for example, a 10m sprint completed in 2 seconds = at least 1 minute and 30 seconds of rest). In most field sports, athletes may have to sprint multiple times within a short time span. As an athlete gets closer to the season, shortening the rest periods will improve their ability to sprint at high intensities more often without getting as tired.

 

This can be replicated in your strength training. After building a base of strength, you can specify your strength training towards building speed and power. Rather than training with shorter rest periods and higher volumes, this would be the time to increase the intensity by increasing the weights and lowering the repetitions or lowering the weights and increasing the speed. Both should be done with increased rest periods.

 

Rest between training days is just as important as rest between high-intensity sprints. Sprinting or lifting at max intensity every day could leave you overtrained and possibly slower than when you started because you are not providing your body with enough time to recover and adapt to the previous training stimuli. It may be best to have intense weightlifting on the same day as your max sprint training, and then leave 1 to 2 days of rest until the next high-intensity training day. Low-intensity training can still be done during those days.

​

Specificity of training is a great way to enhance your performance, but it is not always necessary to this degree. Younger, less-trained athletes don't require much specificity in their training to see improvement. If an athlete doesn't have experience in sprinting or resistance training, then sprinting or lifting in almost any capacity will elicit gains. Athletes at this level should focus on generalized training (training lacking specificity) rather than specialized. Generalized training will provide the same, if not better, results than more specialized training for those new to training. Once an athlete has accumulated some years of consistent training, it will be more difficult for them to attain the same level of adaptations as when they started. To counter this, athletes must use more specialized training to elicit adaptations that are more specific to the goals of their sport.

​

Sample Speed Training Program

Your resistance training sessions will consist of a “main” lift, which would be the most physically-challenging and highly-intense exercise performed in the workout. Let's say the back squat. Heavy resistance train 2-3 times a week, with two high-intensity, heavy lifting days and one recovery day where you don't lift heavy. Each training session is a full-body training session. After warmup sets, perform 3-4 working sets at around 80-95% of your max with 2-4 repetitions each set. Each working set is done with the same weight used during the first working set and includes 3-4 minutes of rest after each set. After the back squat portion of the workout, perform other accessory upper-body and lower-body exercises such as the bench, landmine press, and RDL for the remainder of the workout. 

​

In your sprint training sessions, you'll sprint anywhere from 10m to 100m for 2 to 10 sets (the lower the distance the higher the sets) with long rest periods (the further the distance the longer the rest period). This is done 2 to 3 times a week (preferably on the same days as your high-intensity lifting or after a rest day from high-intensity lifting). Sprinkle in other plyometrics such as pogos, depth drops, depth jumps, standing vertical jumps, bounds, and penultimate-step jumps throughout the training program. The progression for any of the plyometrics is from a lower intensity to a higher intensity with time. For example, progressing from doing depth drops for a few weeks to doing depth jumps. The same should be done with your volume of training. Start with a lower set and repetition range for the sprints and plyometrics, maybe <4 sets for any exercise, then slowly progress to a higher set and repetition range. This is to slowly build yourself up rather than doing too much, too quickly, which often leads to injury. Each week film your sprints and try to make adjustments along the way according to the ideal form you're looking to have.

​

After a few months of consistent training, proper nutrition, and adequate sleep, you'll find yourself sprinting much faster than you were previously capable of.

​

09/25/2022