The ability for an athlete to run faster is a differentiator in most sports… Basically all team sports plus track.
Parents and coaches are always trying to get there athletes faster.
Most go about it all wrong.
We have a had some great success training our athletes to sprint faster.
A sub 4.3 40 at a football pro-day (granted he already ran a 10.47 100m dash) and multiple legit sub 7.0 60’s (baseball).
The surprising part to most is that actual running is only a very small part of the training. In fact, Miles only ran 3 or 4 full 40’s in the 4 months leading up to his pro day.
My formula is this:
1- Find weakness and build them up and build a base of physical fitness. GPP (General Physical Preparedness)
2- Build the muscles that run. Usually very weak in most athletes because you can’t see them in the mirror.
3- Train maximal strength to increase the amount of force the athlete can put into the ground. (Max Effort Method)
4- Build Speed Strength and Explosive Strength by using percentages of a Maximum Effort plus add “Accommodating Resistance” (bands and/or chains) to force the athlete to accelerate weight as fast as possible.
5- Jump 80-120x a week to build explosive strength (the ability to rapidly generate large amounts of force). Jumping also transfers weight room strength to usable strength in sports by training the planes of motion used in sports and. Jumping trains the stretch reflex which is very sprint specific. Jumping also builds athleticism.
6- Teach and refine sprint mechanics. Make sure the athlete can set up, take a first step, accelerate, reach top speed and maintain top speed as long as possible to run a good time.
This differs from many coaches and trainers in that they only address one aspect of the 5 listed above. Some rely only on max strength with out worrying about explosive strength or mechanics. Some totally neglect the muscles that run. Some only run and they reach a speed barrier and can’t get past it because their CNS auto regulates them as they get too used to one movement pattern… basically like a governor on an engine. Many training facilities only do speed training because its lucrative. They can fit a lot of athletes into a group and parents eat it up because they think it’s safe and they think its what their kids need when in reality it’s only 1/5 of what they need.
Check out some of our guys going through some sprint training below but remember its only 1 part of the puzzle…