Speed training has been overcomplicated to the point where athletes are busy, tired, and frustrated — but not faster. The issue usually isn’t effort. Its effectiveness.
If you strip speed down to its essentials, improvement goes straight to genetic potential.
Speed lives in the nervous system. Conditioning lives in the cardiovascular system.
When those two get confused, athletes slow down.
Running athletes into fatigue teaches the body how to move slowly under stress.
That may have value in conditioning phases, but it does nothing to improve top-end speed or acceleration mechanics.
Speed training should end the moment mechanics or output drop. If reps slow down, the stimulus has changed. At that point, you’re no longer training speed — you’re rehearsing inefficiency.
Fast athletes don’t become fast by surviving workouts.
They become fast by executing high-quality reps while fresh.
Speed isn’t magic. It’s physics.
Posture, shin angle, arm action, and force application determine how much energy actually turns into forward motion. Poor mechanics leak force.
Strong athletes with poor mechanics often underperform weaker athletes who move efficiently. Speed exposes flaws — and those flaws can’t hide behind fatigue or volume. That’s why short sprints are so valuable. They force precision.
If mechanics aren’t improving, adding volume won’t help. It only reinforces the same errors at higher fatigue levels.
Speed is effort-dependent.
Training at 70% effort produces 70% outputs. There is no neurological carryover from slow movement to fast movement. The nervous system adapts to exactly what it experiences.
True speed work happens at 95–100% intent with full recovery. Anything less becomes conditioning or technique rehearsal — both useful, but not speed training.
Athletes don’t need to "save energy" during speed sessions. Speed is the priority. Everything else supports it.
Strength increases an athlete’s potential to produce force. Speed determines whether they can apply that force quickly. The weight room raises the ceiling. Sprinting teaches the athlete how to reach it.
Strong athletes who don’t sprint often enough become powerful but slow. Fast athletes with no strength base plateau early. The relationship matters, but it isn’t interchangeable.
You can’t squat your way into speed. You have to go fast to get fast.
Change of direction demands speed, strength, and braking ability. Poor deceleration mechanics are often the limiting factor — not acceleration.
Athletes who can’t stop efficiently can’t re-accelerate effectively. Well-designed change-of-direction work maintains high intent while layering in sport-relevant demands.
More is not better.
Speed training carries a high neurological cost. Layer it on top of games, practices, lifts, and conditioning without restraint, and performance drops quickly.
Quality speed sessions are short, focused, and deliberate. They should leave athletes feeling fast — not exhausted. If athletes aren’t recovering, they aren’t adapting.
Athletes don’t need more drills. They need better priorities.
