Speed is trainable, and usually untrained
Most young athletes run a great deal and sprint almost never. Match play involves repeated sub-maximal running with occasional maximal efforts under fatigue, which develops conditioning rather than speed.
Genuine speed training means short maximal sprints with full recovery, performed while fresh. It is one of the fastest-improving qualities in adolescence, and one of the most neglected.
Acceleration versus top speed
- Acceleration: 5–20m efforts from a standing or rolling start, focused on driving out with a forward lean.
- Top speed: 20–40m runs with a build-up, focused on tall posture and aggressive ground strike.
- Both matter in team sport; acceleration usually matters more in football and netball.
- Train them separately rather than blending them into 'running fast for a bit'.
A weekly speed session
After a thorough warm-up including skips, marches and build-up runs, perform 6–10 sprints of 10–30 metres at full effort, with 1–3 minutes of recovery between each. The whole session takes twenty to thirty minutes including warm-up.
If sprint times or the athlete's feel of the run start to drop off, the session is finished. Quality falling means the training stimulus has changed from speed to conditioning.
The strength side of power
- Heavy, controlled strength work: squats, split squats, hinges, calf raises.
- Hip extension work, glute bridges and hip thrusts for acceleration.
- Nordic hamstring curls, both for speed and hamstring injury reduction.
- Calf and Achilles capacity, which determines stiffness at ground contact.
The elastic side of power
Sprinting is a series of very short, very forceful ground contacts. Pogo hops, bounding, hurdle hops and medicine ball throws train the ability to produce and reuse force quickly. Two short doses a week, before the main strength work, is plenty.
As always, progress from bilateral to single leg and from planned to reactive over months, and reduce volume during rapid growth phases.
Common mistakes
- Sprint work at the end of a session, when the athlete is already tired.
- Too much volume - twenty sprints is a conditioning session, not a speed session.
- Short recovery between reps, which turns speed work into fitness work.
- Neglecting deceleration, which limits how confidently an athlete accelerates.
- Chasing gadgets and parachutes ahead of basic mechanics and strength.
Realistic expectations
A well-structured programme can produce meaningful improvements in 10-metre and 30-metre times across a season, with the largest gains typically arriving in the years after the growth spurt as force production catches up with body size.
Track it. A stopwatch over 10 metres, tested every 8–12 weeks, is enough to show whether the training is working, and it is a powerful motivator for young athletes.