How to Get Faster (Acceleration, Deceleration, Agility & Strength) | Les Spellman
In a Nutshell
Speed is trainable through force production, eccentric braking capacity, and sport-specific movement patterns rather than genetics alone. The most critical skill isn't acceleration or top speed—it's deceleration, which creates separation, prevents injury, and enables effective change of direction. Training must balance high-force work (weight room), fast-force work (plyometrics), and slow-force work (eccentrics/tempo), while respecting recovery demands and avoiding over-specialization in youth athletes.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
People always ask whether you can make people faster. The answer is yes, similar to asking if you can make someone stronger. The first layer is that if you run fast and do it often enough, you get faster. Then stack on top of it the drivers to speed: can you produce force, can you produce force fast, are you symmetrical, do you have coordination over time. If you do those things, you'll be fast.
Many people think speed is genetic, that there are fast guys and slow guys on teams. While there is truth that elite athletes like 4.2 40-yard dash guys were probably fast throughout their lives, average athletes like tight ends who could have been linemen or skill players have potential. Over the past seven to eight years, average high school kids have reached levels of 21-22 meters per hour in games, which is elite NFL level.
People avoid training speed because they think they need to be an expert like a biomechanist or have 20 years of experience, or they need to be genetically gifted. If they're not one of those two things, they think speed training isn't for them.
For NFL players, skill guys like outside receivers need to run around 4.4 to 4.5 seconds. Running faster than that is elite elite, slower is sub-elite. The average NFL receiver with 5,000 plus yards hits between 4.4 and 4.59 seconds, accounting for 74% of guys who have ever hit that milestone. Only one guy under 4.3 seconds has reached 5,000 plus yards: Tyreek Hill.
Big skill positions like linebackers and tight ends generally run 4.5 to 4.6 seconds, sometimes 4.7. Tight end average used to be 4.7, but now it's 4.5 something. For linemen 300 plus pounds, sub-5 seconds is very fast, 4.9 to 5.2 is very good. Defensive linemen generally run 4.8 to 5.0 seconds.
Speed is a capacity when referring to running 23 mph. Speed can also be a skill, including conceptual speed where you take an angle and get there fast. There's also multi-directional speed where you break down and create separation in space. Speed in a game looks like creating space, attacking a gap, closing space.
Steve Largent is historically described as one of the slowest receivers in NFL history, probably running a 4.8 40, yet was very successful despite defensive backs running half a second faster. 74% of receivers who reached 5,000 yards are in the middle of speed distribution. The fast guys under 4.3 seconds only produced one player reaching 5,000 plus yards. Between 4.3 and 4.4 seconds there are only seven guys. The primary group that ran average times has the best success in the NFL.
You're only as fast as your brakes
The combine is like building a Lamborghini with the biggest engine possible to go as fast as possible. Football is like building an Aston Martin - you need a big engine but also good brakes and steering. On the Aston Martin website, it states: "You're only as fast as your brakes." The NFL requires breaking, turning, and changing directions. If you don't have breaking capacities and turning abilities, you're not going to play long in the league.
Breaking is a capacity - running really fast and stopping. This requires producing forces eccentrically, fast, with good tendon health. Steering involves the trunk manipulating space to change directions, and feet acting like tires with proper compliance and stiffness.
In rugby with 30 players on a slightly bigger field, there's even less space. Carlin Isles, one of the fastest field sport athletes in the world in sevens, found that 15s rugby has no space so the speed of the game dictates what you can do. In basketball with 10 players on a court, you can run 10 steps and be at the end of the court.
Russell Westbrook wasn't a big breaking dominant athlete - he went forward and had the skill set to translate horizontal to vertical movement. LeBron James only jumps off his left foot, developing a crazy asymmetry. Luca and James Harden would have laughable NBA combine stats, but they create more space than most NBA players through breaking, jab steps, and getting open shots.
If a GM drafted NBA players based on three-quarter court sprint times, they would get extremely fast guys who are probably not good on a basketball court. NBA strength coaches report that guys rarely reach over 90% of their max speed in games. Even in transition moments, it takes seven to eight hard steps in one direction to get to about 85% speed.
For basketball players, training focuses primarily on acceleration with micro-dosing in high speed running. These are treated as weight room exercises for court sport athletes, similar to bench press or hang clean. The bulk of training time is spent preparing for breaking and deceleration.
Basketball players play a lot of basketball, so training must support what they're doing on the court while allowing them to do more and accentuate it. This includes priming pre-court or rehabilitative work after court, such as slow force eccentric tendon remodeling type things postgame and post practice that support the next exposure.
The vectors that basketball players change directions in include uphill cuts where athletes maintain speed and cut by putting their foot down, with outside cuts and inside cuts. Athletes change directions going uphill while maintaining speed, and also have moments where they slam on the brakes and change directions in another direction. Training should focus on the specific things that show up in that sport.
When first starting out, reading research on speed and watching coaches like Dan Pfaff and Stu McMillan led to taking their methods and applying them to all athletes. All athletes got fast, really fast - not elite 100-meter level, but elite for their sport. Men running 23 mph is very fast, and this was achieved by white guys, black guys, high school kids, and average athletes. On the women's side, reaching 20 mph was achieved, which is equivalent to a 22 mph run for women.
The issue was that getting athletes faster didn't necessarily serve them well long-term. Short-term speed gains were achieved, but the same problem occurred in football, baseball, and basketball. The realization was that the coach might be the problem - getting athletes faster but it wasn't translating to the sport because they had this new superpower they wanted to use every day, but it's not a quality that can be continuously tapped on an everyday basis.
Some athletes can handle the demands of always going at high speeds. Tyreek Hill is one who could always go. Alex Bachmann, number 11 on the Rams, is a returner on year 10, undrafted, ran a 4.37, and has never been seen getting tired.
The approach had to include developing linear speed parts like acceleration and max velocity while also dosing in other components required for the sport. One of the most challenging things about an NFL game is that it's four hours long, including pregame, locker room time, four quarters, halftime, TV timeouts, and random timeouts. The sheer standing volume is high, and adding in all the low-level movements throughout a game results in similar volumes and distances to a Premier League player in a football game.
The capacity piece became a major emphasis, which could be called conditioning or repeat speed. There's layers to it from low level to high level. The aerobic side was half of the equation in strength and conditioning from the beginning, but many people have gotten away from that completely.
Aerobic work is used as a way to recover from high intensity work. Recovery from aerobic work happens relatively fast, and the work is done very slow. The protocol includes biking very slow for 20 minutes, walking uphill on a treadmill for 20 minutes, and then running for 20 minutes at 5.5 miles per hour, which is very slow. This is zone 2 work that keeps the body in the fat burning zone, helps recover from high intensity work like hill sprints, and serves as a mental superpower for learning while doing the work.
NFL players don't do the same level of aerobic work. Post game day plus one, all NFL guys do a protocol of walking on a treadmill at 8% incline at 3.5 miles per hour. Blood flow restriction through Hydro compression shorts is used, cycling 5 minutes on, 3 minutes off, through a couple cycles. This is one of the best ways to downregulate from the high intensity work of a game.
Game day is the highest point of the week, and the next two days after the game are typically the recovery cycle in the NFL. The NFL PA mandates one day off, and research indicates the day off shouldn't be the day after a game. Guys take off Tuesday, meaning Mondays are game day plus one. Some teams are more open with choose what you want options, especially veterans if they win, but the protocol includes walking on a treadmill at 8% incline at 3 to 3.5 miles per hour, scaled based on fatigue levels.
The BFR protocol involves three cycles of 5 minutes on at level two intensity, then 3 minutes off by releasing the strap and walking. Sometimes four cycles are done. Option two is high knees in the pool with BFR. Option three is elliptical or bike, though the elliptical doesn't provide much benefit and the bike can flare up quads, especially with BFR. Walking was found to be one of the easier options.
This work focuses on capacity and resetting for the next week rather than building much. It's about getting ready for work in the middle of the week like practice and higher level work at the end of the week. Walking has become one of the mainstays of programming for parents and low-level work to reset them. The recommendation is to walk rather than run, especially for older individuals like a 72-year-old.
Extensive recovery tools were used including hyperbaric chambers and IVs until tracking data showed they weren't really different than sleeping a lot, eating pretty good, hydrating, doing low-level work, and getting sunlight. The basic protocols from Huberman and others have been better recovery tools than high-end options like $100,000 light beds.
Getting early sunlight and consistent bedtimes are the two biggest recovery factors. The NFL schedule with travel, practice, and games makes consistent bedtimes challenging, but plan B options like eye masks on planes, earbuds to block noise, magnesium timing, and finding the closest alternative to plan A are used.
Linear speed refers to straight-line movement, while nonlinear speed involves multi-directional movement. Tennis involves multi-directional speed, which is the ability to accelerate, decelerate, and change directions in different vectors. The agility side involves making a decision, so the difference between multi-directional speed as a capacity versus multi-directional speed with decision-making makes it agility.
Agility is made up of the ability to decelerate and change directions in response to a task or within the environment. It's purely a decision that creates agility. Agility is more intense because you're reacting to something with a shorter time frame to react. Multi-directional speed with cones involves pre-planning the change of direction, which changes the intensity.
The pillars include the ability to accelerate, hit high speeds, decelerate, and change directions in different vectors. Uphill means maintaining speed in curve linear running, while downhill means slamming on the brakes and coming back in the other direction. These pillars underpin multi-directional speed.
When working with athletes, the first step is looking at what the sport demands, starting with the dimensions of the court and how many people are on the court at once to find density per player. Rugby sevens has a lot of space at 500 m squared per player, while other sports have much less space like 84 or 85 m squared. Small amounts of space mean more emphasis on deceleration, change of direction, and agility pillars.
Tennis players don't take more than three or four steps at a time before a break. In a single step, they're slowing their speed by 40-50% by breaking hard because the court can slide. Football doesn't allow sliding, so multi-steps are needed when breaking over three or four steps, requiring a different strategy with bigger touchdown distance further in front.
Serena Williams creates a really big stride length in her deceleration and slides or redirects force going back the other way. The capacities built around this include eccentric strength, the ability to tolerate massive eccentric forces, and the ability to repeat it consistently over time. Trunk orientation and disassociation are incredibly important for being in position to hit a ball and return it while breaking and changing upper body angle to swing.
Track allows removing braking, change of direction, and agility components, leaving focus on speed with only one decision of when to start.
Agility requires a choice, while change of direction is simply going from cone to cone without decision-making. In tennis, agility involves not only getting to something three steps away but deciding if it's three steps or three and a half steps away and what kind of shot to do.
Agility ladders became popular around the time Instagram became popular. NFL players using them led kids to think that's how to build agility, but it's not actually agility because there's no decision involved. The claim is that agility ladders develop the skill to move feet fast, but that's not what makes someone a good decelerator.
Damen Harper's research found that the early part of deceleration before the change of direction, specifically the first three steps when initially putting the foot in the ground to decelerate, are incredibly important with forces like four times body weight vertically and horizontally. Athletes haven't trained this capacity. The final foot contact and change of direction are what people see, but the initial breaking step slows momentum by 25% and the second by another 15%, so in three steps speed is slowed by 50%.
A cut or change of direction is actually two things: deceleration meaning slowing speed, and vector change. The changing vectors part isn't that hard, but the skill actually happens in the first three steps of deceleration. Speed ladders aren't very effective because they don't teach deceleration - they just make feet move fast.
Cones are used because deceleration, change of direction, and agility are viewed as a continuum. Training starts with deceleration parts, helping athletes learn how to break while building capacities in the gym through eccentric slow force, fast force, tempo work, accentuated work, and fast reflexive eccentrics. Vector change is taught by dumbing it down to smallest components with targets like going around cones.
Once athletes have developed the skill and capacity to decelerate into different directions at different entry speeds from walking to jogging to sprinting, then agility is introduced which involves decision-making. If athletes aren't good at breaking, they won't be good at changing directions, and if they aren't good at changing directions, agility will be poor and risky.
Deceleration data can appear misleadingly positive when high numbers result from excessive entry speed into cuts. Directional change and deceleration occurring on the same contact creates significant ACL injury risk. Any trunk direction change during deceleration amplifies this risk substantially.
Reading Damian Harper's research revealed that while deceleration capacity is important, it's also a major risk factor. This realization prompted a shift toward developing athletes with proper game-speed capacities rather than just isolated physical abilities.
Beyond acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction capacities, athletes need game speed - the ability to select these capacities at appropriate times. A punt returner running straight would get hit by a 275-pound defender, demonstrating the necessity of finding gaps, holes, and reacting to defenders while making decisions under pressure.
Training progression moves from general capacity building with higher volume GPP and lower intensity work to adding more intensity. Intensity increases through changing entry speed into cuts, increasing high-speed running volume, and introducing decision-making components. This reduces the intensity gap between offseason training and training camp.
Large gaps between offseason training and in-season demands likely increase injury risk. Many athletes experience injuries because offseason training doesn't adequately bridge to in-season requirements.
Damian Harper's research identifies deceleration as one of the most damaging high-force actions. The body experiences very different tendon responses compared to other movements, with primarily eccentric muscle contractions producing significantly higher forces than concentric actions.
When stopping from 20 yards before the 25-yard line, two distinct phases emerge. Early deceleration occurs over one to three steps from peak speed, reducing speed by 50% with shorter contact times and longer step lengths. Late deceleration features longer ground contact times and shorter step lengths until reaching a final stopping point.
Vector changes occur during the late deceleration phase when trunk and feet begin changing directions. This timing is critical because early directional changes create higher injury risk.
Deceleration requires extending the foot forward with rapid triple flexion upon ground contact. Hips drop straight down without forward trunk lean, contrasting with acceleration mechanics where foot placement occurs under or slightly in front of the hip.
Using a clock analogy, 10-2 o'clock represents the "green zone" for cuts at 45-degree angles where force production remains primarily propulsive without significant slowing. Angles between 60-45 degrees require moderate braking. 90-degree cuts like square routes in football demand actual braking. Angles under 90 degrees, such as 135 degrees, require full deceleration before directional change, with 180-degree cuts being the most demanding.
Even single-step direction changes involve deceleration, though this may not register on GPS systems at 3 m/s² thresholds. Athletes like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyreek Hill demonstrate remarkable ability to change directions with minimal speed loss.
Adding decision-making components dramatically increases training intensity. Running full speed toward a coach with instructions to stop and turn on a clap produces higher forces and speeds than predetermined stopping tasks, despite identical movement patterns.
Lauren Landau was among the first to teach deceleration mechanics. Classical agility ladder drills lack deceleration components because they contain no entry speed or momentum. Cones can incorporate deceleration through varied entry speeds, but ladders cannot.
Agility training creates higher intensity work with limited volume capacity, making it unsuitable as a primary training method. Change of direction work serves as the foundation for building volume during early GPP phases, with agility introduced progressively as training advances.
Agility intensity increases through spatial constraints. Starting with a 5-yard box, then progressing to 7-yard and 10-yard boxes gradually increases intensity. Teaching occurs during lower-intensity change of direction work where corrections can be made effectively.
The base consists of snap downs - vertical landing work including double leg, split stance, and single leg variations focused on landing mechanics. The middle layer involves linear developmental breaking work progressing from slow resistance against band pulls to high-speed stopping. The top layer includes directional change work progressing from walking cuts to high-speed directional changes at various angles.
Dan Pfaff's rudimentary hops - pogos forward, backward, and lateral, plus single-leg variations progressing to skips and bounds - form part of the pyramid base. These movements build stretch-shortening cycle capacity and can be performed in different vectors (90°, 135°, 180°) to prepare for directional change training.
Data from 250 facilities in the speed lab network shows that general preparation work benefits developmental athletes aged 12-18 across sports. Track athletes can participate in change of direction work without negative speed effects. Youth athletes today miss multi-sport experiences due to club team specialization pressures and private equity involvement, making comprehensive capacity development more critical than in previous generations.
Parents use "quick" to describe athletes who change directions rapidly and create separation, while "fast" refers to straight-line speed. Research does not recognize "quick" as a distinct term. Fast encompasses both top-end speed and multi-directional movement, merging the concepts of acceleration and change of direction into a single definition of speed.
A false step occurs when an athlete lifts the front foot before driving forward, as seen in baseball base stealing. The alternative is keeping the foot planted and executing a crossover step. Most elite athletes, including NFL receivers, use the false step despite coaching instructions against it. No research supports eliminating the false step, and all high-performing athletes naturally employ it.
The instruction to "stay low" during acceleration forces athletes into a compressed position that limits hip extension and disrupts balance. The proper cue is to project the body up and out rather than lean forward. The "lean, fall, run" approach creates the slowest possible start compared to propulsion through hip extension.
The first four steps generate 60-70% of speed in a 40-yard dash. Elite athletes trained over the past decade all maintain consistent torso position during initial acceleration steps due to "stay low" coaching. The correct pattern shows the torso rising incrementally with each step. Olympic sprinters demonstrate shoulder rise immediately from the blocks, allowing greater hip extension and projection.
Olympic sprinters can maintain torso rise for 16-18 steps, approximately 30-35 meters. They continue accelerating even after reaching upright position, with peak speed occurring around 70 meters in a 100-meter race. This contradicts the assumption that true vertical position signals maximum speed.
High school athletes typically raise their torso after 6-8 steps, while combine athletes require 10-12 steps before upright position. The instruction to "take it to 12" refers to maintaining forward lean for additional steps. Devon Vele, a 6'5", 230-pound receiver who ran 4.47 after a Mormon mission, demonstrates how combine performance can provide NFL opportunities despite age concerns.
The debate between choppy steps versus longer propulsive strides is determined by kinetics and force production. Ground time reflects force production capacity, while stride length depends on takeoff velocity rather than reaching or over-pushing. Structure (body fat, height, weight, joint range of motion, injury history) and force production capabilities determine optimal stride patterns.
James Wild's research identifies four athlete types based on spatial-temporal variables:
- Bounders: Step length dominant with high air time, creating large moments in the air
- Drivers: Step length dominant but ground-based, utilizing big extension moments
- Spinners: Step frequency dominant with minimal air time, staying close to the ground (common in running backs like Jahmyr Gibbs)
- Bouncers: Step frequency dominant but air-based, staying above the ground
These archetypes emerge from how athletes are built and how they produce forces. Outliers in any quadrant face higher injury risk but may achieve superior performance. Usain Bolt and Australian sprinter Galo represent outliers who utilize extreme strategies effectively.
A study of 25 athletes revealed that athletes running identical 4.4 times employed different strategies. Bounders demonstrated high elasticity, bouncers showed strong reactivity, drivers possessed significant strength, and spinners exhibited excellent hip extension strength. The goal is not to change an athlete's natural strategy but to pull extreme outliers (red zone - two standard deviations from norm) toward more stable patterns (green zone) when injury risk becomes excessive. Force manipulation through training can influence stride length and frequency without directly coaching these variables.
Force manipulation can occur through physical training in the weight room, which is why weight room work matters for speed development. Coaches like Dan Pfaff manipulate strides through drills and physical exercises rather than purely coordination-based approaches. Every strategy carries inherent risks - spinners are typically strong but may not create maximum extension moments because they focus on returning to the ground quickly, resulting in high co-contraction. This leads to hip and hamstring issues since they don't create adequate space and swing the leg out front to increase stride length, creating problematic eccentric moments.
Element provides an ideal electrolyte ratio of 1,000 milligrams sodium, 200 milligrams potassium, and 60 milligrams magnesium with no sugar. Hydration is critical for both physical and mental performance, with studies showing even 1% dehydration decreases output. Proper hydration requires electrolytes in the correct ratios, not just water, especially for heavy sweaters. Element's unique formulation has strong scientific support and is used daily during hard training in heat.
The argument that running alone produces speed is addressed through three requirements for being fast: producing extremely high forces, producing forces quickly, and recycling force over time. While some elite athletes don't lift weights, most require weight room training to develop these capacities. Research from the early 2000s suggesting specific strength thresholds like trap bar deadlifting 3.2 times bodyweight has been disproven, but basic strength remains necessary.
The weight room builds force production capacities and transfers them to track performance while serving as a restorative tool for tendon remodeling and increasing range of motion between thighs. Slow force development through eccentric components also contributes to faster running. Weight room training develops robust athletes from average athletes, supporting continuous fast running and building capacity to handle training loads.
Simply running faster cannot be achieved through running alone because the system needs physical structure to support super-maximum speeds. Assisted running can create overload, but without underlying force production capacity, athletes cannot sustain these levels. Weight room training develops the tissue quality and force production abilities that sustain long-term performance and prevent soft tissue injuries like groin and hamstring issues.
Force production involves kinetics (how forces are produced) and kinematics (how the body moves). Force equals mass times acceleration, which can be manipulated through both high loads and high speeds. A depth drop from a 42-inch box produces significantly greater force than a back squat due to the 10x gravity factor. Force production involves muscular systems, tendon systems, and coordination on the track. Eccentric training produces higher forces than concentric movements, while isometric training allows sustained high force production with less cost than traditional lifting.
Training initially competed between field work and weight room demands, ultimately compromising athletes. The solution involves sharing load across both environments. Jumps, hops, and bounds serve as preparatory work before sprint sessions, performed in low volumes like five broad jumps or four-step bounds repeated five times. This preparatory work progresses from lower intensity jumps to higher intensity bounds, then transitions to actual sprint work at 80-100% effort.
Intensive plyometric work occurs in the weight room through high-drop heights and rebound jumps, while the field focuses on velocity work. Field sessions rarely exceed one hour, with weight room sessions lasting 45 minutes to one hour. A typical session structure includes 15-20 minute warm-up, 10 minutes of jumps and sprints, with actual work being relatively low volume due to the high-intensity nature of quality sprint training.
Rest periods of four minutes between maximal sprints allow system recovery to achieve near-maximum velocities. Without adequate rest, athletes drop from 21 mph to 20, 19, or 18 mph. Resisted sprint work is kept to medium-light resistance, performed early in sessions as preparation for later unresisted quality work, rather than throughout entire sessions.
Athletes need dedicated intensity days focused on speed without added volume, and separate capacity-building days for extensive work. Soccer and rugby players require spectrum training from lower-level aerobic work through maximum aerobic speed to tempo running and repeat speed training. Speed work and extensive volume cannot be combined in the same session as they require different adaptations.
American training culture tends toward heavy load emphasis while neglecting fast force development through jumps, hops, and bounds. A balanced system requires fast force (reactive movements), high force (high loads or high speeds), and slow force (negatives, tempo work, larger ranges of motion). Most athletes attack only the high force column, creating imbalanced development.
The transcript cuts off mid-question regarding whether average people who haven't run full speed in 15 years should attempt maximum velocity running, and whether highly trained athletes should avoid full speed efforts due to injury risk.
If someone hasn't run full speed in a month, they shouldn't go out and run full speed. This principle applies even more strongly to someone who hasn't run full speed in 15 years. The comparison is made to someone attempting to back squat 405 pounds after 12 years without training - the system simply isn't prepared for that intensity level. Instead, individuals should begin with medium intensity work such as skipping or tempo running to prepare the system for sprinting. The weight room can also serve as preparation through horizontal movements, progressing toward acceleration training before moving into higher speeds.
The concept of acute chronic workload is central to this approach. If someone has only run a maximum of five miles in the past six months, attempting a marathon would represent too massive an increase in volume. A more reasonable progression would allow someone running 15 to 20 miles to attempt 26 miles, representing an acceptable step up within the 10% range.
For highly trained athletes, maximal 100% speed requires careful management. There's a significant difference between 90% and 92% of max speed that's larger than most people realize, similar to the difference between a 405-pound and 435-pound squat. The jump from 95% to 98% of max speed represents a much larger demand on the nervous system than the 3% numerical difference suggests.
Athletes need a healthy weekly dosage of 90 to 95% of their max speed. However, speeds above 95% don't need to occur weekly. When athletes hit personal records above 95% in training, it typically takes about two weeks to recover and repeat that performance. This was discovered through testing the week before the NFL Combine, where athletes would run faster in testing than at the actual combine. Moving testing to 14 days before the combine allowed athletes to hit new speeds on testing day.
The offseason provides the optimal time to push speed capacity. Two-week training blocks allow athletes to hit high speeds, complete intervening work, then return two weeks later for another high-speed session. This progressive approach builds new capacity throughout the offseason before athletes transition to their teams.
During the season, athletes should maintain the minimal effective dosage of 90 to 95% speed weekly. However, getting faster during the season is possible - 43-44% of the Arizona team improved their speed during the season through minimal effective dosages and acceleration training.
The developmental window between ages 12-14 represents a highly trainable period for speed development. However, overcoaching technique during this period can interrupt natural development processes. When kids are going through growth phases and experiencing awkwardness, their technique may not match optimal track and field standards. For example, high heel recovery and big back swing may result from relative tibia-femur proportions during growth phases.
Overcoaching technique during these windows creates two problems: it lowers session intensity, preventing hormonal benefits from running fast, and it makes the process conscious, leading to frustration when athletes can't immediately correct perceived flaws.
Three components drive youth speed development in order of importance:
- Exposure - the primary driver of improvement
- Physical drivers - strength training that may not involve heavy loads, including box drops, box jumps, and stepping movements
- Coordination teaching - the least important component, with excessive drill work representing the worst approach to teaching speed
Drill-based instruction focusing on precise foot and arm placement interrupts natural processes that would develop without such intervention.
The recommended starting age for speed coaching is around 12 years old for boys, coinciding with their developmental window. For girls, this typically occurs around age 10. However, maturity level matters more than chronological age. If a child isn't interested in learning skills adjacent to their sport, they should continue playing their sport rather than forcing structured speed training.
Many professional athletes, including Tyreek Hill, developed without speed coaches. Starting structured coaching too early can do more harm than good by interrupting natural development processes. Girls tend to be more receptive to coaching at younger ages, with some successfully beginning around ages 9-10.
At age 9, children benefit more from entering multiple sports leagues - flag football, basketball, track - rather than specialized speed training. This multi-sport approach develops athletes significantly faster than early specialization. The optimal window for focused speed training occurs during ages 12-14 for boys, with benefits carrying throughout their athletic careers.
As athletes age, speed training becomes more complex not because speed itself is harder, but because competing demands around speed increase. Professional coaching becomes valuable for managing these competing demands rather than for teaching basic technique.
Data from 1.2 million speed tests across ages 9-65 shows that girls and boys maintain similar speeds until age 12. At this point, increased testosterone in boys creates separation, with girls plateauing until age 14 when they experience another jump in speed.
Training approaches diverge around age 12. Girls benefit from increased exposure to higher speeds through racing with minimal technical instruction. Boys require support for their increasing force production capabilities. Cultural factors also influence development - boys naturally encounter weight room activities, while girls typically don't have the same cultural exposure to strength training.
Due to cultural and anatomical factors, girls require deliberate strength development work including step-ups with medballs, medball throws, and general preparation exercises. This addresses why girls showed speed drops at age 12 followed by recovery at age 14. At the professional level, training differences between men and women are minimal, with variations primarily driven by sport-specific demands rather than sex-based differences.
Adults aged 40-60 who want to improve race times should begin with acceleration training for three reasons: lower intensity, higher training volume possible, and smaller gap between current abilities and high-speed running. The primary limiting factor in adult acceleration is the loss of hip extension range, speed, and force production.
Hip extension represents the primary driver of propulsion, and desk work causes loss of this capability. Marathoners and distance runners can improve speed by enhancing hip extension range, speed, and force through:
- Split squats versus bilateral squats in the weight room
- Banded hip distraction mobility work
- Warm-up drills forcing hip extension at speed
After establishing acceleration work, adults should progressively add higher speed efforts through tempo work rather than maximum speed training. Tempo work involves higher density training with incomplete rest periods, naturally preventing full-speed efforts. A 100-yard tempo run with 30-second rest periods exemplifies this approach.
The progression moves from tempo work to gradually faster efforts, eventually allowing athletes to warm up and hit high-speed sprints before distance runs. This approach provides both performance benefits and enhanced alertness during subsequent training.
Success in speed coaching stems from caring deeply about immediate work rather than long-term goals. Hyperfocus on whoever is in front of you - whether training seven-year-olds or adult clients - creates both limiting factors and superpowers. The approach involves investing heavily in education while maintaining focus on current clients rather than aspiring to train professionals.
The motivation should center on love of coaching as the closest alternative to playing sports, combined with genuine interest in sports and people. Financial concerns like paying rent become secondary to the core mission of coaching. This genuine care for people and details, without focus on byproducts like professional athletes or financial success, ultimately creates the career trajectory observed in successful coaches.
Keep Andy Galpin in your library
Save the videos and channels worth coming back to, and find them again in one place.
