5 ways to improve your sprint speed

Don’t Jog, Sprint!

One of the biggest mistakes people make is running long distances thinking it’ll improve their 10-60 yard sprint times. if you want to improve your 10-60 yard distance you want to train most of your sprints at that distance or a shorter distance. This way you’re not working deceleration. You want to work acceleration and maintenance speed only. sprint 1-3x a week depending on where you are based on your sport season. 1-5 sprints are usually all you need in a training session with ample rest. Typically .45seconds-1min for every 10 yards.

Improve relative strength in Squat

You want to be able to squat 1.6-1.73 x b/w(body weight) at .6 m/s to run a 40-yard dash time between 4.8-4.57 seconds. To run in the 4.4 range you need to squat ~1.8 x b/w at .6m/s. Coaches like Jared Bidne have proved these squat ratios. To achieve these types of speed in the squat your maximal strength needs to be high. For most to move that percentage of their BW at that speed they need to squat between 2.1-2.5x BW.

Weighted & unweighted jumps

When your vertical goes up, your sprint typically goes up and vice versa. Jumping especially with weight will cover the explosive strength portion of the force-velocity curve.

Eat/Sleep/hydrate

these are things every athlete knows(or should) but does not capitalize on. Not only will this improve muscle gain, strength, and speed, but improvements on all 3 will enhance recovery which will lower injury rates.

Bench

You may be asking, why? Well, it has been shown that arm swing can account for up to 15% of your vertical and the same can be said for the sprint. Want to improve your arm swing speed? improve your bench press.

Kalil Sherrod
CPT – WSBB SPECIAL STRENGTHS