Parents often hear that their athlete needs to get stronger, faster, and more explosive. But one part of athletic development is frequently overlooked: once an athlete develops speed, they still need to practice it.
Speed is not a quality that an athlete develops once and keeps forever.
Just like strength, conditioning, and sport-specific skills, speed requires consistent exposure. An athlete may spend an entire offseason improving their acceleration and sprint mechanics, only to see some of those improvements fade if high-quality speed work disappears from their weekly training.
For young athletes, this is especially important. Their bodies are constantly developing, and their ability to coordinate movement efficiently continues to change. Consistent speed training gives them regular opportunities to reinforce proper sprint mechanics, force production, and explosive movement.
Why Speed Is More Than Just Running Fast
When parents think about speed training, they may picture an athlete running as fast as possible down a track.
But effective speed training involves much more than simply running.
Athletes need to learn how to:
- Accelerate efficiently
- Apply force into the ground
- Maintain proper sprint posture
- Coordinate their arms and legs
- Transition from acceleration to top speed
- Produce force quickly
- Decelerate and control their body
- Repeatedly express these qualities at high intensity
These are skills.
And skills require practice.
A high school athlete can become significantly stronger in the weight room, but that strength does not automatically transfer into faster sprinting unless the athlete regularly practices applying that strength at high speed.
Why One Speed Session a Week May Not Be Enough
One weekly speed session can provide a useful stimulus, particularly for an athlete who is new to structured speed training.
However, athletes who want to maintain and continue developing speed generally benefit from having multiple opportunities throughout the week to perform high-quality explosive movement.
This does not mean athletes should perform maximal sprints every day.
In fact, excessive sprint volume can create unnecessary fatigue and interfere with recovery.
Instead, multiple weekly exposures can be short and purposeful.
For example, an athlete might have:
- Monday: Acceleration work
- Wednesday: Plyometrics and change of direction
- Friday: Maximum-velocity or speed-mechanics work
The exact schedule should depend on the athlete’s age, sport, training experience, and competition schedule.
The important factor is consistency.
Strength Training Helps Build the Engine. Speed Training Teaches Athletes How to Use It.
Strength training is an important component of athletic development.
A stronger athlete has a greater ability to produce force, which can provide an important foundation for acceleration, jumping, cutting, and other athletic movements.
But strength alone does not make an athlete fast.
Consider two athletes who can produce similar amounts of force in the weight room. The athlete who can apply that force more quickly and efficiently during a sprint has an advantage when it comes to speed.
This is why a complete strength and conditioning program should include both strength development and speed development.
At The Rack Performance Center, we don’t look at strength and speed as separate qualities. The goal is to help athletes develop the strength, power, movement skills, and speed necessary to perform on the field, court, track, or playing surface.
Why Speed Can Decline During the Season
One of the most common times for athletes to lose some of their speed is during the competitive season.
Practice and games provide plenty of physical activity, but they do not necessarily provide the same type of controlled, high-quality sprint exposure that a dedicated speed session provides.
An athlete may spend several weeks practicing their sport while performing very little true maximal-speed work.
Over time, they may still be strong and well-conditioned, but their sprinting can become less sharp.
Their first few steps may not feel as explosive.
Their top speed may not feel as natural.
Their mechanics may become less efficient.
This doesn’t necessarily mean the athlete has lost all of the physical adaptations they developed. It can simply mean that the specific skill of expressing speed has not been reinforced consistently.
Consistency Does Not Mean More Volume
One of the biggest mistakes in youth speed training is assuming that more sprinting is always better.
It isn’t.
The objective of speed training is to produce high-quality movement at high intensity, not to exhaust the athlete.
A well-designed session may involve only a handful of short sprints.
For example:
- 10-yard acceleration sprints
- 20-yard sprints
- Flying sprints
- Sprint starts
- Resisted acceleration
- Low-volume plyometrics
- Sprint mechanics drills
The athlete should have enough recovery between repetitions to maintain speed and technique.
When an athlete becomes excessively fatigued, the session starts becoming conditioning rather than true speed development.
Both qualities are valuable, but they should not be confused.
Building Speed Is a Long-Term Process
Parents should not expect an athlete to become significantly faster after a few training sessions.
Speed development is a long-term process.
The biggest improvements often come from consistently training the qualities that contribute to speed over months and years.
That means building strength.
Practicing acceleration.
Developing sprint mechanics.
Training explosiveness.
Maintaining speed during the competitive season.
And continuing to expose athletes to high-quality sprinting even after they have already become faster.
At The Rack Performance Center, our approach to athletic performance is built around this long-term development. We want athletes to become stronger and more explosive while also learning how to apply those physical qualities at game speed.
The Takeaway for Parents
If your athlete has worked hard to become faster, maintaining that speed should be part of the plan.
Speed is both a physical quality and a learned movement skill. Without consistent exposure, an athlete may gradually lose some of the efficiency and explosiveness they developed through previous training.
The answer isn’t simply more running.
It’s better training, appropriate recovery, and consistent exposure to high-quality speed work throughout the week.
For young athletes, the goal isn’t just to make them faster for the next game or season.
It’s to build the physical qualities and movement skills that allow them to continue becoming faster, stronger, and more athletic as they develop.
That is the foundation of long-term athletic performance at The Rack Performance Center.
Matthew Walcott
B.S., CPPS, BPS, FRCms, CPT
