Defining Speed: Track Speed vs Game Speed

Some say speed is king. In today’s evolving world, athletes seem to get bigger, faster, and stronger year after year. There are trends in strength and conditioning that arise over time based on current research. The latest trend is speed training and the performance and injury reducing benefits of hitting max velocity twice a week

Let’s first define speed. Max speed= Stride Length X Stride Frequency. In sports there are two types of speed, track speed and game speed. Track speed is an athlete’s max speed. Running unimpeded on a straight track with no unpredictable stimuli will allow an athlete to hit their max velocity. Game speed will always be lower than track speed because the available distance to hit max velocity is typically shorter than a track race and athletes need to react and change direction in games.

Track speed can be broken down in gear 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Gear 1 is explosion out of blocks. Gear 2 is initial acceleration with power. Gear 3 is top end acceleration with form. Gear 4 is Max Speed. Gear 5 is trying to maintain Max Speed but it cannot be maintained for long and drops slightly. Game speed is in steps 1, 2, 3, and 4. There are no blocks in court and field sports. Athletes attempt to explode for one instance into speed (1 step if even possible). In field and court sports, athletes try to get 2 steps of push and power. An athlete is lucky if they can get 3 steps of top end acceleration with form. Track athletes get to stay in this phase much longer. Athletes try to have 4 or more steps of “Max Top Speed” mechanics but it rarely happens. Conversely in track, Gear 4 and Gear 5 are most of the race (Vilani). In football, for example, there are a lot of athletes that can hit over 20 MPH as their max velocity, but football is played at around 16-18 MPH due to the fact that an athlete cannot change direction at speeds over 18 MPH.