The Most Common Mistakes Parents Make During Speed Training
More speed, agility, and quickness training ideas for coaches, parents, and athletes.
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One of the biggest mistakes coaches, parents, and athletes make during speed training is assuming that running more automatically creates faster athletes.
While sprint volume has a place in athletic development, simply adding more reps often produces very little improvement when movement mechanics remain poor.
In many cases, a young athlete can make bigger gains by improving how they sprint rather than increasing how much they sprint.
Many people think speed is purely genetic. While genetics certainly influence athletic potential, sprinting is still a skill that can be developed.
Just like throwing a football, swinging a bat, or shooting a basketball, sprinting requires proper technique and coordination.
Athletes who learn efficient movement patterns often become significantly faster without dramatically increasing their training volume.
If an athlete repeatedly performs a movement incorrectly, additional repetitions often reinforce bad habits instead of fixing them.
Running dozens of poorly executed sprints may improve conditioning, but it rarely maximizes speed development.
Coaches should focus on teaching athletes how to sprint correctly before dramatically increasing sprint volume.
Young athletes frequently display movement errors that limit speed production.
Common issues include:
Each of these problems can reduce speed regardless of how many sprint repetitions an athlete performs.
Sprinting is ultimately about producing force into the ground and directing that force efficiently.
Better mechanics allow athletes to apply force more effectively, resulting in faster acceleration, higher top-end speed, and improved movement efficiency.
Athletes who improve force application often become faster without becoming stronger or more conditioned.
Speed development is not a conditioning workout.
High-quality sprint repetitions performed with proper recovery usually produce better results than large volumes of fatigued sprinting.
Once fatigue accumulates, sprint mechanics often break down and the quality of training decreases significantly.
Faster athletes are generally built through quality movement, not endless repetitions.
Sprint mechanics are valuable far beyond track and field.
Football players need acceleration and change of direction. Baseball players need explosive starts. Soccer players need repeated bursts of speed. Basketball players need rapid transitions and reactive movement.
Better sprint mechanics improve athletic performance across nearly every field and court sport.
Youth athletes often make rapid improvements because they are still developing movement patterns.
Teaching proper mechanics early helps establish movement habits that can benefit athletes for years.
Waiting until high school or college to address sprint mechanics often means correcting years of inefficient movement patterns.
Coaches should focus on a few key sprint fundamentals:
Small improvements in these areas often create noticeable gains in athletic speed.
More training is not always better training.
Before adding additional sprint volume, coaches should make sure athletes can demonstrate proper sprint mechanics consistently.
Quality movement creates the foundation for long-term speed development.
Athletes who move efficiently will often outperform athletes who simply run more.
Sprint volume has value, but movement quality should come first.
Better sprint mechanics improve force production, acceleration, efficiency, and overall athletic performance. For most young athletes, improving how they sprint will produce greater results than simply increasing the number of sprints they perform.
Coaches who prioritize movement quality over volume often build faster, healthier, and more athletic players.
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