The most prevalent action during a speed training session is REST.
“Most people get speed development wrong before they even start.
The most prevalent action during a true speed training session is..
REST.
The S&A guys aren’t selling speed (development).
They are selling random doses of conditioning designed to make kids tired.
Fatigue does not equal speed.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
I’ve spent some time this week trying to shed some light on the fundamentals of speed development.
I’ve driven home the point that the most important aspect of speed development is force production.
Get stronger, apply (more) force into the ground, run faster. That has always worked and always will.
But where most people who might understand this concept, still get confused is on the implementation side of speed training.
In order to get faster, we must get (relatively) stronger and sprint.
“So build lower body strength with squats and deadlifts and then go to the field/track to run sprints?”
That would be a better program than 99% of what you see on Instagram, yes.
But here is the caveat.
In order to extract the most value out of your sprinting sessions (the showcasing of your force producing capabilities that will make you faster) you must rest completely in between bouts of sprinting.
Trying very hard not to speak over anyone’s head, the reason is because each sprint you run must be performed at maximal (fresh) effort so that your outputs are high enough to train your musculoskeletal system to run faster.
Let’s say I give you a speed work out to do that looks like this:
10 sets of 20 yard sprints.
If you don’t know much about speed development, you’re saying “that’s easy, I can do that in 5 minutes.”
But in reality, it should take you a MINIMUM of 20+ minutes, and honestly longer would be better.
“Huh, 20+ minutes to run 10 short sprints?”
Yes.
Obviously after a 20-yard sprint you’re likely not going to feel fatigue and you could line back up and run another one 10 seconds later, but by doing this, your “mind” is ready for the next one, but the energy system responsible for enhancing your speed is still replenishing.
A good rule of thumb for speed development is to rest a minimum of 1 minute in between each sprint for every 10 yards sprinted.
20-yard sprint, 2 minutes rest in between sprints. Minimum.
Let’s say each sprint takes 3 seconds.
This (great) workout of 10, 20’s would look like this:
Total Work: 30 Seconds.
Total Rest: 20 Minutes.
Quality Sprints > Fatigue.
Less is more when you’re chasing speed.
