Why Some Traditional Sprint Drills Don't Make You Faster

A common practice in the realm of speed and performance is the practice of robust sprint, technique, and rhythm drills. These drills inherently have their place but I believe most coaches utilize them inappropriately in their training templates.

As with all exercise taxonomy, order, and sequence we often use neural and structural development as the reference points for training. Speed, Main Lift, Supplemental, Accessory etc. 

 Most sprint drills are far too reductionist to really help improve the majority of athletes enhance their speed.

1. Although these drills look like real sprinting on some level, the timing and positioning is much different.
2. They are usually too focused on what's happening on the frontside of the body while ignoring the importance of the backside.
3. They don't teach the body how to produce or time horizontal force, which is an essential aspect of being fast.
4. They often teach an athlete to be very mechanical and robotic while running.

1. Timing and Positioning Don't Reflect Real Sprinting

2. Sprint Drills are Front Side-Biased

3. Sprint Drills Don't Train Horizontal Thrust

4. Sprint Drills Can Make an Athlete Very Mechanical and Robotic

WHERE DO THESE DRILLS BELONG?  

NOVICE

Athletes who have very little exposure to running, novice, and/or who lack the neurological function, coordination, pulse, and rhythm would greatly benefit from performing these drills. 

INTERMEDIATE 

As athletes develop greater technique - output/force will be the objective via greater exposures to sprinting with different loads, exercises, volumes, and intensities. 

ADVANCED 

Advanced Athletes should spend more time mitigating fatigue and maintaining higher levels of output overtime. Operating at Sub-Max intensities. Why? Their neurological threshold is already high, as a byproduct, neural/pns fatigue can drop much quicker. 

We’ve found athletes who run an average 1.45-1.56 10 yard sprint over 10 sprints will drop in velocity (times after sprint 8-9). This data includes 20 collegiate males over the span of 6 weeks of training. 

WHAT TO DO INSTEAD?  

1. Focus on athletic posture - Levers, angles, and torque 
2. Equal time spend on front side vs, backside mechanics 
3. More 1ST & 2ND Gear as Supplemental Work