How To Decrease Your Sprint Time

Sprint time is heavily influenced on our physical and technical capabilities. Being able to sprint faster is a skill required by many different sports such as Rugby, Soccer, Hockey and Track and Field Sports. This could mean the grindstone to make it on a sporting team or being selected to represent at a higher level in track and field. So what can we do to sprint faster?

Power Training

Power training improves muscular and neural excitation to produce work in the shortest amount of time. Power refers to how much force we can generate, distance we can cover and in the shortest amount of time. This is crucial, especially for the initial start or drive phase of the sprint. Similarly, having sufficient speed without strength will limit our potential to generate force safely through our joints as muscles have a role in transferring kinetic energy into joints for reactive properties. 

There are two sides we need to focus on for power training and the first one is the force aspect, being able to move heavier external loads at maximal effort in the least amount of time. This is different from hitting a 1RM back squat as the weight would be too slow for it to have properties relatable to power. A few exercises I like to develop force output include Power Cleans, Hang Clean Pulls, Loaded Jump Squats, Heavy Sled Pushes or Wall Drives. These exercises help develop the appropriate stimulus to improve the qualities needed for the initial sprint while still working on the force portion at higher loads. 

The second side is the velocity portion, which refers to the speed aspect and being able to move quickly. This is characterised as the less resisted but faster moving physical demand. Some exercises I like to do to work on this portion include Box Jumps, Reactive Jumps, Banded Assisted Pogo Jumps or Bounds. Judging from the exercises you can see how one is heavily loaded while still working on moving fast while the other is the complete opposite but again still working on moving fast. 

Technique

To be a better sprinter, you need to sprint more. There is no physical training that will decrease your sprint time if your sprint technique is bad. Bad technique does not allow you to effectively express your physical qualities to the best of standards and can actually lead to injury (what a surprise). The first initial step to improve this is to actually have a knowledgeable coach to teach you how to sprint properly (like at Adonis Athletics *wink wink*). The second step is to practice it PROPERLY and OFTEN. The saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” can be used in so many different perspectives and this is one of them. Build the motor control and master the movement pattern to the point where you do not need to spend so much energy on cognitive learning or thinking capacity to focus on technique. This will only come with experience as you go and eventually it’ll feel like second nature. 

I hope this week’s article helps anyone struggling to sprint faster whether or not you’re training for sport or just simply want to run faster. Tune in for our next newsletter! 

Peace out Movement Fam!

Coach Matty