Top Speed Training Myths Revealed

As a speed coach, I receive questions about training speed. So I've taken those questions that I hear the most and answered them in a slightly different format.

1. Static stretching prepares you to compete/practice

Static stretching actually reduces power output. The best type of stretching that an athlete should utilize before practice is dynamic stretching which warms up the body and prepares and mimics the movement that the athlete’s body will be engaged in doing. The progression of movement should start off from basic, low intensity movements to faster, more explosive movements as the muscles loosen up.

2. Stretch and then do a warm up

You should never stretch a cold muscle because you can cause more harm than good to the muscle belly while the muscle is cold. Instead, athletes should do some small warm up to increase the body temperature so that the muscle is warm and plausible to stretch. Think of the muscle as a rubber band. Would you stretch a cold rubber band that has been in the freezer for days?

3. Strength training makes females too bulky

This is a popular mindset with many female athletes that we have worked with. However, this as far fetched of a myth than any of the ones that I have to debunk. Strength training not only is of injury prevention because it assists with building the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to withstand the stress of the sports. In addition, we know that the female population is more susceptible to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries than their male counterparts. Fatigued lower limb muscles can inhibit the ability to control dynamic sports landing movements, increasing the risk of non-contact injury to the knee’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), particularly among females. Prevention and prehabilitation is always better the rehabilitation. Strength training will improve performance and reduce injury if done correctly. If you look at Mia Hamm, Venus and Serna Williams, these athletes train with weights and have a great physique on and off the court.

4. You can’t train speed


For some reason it is a popular belief that you are born with a certain amount of ‘speed’ and you can’t improve it. If that’s the case than the Olympians that participate every four years waste their time throughout training to get better because they have nature born speed that will just come on when the touch foot on the track. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Speed is a skill that can be learned and the problem that I see with most young athletes is they are so physically weak and mechanically out of tune that significant improvements in speed can be made often just by working on technique and form. Athletes at any age and any level can improve speed when implementing a complete speed training program designed to improve and develop the entire athlete.

5. Training slow makes you fast


I don’t think coaches directly believe this way, but their training implies otherwise. I think they understand this when it comes to practicing for their sport for they know that in order for the athletes to get a true feel and understanding of what is required when in competition, the athlete must be put in ‘game speed’ situations so that their bodies are able to react. The same is true for speed training, in order for an athlete to be able to get faster, they must train their fast twitch muscle fibers consistently and properly so that they will be able to translate their training to the competition. Athletes must train how they play or train the way their sports demands of them. For example in sports that involve a higher aerobic element such as soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, etc. I see kids out running mileage and doing long slow intervals of several minutes of continuous running. If their goal is to get faster for the season and want to improve their overall speed and first step quickness to the ball, they must train their muscles to fire and work in the same manner that the demand will be placed on them for the sport. If you want athletes to improve their acceleration and top speed so they can get to the ball faster or get back on defense, then you have to train by running at full speed in practice.

6. You can train hard every day

Most coaches and parents understand this concept when it comes to strength training with training the same body part over and over. However, when it comes to speed training this concept gets thrown out the window for some reason. The workout itself is only a piece of the training puzzle. Just as with strength training, athlete’s muscles aren’t built in the weight room but during the recovery period, so is true with speed training. It is the time between intense workouts, the recovery, where athletes make their improvements. And generally it takes 36-48 hours to recover from high intensity training. If athletes are doing too much, too often they become over trained. Coaches can expect to see an increase in injuries, athletes complaining that they are sore more often, decreased performance, higher levels of fatigue earlier in games, and the BIG ONE—burnout. It’s always better to under train an athlete than over train. Err on the side of caution to get maximal results.

7. Strength training will stunt a young athlete’s growth


This is another myth held over from a different time. With parents having their kids participate in year round sports, strength training can assist with preventing some of the injuries that these athletes may be susceptible to with year round participation. These loads on the body can have a much greater physical impact than a well designed strength training program. Though I don’t usually begin training with weights with pre pubescent athletes, they can benefit from body weight exercises such as push ups, full body squats, pull ups, crunches, sit ups, etc. This will increase muscular efficiency, speed up recovery, improve coordination and overall speed.

8. The harder the workout, the better the result

Some athletes (and coaches) have this mentality that if a workout doesn’t reduce them to complete exhaustion and/or make them vomit, that it wasn’t an effective workout. I hated coaches that thought like this and now that I am a speed/ performance coach, I still hate it. The reasoning behind the vomiting is that the body is trying to buffer the blood due to it being too acidic and the lack of oxygen left for the muscles to use during the workout. Now that young athletes are dying due to myocarditis and other abnormal heart conditions, ‘old school’ coaches that have this mentality need not apply with working with youth athletes period. Also those who have this mentality probably see a lot of injuries and frustrating performances. The purpose of a workout is to stimulate an adaptation by the body. If the body is forced to do too much work in a given time period, it will break down. The skill in coaching is to stimulate the adaptation in the body, without reaching a point of diminishing returns.

9. Interval training is the same as speed training

Running repeat 100s, 200s, etc will not improve top speeds. Even running
repeat 40s with short recovery will not improve acceleration and top speeds. I wish someone had explained this myth and concept to my college coaches when they had us doing repeated 100s and 200s in the hot summer heat to improve our speed! Speed work is defined at 2-8 seconds of maximal intensity running with full recovery. That means at least 2 minutes of light dynamic movement between each effort. This
goes against the experience of some coaches, but simply put, is the only way to improve speed. An athlete must be able to focus on proper form and maintain intensity in order to get faster. If they do not recover properly from each interval, they will not be able to replicate proper mechanics with consistency and they can not improve.

10. Flexibility won’t help you get faster

Both coaches and athletes spend so much time on the skills of their sport, speed training and conditioning that they often forget a fundamental component of success: flexibility. After practice or a game, the muscles are warm and loose. Now is the time to work on increasing flexibility. So many athletes suffer injuries or compete below their capacity because poor flexibility inhibits their range of motion and speed. I see this often in the hips and hip flexors where athletes’ stride length appears conspicuously short. Most often I see this in male athletes who will lift weights, train hard and then skip out on their cool down and flexibility work. Hey I have been guilty of this one myself throughout the years of my high school and collegiate career.


11. Lift your knees

I hear so many parents and coaches yelling to their kids when they want them to run faster or when they are beginning to fatigue, “Lift your knees, Get your knees up”.
This is one of the most backwards cues you can give to athletes. The way to run faster is to apply more force to the ground. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so the more force you apply to the ground, the more the ground will give
back. So when we cue athletes to lift their knees we’re doing two things incorrectly. One, we’re telling them to use their hip flexors to lift instead of their glutes and hamstrings to drive down. Just think about the size of your hip flexor versus the size of the glutes and hamstrings. Now which muscles do you think can create more force and therefore more speed? Second, we’re cueing them and teaching a movement that is in opposition to what generates speed. If an athlete learns at age 7, to lift their knees when they need a burst of speed, that improper cue will be hardwired into their brain. To unlearn that as a teen and try to do the opposite and drive down, that athlete will have a difficult time coordinating an entirely new way of running and will potentially have to take a step or two backwards. That’s why it is critical to learn proper form early and get an advantage over those who still aren’t getting the best instruction. So cue athletes to step over the opposite knee and drive the foot down into the ground, with the foot landing underneath the hip.

Speed/ Performance Coach and Speed Camps in Charlotte, NC