Many athletes are interested in increasing their sprinting abilities to improve their sport performance. How fast you can sprint does partly depend on your muscle fibers predetermined by genetics, but you can significantly increase your abilities with consistent speed training. Speed training should be scheduled around your own athletic practice and training sessions.
Speed
You can improve your speed by increasing the length of distance covered in each stride. The force your legs and glutes produce drive into the ground and propels your body forward. The length you travel during each step improves when you develop your lower body power. You increase your power by completing plyometrics, or explosive exercises, and completing regular sprinting repetitions.
Training Frequency
Speed training with plyometrics should be completed two days per week, with at least 72 hours of rest in between training sessions. Joseph M. Warpeha, certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, recommends completing speed training at the beginning of practice instead of afterward, to prevent neuromuscular fatigue from adversely affecting your speed training. When training a team, ideally schedule speed training on days when you're having light practices or days that you're watching film or other game preparations. Make adjustments to your speed training if you have competitions scheduled as necessary.
Exercises
Each training session should consist of both plyometric exercises and sprinting repetitions. Complete two sets of 10 repetitions each of jump squats, box jumps, rim jumps and bounds. Rest two to five minutes in between sets. After your plyometric exercises, move to sprinting repetitions. It's important that your speed training reflects the distance that you will be sprinting during competition. For example, a lineman in football should not be completing 100-yard sprints, as they are not going to be sprinting that distance during a game. Instead, sprint repetitions should remain at 15 yards or less. Choose appropriate distances for your own athletic activity and complete 6 to 10 repetitions of each.
Considerations
Speed training sessions should be short and quick instead of completing a significant number of sprint repetitions. To see significant improvements in sprinting abilities, focus should be on completing each repetition at your maximum speed. Be sure to rest adequately between repetitions. At times, this may require up to five minutes between sets, but you want to ensure that you can sprint at your maximum speed during each repetition. Similarly, when completing plyometrics, complete each repetition as explosively as possible. For example, when you're completing box jumps, lower down into a squat slowly, but then explode up as fast as you can and jump up as high as you can before you land on the box.
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