What Determines an Athlete’s Speed?
Speed comes from how much ground an athlete covers and how quickly effective steps can be repeated. Simply telling an athlete to lengthen their stride or move their feet faster often creates reaching, braking, and wasted movement.
During acceleration, each step should move the body forward while posture rises naturally as speed builds. Stride length should come from force and hip displacement, not from reaching in front of the body. Faster turnover only matters when the athlete can still apply force into the ground. Evaluating rhythm, foot placement, force direction, and understanding transition from one step to the next is our training process.
What Athletes and Parents Say
How DUO Trains Speed
We use sprint and change-of-direction testing to find where an athlete is gaining or losing time. The 10-yard sprint, 40 yard dash, flying 10, flying 20 and change-of-direction tests give us measurable numbers, while video helps us evaluate projection, posture, ground contact, and deceleration mechanics.
Speed development starts with identifying what is limiting the athlete. For one athlete, that may be force and projection through the first 10 yards. For another, it may be upright sprint mechanics, braking capacity, or the ability to reaccelerate out of a cut. Our evaluation shows where time and position are being lost, allowing the training to target the athlete’s actual limitation.
Athletes are retested using the same measurements so progress is clear. From there, speed is placed into reactive and sport-specific situations where the athlete has to read space, respond, and execute.