Develop Speed as a Young Athlete

Growing up we played sports to develop our fitness and athleticism. We weren't aware of LTAD, the risks of early specialization and the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete. We played football at school, swam competitively, rode our bikes in the summer and skied in the winter.

And for the most part this worked pretty well based on the fact we played to a fairly high level and never had an appointment with a physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath or practitioner of any type.

This approach worked well as there wasn't the opportunity to over do it in any one sport. The swim season ran during the school year. Skiing was a few months or so during the winter. And school yard games were limited to the during of lunch hour and weekdays only.

But now we know how important to have time away from any one sport. Hockey shouldn't be followed by spring hockey, summer hockey camps and straight into late summer hockey tryouts. The same is true for all sports. There needs to be time away from the game and have an opportunity to play other sports to develop under-utilized muscles and movements, energy systems and tactics.

But besides taking a break from the main sport young athletes would do well to work on athletic ability that helps with all sports. And that ability is speed.

Below are 4 reasons to work on speed as a young athlete.

1. Training Windows

There are a couple of times during an athlete's development when it is crucial to train speed. These can be at 6-7 years old and then at 11-12 years for girls and 13-14 for boys. At the younger stage we don't want to get too technical with the drills. Not too many 6 and 7 year olds care and can understand hip separation, knee drive or dorsiflexion. But they do enjoy going fast, racing and competing when there is a chance to move quickly.

High level sprinting is more of an nervous system ability rather than one of strength. The early expression of speed helps code the nervous to learn how to move quickly and makes further speed development later, possible. This stage of development is known as a window as it can close, and later enhancements of this quality are limited.

2. Volume Control

We should be cautious in terms of exposing young athletes to increasing levels of volume in their training and practices. Actually this applies to all of this. For example, if I were a runner, and clearly I'm not, I shouldn't design my training as follows:

* Week 1 - 10 km

* Week 2 - 20 km

* Week 3 - 40 km

* Week 4 - 80 km

On paper, even the lay person would recognize this as a poor plan. Yet, sometimes we use a similar approach with young athletes and we push the volume too much, too much. This is evidenced by the number of young endurance athletes that 'retire' from running, cycling by their late teens not due to injury but burnout.

A better approach would be bring the volume on more gradually and spend more time developing speed. With speed training there isn't the same opportunity to load up on the volume and minimizes foot contacts, repetitive strain and hours in the saddle.

3. Increases Athleticism

When we work on developing speed for an athlete we are making them better at their sport. These were ideas shared by Cameron Josse a few years ago and I'm paraphrasing but here are some of the takeaways.

a. Fewer injuries - In collision, and contact sports to certain extent, the opponent will be looking to make physical contact. In the case of football, imagine a receiver catching a pass as the defender is closing. A faster athlete will be able to get out of bounds, avoid the tackle altogether or put themselves in a less vulnerable position. In this way, a faster athlete will be able to minimize more injuries than a slower athlete.

b. More options - Sticking with the football example, imagine a quarterback being blitzed by the defense. In other works, more players than the defensive linemen are trying to sack the quarterback. When this happens to Patrick Mahomes of the KC Chiefs he is quick enough to potentially evade the rush, get outside the pocket and complete a pass. A slower QB may not be able to get away and makes a bad pass or takes the sack.

c. Can take more risks - When a defender is known to be quick they can take more risks on defense than a slower player. For example a basketball player might be able to play up right on the offensive player as it will be harder to drive past them. And if they do get beat, they can use their speed to recover and get back into the play. If a slower player used the same tactic they may take a foul or give up an easy shot to the offense.

4. Extends Careers

Typically speed declines with age. And as learned in point #1 above, there are a couple of times during a young athlete's development when it is crucial to develop speed. Knowing both of these it only makes to develop speed at a young age.

The other benefit of early speed development is that it can extend athletic careers. Consider the following examples of this.

Malindi Elmore ran the 1500 m at the 2004 Olympics then switched events to the marathon at the 2020 Olympics. Her early speed and power work in university and after has helped set the stage for her success including setting the Canadian record in the marathon.

Previously, the record for the marathon was held by Rachel Cliff, who attended the University of Guelph and competed in the 1500, 3000 and 5000 m events.

Sticking with track and field, Allyson Felix, recently won the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in the 400 m. Earlier in her career however, Felix ran the 100 and 200 m events but hasn't since 2012, or almost 10 years ago.

In the pool, Katie Ledecky is one of the most successful Olympic swimmers ever and has won the most medals of all female athletes. Now after having competed in three Olympics, we are starting to see a shift in where Ledecky is having success. Whereas in Rio she won gold in the 200 and 400 m. Jump ahead to the 2020 Olympics and Ledecky was 2nd in the 400 m free and 5th in the 200 m. She did win gold in the 800 and 1500 m free.

And while it was interesting to hear Usain Bolt competing in an 800 m race in his native Jamaica, don't expect a comeback any time soon. This was all part of a promotional junket for a company, CarMax, and Bolt completed his 800 m in 2:40.

As I said at the beginning, I'm not a runner but I think even I could run that time. And had I trained as a sprinter when I was younger, I'd be a decent longer distance runner now.