Getting faster at sprinting comes down to three things: producing more force into the ground, applying that force in the right direction, and doing both in less time. Whether you’re trying to shave tenths off a 40-yard dash or simply outrun opponents in a team sport, the path to speed involves deliberate work on technique, strength, and how you structure your training sessions.
The Two Phases of Every Sprint
A sprint has two distinct phases, and each demands different mechanics. The acceleration phase covers roughly the first 30 to 40 meters, where your body leans forward and you push the ground behind you with powerful, piston-like strides. Stride length increases progressively throughout this phase as you build speed. The maximum velocity phase kicks in after that, where your body is more upright and the focus shifts to “front-side mechanics,” meaning leg action that happens in front of your body rather than behind it.
Understanding this distinction matters because the drills and cues that improve your start are different from those that help you maintain top speed. If you only train one phase, you’ll plateau. Most recreational athletes and team sport players benefit most from acceleration work, since plays and races are often decided in the first 10 to 30 meters.
Fix Your Arm Swing First
Your arms don’t just go along for the ride. They stabilize your torso so power transfers efficiently through your hips. Sloppy arm mechanics waste energy and throw off your stride.
Keep your front arm bent between 60 and 90 degrees at the elbow, and your back arm between 90 and 120 degrees. Think of your elbow as locked in place, with the angle changing only slightly from the natural elastic bounce of the movement. The swing should originate from your shoulders, not your elbows or wrists. A useful cue: your hand should clear your hip in the back and come up to about cheek height in the front. Going beyond that range in either direction leads to overstriding, which creates a braking force with every step and increases your risk of muscle strains.
A simple way to practice is standing arm swings. Plant your feet, start with both arms at 90 degrees, and pump them in a controlled rhythm for 10 to 15 seconds. Focus on keeping them tight and driving from the shoulders.
Land Under Your Hips, Not in Front
Where your foot contacts the ground relative to your body is one of the biggest factors in sprint speed. Landing with your foot out in front of your center of mass creates a braking force that slows you down with every step. The goal is to strike the ground directly beneath or slightly behind your hips.
Sprinters land on the ball of the foot, not the heel. A forefoot strike substantially reduces the vertical impact peak compared to a heel strike, and biomechanical models show that a more forward foot contact is optimal for higher running speeds. The tradeoff is slightly higher energy cost per step, but at sprint distances that cost is irrelevant. What matters is minimizing braking force and maximizing the time you spend pushing yourself forward.
Two drills reinforce this pattern. A-skips focus on high knee lift with toes pulled up and a rapid downward foot strike. The cue is simple: “Knee up, toes up, punch down.” B-skips add an exaggerated pawing motion where the foot extends slightly forward then sweeps down and back beneath the hip. The cue here: “Paw down under the hips, not in front.” Do two to three sets of 20 meters of each as part of your warmup before sprint work.
Build Relative Strength
Raw strength means little if you can’t move your own body quickly. What predicts sprint speed is your strength relative to your bodyweight. Research on competitive athletes found that those who could squat at least 2.1 times their bodyweight had significantly faster 10-yard and 40-yard sprint times compared to athletes who squatted less than 1.9 times their bodyweight. That’s a clear threshold to work toward.
If you currently squat 1.5 times your bodyweight, getting stronger will almost certainly make you faster. The back squat is the most studied lift for sprint transfer, but hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, and Bulgarian split squats also build the glutes and hamstrings that drive horizontal force production. Prioritize compound, lower-body movements two to three times per week, and track your squat-to-bodyweight ratio over time. Once you’re in the 1.8 to 2.0 range, the returns from pure strength work start to diminish, and you’ll benefit more from converting that strength into speed through plyometrics and sprint-specific work.
Structure Sprint Workouts Correctly
Sprint training is not conditioning. The single most common mistake is treating sprint sessions like cardio, running repeat after repeat on short rest with declining effort. That trains endurance, not speed. To get faster, every rep needs to be at or near maximum intensity, and that requires full recovery between efforts.
Your muscles rely on a rapid energy system called the phosphocreatine system for efforts lasting under about 10 seconds. After a single 6-second sprint, that energy store recovers to about 55% within 10 seconds, 69% within 30 seconds, and 90% within 3 minutes. After multiple sprints, recovery slows further: only 84% replenishment at the 3-minute mark. Full regeneration takes longer than 3 minutes during repeated high-intensity work, and performance drops noticeably when rest periods are under 2 minutes.
For pure speed development, rest 3 to 5 minutes between sprints. A quality session might look like 6 to 8 sprints of 20 to 40 meters with full recovery. If you feel like you could go again sooner, you’re probably not running hard enough. The rest should feel almost boring. That’s the point.
Respect Recovery Between Sessions
Maximum-effort sprinting creates fatigue that takes longer to resolve than most people expect. Research measuring neuromuscular recovery after sprint training found that full recovery took up to 72 hours. Reductions in the ability to voluntarily activate muscles were still present 24 hours after sprint sessions, and performance didn’t return to baseline until the 48- to 72-hour window.
This means scheduling two to three sprint sessions per week with at least 48 hours between them. You can still train on off days, but keep those sessions focused on low-intensity technique work, mobility, or upper-body strength. Stacking heavy squats and max-effort sprints on back-to-back days is a recipe for stagnation or injury. A typical weekly structure might be sprint work on Monday and Thursday, heavy lower-body lifting on Tuesday and Friday, and lighter recovery or technique sessions on the remaining days.
Use Creatine for Repeated Sprint Ability
If you’re looking for a legal, well-studied supplement that directly supports sprint performance, creatine monohydrate is the strongest option. It works by increasing the availability of the same phosphocreatine energy system your muscles depend on during short bursts.
In a study on highly trained athletes, creatine supplementation improved average sprint times over the first 5 meters of repeated 15-meter sprints by 3%, boosted lower-body maximal strength by 11%, and reduced the decline in jumping ability after repeated high-power efforts. The benefit is most noticeable during repeated sprints with incomplete rest, exactly the kind of demands you face in team sports or interval-style training. A standard dose of 3 to 5 grams daily is sufficient. Loading phases aren’t necessary, though they speed up saturation by a week or so.
A Simple Progression to Follow
If you’re new to dedicated speed training, start with a 6- to 8-week block focused on building the foundation. Spend the first two weeks on technique drills (A-skips, B-skips, standing arm swings, wall drives) and lower-body strength work at moderate loads. In weeks three and four, introduce short sprints of 10 to 20 meters at 90 to 95% effort, with full rest between reps. By weeks five through eight, extend distances to 30 to 40 meters, increase to near-maximum effort, and continue pushing your squat numbers up.
Time yourself on a fixed distance every two to three weeks to track progress. Use the same surface, the same distance, and the same start protocol each time. Video yourself from the side periodically to check for overstriding, excessive arm movement, or a heel-first landing. Small mechanical fixes often produce bigger time drops than weeks of grinding out reps.