How to Get Faster: The Missing Link in Max Sprint Speed
Most athletes never truly train max velocity. Learn how to get faster by improving top-end sprint speed with science-backed methods.
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You’ve added weight to your squat. Your deadlift is up. Your vertical jump improved.
But your 40yard time or 100m hasn’t moved.
If you’re searching for how to get faster, you’re not alone. This is one of the most common frustrations in sprint-based sports. Athletes train harder. They get stronger. Yet acceleration and top speed barely change.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Strength is necessary for speed.
But strength alone does not create speed.
And for many athletes, it may actually distract from it.
If you’re stuck, it usually comes down to one of these:
That last one matters most.
The logic seems simple:
More force = more speed.
But sprinting isn’t about how much force you can produce in a slow lift. It’s about how much force you can apply in extremely short ground contact times.
At max velocity, ground contact times are often under 0.1 seconds in elite sprinters [Weyand et al., 2000]. That means the nervous system must produce and coordinate force rapidly, not just maximally.
Heavy lifting improves force capacity.
Sprinting improves force application.
Those are not the same thing.
Athletes often build a bigger engine but never upgrade the transmission.
If you want to understand how to get faster, start by diagnosing the real issue.
Most speed plateaus fall into one of three categories:
You lack sufficient force production relative to bodyweight.
Signs:
Solution direction:
You have strength, but you can’t orient it properly.
Signs:
Research on sprint acceleration mechanics shows that shin angle and force orientation strongly influence horizontal acceleration efficiency [Morin et al., 2012].
If your force vector is vertical too early, you’re wasting strength.
You simply don’t sprint fast enough often enough.
Many field sport athletes never truly sprint at max velocity in training. Practices are submaximal, chaotic, or fatigue-dominated.
Yet max velocity sprinting is its own skill.
Research suggests that top speed performance is heavily influenced by stride frequency and neuromuscular coordination under very short contact times [Clark & Weyand, 2014].
You don’t develop that under fatigue circuits.
You develop it by sprinting fast.
Here’s the simplest way to understand it:
Strength increases your ceiling.
Speed training increases how much of that ceiling you can use quickly.
Think of it this way:
If your max squat increases 20%, but your rate of force development doesn’t improve, your sprint time might barely change.
Sprinting demands:
Lifting builds some pieces. Sprinting builds others.
Speed emerges from the interaction.
Several important themes show up repeatedly in sprint science:
Notice what’s missing:
None of those findings say “just lift heavier.”
Strength supports speed.
But sprinting trains sprinting.
If you’re serious about learning how to get faster, here’s where to start:
Not tempo runs.
Not conditioning.
Actual high-speed exposures with full recovery.
Don’t chase PRs year-round.
Periodize strength so it supports speed instead of exhausting it.
Acceleration is a skill.
It requires posture, projection, and horizontal force intent.
We’ll break this down deeply in Part 2.
Speed drops quickly under fatigue.
If you’re constantly tired, your nervous system cannot express peak velocity.
Time sprints. Track fly 10m and 30m. Monitor drop-offs.
What gets measured improves.
Most athletes aren’t slow because they lack effort.
They’re slow because they’re training general qualities instead of specific speed qualities.
You don’t get faster by accident.
You get faster by deliberately training:
In Part 2, we’ll break down how to improve acceleration specifically, including drills and programming structure.
If you’ve been getting stronger but not faster, the problem isn’t motivation.
It’s misalignment.
Strength supports speed.
But speed must be trained as a skill.
If you want deeper breakdowns on acceleration mechanics, max velocity development, and sprint programming philosophy, join theSprint.Club newsletter here:
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