|
One of the most common mistakes in athletic development is forcing team sport athletes into a rigid sprinter’s model. Track mechanics are highly refined, beautifully so, but football, soccer, lacrosse, basketball, and hockey do not unfold in straight lines, perfectly timed reps, or predictable environments.
Team sports are chaotic. They’re decision rich. They’re filled with pressure, traffic, and constant interaction with an opponent. And because of that, athletes need adaptable speed, not just technical speed. Rather than teaching athletes to look like sprinters, we treat 0-step, acceleration, and max-velocity mechanics as skills, tools athletes can pull from when the game demands it. The goal isn’t to mold everyone into the same pattern. The goal is to expand each athlete’s movement options. CLA Over a “Correct” Technical Model A better way to understand speed in team sports comes from the idea of a speed signature, the unique characteristics of an individual’s motor strategies. It reflects how an athlete solves movement problems based on their own constraints. These constraints come from both the body and the mind: 1. Physical Constraints
2. Psychological Constraints
Put simply: athletes move the way they do for a reason, and that reason goes far deeper than technique alone. A track sprinter operates in a stable environment where technique can be honed. A team sport athlete operates in a landscape of uncertainty where technique must change constantly to meet new demands. Their speed signature is a dynamic system, not a fixed model. Principles Over Prescriptions Speed development shouldn’t be about chasing perfect positions. Yet many still coach like it is, correcting every angle, every foot strike, every arm swing. But overcoaching makes athletes slower. It pulls them out of the flow state and into their heads. You can’t solve chaotic movement problems while thinking about your knee height. Instead of forcing mechanics, we guide speed solutions with:
Speed Principles These remain consistent regardless of sport or technique:
These principles can be expressed in many ways depending on the athlete’s constraints and the game’s demands. That’s the point. We want adaptability, not conformity. The Goal: Not Sprinters, but Athletes Who Can Sprint Team sport athletes don’t need to be sprinters, but they absolutely need to sprint. They need the physical qualities and technical tools to express speed under pressure, fatigue, and uncertainty. By building a broad motor toolbox, we help athletes:
Speed is not a model. It’s a solution. And the best athletes are the ones who can find the right solution at the right moment, no matter how messy the environment becomes.
0 Comments
One of the guiding principles in our programming is complementarity, organizing training elements so they communicate with each other. Every movement should serve the broader objective of athletic transfer, not exist in isolation.
When it comes to speed development, that means aligning our plyometric work with the specific speed pattern we’re targeting. The goal isn’t just to “jump more” or “move faster,” but to help athletes feel and own the same shapes, pressures, and force vectors that are required for effective high speed athletic actions. When the drill and the plyometric speak the same language, the body listens, coordination sharpens, intent increases, and the adaptations actually stick. That’s how you drive meaningful transfer, not by rehearsing random or disconnected movements. The Complementary Framework We divide our plyometric work into two broad categories, extensive and intensive, and align both with the specific speed emphasis of the session: acceleration, max velocity, or curved sprinting. This structure allows the athlete’s nervous system to connect the dots between the sensations of jumping and sprinting, the shapes, the ground contacts, and the rhythm. Extensive Plyometrics (Used for rhythm, coordination, and force direction awareness) 1. Acceleration Emphasis:
Intensive Plyometrics (Used for high force production and elasticity under load) 1. Acceleration Emphasis:
Connecting It All This approach ensures that every plyometric task means something. Instead of stacking unrelated drills, we’re constructing an ecosystem of movement, where each jump, bound, and hop reinforces the same sensory and mechanical language as the sprint pattern it supports. The result? Athletes who don’t just practice speed but understand it through the way they move. They feel the ground differently, organize force more efficiently, and express the movement solutions their sport demands. 6/1/2025 Dirty Speed Development: Training for Chaos Moving Beyond Perfect Reps to Build Adaptable, Game-Ready AthletesRead NowSpeed development is often boxed into a narrow lane: clean mechanics, straight lines, and high-volume of “perfect” reps. While there’s value in technique, this overly sterile approach misses a critical truth:
Sport isn’t clean. It’s chaotic, unpredictable, and full of disruptions. At The U of Strength, we believe speed training should reflect that reality. That’s why we embrace what we call Dirty Speed Development, a methodology built around variability, interference, and adaptability. The Problem with “Perfect” Too many speed drills are rehearsals, not development. The athlete gets into a familiar setup, hits the same angles, and moves in predictable ways. The outcome? They may look great in training but struggle to apply that speed in sporting scenarios. Why? Because in sport:
That’s where Dirty Speed comes in. What is Dirty Speed Development? Dirty Speed is our term for speed training that’s deliberately messy. It introduces layered challenges and micro-disruptions to force the athlete to problem-solve on the fly. It’s not about chasing perfect form. It’s about developing functional speed that holds up under pressure. How We Introduce Disruption Here are a few of our favorite tools to add complexity to our speed drills: 1. Throwing Patterns (Fake & Real) Med ball throws, especially fakes and rotational throws, disrupt rhythm and shape. Athletes must accelerate while separating upper and lower body movement, a key skill in field and court sports. 2. Perturbations Mini collisions and chaotic resistance create instability and force the athlete to regain control quickly without breaking stride. 3. Obstacles Whether it’s boxes or hurdles, or opponent distractions, obstacles force athletes to make split-second decisions on pathing and timing, increasing their spatial awareness and movement fluency. Why It Matters Dirty Speed isn’t about making drills harder for the sake of being “cool.” It’s a calculated strategy to:
We’re not just preparing athletes to sprint fast. We’re preparing them to stay fast when it gets messy. Final Thoughts: Chase Adaptability If your speed drills always look picture-perfect, they’re probably too easy. In contrast, Dirty Speed embraces imperfection. It forces athletes to adapt, recover, and solve problems at full speed, skills that are far more valuable than clean reps in closed environments. Because at the end of the day, the fastest athlete on the stopwatch doesn’t always win. The one who can adapt, respond, and recover the quickest usually does. What is the 0-step phase?
The 0-step phase refers to the very beginning of the sprinting pattern (right before or just as the athlete begins to accelerate). A strong starting stance sets the tone and influences how effectively the athlete transitions into their speed solutions. At The U of Strength, we apply a principle-based approach. Instead of coaching exact positions, we teach movement concepts and take into consideration individual constraints (structure, experience level, sporting background, compensation patterns, injury history & action capabilities). See below for the different concepts we highlight during the 0-step phase of the acceleration pattern:
The distinction between speed and gamespeed development lies in their focus and how they are applied to athletic performance.
Speed development refers to improving an athlete’s ability to move as fast as possible in a preplanned direction. This includes acceleration, max velocity, and curved patterns. The requirements for speed development are solely on the physical system:
There’s minimal psychological variability because it’s performed in controlled settings, like running on a track or during isolated speed drills. On the other hand, gamespeed development is more complex and context dependent. It refers to the ability to apply speed effectively in a game or sport-specific context. It incorporates decision-making, adaptability, and responsiveness to sensory information. There’s an emphasis on perception-action coupling, decision-making, and adapting to opponents, teammates, or dynamic scenarios. The requirements for gamespeed are a combination of the physical and psychological systems:
Speed development is about maximizing raw athletic capabilities in controlled settings. Gamespeed development integrates physical, psychological, and environmental complexities of competition. Both have a place in the training process, but when the focus is on only getting faster the individual will have difficulty transferring these skills and qualities to sport. The one with high gamespeed might not necessarily be the fastest but excels in solving problems in the dynamic and chaotic environments. |
AuthorJamie Smith is a proud husband and father, passionate about all things relating to athletic development and a life long learner, who is open to unorthodox ideas as long they are beneficial to his athletes. Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
Services |
The Gym |
|
Tel: (860) 833-9366
Email: [email protected]
*By accessing this website and/or purchasing or utilizing the articles, emails, programs, images, videos, services and/or products, you are agreeing to this disclaimer in its entirety. The content on this website and the educational products sold within are the intellectual property of The U of Strength, LLC and may not be replicated, reproduced, or sold without prior written consent from The U of Strength, LLC. Website, social media and product content provided is for informational purposes and meant to be utilized by athletes, sport coaches, and fitness professionals at their own discretion. It is not meant to substitute advice or guidance from qualified medical experts, and misuse of the information can result in serious injury. Any fitness program should be administered under the discretion of qualified professionals who take into account individual differences in health and ability. While our programs have found success with the athletes who train at our facility, individual results vary and we do not guarantee any specific results. The U of Strength, LLC assumes no liability from the misuse of the content provided or products purchased. Users assume all risk when implementing our ideas in theirs or their clients’ real life training experiences.
Email: [email protected]
*By accessing this website and/or purchasing or utilizing the articles, emails, programs, images, videos, services and/or products, you are agreeing to this disclaimer in its entirety. The content on this website and the educational products sold within are the intellectual property of The U of Strength, LLC and may not be replicated, reproduced, or sold without prior written consent from The U of Strength, LLC. Website, social media and product content provided is for informational purposes and meant to be utilized by athletes, sport coaches, and fitness professionals at their own discretion. It is not meant to substitute advice or guidance from qualified medical experts, and misuse of the information can result in serious injury. Any fitness program should be administered under the discretion of qualified professionals who take into account individual differences in health and ability. While our programs have found success with the athletes who train at our facility, individual results vary and we do not guarantee any specific results. The U of Strength, LLC assumes no liability from the misuse of the content provided or products purchased. Users assume all risk when implementing our ideas in theirs or their clients’ real life training experiences.