Mechanics & Drills That Matter: Teaching Sprint Technique in a School Setting
#76 - Strength & Speed Coaching - Pursuing Your Best ⚡️
In Speed Is a Skill, we made the case that speed belongs in your program and that it can be taught. This post is where we start teaching it.
So let’s get practical. If speed is a skill, what does that skill actually look like, and how do you coach it inside a normal class?
Two things: the mechanics that matter, and the drills worth your time.
The Three Pillars of Sprint Mechanics
We keep it simple. Three pillars, same language every session.
That last part matters. When athletes hear the same cues over and over, they start fixing themselves before you say a word. That’s the goal. You’re not just correcting reps. You’re building a vocabulary they carry into every sprint.
1. Posture
Everything starts here. If posture breaks, everything downstream breaks with it.
Good sprint posture is a tall spine with the lean coming from the ankles, not the waist. Hips stay tall and extended. The upper body stays relaxed so the arms can do their job.
What we’re looking for:
Tall spine, forward lean from the ankles
Hips tall and extended
Relaxed shoulders and hands
Eyes forward, chin neutral
What we’re coaching against:
Hunching forward at the waist
Tight shoulders and clenched fists
Cue it like this: “Run tall.” “Hips through.”
2. Projection
Projection is about where the force goes.
Athletes who project well drive into the ground and push their body forward. Athletes who don’t will bounce straight up, overstride, or lose their acceleration early. We want force going back and down so the athlete travels forward.
What we’re looking for in acceleration:
Forward lean with full (or near full) hip extension behind
Powerful ground contacts
Shin angle that drives into the ground
What we’re coaching against:
Overstriding, or reaching the foot out in front of the body
Vertical bounce, or running up instead of forward
Hips that sit back and kill projection
Cue it like this: “Drive the ground away.” “Push, don’t reach.” “Shin angle forward.”
3. Rhythm
Rhythm is the pillar coaches talk about least, and it matters more than most realize. I learned this from Ben Hildebrandt. I listened to him speak at a couple of different clinics and he attributes his collegiate improvements primarily to this pillar.
Athletes with good rhythm look smooth. Arms and legs coordinate. Ground contacts stay consistent. Speed builds without the strain showing.
What we’re looking for:
Arms driving forward and back, not across the body
Consistent stride rhythm from rep to rep
Relaxed and focused
What we’re coaching against:
Arms crossing the midline
Short, choppy arm action
Rhythm that changes from stride to stride
Cue it like this: “Big arms.” “Stay smooth.”
Drilling It: Keep vs. Cut
Many programs use too many sprint drills, and a lot of them don’t build any speed at all.
Drills are preparation. They reinforce positions and patterns. They are not a replacement for sprinting.
Tony Holler says it plainly: the goal is to sprint, not to just drill. Drills are important, but eventually you have to get to the main event.
Here’s how we sort them.
Keep
A-March. Teaches hip flexion, posture, and rhythm at a slow, controlled tempo. Great for warming up the pattern before faster work, and slow enough that you can see exactly what’s happening and fix it.
A-Skip. Same mechanics as the march with rhythm and coordination added. The skip forces timing, which athletes develop quickly with reps.
Falling & Varied Position Starts. Teaches forward lean and projection. Athletes lean from the ankles until gravity pulls them, then sprint out. One of the simplest ways to teach what acceleration should feel like.
Build-Ups. Athletes gradually accelerate from a jog to near-max over 20 to 40 yards. Build-ups teach smooth acceleration, reinforce posture as speed climbs, and get athletes to top speed without the jarring shock of an all-out start. Great as a bridge between drills and full sprints, and great for warming up the nervous system before max velocity work.
Sprint-Float-Sprint. Athletes sprint hard, relax into a “float” while holding their speed, then sprint hard again, usually across three 10 to 20 yard zones. This is one of the best tools for teaching relaxation at top speed and for showing athletes that staying smooth keeps them fast. It builds the ability to hold max velocity.
Cut
Agility ladders for speed. Ladders teach short, choppy steps, which is the opposite of what we want in a sprint. They’re fine for warm ups, footwork, and coordination, but they don’t make anyone faster. Don’t confuse busy feet with speed.
Slow-motion technique work with no full-speed sprinting. A drill only matters if it reinforces what happens at full speed. If athletes do slow drills all session but never run at 95 to 100 percent, they’re not getting faster.
Excessive resisted sprinting. Resistance definitely has a place, especially for teaching acceleration. But heavy sleds, parachutes, and bands used too often change mechanics and train athletes to strain instead of project. If the resistance changes how they run, it’s too much.
What This Looks Like in Our Training
We don’t have a track available to us very often. Most of our sprint work happens in the gym, hallways, and regularly on the SHREDmill. The setting isn’t perfect, but the intent is what makes it work.
In the gym, we keep it simple:
2 to 4 sprints per session, placed before lifting when possible
10 to 20 yards for acceleration work
Performance Circuits that include all-out reps
Drills as prep, then sprint
Lasers and the SHREDmill give us a controlled setup for acceleration, max velocity, and intent-based output. Athletes can see their top speed, which creates its own motivation. That kind of visible progress does a lot of the coaching for you, something we covered in Gamify the Grind.
A Note on Coaching Cues
Keep your cues short and keep them consistent. Use the same words every session until athletes can repeat them back and make adjustments.
This is the same principle from the Engagement Advantage series. Simplicity and consistency teach better than novelty every time.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need a track and you don’t need a complicated program. You need three pillars, a short drill menu, and enough full-speed reps to make it real.
Teach posture. Teach projection. Teach rhythm. Then let them have fun competing!
Next up in this Speed Series is Year-Round Speed, where we’ll look at how to integrate and progress sprint work across the full school year without overloading your athletes or giving up your lift time.
Questions about how we run speed work at Mustang Strength & Speed? Reply to this email. I’d love to hear what you’re working with.
Keep pursuing excellence,
Preston Pedersen, M.Ed., CSCS
Strength & Speed Coach • Pursuit PE ⚡️