Youth speed development should be a focus in any long term athletic development plan as it is necessary to run in most team sports
Speed in this sense can be broken down into first step quickness, acceleration, maximal speed, & game speed (Oliver et al., 2013)
Learning to control and coordinate basic locomotion is a fundamental movement skill for kids
Therefore speed needs to be viewed as a skill — early speed practice should be through gameplay allowing the kids to run, skip, hop and have fun while developing basic rhythm & technique
Speed should be looked at as a long term skill & should be continued to be progressed over time
Even if a coach has to lay off intensity & work back into a technical focus over a period of “adolescent awkwardness”, there is always something related to the skill that can improve
The nervous system is in a period of increased neural plasticity during the prepubescent period allowing coordination & technique to be improved
As they mature, increases in limb length, muscle mass, muscle tendon properties, etc. will improve to allow kids to increase speed
Speed is generally looked at as stride length • stride frequency
For improvement in youth speed, more focus should be given to improving stride length by increase force output at ground contact & also natural occurrence through increased limb length
These increases in force output will come as a result of increased lean muscle mass, lower limb stiffness, and neural recruitment strategies
Stride frequency shouldn’t be completely put on the back burner as it is necessary as well, but the focus is on stride length thru ⬆️force
To improve speed over the long term:
-start with gameplay & by practicing it as a skill, work on technique & rhythm
-As they naturally develop, start a resistance training program, plyometrics, & continue to increase intensity of speed work over time working on ⬆️force & ⬇️GCT
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