Borrowed From Footballers
Most sprint-training research ran on team-sport athletes over the first 30m, the phase a sprinter needs least. Here's how to translate it for the track.
phases in a 100m sprint, each built by a different quality
the floor before resisted-sprint research reliably shows change (Alcaraz et al. 2018)
of top speed still trains top speed, so flying sprints needn't be all-out (Van den Tillaar et al. 2023)
The research behind sprint training was mostly done on footballers and rugby players, over the first 10 to 30m, which happens to be the phase a track sprinter has the least to gain from. It still holds, it just needs translating before it reaches the track. A sprint is three efforts, not one: the velocity curve climbs, flattens, then sags, and the qualities that build each part don't hand over to each other. Carrying each team-sport finding across means crossing two gaps, from athletes who rarely reach top speed to ones whose race is decided by it. The 100m is the clearest case, so it anchors what follows, but the same three phases stretch across the 200 and 400, and the tools below let you pick your event.
01 The race
Three efforts, not one
Haugen et al. (2019) split the 100m into acceleration, maximum velocity and deceleration, with the acceleration phase itself breaking into the block clearance, the middle drive and the final pick-up. World-class reaction time sits around 0.17 to 0.18 seconds, and from there the athlete keeps gaining speed well past halfway. Faster sprinters don't only reach a higher top speed. They take longer to get there, and give back less of it before the line. Acceleration positions you. Maximum velocity, and how long you hold it, decides the result.
Figure 01 / Interactive
Tap a phase. The curve, the drill and the research all update.
Phase 1 / roughly 0 to 30m, from blocks
Acceleration
The crouched, high-force phase. You're driving a near-stationary body up to speed, so the demand is horizontal force at low velocity, the force end of the profile (Samozino et al. 2022). Trained from block or three-point starts over 10 to 50m, with elite athletes working out to about 40m off blocks and recoveries near seven minutes (Haugen et al. 2019).
The field-sport transfer is strongest here. Resisted sled was the one method to beat plain sprinting for 10m time in the meta-analysis, and the authors argue it should work harder in sprinters than in the team-sport athletes it was tested on (Myrvang & van den Tillaar 2024).
Phase 2 / from past halfway to top speed
Maximum velocity
Upright, elastic and step-frequency driven. The demand flips to the velocity end of the profile, and no amount of start work gets you here. It's developed with flying sprints off a run-up (Haugen et al. 2019).
Van den Tillaar et al. (2023) improved top-speed mechanics using flying 30m efforts at 90 to 95% of maximum, so you don't need all-out reps to train it. One caveat: those gains came from recreational adults, so borrow the method, not the percentage.
Phase 3 / the closing metres
Speed maintenance
The phase that most often decides the race, and the one the acceleration research is silent on. None of the sled studies measured it. It's a speed-endurance quality, built with longer repeats around 60 to 80m, and the logic is to lift maximum velocity first, then extend how long you can sit near it (Haugen et al. 2019).
Train only the start and you'll reach top speed sooner and still lose the back half.
Schematic, not measured data. Curve shape after Haugen et al. (2019). Exact distances shift with the athlete: faster sprinters reach top speed later and hold it longer.
The field-sport research is strongest exactly where a sprinter needs it least, and quietest where the race is won.
02 The load
Load selects the phase, not the effort
The most useful thing the sled literature offers a sprinter is that load isn't a dial for effort, it's a switch between phases. Petrakos, Egan & Morin (2016) found light loads improved maximum velocity by about 2.4% in sprint-trained athletes, while heavier loads pushed the benefit toward acceleration. Xu et al. (2025) pinned the heavy end: 80% of body mass and up targets the first five metres, and only pays off in trained and highly trained athletes. Drag the slider.
Figure 02 / Interactive
Set a sled load, see what it trains
Load shown as a percentage of body mass. The rough velocity-decrement equivalents are 10% for light and 50% or more for very heavy (Xu et al. 2025). Whatever the load, the dose floor is at least six weeks, two to three sessions a week, and more than 160m of the target quality per session (Alcaraz et al. 2018).
03 The event
Weight the qualities to the event
A 100m runner and a 400m runner shouldn't spend their speed budget the same way. The three qualities still all matter, but the emphasis shifts as the race lengthens: the further you run, the more the back half is about holding speed rather than reaching it. Tap an event.
Figure 03 / Interactive
Relative training emphasis by event
Every phase counts, and maximum velocity is the single biggest separator among elite men. Acceleration sets you up; a high top speed and a short deceleration win it (Haugen et al. 2019).
Same top-speed demand, plus curve running and more speed endurance. Entry velocity onto the home straight becomes its own quality, and holding form over the final 50m matters as much as reaching top speed.
A speed-reserve event. A higher maximum velocity means race pace sits at a lower percentage of it and feels easier, which is the hook into anaerobic speed reserve. Speed endurance carries the race, but the ceiling is still set by top speed.
Schematic emphasis, not measured load. Bar widths show relative coaching priority across the season, drawn from the phase model in Haugen et al. (2019), not a prescription for any athlete.
04 The athlete
Train the deficit, not the average
Everything above is a menu. What turns it into a program is individualisation, and here the field-sport and track literature agree. Profile the athlete's force-velocity balance, then train the deficit rather than the group average. Two sprinters running the same time can need opposite sessions. Pick a profile.
Figure 04 / Interactive
What a force-velocity profile tells you to train
Prioritise horizontal force
Slow off the line, holds speed reasonably once there. The gap is at the force end of the profile, so the emphasis is heavy resisted sprints from blocks, hill sprints and maximal-strength work, developing the force the first steps depend on (Samozino et al. 2022; Haugen et al. 2019).
Hold the balance, chase power
Close to the optimal profile for the event. Neither end is the clear limiter, so the job is to raise total power while keeping the balance, mixing start work and flying sprints rather than over-weighting either.
Prioritise maximum velocity
Strong start, low top end. The gap is at the velocity end, so the emphasis is flying sprints at 90 to 95% and above, light assisted running and upright mechanics, teaching the athlete to express speed once the drive phase is done (Van den Tillaar et al. 2023; Haugen et al. 2019).
05 Work it out
Put your own numbers in
Three quick calculators. The first maps a race and its training distances by event, the second turns body weight into sled loads, the third turns a timed fly into a top-speed target. Values computed from your input are marked; the distance and rest guidance comes from best practice, not from your numbers.
Figure 05 / Calculator
Enter data, read the output
Computed from your time
Average speed, 34.3 km/h. Top speed is higher, reached mid-race.
Session distances · set by event
Your time drives the speed and split; the event drives the distances. Acceleration and max-velocity ranges after Haugen et al. (2019); endurance reps reflect standard event practice, not your time.
Sled load · % of body mass
Loads as a percentage of body mass, the convention used by Petrakos et al. (2016) and Xu et al. (2025). Real resistance depends on surface friction, so treat these as a starting point and confirm with velocity loss on the day.
Computed from distance and time
Top speed, 36.0 km/h.
The 90 to 95% band operationalises Van den Tillaar et al. (2023); recoveries after Haugen et al. (2019). Time the fly zone only, not the build-up.
06 The translation
Field-sport finding, track use
Every row below started in a study that mostly used team-sport or recreational athletes. The middle column is what that study showed. The right column is what it means once you point it at a sprinter.
| Finding | What the research shows | The track translation |
|---|---|---|
| Resisted sled and acceleration | Beat plain sprinting for 10m time in a mixed-sample meta-analysis (Myrvang & van den Tillaar 2024). | Use it from blocks for the drive phase. The effect is likely larger in sprinters, who are built for horizontal force. |
| Load and phase | Heavy loads shift the benefit to acceleration, light loads to top speed (Petrakos et al. 2016; Xu et al. 2025). | Choose the load for the phase you want to move. Go heavy only with trained athletes. |
| Flying sprints | Efforts at 90 to 95% improved top-speed mechanics in recreational adults (Van den Tillaar et al. 2023). | Borrow the method for max-velocity days. Expect a smaller percentage gain in a trained sprinter. |
| Speed maintenance | Not measured by any of the sled studies. | Fill it from sprint-specific endurance (Haugen et al. 2019). It decides the back half. |
07 Applied
What to do
- Train three qualities, not one. Block starts for acceleration, flying sprints for top speed, longer reps for the back half.
- Set the sled load to the phase. Heavy for the first few metres, light when top speed is the target.
- Hold the dose floor. At least six weeks, two to three sessions a week, more than 160m of the target quality per session.
- Profile before you prescribe. Train the athlete's force or velocity deficit, not the group average.
- Weight it to the event. The 400m runner and the 100m runner should not spend their speed budget the same way.
08 Caveats
The honest edges
Hold three things loosely. The acceleration research mostly stopped measuring by 30m, so it says little about the phase that wins 100m races. The overspeed and uphill-downhill methods rest on thin, single-group evidence. And several of the effect sizes came from team-sport or recreational samples, which means the direction of a finding travels to a trained sprinter more safely than its size does. Use the research to decide what to train, and your own testing to decide how much.
- Can I just train acceleration and let top speed follow?
- No. The start and top-speed phases sit at opposite ends of the force-velocity profile, and start work doesn't lift maximum velocity on its own.
- Do I need all-out flying sprints?
- Not always. Efforts at 90 to 95% of top speed improved top-end mechanics and let athletes bank more high-speed work before fatigue.
- How heavy should the sled be?
- For a trained sprinter chasing the drive phase, heavy, at 80% of body mass or more. For top speed, light. For developmental athletes, light loads or free sprinting are enough.
Method and source. The velocity curve and the event-emphasis bars are schematic, drawn to show the shape of the phase model rather than measured values. The load slider maps published load bands to the phase they train, not a personalised prescription. All claims are drawn from the cited papers, verified August 2026. This is a summary of current evidence, not individual training advice.
References
- Haugen T, Seiler S, Sandbakk Ø, Tønnessen E (2019). The training and development of elite sprint performance: an integration of scientific and best practice literature. Sports Medicine – Open 5:44.
- Myrvang S, van den Tillaar R (2024). The longitudinal effects of resisted and assisted sprint training on sprint kinematics, acceleration, and maximum velocity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine – Open 10:110.
- Samozino P, et al. (2022). Optimal mechanical force-velocity profile for sprint acceleration performance. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 32:559-575.
- Petrakos G, Egan B, Morin JB (2016). Resisted sled sprint training to improve sprint performance: a systematic review. Sports Medicine 46(3):381-400.
- Alcaraz PE, et al. (2018). The effectiveness of resisted sled training (RST) for sprint performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine 48.
- Van den Tillaar R, et al. (2023). The effect of flying sprints at 90% to 95% of maximal velocity on sprint performance. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 18(3):248.
- Xu K, et al. (2025). Effects of resisted-sprint training on sprint performance and mechanics: a systematic review and meta-analysis focusing on load magnitude. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 35(12).
All links checked August 2026.