The Training and Development of Elite Sprint Performance: Science Meets Practice

Complete Performance
Aug 28, 2025
3 min read

The 100-meter sprint has always been the gold standard of speed — crowning the “world’s fastest humans.” Yet, despite decades of research, our understanding of how world-class sprinters actually train and develop is surprisingly incomplete. A recent review by Haugen and colleagues integrates scientific findings with best practice insights from elite sprint coaches, providing a roadmap for understanding and optimizing sprint performance at the highest level.

What Determines Sprint Performance?

Sprint success is shaped by three core pillars:

Power: The ability to generate high horizontal force rapidly is tightly linked with sprint speed.
Technique: Efficient mechanics — stride length, stride frequency, ground contact time, and front-side mechanics — distinguish elite from sub-elite sprinters.
Sprint-Specific Endurance: The capacity to resist velocity decline in the final 20–30 meters often separates medalists from the rest.

Genetics play a substantial role, but training, coaching quality, and progression determine how close an athlete gets to their ceiling.

Development of Sprint Performance

Peak age: 25–26 years for world-class sprinters.
Improvements: At the elite level, annual progress is often just 0.1–0.2%. Marginal gains matter.
Pathway: Most successful sprinters combine high-level junior performance with carefully managed progression, avoiding early overspecialization.
Longevity: Performance beyond age 30 is hard to maintain due to neural and muscular changes.

Key Training Principles

Progressive Overload
- Training loads must increase systematically while balancing recovery.
- Surfaces and footwear modify load: e.g., spikes on track vs. cushioned shoes on grass.
- Overload too fast → soft-tissue injuries (especially hamstrings).
Specificity
- Sprinting itself is the most powerful training stimulus.
- Supplementary work (strength, plyometrics, resisted runs) supports but never replaces sprinting.
Variation & Periodization
- Elite coaches rarely follow traditional “high-volume, low-intensity” models.
- Short-to-long progression (Charlie Francis model) is most popular: starting with short accelerations, progressing to max velocity and sprint endurance as the season unfolds.
- Polarized training: very high (>95%) or low (<70%) sprinting speeds; avoiding “the middle zone.”
Individualization
- Training must reflect the athlete’s force–velocity profile, sex, age, and injury history.
- Elite athletes require longer recoveries between high-speed sprints than juniors.

Training Methods in Practice

Acceleration work: 10–50 m sprints from blocks or crouch starts; full recovery.
Maximal velocity: Flying sprints (20–60 m build-up, 10–30 m max speed); 5–15 min recovery.
Sprint endurance: 100–150 m runs; 1–2 min rest per second of sprinting.
Speed endurance: Repeated 60–80 m sprints at 90–95% intensity with structured recoveries.
Resisted sprints: Hills, sleds — useful for developing force application, especially in acceleration.
Assisted sprints: Tailwinds or towing devices can promote higher step rates, but carry injury risk.
Strength & power: 2–3 sessions weekly; moving from hypertrophy → maximal strength → explosive power.
Plyometrics: Bounding, jumps, skips with focus on leg stiffness and horizontal power.

Recovery & Tapering

Active recovery: Tempo runs (100–300 m at ~65% of max velocity) keep athletes loose and build durability.
Passive recovery: Massage, cold-water immersion, compression garments are common but scientific evidence is mixed.
Tapering: The final 10–14 days before competition involve reduced volume (30–60%), maintained intensity, and a sharp focus on specificity.

Science vs. Best Practice: Bridging the Gap

Science often examines isolated drills on team-sport players.
Best practice integrates sprinting across distances, intensities, and periods, tailored to the athlete.
Where they align: strength, power, plyometrics, and tapering.
Where they diverge: sprint-specific programming, recovery strategies, and periodization models.

Practical Takeaways for Coaches

Sprinting itself is king — support it with targeted strength, plyometric, and resisted sprint training.
Progress slowly, respect recovery, and avoid sharp spikes in load.
Use short-to-long periodization to build acceleration first, then extend into max velocity and endurance.
Individualize training — what works for one sprinter may harm another.
Focus on technique as a career-long pursuit.

Final Word

The development of elite sprint performance is an art grounded in science. While genetics set the ceiling, careful planning, individualized progression, and evidence-informed practice determine how close an athlete can get. Haugen et al.’s review provides a blueprint — not as a rigid recipe, but as a framework where coaches blend research and practical wisdom to create champions.

✏️Author: Assist. Prof. Armin Paravlić, PhD

Reference:

Haugen, T., Seiler, S., Sandbakk, Ø. et al. The Training and Development of Elite Sprint Performance: an Integration of Scientific and Best Practice Literature. Sports Med - Open 5, 44 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-019-0221-0