If you only ever train acceleration, you give up two things: the top speed your acceleration is climbing toward, and the ability to hold something close to it once you get there. For most field athletes acceleration should still get the bulk of the week, because a game is full of short bursts from a stand or a jog. But dropping max velocity work entirely puts a ceiling on how fast those bursts can get, and it shows up on the one long play that decides a game.
Updated October 2026.
The question we get is rarely framed this cleanly. It is usually a parent asking why their kid does so many short starts on the turf, or an athlete who has heard top-end speed only matters for track sprinters. Both are fair. Here is how we think about splitting the time.
Three different qualities, not one
Acceleration is how quickly you get from slow to fast. Body leaning forward, big pushes into the ground, each step a little longer and quicker than the last. A 40-yard dash is mostly an acceleration test, which is why it is the number every football coach asks for.
Max velocity is your top speed. Upright posture, fast ground contacts, the foot striking under the hips rather than pushing out behind. You can only train it after a build-up long enough to actually reach it, and you measure it with a flying 10: ten yards timed after a running start, so the clock only sees you already moving fast.
Speed endurance is holding near that top speed for longer before you slow down. It matters most in sports and positions with long sprints, and it is the most tiring of the three to train.
What you actually give up
The first cost is a lower ceiling. Acceleration is the process of approaching your top speed, so an athlete with a higher top speed has more room to accelerate into. Train only starts and you can get very good at the first few steps while the speed those steps are heading toward never moves. That is the athlete who wins the first ten yards and gets run down at thirty.
The second cost is mechanics. Upright sprinting is a skill of its own. Athletes who never practice it tend to keep pushing like they are still accelerating, staying low and reaching out in front, which is slower and harder on the hamstrings than running tall. A little max velocity work each week teaches the transition.
The third cost is the long play. A kick return, a breakaway, a winger running the full channel. Those moments are rare, but they are the ones people remember, and they are run almost entirely at or near top speed.
Why acceleration still gets most of the week
None of that means flipping the ratio. In field and court sports most sprints start from a standstill, a backpedal or a jog, and many end before an athlete is anywhere near top speed. Getting faster over the first several steps pays off on almost every snap or possession. Top speed pays off on far fewer.
Acceleration work is also the easiest to fit around practice. Short starts on our indoor turf need only a few yards of lane, recover quickly, and do not leave an athlete wrecked for the next day. That is a big part of why our speed sessions lean on them.
How we split a week that already has practice in it
For an in-season athlete with team practice most days, the version we come back to looks like this:
- Acceleration on most speed days. Full-effort starts of 10 to 20 yards, with full recovery between reps so every one is fast.
- Max velocity once a week. A handful of build-up runs where the athlete reaches near top speed and holds it briefly through a timed zone. Low volume, high quality.
- Speed endurance only if the sport needs it, and usually in the off-season, because it costs the most recovery.
The number of reps matters less than the quality. Six to ten all-out efforts with full rest beat twenty tired ones every time, because a tired rep teaches the body to run slower. We lay out a whole training week, lifting included, in our explosive week plan.
When the week gets short
Something always gives during the season. When it does, speed endurance goes first, max velocity gets cut to a few quality reps, and acceleration stays. If an athlete only has one speed slot that week, we spend it on starts.
To see where an athlete actually stands, test both qualities rather than one. A 40-yard dash tells you about acceleration and a flying 10 tells you about top speed, and the gap between the two says which one needs the attention. Our speed benchmarks for high school athletes give the ranges we compare against, and how each number was timed matters as much as the number.
If you want a speed plan built around a real practice schedule, that is what our training programs are for. Athletes from Ocean Township and across Monmouth County can get in touch to book a session.