3 Game-Changing Sprint Drills That Will Unlock Your Speed

After years of working with athletes at every level, I’ve discovered that most sprinters are unknowingly sabotaging their own speed. They’re grinding through endless workouts, perfecting their starts, and obsessing over their times—but they’re missing the fundamentals that actually matter when you hit that crucial 40-60 meter zone where races are won and lost.

The truth is, speed isn’t just about how hard you can push. It’s about efficiency, mechanics, and creating the perfect storm of coordinated movement that allows your body to flow rather than fight against itself. Today, I want to share three specific techniques that can transform your sprinting immediately, not months from now.

The Foundation: Why Perfect Posture Changes Everything

Before we dive into the drills, let’s talk about something most athletes completely overlook—posture. I’m not talking about standing up straight in your everyday life. I’m talking about maintaining perfect alignment from the ground up during every single movement you make.

Picture this: you’re flying down the track, but your hips are tilted forward, your shoulders are hunched, or your head is jutting out. What happens? Energy starts leaking everywhere. Instead of that power driving you forward, it’s scattered in a dozen different directions. You end up with mysterious pains in your ankles, knees, hips, and back—and you can’t figure out why your times have plateaued.

The fix isn’t complicated, but it requires discipline. Every drill you do, every warm-up movement, every stride during your tempo runs—treat it like a posture practice session. Your body needs to learn this alignment so deeply that it becomes automatic when you’re flying at max velocity.

The Revolutionary Butt Kick Transformation

Now, let’s talk about what might be the most misunderstood drill in all of sprinting—the butt kick. If you learned to do butt kicks the traditional way, you’re probably doing them wrong, and it’s actively hurting your sprint mechanics.

Most athletes do what I call “primary school butt kicks”—they kick backward with their knees pointing down, initiating the movement with their hamstrings. This creates exactly the wrong pattern. You’re training your body to move in two separate actions: kick back, then bring forward. That’s inefficient and slow.

Here’s the game-changer: instead of kicking backward, you need to kick upward, right underneath your glutes. Think of it as “high school butt kicks.” The magic happens when you fire your hip flexors first, popping your thigh forward while simultaneously pulling your heel up toward your butt. It’s one fluid motion instead of two separate actions.

Start by practicing this standing still. Hold onto something stable, place your hand right under your glutes, and practice kicking upward to hit your hand. Once you’ve got that feeling, progress to doing it on the spot—heel comes up directly underneath your glutes, not behind you.

When you take this drill moving forward, something beautiful happens. It becomes a hybrid between a high knee drill and the traditional butt kick. You’re finding that sweet spot between pure front-side mechanics and pure rear-side mechanics. That’s where the magic lives—in that balanced middle ground where you get the best of both worlds.

The Fast Leg Drill: Putting It All Together

Once you’ve mastered the new butt kick pattern, it’s time to integrate it into what we call the fast leg drill. This is where the real transformation happens because you’re taking that improved butt kick and combining it with forward drive.

Here’s how it works: you perform your new butt kick action—heel to butt with the knee popping forward—then immediately drive that knee even further forward before cycling the leg down. On the opposite side, you’re doing a straight leg bound or scissor action. Then you switch.

The beauty of this drill is in its complexity. You can practice single legs, alternate legs, or even do three on one side then three on the other. The variations challenge your coordination while cementing the mechanical changes you’re trying to create.

What you’re really doing is breaking the pattern of leaving your knee and heel behind you during your sprint. Instead, you’re training your body to keep everything moving forward, which dramatically improves your stride length and frequency.

The Finishing Touch: Dribbles to Technical Runs

The final piece of this puzzle involves a concept that might seem counterintuitive—starting with abbreviated sprinting and building up to full speed. I call these “dribbles,” and they’re essentially a shortened version of your sprinting gait that emphasizes front-side mechanics.

Begin with high knee dribbles, keeping your turnover quick and your legs pulling forward. After about 20 meters, gradually transition into a technical run where you start applying more force to the ground. The key is that smooth transition from being completely front-side to finding that optimal balance between front and rear-side mechanics.

This progression is incredibly powerful because it carries the technical improvements from the drill directly into your running. Your body learns to maintain those efficient patterns even as you accelerate to full speed.

The Reality Check

These aren’t just drills—they’re a complete rewiring of how your body moves. The athletes who commit to this approach don’t just run faster; they run more efficiently, with less injury risk and better consistency. But here’s the catch: it requires patience and attention to detail that most athletes aren’t willing to invest.

Your speed is waiting for you in the details. Master these fundamentals, and watch as your times drop while your running becomes more effortless than ever before.