Everything Speed Part 2

Everything Speed · Part 2 of 7

A stolen base is decided in the first three steps. So is a jump on a ball in the gap, a first step to a grounder, and a break off the line in almost any sport. Win those steps and you win most plays.

What good acceleration looks like

ALTIS boils acceleration down to a handful of positions. In our words:

1. Forward lean: shoulders stacked over the knees, the whole body leaning, not bent at the waist.
2. Neutral pelvis: belly button facing forward, not down at the ground.
3. Scissoring thighs: knees close together at touchdown, a big split at toe-off.
4. Shins pushing back: low shin angles so force goes back into the ground.
5. Stiff ankles: little heel drop on contact, toes pulled up through the swing.

Tony Villani, known for preparing football players for the combine, puts a huge premium on these first steps. A great 40 is mostly won in the first 10 yards.

Aim beats power

Research from JB Morin (2011) and Rabita (2015) found something important. During acceleration, how well an athlete aims force matters more than how much force they make.

The fastest accelerators push the ground backward, not just down. That’s why the shin angles and forward lean above matter so much.

Hips project, ankles deliver

Acceleration is a chain, not one muscle. The glutes and hamstrings extend the hip and project the body forward. JB Morin’s research (2015) found the hamstrings play a major role in producing the horizontal force that separates good accelerators.

The calves and ankles finish the job. A 2021 computer model (Pandy et al. 2021) found the calves made up a large share of the forward push during ground contact, because they’re the last link to the ground. A soft ankle leaks the force the hips create.

So train the whole chain: hip extension, hamstrings, and real calf and ankle work, not a few sets tacked on at the end of the session.

Sleds done right

A 2025 review of 49 studies (Xu, Morin, Girard and colleagues) looked at how heavy a sled should be:

• About 20% of bodyweight is the minimum that beat plain sprinting.
• Very heavy sleds (80% of bodyweight or more) produced the biggest gains, mostly in the first 0 to 5 meters.
• Trained athletes benefited most. Recreational athletes did about as well with plain sprints or light sleds.

So sleds are a tool, not a requirement. Young athletes should learn to sprint well before they pull heavy loads.

Sources: ALTIS, “The Rules of Acceleration”; Morin et al. 2011, 2015; Rabita et al. 2015; Pandy et al. 2021, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise; Xu et al. 2025, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports; Tony Villani; Fred Duncan.