The fastest kid on the field doesn’t always touch the ball the most. But the kid who can accelerate over five metres — who gets to the contest a step ahead — almost always does.
Speed isn’t just a physical quality. In team sports, it’s a participation multiplier.
The gap that costs kids game involvement
Watch a junior game closely and you’ll see it happen over and over. A ball spills loose and two players chase it. One arrives first. The other doesn’t get a touch. Over the course of a game, that half-step difference decides who gets involved and who watches from the edge of the play.
It’s not about fitness. Both kids might be equally willing. The difference is acceleration — the ability to generate pace quickly over a short distance.
For young athletes still developing, this gap is frustrating. They’re trying hard. They want the ball. But they keep arriving a moment too late. Over time, that can quietly chip away at their confidence and their connection to the game.
The good news: acceleration is one of the most trainable physical qualities in junior sport. Kids who work on it consistently get genuinely faster — and the change shows up in real games.
Why acceleration matters more than top speed
Most parents think of speed as how fast a child can run flat out. But in team sports — AFL, netball, football, basketball, rugby — very few game actions involve a long, open sprint.
The contests that decide games happen in tight spaces. A player reads the play, makes a decision, and explodes into a five or ten metre burst. It’s that first two or three steps — not top-end pace — that win the loose ball, create the space, or close down the opponent.
That kind of speed is called acceleration. And compared to pure top-end velocity (which has a bigger genetic component), first-step quickness responds quickly to deliberate training. Athletes who haven’t naturally developed it yet can close the gap significantly over a single season.
What actually builds speed in young athletes
Speed development in junior sport doesn’t require a track coach or specialised equipment. The basics work.
Short, explosive efforts. The drills that build game-relevant acceleration are short — five, ten, twenty metres at most. Long runs build fitness, but they don’t teach the nervous system to fire quickly. Sprint drills that are genuinely explosive, with full recovery between efforts, are what moves the needle.
Strength as a foundation. Faster athletes tend to be stronger athletes. Bodyweight exercises — squats, lunges, single-leg work — build the leg power that translates directly into a harder first step. You don’t need a gym. Consistent bodyweight strength work at training age is one of the highest-leverage things a young athlete can do.
Rest between efforts. This is the one coaches get pushback on from players. Sprint drills are not cardio sessions. Full recovery between repetitions — longer than feels comfortable — is what allows each effort to be genuinely explosive. Tired sprints train endurance, not speed.
Consistency over blocks. A single intense training session won’t produce a faster athlete. But two or three sessions a week, across a season, with genuine effort on each rep, produces measurable change. Speed development is patient work.
How do you know if it’s actually transferring?
This is the part most junior programs miss entirely.
Athletes do the drills. Coaches run the sessions. But without tracking times, progress is invisible. A child might be genuinely faster than they were eight weeks ago and have no idea. Neither does their parent.
Timed sprint drills — the same distance, consistently recorded — tell the story that effort alone can’t. When a young athlete can see their five-metre time drop from 1.24 seconds to 1.09 seconds over a season, that’s not abstract. That’s proof. It’s the kind of evidence that keeps a kid motivated to keep working, and gives a parent something concrete to celebrate beyond “you tried hard today.”
ScorX includes run drill timers built for exactly this — recording efforts at training so athletes can track their progress across a season, not just guess at it.
One honest note: faster drill times don’t automatically guarantee more game time. Game involvement also depends on skills, decision-making, reading the play. But an athlete who is measurably quicker off the mark has removed one of the barriers. They’re arriving at contests. What they do next is up to them.
What to expect over a season
Realistic expectations matter here. Young athletes won’t transform into elite sprinters in twelve weeks. But the gains that come from consistent, focused speed work are meaningful at community sport level.
Fractions of a second change outcomes. An athlete who shaves 0.15 seconds off their acceleration over ten metres isn’t just a statistic improvement — they’re arriving at contests they were previously losing. They’re getting touches they weren’t getting. They’re involved.
That visible change — felt by the athlete and seen by their parent from the sideline — is what builds the kind of confidence that compounds over a career. Not just in speed. In the game itself.
Speed is trainable. Tracking it makes the training real.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age can young athletes start speed training?
Acceleration and agility work is appropriate from around eight or nine years old, as long as the focus is on fun, short efforts with plenty of rest. Formal strength training is generally introduced in early adolescence. The key at younger ages is movement quality over intensity.
How many sprint sessions should a junior athlete do each week?
Two dedicated sessions per week is a good starting point, with full recovery between efforts in each session. More than three speed sessions per week without adequate recovery can work against development.
What’s a good distance to track for junior speed development?
Five and ten metre sprints capture acceleration — the game-relevant quality. Twenty metres can also be useful for slightly older athletes. Anything longer starts measuring top-end speed rather than the first-step quickness that matters most in team sports.
How long does it take to see improvement in sprint times?
Most athletes who train consistently see measurable improvement within six to eight weeks. The gains early in a program tend to be the largest — technique improvements alone can produce noticeable time drops before fitness adaptations even kick in.
Does speed training help athletes in all team sports?
Yes. The acceleration qualities that matter in AFL — first-step quickness, change of direction, short-burst speed — are directly transferable to netball, basketball, football, and rugby. The specific distances and game contexts differ, but the underlying physical quality is the same.
ScorX is free to download. Start recording your athlete’s sprint times at training and track their progress across the season.