Fred Duncan (@Fred__Duncan)

Effective speed development demands a system, one that guides progression, reinforces mechanics, and drives understanding In all of my programs, beginner to advanced, there’s a natural progression of sprint work, drill selection, tissue prep, and workload management. ...

How much time should you actually spend coaching sprint mechanics for non-track athletes? This is a question I get all the time and it’s a good one, because it forces coaches to confront how they use their time. Sprinting is one of the most powerful training tools we have. ...

Unilateral vs. Bilateral Strength Training…The “debate” misses the point. The goal isn’t always to mimic sport. It’s to build adaptable athletes through sound principles and smart loading. Study 1 — Muehlbauer et al., 2019 6 weeks of unilateral vs. bilateral strength training ...

A common idea floating around is that you need to squat 2x your bodyweight before you “earn the right” to do plyometrics. In my opinion, that’s outdated and nonsensical. Sure, you shouldn’t throw someone into depth jumps or shock training on day one. But you also wouldn’t have ...

My 3 favorite jumps with a vertical emphasis. In a precious reel I covered my favorite plyometrics for speed, which were mainly horizontal in nature. A few people asked for vertical emphasis jumps, so these are my most frequently used. Loaded jumps… ...

It’s easy to get caught up in binaries like lifting vs. sprinting, but that’s a limited view of human performance. The reality is, athletic development isn’t a game of either/or. It’s a process of layering & integrating various biomotor abilities over time. ...

Relaxation for speed Most athletes try to sprint harder. The best sprinters know how to run relaxed. Sprinting is a violent, high-output movement, but it’s also rhythmic and controlled. It’s fluid. And that’s where most athletes fall short. ...

Med ball throws allow us to train explosive hip and knee extension, coordinate full-body sequences, and introduce movement variability without losing intent. They’re one of the most versatile and underutilized tools in athletic development. ✅ High-force, high-velocity ...

Use these drills to warm-up for your sprint training. These power speed drills aren’t designed to exactly mimic sprinting, they’re used to reinforce the patterns and positional awareness that underpin it. ...