Fred Duncan (@Fred__Duncan)

People see something done fast and assume it must be developing speed. That’s the mistake. Ladders are fine…you can use them for specific drills, warm-ups, or basic coordination. You can even add a reactive layer and make them more legitimate. The problem is when people ...

Everyone wants to get faster, but most people train speed in isolation. Rather than viewing everything as separate buckets, you need to think about how these pieces feed and interact with one another. Speed is built when sprinting, strength, plyometrics, and conditioning are ...

I’ve always been a fan of studying the past…the coaches and athletes who solved problems without the tools we have now, then pairing that with current research and with what I’ve seen with my own eyes through years on the floor. That blend is how my system evolved. In Speed ...

Athletes with stronger and longer (fascicle length) hamstrings show more efficient, front-side mechanics, greater hip flexion, faster knee extension, and less anterior pelvic tilt (Ripley et al. 2025) Those with weaker or shorter hamstrings tend to display back-side mechanics, ...

Even though sprinting is something we all can do, few ever master it. It’s not just running fast…it’s learning how to express force, rhythm, and timing through precise mechanics. What always surprises me is how much faster people get when they decide to actually train ...

Not all isometrics are the same. Different types. Different adaptations. What you use and when you use it…matters. We covered yielding, overcoming, and EQIs, but there are other useful variations too - Oscillatory isos, iso-dynamic, etc. Understanding why you’re using ...

Reactive strength is the ability to quickly and efficiently transition from an eccentric contraction to a concentric one. When you think about most sport actions…sprinting, jumping, changing direction, they all come down to how efficiently you apply force. That includes how ...

When you land, you aren’t absorbing force, you’re producing it eccentrically to control momentum and redirect motion. There are different ways to use eccentrics and help develop this quality – Tempo eccentrics - slower lowering submax loads to build control and positional ...

Can Muscle Make You Slower? This isn’t an anti-strength or anti-muscle post. I actually dedicate an entire chapter to this in my latest e-book, Speed Kills. For most athletes, the answer is simple…you do need more muscle and you do need to get much stronger. But at a ...