When athletes want to get faster, the first thought is usually simple:
Run more. Sprint more. Do more speed drills.
And yes, if you want to become faster, you need to sprint.
But there’s another piece of the puzzle that athletes often overlook.
The weight room.
Speed isn’t just about moving your legs faster. It’s about how much force you can put into the ground and how quickly you can produce that force.
Think of your body like a sports car. Sprint training teaches you how to drive it. Strength training builds a bigger engine.
If you want to get faster on the field, court, or track, building that engine matters.
Speed Is About Producing Force
Watch a fast athlete sprint.
Their feet don’t float across the ground. Each stride is an explosion.
They strike the ground, produce a tremendous amount of force in a fraction of a second, and propel themselves forward.
That’s one of the biggest reasons strength matters for speed.
A stronger athlete has the potential to produce more force.
Exercises such as:
- Squats
- Split squats
- Romanian deadlifts
- Deadlift variations
- Lunges
can help athletes develop stronger legs, hips, hamstrings, and glutes.
But here’s where things get interesting.
Strength alone doesn’t make you fast.
An athlete could have an impressive squat and still get beaten in a sprint.
Why?
Because sports don’t give you three seconds to produce force.
You have fractions of a second.
That’s where power enters the equation.
The Missing Link Between Strength and Speed
Imagine two athletes standing at the starting line.
Both are strong.
But when the whistle blows, one athlete explodes forward while the other takes a few steps to get going.
What’s the difference?
One athlete may be better at using their strength quickly.
That’s power.
A simple way to think about athletic development is:
Strength → Power → Speed
First, we build the athlete’s ability to produce force.
Then, we teach them to produce that force fast.
That’s why a complete athletic performance program shouldn’t consist of nothing but heavy lifting.
It can also include explosive movements such as:
- Jumps
- Bounds
- Medicine ball throws
- Plyometrics
- Olympic lifting variations
- Accelerations
- Sprints
The goal isn’t to create an athlete who is simply good at lifting weights.
The goal is to build strength that transfers to the field.
When the ball is snapped, the pitch is thrown, or an opponent makes a move, athletes don’t have time to think about producing force.
They have to explode.
“But Won’t Lifting Weights Make Me Slow?”
This is one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding athletic training.
Athletes sometimes worry that getting stronger will make them bulky, stiff, or slow.
But the problem usually isn’t strength training itself.
It’s how you train.
Training an athlete should look different from training someone whose only goal is adding as much muscle as possible.
For athletes, the weight room is a tool.
We’re using it to develop physical qualities that can improve performance:
- Strength to produce more force
- Power to produce force quickly
- Muscle to handle the demands of sport
- Coordination to control the body
- Durability to withstand practices, games, and long seasons
The goal isn’t to turn a baseball player, football player, basketball player, or soccer player into a powerlifter.
The goal is to make them a better athlete.
That distinction matters.
Sprinting Still Matters
There’s one important point athletes and parents shouldn’t miss:
You cannot become great at sprinting without sprinting.
The weight room builds the engine, but eventually you have to take the car onto the track.
Sprint training helps athletes improve things that strength training alone cannot fully develop, including:
- Acceleration technique
- Sprint mechanics
- Coordination at high speeds
- Max-velocity sprinting
- Applying force in the right direction
That’s why the answer isn’t:
Weights OR sprinting.
It’s:
Weights AND sprinting.
When properly programmed together, strength training and speed training can complement each other.
You’re building a stronger athlete in the weight room and then teaching that athlete how to use that strength explosively.
Stop Chasing “Speed Drills”
Athletes can spend hours running through ladders, cones, and complicated drills that look impressive on social media.
But looking fast and being fast aren’t always the same thing.
Sometimes the biggest opportunity isn’t finding another fancy drill.
It’s improving the athlete’s physical foundation.
Can they produce enough force?
Are their legs strong?
Are their hamstrings strong?
Can they control their body on one leg?
Can they produce force explosively?
And, most importantly, can they apply those qualities when they sprint?
Those questions can tell us much more than how quickly someone can tap their feet through an agility ladder.
Build the Engine, Then Use It
If you’re an athlete who wants to get faster, don’t make the mistake of thinking every workout needs to look like a track practice.
Speed is a physical quality that can be developed from multiple angles.
Get stronger.
Learn to produce that strength explosively.
Sprint consistently.
Then give your body enough recovery to adapt.
One helpful tip: track your progress instead of constantly changing your workouts.
Track your strength numbers. Track your jumps. Track your sprint times.
If those numbers are moving in the right direction, you’re building something.
At PowerHaus Fitness and Performance, our goal isn’t simply to help athletes lift more weight.
We want to build stronger, faster, more explosive athletes and teach them how to use that strength where it actually matters: in competition.
Because when you’re chasing more speed, sometimes the path to the finish line starts in the weight room.
