Track and Field

[Anonymous]

the AAU track clubs definitely take a mix of kids and they get coaching. Spartan Chose, House of Speed, the St James- all in VA and have good programs.

Strength training and yoga can be done at home or gym. Resistance bands are great for this. Down Dog or Apple fitness are great options for training at home

[Anonymous]

I personally think it's tough to get faster as a sprinter if the natural ability isn't already there. You need the fast twitch musculature to support fast running.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm more of a long distance runner but when I started really focusing on speed work, I was able to post some pretty good times. I typically ran a few days a week, with one day every week being designated for track work. I'd do a mile of warmup and striders and a mile of cool down. In the middle, 3 miles of varying intervals. Sometimes 10-12 400's with recovery in between. Sometimes 1600/2x800/4x400 with recovery. Etc. or a bunch of 400s, some 200s, some hundreds. Outside of the track, proper nutrition, hydration and good sleep are crucial. And if there's excess weight, that does make you slower. My daughter also does some weight lifting to build lower body muscle and core strength.

That is a track workout for a long distance, runner, so if you want a kid in HS to get faster for HS events (2 mi or shorter) don't go out running 10 x 400m, that's not a speed workout. This is bad advice for anyone who isn't a 2 miler, and really isn't ideal for them either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has been doing track and field in school for 2 years (she only went to all the meets 1 of the years.) She does short and mid distance (50, 100, 200) and loves it. She really wants to get better though. She says she's sad that she is one of the worst on her team and really wants to train and not always come last or second to last in all her races. How can she train for 200m and/or 100m. Please give any tips or training workouts! She is 14 by the way and a freshman and really wants to train before tryouts.

The race distances you listed are not "mid" distance at all. Those are pure sprints. So bear that in mind.

Speed is the first thing to fade. It has to be trained at lease twice a week to have any hope of consistent progress. You can do 3 times a week and be improving, or alternate 2 and 3 speed/sprint training sessions a week (one week 2, next week 3) if you want. But if you're daughter wants to get faster she has to be doing speed based workouts.

Time her sprints. If you're not timing it then it's not a speed workout, because you have no clue if you're truly sprinting.

To work on pure speed she'll want to get a flying 10m or 10yard time. This means setting out markers that are 10m/10y apart and giving her as much runway to build to her max speed for that 10m/10y interval. Do it on the track. Ideally do it in spikes. This is for pure max velocity. You want to rest at least 2 minutes between reps. If she runs a rep that is 15% slower than her max she either needs another 2 minutes rest or you need to stop for the day. Speed isn't trained with endless repetitions.

She needs to be on a proper general weight lifting program. Not 3 sets of 10 reps. 5 sets of 5, with heavy weights. If she, or you, are worried she'll bulk up just know that body builders spend a decade to get "big" and she won't in just a year or two. It might seem it at first, but that's just the body adapting to finally having muscle.

It'll take months to get truly faster, but if she is consistent then she'll see improvement in weeks. But if she's not training for speed, 2-3 times a week, it won't happen.

Everyone can get faster. And if she trains then she can absolutely see good improvement within the indoor track season and be ready to continue improvements during outdoor track. Then the question is if she's dedicated enough to go out and keep training during the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally think it's tough to get faster as a sprinter if the natural ability isn't already there. You need the fast twitch musculature to support fast running.

This is correct. Everyone can get faster, but not everyone can be fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally think it's tough to get faster as a sprinter if the natural ability isn't already there. You need the fast twitch musculature to support fast running.

This is correct. Everyone can get faster, but not everyone can be fast.

You first have to define "fast".

For the OP it is "not last in every race". At the athlete's listed size we are simply looking to get a faster sprinter, there isn't a major body composition issue to address. Based also on the size and not being fast (currently) it is most likely a frail person who needs overall strength to improve. That alone will improve times and speed.

Consistent speed training will absolutely get this kid faster. If they were to focus on sprinting as a year round, 2-3 times/week, pursuit they can become a more than decent HS sprinter.

[Anonymous]

Most people can get fast enough to compete at the HS level. Not saying they'll win meets but they can compete and have fun.

The idea that you can't build sprint speed to compete at the HS/teen level is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people can get fast enough to compete at the HS level. Not saying they'll win meets but they can compete and have fun.

The idea that you can't build sprint speed to compete at the HS/teen level is absurd.

I guess it depends on what you mean by competing. Even with extensive training, a kid without a genetic predisposition for speed will not be competitive with naturally faster peers, even at the high school level. Similarly, if a kid is not good at hitting pitched baseballs, thousands of swings in the cage will make them better, but they won't be competitive unless they possess the innate abilities suited to hitting a small moving object coming at a high rate of speed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people can get fast enough to compete at the HS level. Not saying they'll win meets but they can compete and have fun.

The idea that you can't build sprint speed to compete at the HS/teen level is absurd.

Competing with other slow people?

[Anonymous]

I think the hard things with the sport distance sprints in the different between 1st and last could be less than a second. Those tiny differences differentiate the good sprinters from the mediocre ones. Focusing on strength and the mechanics of racing can make the difference.

It might not make your daughter in the top 10 but it might make her not last

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I think the hard things with the sport distance sprints in the different between 1st and last could be less than a second. Those tiny differences differentiate the good sprinters from the mediocre ones. Focusing on strength and the mechanics of racing can make the difference.

It might not make your daughter in the top 10 but it might make her not last

The difference between first and last in a HS meet is WAY more than one second. I picked a random meet from last yearoutdooor track (Liberty District at Herndon on Apr 22, 2025) and these are the time differences between first and last in the two shortest girls races:

100M - 10.79 seconds
400m - 37.43 seconds

[Anonymous]

I said short distance- if you look at the holiday invitational from last December indoor- the 55m winner for girls was 7.18 and 25th place was 8.08 and 43rd was 8.74. Last place should not have been in the race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people can get fast enough to compete at the HS level. Not saying they'll win meets but they can compete and have fun.

The idea that you can't build sprint speed to compete at the HS/teen level is absurd.

I guess it depends on what you mean by competing. Even with extensive training, a kid without a genetic predisposition for speed will not be competitive with naturally faster peers, even at the high school level. Similarly, if a kid is not good at hitting pitched baseballs, thousands of swings in the cage will make them better, but they won't be competitive unless they possess the innate abilities suited to hitting a small moving object coming at a high rate of speed.

What do you mean by competing?

I'm an s&c coach and have developed plenty of kids.

If a kid put in a year of strength and speed training then they can get to middle of the pack in meets unless they're just straight up obese when they start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people can get fast enough to compete at the HS level. Not saying they'll win meets but they can compete and have fun.

The idea that you can't build sprint speed to compete at the HS/teen level is absurd.

Competing with other slow people?

Define slow?

Why do some of posters think a kid either needs to be competing against D1 prospects or they should just find a new sport?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I said short distance- if you look at the holiday invitational from last December indoor- the 55m winner for girls was 7.18 and 25th place was 8.08 and 43rd was 8.74. Last place should not have been in the race.

What on Earth do you mean by "should not have been in the race"?