Speed training for the youth athlete

What one thing does a kid need to become quicker?

Is it:

Rate of force development — I’ve seen mention of relative strength, functional strength, and strength in your big toe, but I’m going to move on.

Coordination training — sprint drills and the like.

Fun -tag and chase games.

I’m going to argue that it is intent. We can’t schedule intent; we can’t measure it either but we know it when we see it.

My eldest runs hard when her sister chases her in tag games; she runs slower when I ask her to do sprint drills, yet when she runs at the half pipe in parkour in an attempt to make the top, I’ve never seen her run so fast, consistently, ever.

What can we learn from this?

Coach the human, not the model.