Acceleration is the most trainable vector on the protocol and the most commonly neglected. It is also the one that caps more junior AQ Scores than any other, because it sits underneath change of direction and maximum speed as well as scoring in its own right.
This is a complete twelve-week block. It assumes you can train three days a week around your sport, that you have access to a flat twenty-five metres, and that you have a baseline 20 m time you can compare against at the end.
The physiology, in plain language
Acceleration is a force problem before it is a leg-speed problem. To speed up, you push backwards into the ground harder than the ground is slowing you down. Three things determine how well you do that:
- 01Force production — how much you can push. Trained with heavy, low-volume strength work.
- 02Shin and body angle — the direction you push. Trained with resisted sprints, hills and specific drills.
- 03Intent — how hard you actually try in the first three steps. Trained by sprinting fresh, with full recovery, and never as conditioning.
In that order. Athletes who cannot express force into the ground run out of acceleration by the fifth step, no matter how good their drill technique looks.
Weekly structure
| Day | Session | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Sprint + heavy lower body | Acceleration quality, then force |
| Day 3 | Resisted / hill work + trunk | Force in the sprint position |
| Day 5 | Sprint quality + accessory | Intent and mechanics |
Fit this around your sport, never on top of it. If your sport session is heavy, move the sprint day rather than doubling up. Two well-executed weeks beat three compromised ones.
Phase 1 — Build the force base (weeks 1–4)
- Day 1: 6 × 10 m sprint from a two-point start, full recovery (2–3 min). Then squat variation 4 × 5 heavy, Romanian deadlift 3 × 8, split squat 3 × 8 each side.
- Day 3: Wall drive 3 × 10 s each leg. Resisted march 4 × 15 m. Trap-bar or hinge work 4 × 5. Plank and Pallof press 3 × 40 s.
- Day 5: 5 × 15 m sprint, full recovery. Bounding 3 × 20 m. Calf raise 3 × 15. Nordic or hamstring curl 3 × 6.
Total sprint volume stays under 120 m per session. Strength is heavy and low volume — you should finish the lift feeling strong, not destroyed. If Day 1's lifting stops you sprinting properly on Day 3, cut a set.
Phase 2 — Add resistance (weeks 5–8)
- Day 1: Sled push or heavy sled march 5 × 15 m at a load that slows you roughly 20 per cent. Then 4 × 10 m unresisted. Squat 4 × 4 heavy.
- Day 3: Hill or ramp sprint 6 × 15 m. Step-up 4 × 6 each leg. Trunk anti-rotation work.
- Day 5: 5 × 20 m unresisted, full recovery. Single-leg broad jump 3 × 4 each side. Posterior chain accessory.
The load matters more than it looks. Too light and it changes nothing; too heavy and you are doing a strength exercise that happens to look like a sprint. Twenty per cent slower than your unresisted time over the same distance is the target — time it rather than guessing.
Phase 3 — Convert (weeks 9–12)
- Day 1: 4 × 20 m at maximal intent, 3–4 min recovery. Squat 3 × 3 at a moderate-heavy load, moved fast.
- Day 3: 3 × 25 m from a two-point start, full recovery. Low-volume jump work: countermovement jump 3 × 3, quality only.
- Day 5: 3 × 20 m plus 2 × 30 m flying. Stop while you still feel fast. Mobility finish.
Resistance comes off, distances extend, and volume falls week on week. This is a nervous-system block, not a conditioning block. In week 12, cut everything to roughly half and do no maximal lifting inside 48 hours of your retest.
Common mistakes
- Too much sprint volume. More than about 150 m of maximal sprinting in a session degrades quality and trains the wrong thing.
- Short rest. Ninety seconds is not full recovery for a maximal 20 m. Two to three minutes is the floor.
- Sled loads chosen by feel. Time them or you are guessing.
- Chasing soreness from the lifting days and losing the sprint days to it.
- Adding sessions in week 12 because you feel good. The taper is the part that converts the work into a number.
- Retesting on a different surface, in different shoes, or at a different time of day. The comparison is only worth something if the conditions match.
How to read the retest
Retest at the end of week 12 under the same conditions as your baseline, fresh, with the same start method.
| Result | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| 20 m improved, other vectors held | The block worked as intended. | Move to the next limiter named in your report. |
| 20 m improved, aerobic dropped | Expected trade-off if sport volume fell. | Reintroduce aerobic work in the next block. |
| No change, strength up | Force improved but did not convert. | Repeat Phase 3 with higher intent and less total volume. |
| No change, strength flat | Load was too light or recovery too poor. | Audit sleep, food and session order before repeating. |
| Slower | Almost always accumulated fatigue. | Take a full deload week, then retest before drawing conclusions. |
If your acceleration vector moved and nothing else regressed, the block worked. If nothing moved, the limiter was somewhere else — and that is exactly what the eight-vector report exists to tell you.