How to Make Kids Run Faster and Jump Higher

How to Make Kids Run Faster and Jump Higher

A Tale of Two Sisters Who Wanted to Be Fast

I have twin sisters, Hanna and Holli Reuter, who are seniors at Martinsville High School. They both recently committed to run track at Marian University in Indiana, both receiving full-tuition scholarships for track and field. They compete in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 400 meter sprints, along with the 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay and the long jump.

Speed and Strength Exercises for Young Athletes

Hanna and Holli have been training with me at Strength School since the fall of 2014, when they were 10 years old. At that time, I consulted with my friend, Matt Wenning, from Columbus, Ohio. Matt is a world-record holder in the sport of powerlifting, along with having decades of experience training all types of people, from older adults to kids to pro athletes.

For the first three years of their training, my sisters came to the gym for about an hour, twice a week. We began each workout session with both dynamic and static stretching to increase flexibility and improve proprioception. We then moved onto explosive exercises such as jumps, sprints, and throws with a 2lb medicine ball. And we would then end each workout with 20-30 minutes of bodyweight exercises designed to improve connections between the nervous system and the muscular system. The focus here is not on making the muscles bigger or substantially stronger - instead, the early years of training kids for speed and explosive jumping power should focus on training the brain and muscles to work together. Then, after several years of this type of training, when kids are introduced to more traditional weight lifting, they have the ability to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible on each rep of each exercise. This can be thought of as laying a strong foundation for overall athletic development, which allows the kids to reach a much higher peak of athleticism later in life. The exercises we often used were reverse hyperextensions, inverted rows, pull ups, 1-leg calf raises, spread-eagle sit-ups (to engage the hip flexors), Russian curls, planks, and all types of bridges.

Intermediate Years of Athletic Development

After about three years of the aforementioned workouts, my sisters began adding external resistance to most exercises. We began to add ankle weights to their reverse hypers; we incorporated glute-ham raises with 5lb and 10lb plates; dumbbells were held during back extensions and single-leg calf raises, and much more. During these intermediate years, my sisters were in 8th and 9th grades. We also began adding more exercise variety, including movements on cable machines and plate-loaded machines.

Around this time, I spoke with Dan Pfaff regarding my sisters’ training program. Dan is a legendary track and field coach, having coached over 60 athletes to medals at the Olympics, including sprinters like Donovan Bailey and long jumpers like Greg Rutherford. Among many pieces of knowledge, Dan suggested that I increase the amount of plyometrics, such as depth jumps or hurdle hops, with my sisters. Plyometric usage, especially with young athletes, is a widely-debated topic among trainers and coaches. Some coaches believe that they are too dangerous for kids. Dan, however, disagreed when I spoke with him: “kids are already doing plyometrics when they’re at the playground or playing tag around their neighborhood, jumping off of a 2- or 3-foot piece of equipment, landing, and taking off as fast as possible into a sprint.” So in Dan’s view, a reasonable amount of plyometrics is perfectly safe for young athletes, including middle schoolers and high schoolers.

High School Track and Field Exercises and Speed Training

My sisters had a strong freshman season in track, although they were unable to advance out of their sectional championships. Their sophomore season was cancelled due to Covid, but they had an incredible junior season. Hanna broke the school record in the 400m dash with the 8th fastest time in Indiana and was .25 inches off of the long jump school record at 17’6”. Holli also had a strong year in long jump, peaking at 16’11.5” and they both ran on the 4x100m team that broke the school record by 7 seconds and won sectionals and regionals with the 9th fastest time in the state. At this point, they were 16/17 years old and had been training in the gym at Strength School for almost 7 years. We were now doing lots of barbell lifts, including heavy deadlifts, squats, Bulgarian split squats, high pulls, and more. With over six years of foundational exercises in the gym, the more complex barbell lifts were easy for Hanna and Holli to learn and to advance in quickly. Hanna has deadlifted 250 pounds at a bodyweight of 130lb, and Holli has deadlifted 200 at 115lbs. They can also both do five strict, full range-of-motion chin ups.

The girls are now in their senior season, producing very good numbers in the sprints and long jump. Hanna recently won the Mid-State conference title in the long jump and Holli placed second in the conference 4x100m dash.

-Shane