The lab is at 2048 NW 22nd Ct in Allapattah, a few minutes from Wynwood, Midtown and Downtown Miami. Speed work runs inside the performance classes six days a week and inside individual programs for competitive athletes.
What we measure first
Every speed program here begins with a ten-metre and a thirty-metre sprint on timing gates, a counter-movement jump on the force plates and a look at how the athlete decelerates. The gates give the acceleration split and the top-speed split separately, because the training that fixes a slow first ten metres is different from the training that fixes a slow last twenty.
The force plate adds the two numbers that explain the sprint: peak force, which is how hard the athlete can push, and rate of force development, which is how fast that force arrives. An athlete with good force and slow development trains with lighter, faster lifts, jumps and throws. An athlete with fast development and low force trains strength first.
How a block of speed training runs
Speed work is placed at the start of a session, after the warm-up and before any fatigue, because a tired sprint rehearses a slower pattern. A typical week for an adult in the classes has two sessions with acceleration or jump work at the front and one with change-of-direction work. Competitive athletes on an individual program get sprint sessions written around their competition calendar.
Each block lasts four to six weeks and ends with a retest on the same gates and plates. A ten-metre time improving by five to ten hundredths of a second is a real change for a trained athlete; larger swings usually mean the first test was a bad day, and we say so.
Who it is for
Adults who want to be faster for their sport or their weekend league train speed inside the performance classes; the first class is free. Athletes from high school to professional train it inside an individual program that begins with a performance assessment. Youth athletes between ten and eighteen start with a free evaluation that includes the sprint and jump tests.