Today’s podcast features James Wild, a Research & Development and Speed Consultant with Harlequins Rugby Club and a Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Surrey. With expertise in biomechanics, skill acquisition, and motor learning, James has worked with athletes of all levels, including medal-winning teams at major competitions. He is also an author and holds a PhD in biomechanics and motor control of sprint acceleration.
While many approaches exist for speed training, less attention is given to individual movement strategies. Athletes accelerate differently based on sport, movement background, and physical attributes.
James discusses his quadrant system, which categorizes acceleration strategies based on flight/ground time and stride frequency vs. step length. He also covers injury trends, plyometrics, sprint technique, resisted sprints, motor learning, and more. It was great having James back—this episode is essential for anyone interested in speed training and individualized performance.
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Main Points
3:00– Personalized Approach to Enhancing Speed Through Strength
7:25– Distinct Athletic Techniques Across Animal-Inspired Strategies
19:17– Ankle-Dominant Movement and Injury Risk Factors
26:03– Enhancing Performance Through Diverse Sports Integration
36:31– Reactive Strength Optimization for Acceleration Performance
40:24– Technique-Focused Interventions for Acceleration Enhancement
45:03– Enhancing Performance Through Technical Acceleration Cues
51:54– Enhancing Hip Muscle Strength Through Leg Swings
56:29– Tailored Loaded Resistance for Sprint Optimization
1:03:32– Personalized Training Approaches Enhancing Athlete Performance
Quotes
(23:29) “The importance of adaptability: In particular for team sports in what you’re doing, that your footwork patterns and the conditions under which you accelerate are going to change, you know, every single time you do it.”
(25:00) “The field hockey players tend to adopt a bit more of a spinner type strategy where the step rate’s higher, flight times lower and then with the lacrosse players it’s a bit more of a, towards more of a bounder type strategy in, in comparison.”
(29:15) “I think it’s always useful to know their acceleration strategy. But, but that information alone doesn’t mean that you intervene automatically in a specific way.”
(32:24) “If it was a bounder picking up repeated calf injuries during those, excuse me, during those warm up sprint efforts that they get week after week or even in the speed sessions, then we might try and get them to focus on a slightly higher step rate.”
(38:30) “What I have fairly consistently found though is that when meaningful changes to those reactive strength stiffness like qualities have been made, typically through a combination of pliers and isometric work, although more along the lines of plyos, contact times typically become a bit shorter. And as a result, what you see therefore is that those player acceleration strategies often move slightly more towards bouncer or bounder strategies where contact times are short relative to their flight times.”
(41:11) “Sometimes it is about trying to identify what might be relatively simple deficits from a strength perspective in an individual and going after those to change their technique as opposed to directly cuing them to do something.”
(57:00): “If I was gonna use sleds as a means to try and increase step rate frequency, I might generally load up heavier and there and have them sprint in a way where they’re having to turn over with a high frequency one to get a feel for it… Whereas if I’m going for more step length development, I would lighten the load quite a bit.. but to try and cover a little bit of extra distance with each step.”
About James Wild
James is currently working as a Research & Development and Speed Consultant with Harlequins Rugby Club and as a Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Surrey. Using a blend of physical preparation and biomechanics techniques with skill acquisition and motor learning principles, James has worked with coaches and athletes across a full spectrum of abilities, including medal-winning teams and athletes at major international competitions. James is also a book author and has a PhD in the biomechanics and motor control of initial sprint acceleration
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