Quick answer
Most youth athletes in CST Sports Training at Cristini Athletics see us for one hour a week. In that hour, speed is built through sprint mechanics, strength, and power, but only if the athlete is recovered enough to do the work well. So I read each athlete before every session. Sometimes that means pushing. Sometimes it means fewer sprints, fewer jumps, and no conditioning at all.
The challenge: building speed in 60 minutes
The most common reason parents bring their child to us is simple: they feel their child isn’t as fast, explosive, or powerful as other athletes their age.
I see it most in soccer. Parents watch their child lose the race to a loose ball, or struggle to accelerate past a defender, and they want to know what’s holding them back.
Finding that answer is my job. Then I have to build the physical qualities to fix it.
The catch is time. I often get one hour per week.
Speed isn’t just running fast. It’s sprint mechanics, coordination, strength, power, and the ability to push force into the ground. I treat it as a skill, and skills need repetition, feedback, and consistent practice.
Younger athletes can’t learn this from an explanation or a demo alone. They need to perform the movement, get it wrong, receive a correction, and go again.
In a typical session, I give 10 to 20 minutes to sprint mechanics and acceleration. The rest goes to plyometrics, strength, coordination, and injury-risk reduction. Then the athlete goes back to their regular sport for a week. Team practice is busy, and most players aren’t getting individual feedback on how they accelerate.
So the next week, I’m often repeating the same corrections instead of progressing the movement.
A second touchpoint during the week would change that. We’d reinforce technique sooner, spend less time reviewing, and add complexity, intensity, or resistance more quickly.
The problem isn’t fitting enough exercises into 60 minutes. It’s getting enough consistent, high-quality exposure for a new skill to stick.
The reality of competitive youth sports
More frequent speed and strength work would help many of the athletes I coach. But their weeks are already packed.
A typical competitive athlete has three to four team practices, one or two games, and sometimes weekend tournaments. Add school track, cross-country, or another rec sport, and the load stacks up fast.
By the time they walk into CST, they aren’t always ready for another hard workout. I hear it all the time: a late practice last night, school training this morning, a game within the last 24 hours.
I also hear about discomfort tied to repetitive demands. Knee pain is common in running and jumping sports. Elbow discomfort shows up in throwing sports. That doesn’t automatically mean an overuse injury or overtraining, but it’s a signal I need to investigate before deciding how much more stress to add.
Parents understand their kids are busy. What’s harder to see is how those demands accumulate over weeks, and how poor recovery affects performance, development, and injury risk. An athlete can train constantly and still not recover enough to benefit from it.
How I check whether an athlete is recovered
Before every session, I ask:
- Did you play yesterday?
- Was there a late practice?
- Are you sore anywhere?
- Do you have a game tomorrow?
Then I watch the warm-up. Some athletes show up slower than usual, with less coordination or less pop. None of that confirms fatigue on its own, but combined with their training history and how they say they feel, it tells me a lot.
We also use objective numbers: sprint times and jump performance. When an athlete is carrying fatigue, I can often see a measurable drop against their usual results.
That matters because maximal sprinting is demanding on the nervous system. It needs fast muscle activation and high force in a very short window. Residual fatigue cuts into both, and the athlete can’t reach their normal speed.
When that happens, I have to decide: will today’s plan help, or just add fatigue?
Why I sometimes remove speed training
This is one of the hardest calls I make. Parents bring their kids to me to get faster, and some days I cut sprinting back or take it out completely.
It comes down to the quality of the stimulus. To build top speed, athletes need to run efforts close to their current maximum. If an athlete who normally runs a set distance in a certain time is now consistently much slower, the session isn’t delivering the speed stimulus anymore. More reps might train something else, but not what we set out to train.
That’s why I watch sprint times, movement quality, and rest between reps. Speed work needs real recovery. If performance drops, I ask whether more reps are worth it.
There are exceptions. If an athlete competes the next day, I might include a few high-quality accelerations to keep them sharp. Low volume, no exhaustion, and they stay ready to play.
Managing plyometrics and ground contacts
Plyometrics are a big part of building acceleration, jumping ability, and reactive strength. They also load the body. Every jump, landing, and rapid stretch-and-shorten of muscle and tendon counts toward total stress.
Not all contacts are equal. A low-intensity pogo jump is nothing like a maximal depth jump or an aggressive single-leg bound. Landing forces, speed, intensity, and the athlete’s ability to absorb and produce force all matter.
Competitive soccer players already take on a lot of lower-body load from sprinting, cutting, decelerating, and changing direction. If they arrive after several hard days, piling on high-intensity plyos can add fatigue and tissue stress without enough payoff.
So I adjust both the number and the type of contacts. I might cut jump volume, remove bounding, or swap reactive plyos for lower-impact versions.
I want quality movements, not reps for the sake of reps.
Adjusting strength work around competition
Strength training gets adjusted too. High eccentric loads, especially in unfamiliar or high-volume exercises, can cause serious soreness and a temporary drop in performance. That matters most when there’s a game the next day.
Depending on readiness and training history, I’ll reduce eccentric work and lean on options with lower recovery demands:
- Lower-volume, concentric-focused strength exercises
- Isometrics for targeted strength
- Accessory work for individual weak points
- Controlled mobility and movement prep
- Lower-volume work on familiar exercises
Isometrics are useful because they build force capacity with controlled joint positions, and they’re also used in rehab and tendon-loading work. But they aren’t automatically fatigue-free. Selection and intensity still matter.
The point of all this is to manage total workload while still working on qualities that matter.
Why conditioning is sometimes the first thing to go
Soccer players already get plenty of cardiovascular work from practices and games. If they’ve done several high-intensity sessions this week, more conditioning from me isn’t automatically needed.
I’m especially likely to drop it the day before or the day after a competition. Before a game, I don’t want to leave them tired. After a demanding game, I want to respect the stress they’ve already absorbed.
Conditioning still has a place in youth development. But with one hour, I’d rather spend it on what they’re not getting enough of elsewhere. For many soccer players, that’s structured strength, sprint mechanics, and targeted power work.
Adding more running just to make the session harder doesn’t serve the athlete.
The myth that every workout has to be exhausting
Many people believe a good workout leaves you wrecked, sweaty, and drained. I get where it comes from. Parents invest time and money, and they want to see their kid work hard.
I don’t judge a session by how tired someone is afterward. I judge the quality of the work.
- Speed goal? I look at sprint times, mechanics, and whether the athlete can hold high-quality reps.
- Strength goal? I look at technique, appropriate loading, and progression over time.
I want athletes working with intent, and I also want them recovering between sets. For maximal sprinting, rest is part of the training. Without it, sprint performance drops and the stimulus changes.
Hard conditioning sessions have their place. But every session needs a clear objective. Trying to train speed, strength, power, and conditioning all at maximum effort in every 60 minutes creates competing demands and unnecessary fatigue.
A hard workout isn’t automatically an effective one.
Measuring success beyond a single session
At Cristini Athletics, we assess our CST athletes roughly every eight weeks. Depending on the athlete and program, we look at acceleration times, jumping ability, change-of-direction performance, and muscular strength or endurance. That gives us an objective view of whether the training is working and which qualities need attention next.
Test numbers aren’t the only thing I value. I also look at consistency, movement quality, and whether the athlete stays healthy and available for their sport.
An athlete who holds their speed and strength through a long competitive season and shows up to every practice and game is achieving something real. Not every phase of development is about chasing personal bests. Sometimes maintaining your qualities through a demanding season is the win.
What I’d change about youth sports training
If I could change one thing, it would be how high-intensity days are managed.
If an athlete practices four or five times a week, not every practice needs to be hard. A better approach pairs high-intensity days with lower-intensity technical days and real recovery. Some sessions could focus on high-speed running, acceleration, and demanding physical work. Others could focus on technical skills, tactics, and lower-intensity movement.
That way, athletes do their best work when intensity is called for, and they carry less unnecessary fatigue.
It also takes communication. When sport coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, parents, and athletes all understand the full schedule, we can manage training stress together and support long-term development.
Final thoughts: developing athletes for the long term
The most important thing I’ve learned coaching young athletes is that more training doesn’t always mean better development.
Kids are still growing, learning movement skills, and building their tolerance for physical stress. My job is to build the strength, speed, coordination, and movement foundations they’ll need for the long run. Properly progressed strength training builds the capacity to handle bigger sporting demands.
But raising demands without respecting recovery, growth, and current readiness raises the risk of excess fatigue and avoidable injury.
I’d rather see an athlete stay healthy, keep their physical qualities, and perform all season than chase personal records while dealing with constant soreness, fatigue, or recurring injuries.
With one hour a week, every coaching decision counts. Sometimes the right call is to push. Other times it’s to cut the sprints, lower the plyo volume, modify the strength work, or drop conditioning entirely.
The goal never changes: the right training stimulus at the right time.
My job isn’t to see how much an athlete can survive in an hour. It’s to make sure the work we do makes them faster, stronger, and better prepared for their sport.
Sometimes that means knowing when to do less.
Frequently asked questions
Can my child really get faster with one session a week?
Yes, with the right focus. One hour a week can improve sprint mechanics, strength, and power, especially when the session targets what the athlete isn’t getting in team practice. More frequent exposure would speed up the learning, and we plan around that reality.
Why did my child do less sprinting or jumping in a session?
Usually because they arrived fatigued or have a game coming up. Speed work only builds speed when efforts are near maximum. If performance has dropped, extra reps add fatigue without the benefit.
Should a good training session leave my child exhausted?
No. Quality matters more than how tired an athlete feels. Every session should have a clear goal, with enough recovery between hard efforts to hit it.
How do you track progress?
We assess CST athletes about every eight weeks, looking at acceleration, jumping, change of direction, and strength or endurance. We also consider consistency, movement quality, and staying healthy through the season.
Should my child stop strength training during the season?
Not usually. Properly progressed strength training helps athletes handle the demands of their sport. We adjust volume, exercise selection, and intensity around competition rather than removing it entirely.
What’s the best way to help my child recover?
Share their schedule with us. When we know about late practices, tournaments, and school training, we can plan around them. Tell us about any ongoing knee, elbow, or other pain, and we’ll factor it in.
Want a smarter plan for your young athlete?
CST Sports Training at Cristini Athletics Markham and Cristini Athletics Woodbridge is structured, individualized, and built around how your child actually trains and competes. Start with a no-sweat intro session and tell us about their sport and schedule.
Youssef Abdalla is a Strength & Conditioning Coach at Cristini Athletics, working with youth and competitive athletes in Markham and Vaughan.
