Repeat Sprint drill
Speed Endurance Maintenance Shuttles
Train holding speed while badly fatigued, on deliberately short recovery.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Players
- 1 to 20 players
- Intensity
- High
- Equipment
- None
- Space
- 22m shuttle
- Positions
- All positions
Setup
Try line to the 22m line gives a 44m out-and-back. No cones needed.
How to run it
- Set a timer for 20 seconds work and 40 seconds rest.
- Shuttle flat out between the try line and the 22m line for the full 20 seconds, turning hard and low off both feet - you should cover roughly 140 to 150m.
- Note where you finished, because that distance is your score.
- Rest exactly 40 seconds standing, then repeat for 6 to 8 reps.
- What matters is how little your last rep drops off your first, so go all out from the gun rather than pacing it.
Coaching cues
- All out from the gun, never paced
- The score is your drop-off, not your first rep
- Turn hard and low off both feet
Common mistakes
- Pacing it like a 150m run instead of going maximal from the start
- Extending the rest because it hurts, which turns it into an entirely different session
Related drills
- Speed Endurance Production ShuttlesProduce maximum output on every single rep, with long rest to keep quality intact.
- 22m Shuttle GrinderBuild tolerance to a single sustained maximal effort with heavy braking and turning.
- Repeat Sprint SetTrain the ability to sprint hard again and again on short recovery, which is what fades in the last twenty minutes.
- Repeated Sprint SetsBuild repeat sprint ability across a training block using sets that protect sprint quality.
- Alactic Power RunsDevelop the pure power end of repeat sprint ability with full recovery between efforts.
- Alactic Capacity RunsExtend how long you can hold near-maximal speed before the anaerobic systems take over.