"Speed is something your born with"

Some kids look fast early. Others don’t. And the story becomes: “You either have it, or you don’t.” Genetics play a role, but speed isn’t decided at birth — because speed isn’t just about muscles. It’s about how well the nervous system recruits muscle tissue, coordinates force, and uses elastic energy efficiently. That system is trainable. Speed isn’t something you have — it’s something you learn to express.

“To get faster, I need to train harder.”

It sounds logical: do more reps, push longer, finish exhausted. But speed doesn’t improve through exhaustion — it improves through quality. When you try to train fast while tired, mechanics break down, timing disappears, and elastic “spring” gets soft. And the nervous system learns what you repeat. So if you repeatedly move “fast” under fatigue, you’re not practicing speed — you’re practicing slower movement under fatigue.

"Speed comes from strength training."

Strength helps, but strength work doesn’t automatically create speed. In fact, the wrong kind can make you slower: slow grinding reps, high fatigue, long time under tension — all of it trains force to be produced slowly. Speed training is its own skill: fast intent, sharp timing, and high-quality outputs. If weights are used, they should support speed — explosive intent, low fatigue, and high transfer. Strength should serve speed — not replace speed training.