No matter what anyone tells you, you can sprint (almost) every day. Strength and conditioning coaches talk about “Sprinting” and “Sprint Training” interchangeably, but to me, they are not the same thing.

I grew up professionally in a sport where you play 162 games in 180 days (and when you add in Spring Training and Playoffs, it’s much closer to 200 games in 230-240 days). In baseball, an athlete will sprint ALMOST EVERY DAY. Therefore, I never understood strength and conditioning coaches saying that you can’t sprint every day. Some people act like your nervous system will spontaneously combust if you don’t have 48-72 hours between high effort bouts of sprinting. This is where I believe we need to do a better job of differentiating “Sprinting” and “Sprint Training”.

To me, “Sprinting” is simply the act of a maximal effort burst. For instance, pre-game sprints are very common for a baseball player. Typically guys will do 1-3 “high effort” (85-100% effort) sprints prior to a game (especially if you start the game on defense – you want to make sure the system if ready to go if there is a ball in the gap). Additionally, in most games there is at least one time when you are going to sprint all out (whether it’s chasing a ball on defense, running out a groundball in the infield, or stretching a single to a double, you will probably give a max effort at least once in a game).

“Sprint Training”, in contrast, is more about IMPROVING the skill of sprinting, your overall speed, or your ability to produce high outputs on the field. This would include any or all of the following: full dynamic warm-ups, sprint drills, plyos, med balls, cone drills, resisted sprints, max effort sprints, full rest periods, etc. You are TRAINING the quality versus simply displaying it.

When strength coaches reference sprinting and the associated demand on the nervous system and the required recovery time, they are usually referring to “Spring Training” (or at least they should be). These sessions are taxing and do demand days off between them (if nothing else to give your hips, calves, ankles, and feet time to recover). However, I believe that most athletes can certainly “Sprint” every day. In reality, at the end of your daily training session (gym, movement, practice) you should easily be able to run ONE sprint at an effort of 85-100% without anything happening to you (if you can’t there may be bigger issues that need to be addressed).

I believe a distinction should be made between “Sprinting” and “Sprint Training”. One is displaying or maintaining what you have while the other is actively trying to improve it. This distinction has implications in regards to program design and preparation, especially as you train athletes closer to their in-season periods. More times than not a field athlete will need to sprint almost daily, and you should learn to plan accordingly.