20m Flying Sprint
How to Do It
Build speed gradually over a 20–30 metre run-in, then hit a flat-out, maximal-velocity 20-metre flying zone. Run tall and relaxed with a fast, cyclical leg action and brief ground contacts — the goal is the highest speed you can hold through the zone, not acceleration. Time only the flying 20 metres, with full recovery between efforts.
Why It Works
Isolates maximal sprinting velocity by removing the acceleration phase, so you train and measure pure top-end speed and the efficient, relaxed mechanics that let an athlete hold it. Flying sprints expose and develop the highest-velocity stride a player can produce.
Hockey Transfer
Top-end speed separates players on long, straight-line efforts — beating a defender wide, backchecking to erase a rush, or stretching the ice. Training high-velocity mechanics also builds the hamstring resilience those speeds demand.
Coaching Cues
- "Tall and relaxed — float, don’t strain"
- "strike down and back, quick off the ground"
- "fast hands, loose face"
Common Mistakes
Tensing up and over-striding; reaching the feet out in front of the body; trying to keep accelerating through the zone instead of holding speed; entering the zone unrecovered
Progression / Regression
lengthen the fly zone or add light assisted (downhill / towed) sprints
shorten to a 10 m fly or run build-up strides
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Alactic / ATP-PC
Put it to work
on the ice.
This exercise is part of a fully periodized 12-week off-ice program — built by a sport scientist who coaches at the national level.
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