Repeat Sprint Set (10×20m)
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
Mark a 20-30m sprint distance. Use a stopwatch. Sprint the distance at 95-100% effort. Rest 20-30 seconds — NOT full recovery. This is deliberate incomplete rest. Sprint again. Target: maintain within 5% of first sprint time. Repeat 6-10 times. If times drop more than 10% from the first sprint, the set is complete.
Why It Works
Repeat sprint ability (RSA) — the capacity to sprint at near-maximum intensity repeatedly with short recovery — is arguably the most important physical quality in hockey. A player who can produce 95% of their best sprint speed on sprint number 10 is dramatically more valuable than one who fades to 75%. RSA is built specifically by practicing it: repeated short sprints with incomplete recovery.
Hockey Transfer
Develops speed endurance — ability to hit top speed repeatedly like a shift. Three sets max. Repeat sprint work taxes the CNS — recovery between sessions matters more than the work.
Coaching Cues
- "20m sprint"
- "40s rest between rounds. Maintain effort on EVERY round — if your time drops by more than 5%"
- "The set is over. Quality > grinding through fatigue."
Common Mistakes
Going too easy on early sprints — you need to be near-maximal every rep. Rest too long — full recovery defeats the repeat-sprint adaptation. Not timing reps — without data you cannot know when to stop. Too many reps — 6-10 quality reps beats 15 sloppy ones.
Progression / Regression
Longer distances (40m) or shorter rest (15s) as RSA improves.
Longer rest (60s) initially to build sprint quality before reducing recovery.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Alactic / glycolytic (repeat-sprint)
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
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