How to coach a sprint session: reps, rest and timing

Six athletes, a 30-metre lane, and by rep five everyone's jogging it. A good sprint session is short and fast: a thorough warm-up, a few reps over 10 to 60 metres at full effort, and long, full rest between them, often 2 to 5 minutes. Time every rep, and stop the session when the times drop off.

In short

Sprinting is about quality. Fewer, faster reps beat lots of tired ones.

Rest long enough that each rep is as fast as the first. A common coaching rule of thumb is about a minute's rest for every 10 metres sprinted flat out.

Leave at least 48 hours between hard sprint sessions, and time each rep so you can see when speed starts to drop.

1. What makes a good sprint session?

Speed. That sounds obvious, but it's where most sessions go wrong.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) puts it simply: the biggest gains in sprint performance come from high-quality training. A rep run at 85% because the athlete is tired is practice at being slow.

So a sprint session is not a fitness session. If athletes are bent over and gasping, it's become conditioning. That has its place, but it's a different session.

2. How should I warm up sprinters?

Build from easy to fast over 15 to 20 minutes. A simple order, from us:

Easy jogging for 5 minutes.
Mobility: leg swings, walking lunges, hip openers.
Drills: marching A-skips, high knees, heel flicks, ankling. 10 to 20 metres each.
Strides: three or four runs over 40 to 60 metres, building to about 90% speed.
One or two short accelerations at near full effort before the first timed rep.

Don't skip the strides. The first all-out rep should never be the first fast thing the legs have done that day.

3. What distances should I use?

It depends on what you're working on.

Focus	Typical distance	What it trains
Acceleration	10 to 30 m	Getting out of the blocks or from standing
Top speed	30 to 60 m, often with a run-in	Running at maximum velocity
Speed endurance	60 to 150 m	Holding speed as fatigue builds

For team-sport players, acceleration over 10 to 20 metres is often the most useful. For 100 m athletes, all three matter across a season.

The NSCA notes that 1,000 to 2,000 metres a week of acceleration and high-speed sprinting is typical in sprint training. That's across the whole week, not one session.

4. How long should athletes rest between sprints?

Longer than feels natural.

A common coaching rule of thumb is about a minute of rest for every 10 metres sprinted at full effort. So:

10 to 20 m: 1 to 2 minutes
30 m: about 3 minutes
60 m: 4 to 6 minutes

Rest should be walking or standing, not jogging. Use it to give one short coaching point.

The real test is the stopwatch. If rep times are getting slower, give more rest or finish the set.

5. How many reps should a session have?

Fewer than you think.

A typical club acceleration session might be 6 to 10 reps of 10 to 30 metres, split into two or three sets with a longer break between sets. A top-speed session might be 4 to 6 reps of 30 to 60 metres.

A simple rule, from us: stop when times drop. If an athlete's rep is more than about 3% slower than their best of the session, that's usually the end of their quality work for the day. On a 4.00 second 30 m, that's anything over about 4.12.

6. How do I time sprint reps?

Hand timing short sprints is hard. A thumb on a stopwatch can easily be a tenth or two out, which is a lot over 30 metres.

To make hand times as useful as possible:

Same timer, same position every rep, standing at the finish line and looking across it.
Start on a visible signal: a dropped arm, or the athlete's first movement from a standing start. Welsh Athletics' guidance for officials is to start the watch on the flash of the gun, not the sound.
Stop on the torso crossing the line, not the head, arms or feet.
Compare like with like. Hand times against hand times, on the same day, in the same conditions.

Our guide on how to time athletes and record split times has more on this.

7. How often should we sprint?

Not every day. The NSCA says sprinting often needs 72 hours or more of rest from sprinting, and certainly not less than 48 hours.

For most club athletes, one or two speed sessions a week is plenty, with easier running, technique or strength work in between. Hard sprint reps the day after a heavy leg session or a match are a recipe for poor times.

8. How do I keep athletes safe?

Most sprint injuries come from going fast when tired, cold or rushing back.

Warm up properly, every time.
Stop when quality drops. Tired sprinting is when hamstrings go.
Build up volume gradually at the start of a season or after a break.
Check the surface. Wet grass and worn tracks are slippery.
Know your first aid, and stop anyone who feels a sudden pain in the back of the thigh.

The NHS hamstring injury page explains the signs and when to get help.

If you're coaching regularly, England Athletics runs coaching qualifications, from Leadership in Running Fitness up to Athletics Coach, with a Speed module and an Event Group Sprints & Hurdles course.

How Reptyl helps

Reptyl Coach is a stopwatch for timing other people, and it was built for sessions like this.

Reps with a rest between. Time each rep, and the rest counts down to the next one. Turn the rest off and the app just shows who's next.
Taking turns. Several athletes run one after another, one, two or three at a time, and the app keeps the order.
To the thousandth. Rep times show milliseconds, for short sprints. Your thumb still decides how accurate they are.
Athletes and squads. Keep your athletes, put them in squads, and see PBs and a leaderboard for each distance.
Share cards. Send a session, a PB or a squad board as a picture.

It's a one-off purchase with no subscription, no account and no adverts, and your data stays on your phone. The Coach page has the details.

For longer intervals and group fitness, see how to run a circuit class and Tabata vs HIIT.

Quick answers

How much rest between 30 m sprints?

About 3 minutes, using the rule of thumb of a minute per 10 metres. If times are dropping, give more.

How many sprints should I do in a session?

For short acceleration work, 6 to 10 reps of 10 to 30 metres is common. Stop when rep times drop by more than a few per cent.

Can I time sprints with a phone?

Yes, for comparing an athlete against themselves on the same day. Hand times aren't accurate enough to compare with electronic times from a race.

How often should athletes do sprint training?

One or two sessions a week, with at least 48 hours between hard sprint sessions.

Want every rep timed and saved? See Reptyl Coach