Why Foundational Strength Comes Before Speed in Youth Football

Power meets purpose—strong runners break tackles and set the tone. Build strength to finish runs with confidence.

Strength First, Speed Follows

Every parent and coach wants their athlete to get faster—and for good reason. Speed changes games. But there’s a truth that often gets overlooked in youth football training:

You can’t build real speed without first building real strength.

Before a player can accelerate, explode off the line, or hit top-end sprinting mechanics, they need a foundation of strength to produce force and hold proper posture. Especially for athletes in middle school and early high school, strength is the key to unlocking future speed.

If you're in Haymarket, Gainesville, South Riding, or Manassas, and want your athlete to develop elite game speed, it all starts with getting stronger in the right way.

What Parents Need to Understand About Strength and Speed for Football

We hear it all the time:“I just want my kid to get faster, but I don’t want him lifting weights yet.”

It’s a common concern—and an understandable one. But here’s the truth: you cannot build real, sustainable speed without building strength first. Speed is rooted in force production, and that force comes from strong, well-developed muscles. When strength training is properly coached, age-appropriate, and focused on technique and control, it is not only safe for young athletes, but essential for their development. In fact, a 2018 position paper from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) stated that supervised resistance training in youth athletes improves motor control, bone density, and speed performance—without increasing injury risk (Faigenbaum et al., 2018).

Avoiding strength work out of fear actually limits an athlete’s ability to get faster—and can increase their risk of injury as they grow and play harder, faster competition.

💡 Parents: Strength training isn’t dangerous—but skipping it might be.

The Physics Behind Speed

Speed isn’t just about being lean or running fast in practice. It’s about force production—how much power you can generate against the ground.

• The stronger the legs and hips, the more force an athlete can put into the ground.

• More force = greater stride length, faster acceleration, and better change of direction.

Without strength, you’re simply not producing enough ground force to create speed.

🧠 Think of it this way: Trying to sprint without strength is like having a sports car frame with a lawnmower engine. It might look fast, but it won’t go anywhere in a hurry.

Key Areas of Foundational Strength for Speed

1️⃣ Lower-Body Strength (Hips, Glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)

Strong legs generate powerful strides and quick starts.

✅ Best beginner lifts: Trap bar deadlifts, goblet squats, split squats

2️⃣ Core Stability

A strong core keeps the body upright, stable, and efficient during sprinting.

✅ Best beginner drills: Planks, dead bugs, band-resisted chops

3️⃣ Posterior Chain Strength (Backside of the Body)

The glutes and hamstrings drive sprinting and prevent injuries.

✅ Best beginner exercises: Hip thrusts, banded bridges, RDLs

🔥 At Command Football Academy, we start every athlete with a strength baseline before we ever ask them to hit top-speed sprinting drills.

Why Speed Training Without Strength Fails

When athletes skip strength and jump straight to sprint drills, they:

❌ Run with poor mechanics

❌ Lack force to accelerate

❌ Struggle with stride control and posture

❌ Plateau early

Worse, they’re more likely to get injured because their bodies can’t handle the demands of high-speed training. Want long-term speed gains? Lay the strength foundation first.

When to Start Strength Training?

For most athletes, ages 11-13 is a great time to begin structured strength training—using bodyweight, bands, and light resistance to build movement quality and joint control. Once form is locked in, athletes can gradually progress to more load and power-based movements.

🏋️‍♂️ We recommend starting with 2 full-body strength sessions per week and combining it with speed technique work for balanced development.

Strength builds speed.

Final Thoughts: Strength is the Accelerator

Speed doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s built on a base of strength, movement control, and stability. When young football players develop foundational strength, they unlock the ability to train and express real speed. So before you chase faster 40 times, make sure your athlete is strong enough to sprint with purpose.

About Us

Command Football Academy trains youth and high school athletes in Haymarket, Gainesville, South Riding, and Manassas to be faster, more skilled, and smarter on the field. Through elite speed training, position-specific development, and game IQ coaching, we help players build explosiveness, precision, and football intelligence to outwork, outthink, and outperform the competition.

Contact us to learn more: contact@commandfootballacademy.com

References

Faigenbaum, A. D., Lloyd, R. S., MacDonald, J., & Myer, G. D. (2018). NSCA Position Statement on Long-Term Athletic Development. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 32(11), 317–327.