I AM Athletix

Ever watched a training session and wondered why the rest periods are so long? Here's your answer.

True speed and acceleration work — ten- to twenty-meter starts, flying sprints, straight-leg bounds, fast leg drills — these are kept under six to seven seconds for a reason.

That's exactly how long the phosphagen system — the energy system that powers explosive first steps and peak velocity — can sustain max output.

Go longer than that without enough rest, and the body stops training speed. It starts training something else entirely.

So those long rest periods between short sprints? That's not downtime.

That's what allows the phosphagen system to recover and refill — so your child can hit true max speed again on the next rep, instead of just practicing sprinting while tired.

The answer to every question about workout structure almost always comes back to one thing: which energy system are we targeting today?

Save this. It'll change how you watch every training session from here.

Nobody talks about what actually happens before a child learns to sprint correctly.

Most people think speed training means running fast. Put the kids on the track, blow the whistle, and whoever gets there first is the fastest.

That's not how speed works.

Before any athlete at I AM ATHLETIX runs a single sprint, we teach their body the mechanics behind it.

It starts with a march.

Knees driving up to belly level. Arms swinging in rhythm. Slow, controlled, deliberate. Every step teaches the body the exact posture and pattern that real sprinting demands.

Then we progress.

The legs start throwing forward. More aggressive. More extension. The body learns to generate force with every step rather than just move across the ground.

Then faster.

And suddenly what started as a march becomes the foundation of something every parent can actually see in a game.

A quicker first step. A more powerful stride. A child who moves differently than they did three months ago.

That's because we didn't just make them run more. We taught their body the language of speed — from the ground up.

At I AM ATHLETIX, every drill has a starting point. And for speed, this is it.

Comment SPEED below, and we'll show you exactly how we build it in your child. ⚡

📍 Miami | Ages 12–15 | Spots are limited.

Most speed coaches won't talk about this. But we will.

If your child plays a sport that looks like a series of sprints — football, basketball, soccer — you might wonder why we spend any time on aerobic conditioning.

Here's what most people miss:

Even in explosive, sprint-based sports, the aerobic system is quietly doing a ton of work behind the scenes. It refills the first and second energy systems between plays.

It clears out the byproducts that cause that burning sensation in your child's legs.

Without a strong aerobic base, each sprint gets slower. Recovery between plays gets longer. Performance drops when it matters most.
This is why we include lower-intensity tempo runs, small-sided games, and conditioning blocks at sixty to seventy percent speed.

Not to turn your child into a marathoner.

But to give them enough engine so that each sprint is higher quality — and the recovery between plays is faster.

Share this with a sports parent who needs to hear it.

Same team. Same age. Totally different bodies. ⚡️

Growth spurts. Training history. Confidence. Sleep. All of it changes how an athlete handles a workout.

That's why individualization matters:

→ Knee pain? Supported split squat while others complete full lunges.
→ Struggling with single-leg hops? Double-leg jumps while building strength.
→ Mid-growth spurt? Reduced intensity, more focus on control and coordination.

We constantly ask: "How did that feel?" and "Where do you feel this?"

Individualization doesn't mean every athlete gets a different workout. It means every athlete gets a safe, appropriate version that builds them — not breaks them.

Here's something most training programs get completely wrong. 👇

Building speed isn't just about training fast. It's about training your child to hold speed when their body is screaming to slow down.

That's speed endurance — and it requires a completely different approach.

This is where we intentionally let the glycolytic system do more of the work. Longer distances — forty, fifty, upwards of sixty meters. Repeated shuffles and bounds. Shorter rest periods that don't fully restore the first energy system.

Research comparing short-rest versus long-rest sprint programs shows that reducing rest increases glycolytic activation — improving the ability to maintain speed in the later stages of longer sprints and shuttles.

It's stressful on the body. We use it carefully. Especially with developing athletes.

But it's a key piece of preparing your child for what real game demands actually look like.

Because games don't wait for your child to fully recover. Speed endurance training makes sure they don't need to.

Share this with a coach or parent who needs to hear it. 🙌

If there's one thing every sports parent needs to understand, it's this.

Your child — like every human on the planet — uses one fuel molecule to drive all movement: ATP.

And their body has three ways of making more of it.

The phosphagen system: the nitro boost. Powers the first one to six seconds of an all-out effort — the first steps of a sprint, a big jump, a sudden cut.

The glycolytic system: the turbo. Kicks in as the phosphagen fades. Drives ten to thirty seconds of hard work by breaking down carbohydrates without oxygen.

The aerobic system: the engine. Uses oxygen to keep going — becoming more important the longer exercise continues.

These three systems work together. But understanding which one does the heavy lifting — and when — is the difference between smart training and just working hard.

This is the science behind everything we do at I Am Athletix.

Drop a 🔥 if this makes your child's training make more sense.

If you think rest between sprints is wasted time, think again.

Most parents watching their child train see long breaks between short sprints and wonder what's going on.

Here's the truth: studies on repeated six-second sprints show that even with thirty seconds of rest, the phosphagen system — the one that powers max speed — doesn't fully recover.

Without enough rest, power drops. The body pulls from the wrong energy system. And instead of training max speed, you're just training fatigue.

Rest isn't laziness. It's science.

At I Am Athletix, every rest period is intentional. Every work bout is calculated, because training the right energy system at the right time is exactly what protects your child's mechanics and builds real speed.

Save this so you never second-guess the rest periods again.

Why do we repeat drills week after week? ⚡️

Because progression is overload over time in a logical sequence — not chaos.

We don't jump from easy to brutal overnight. We stack wins:

**Running mechanics:**
Stage 1 → Marching patterns
Stage 2 → A-skips and bounds
Stage 3 → Short sprints and fast leg drills
Stage 4 → Movements in chaotic game situations

Same pattern for change of direction. Same pattern for power development.

That's why the drill might look the same — but there's always a twist.

We're building athletes who dominate. Not chasing exhaustion.