Acceleration Training Tip #6 - Relaxed Aggression

Acceleration Training Tip #6: Relaxed Aggression

This tip might be the most counterintuitive one in the entire series — but it's also one of the most important. When most athletes want to run faster, their instinct is to try harder. Clench their fists, tighten their jaw, tense every muscle and just go. The problem? That tension is actually the enemy of speed.

Elite sprinters understand something that takes most athletes years to learn: maximum speed lives in the balance between explosive power and instant relaxation. It's not one or the other — it's the ability to rapidly switch between the two that defines truly fast athletes.

Here's what happens when you clench: your muscles fight each other. Tension in one muscle group restricts the movement of the opposing group, creating drag within your own body. Your stride shortens, your mechanics break down, and the very effort you're putting in starts working against you. You've seen it — an athlete grinding their way down the field, face tight, shoulders up, moving like they're running through mud despite working as hard as they can.

Now picture the elite sprinter. Explosive out of their start, but their face is loose, their hands are soft, and between each powerful ground contact there's a moment of pure, fluid freedom. They burst, then release. Burst, then release. That ability to switch tension on and off rapidly is what allows them to sustain and build speed rather than fighting against their own body.

The technical term for this is neuromuscular efficiency — and it's trainable. Learning to apply maximal force at the right moment and immediately let go is a skill that separates good athletes from truly great ones.

The result? Efficient, sustainable speed that doesn't burn out after a few strides. Relaxed aggression keeps your mechanics clean, your energy conserved, and your acceleration sharp all the way through.

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