Get faster for your sport: an AI speed and power plan
Acceleration, max velocity, change of direction and gym strength, placed around your club sessions and your match. Measured with a friend and a phone, and adjusted every day to how you turn up.
Updated
What is a speed and power training plan?
A speed and power plan is what a player follows to become faster and more explosive for their sport, not to compete in athletics. It works for football (soccer), basketball, rugby, handball, tennis and padel, and it fits around what you already do: training with your team and the weekend match.
A match sprint is not a 100 m race. 90% of them last under 5 seconds, come every 45-90 seconds and cover 10 to 30 metres. So the plan trains four things that elite strength and conditioning coaches always combine, and that no app had closed in one place until now:
- Sprint running: acceleration from 0 to 20 metres, max velocity over 10-20 m flying segments, change of direction and the ability to repeat sprints.
- Strength and power in the gym: squat or trap bar, hip thrust, hamstrings on the Nordic ladder, calves, and power with loaded jumps, swings and throws.
- Progressive plyometrics, counted in contacts per session: from 40-60 to start to more than 100 once the tendon is ready.
- Prevention: hamstrings and adductors, running technique and the weekly dose of max velocity that protects you from a strain.
What sets it apart from a list of drills is the full loop: measure, prescribe and adapt. A short test battery every five weeks (10 m, 30 m, broad jump and, if you can, vertical jump and 505) gives you two numbers that make sense in the changing room, your top speed in km/h and an index from 0 to 100, and the plan shifts its emphasis according to what you lack.
A sprint is three qualities, not one
90% of the sprints in a match last under 5 seconds and cover 10-30 metres. That is why the plan does not train "running fast" in general: it trains each phase with its own session, and measures it with its own test.
Acceleration
0-10 mVaried starts, hills, sled. Leg strength in the gym.
Test: 10 m
Transition
10-30 m20-30 m sprints from a standing start, running technique, plyometrics.
Test: 30 m
Max velocity
30-50 m10-20 m flying sprints, wickets, ins and outs. 3-6 min rests.
Test: 20 m fly
Your AI-generated plan
When you choose Speed and power, the app asks which sport you want to be faster for, where you are right now (in season with a team, pre-season or on your own), which days you train with your club and when you play, what you most want to improve (first steps, top speed, change of direction, jumping or repeated sprints), where you can run and what equipment you have. With that it builds the plan in under a minute.
The week is built around the match. The speed session goes three or four days before you play, the gym goes the day after sprinting and never the day before max velocity; two days out only technique or prevention, the day before nothing, and the day after rest or mobility. If your coach already includes all-out sprints, the app does not duplicate them. With no match in fourteen days, you train as pre-season.
The doses come from the literature (Haugen, Seiler, Sandbakk and Tønnessen, 2019): 100-200 metres of acceleration per session with one minute of rest per 10 metres, 60-150 metres of flying sprints with 3 to 6 minutes between reps, intense sprints never on consecutive days and 48 hours between two demanding sessions. Weekly sprint metres rise by at most 10% and are capped by level: 300 for beginners, 500 for intermediates, 800 for advanced players.
Periodization reuses EntrenAI's five-week cycle. The first cycle is base: acceleration, extensive plyometrics, 6-8 rep strength and the Nordic on its first rung; max velocity comes in on week three. Week five is a deload at 60% with the test battery. From there, strength-power cycles and sport-specific cycles (reactive change of direction, repeated sprints, loaded power) alternate according to your profile.
Biofeedback trims sets, never rests or intensity. A sprint at 90% is a different stimulus, not a reduced version of the same one. With low readiness or hamstring or groin pain, the speed session turns into prevention. The minutes you played at the weekend set the recovery: 60 or more means two days without high load.
And what already comes in from Strava or Garmin is used without asking: the top speed of each activity counts as a trend and as your weekly exposure to max velocity if it exceeds 90-95% of your tested speed.
The week is built around your match
You tell the app which days you train with your team and when you play; it places its sessions by distance to the match. Example week: club on Tuesday and Thursday, match on Saturday, three sessions of your own.
- MonMD+2Base strength54’
- TueMD-4Club + speed microdose28’
- WedMD-3Acceleration39’
- ThuMD-2Team training
- FriMD-1Rest or activation15’
- SatMDMatch90’
- SunMD+1Rest or prevention
- The speed session goes on MD-3 or MD-4: far from the match, when you perform best and risk least. If max velocity does not fit, a microdose of flying runs after club training.
- Nothing hard the day before. The day after, only prevention or rest.
- 48 hours between two intense sessions, counting the match as one of them.
- The minutes you played set the recovery: 60 or more means two days without high load.
- If your coach already includes all-out sprints, the app does not duplicate them.
Who is this plan for?
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Team-sport players in season (football, basketball, rugby, handball): you train with your club two or three days and play at the weekend. That leaves you one or two sessions of your own per week and the plan places them where they pay off and do not get in the way of the match. Beginners and intermediates do a single intense sprint session a week on top of the match; advanced players, two.
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Tennis and padel: 10 m bursts, brake and go on every ball. The plan gives change of direction maximum weight, shortens sprints and tests to the real distance of your sport and keeps upper-body work.
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Pre-season or no team right now: four or five sessions a week, two or three of them sprinting and never back to back, gym the day after running. This is when you improve most, and the plan makes the most of it with volumes rising 10% a week.
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Gym only: the sprint session is replaced by power and jumps (jump squats at 30-40% of 1RM, swings, medicine ball) and the plan asks for one weekly 40 m outing outdoors. Treadmill sprints are never prescribed.
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Coming back from a hamstring strain (less than three months ago): the first cycle enters through short acceleration, the Nordic ladder and tempo, with no flying sprints or sprint test. This is what matters most to us: that you do not tear again.
You do not need a running track or equipment. With 40 metres of grass or park, two cones and a friend to time you, you can do all of it. With only a gym, almost all of it.
The same engine, a different split for each sport
Being fast in padel is not the same as being fast in rugby. When you pick your sport, the plan changes the sprint and test distances, how much change of direction weighs and whether the gym includes upper-body work.
Football
Typical sprint: 20 m- Change of direction80
- Repeated sprints80
- Upper body20
20 m sprints, repeated efforts and braking well. Little upper body.
See the planBasketball
Typical sprint: 15 m- Change of direction100
- Repeated sprints70
- Upper body40
Change of direction at the top, 15 m sprints and vertical jump.
See the planRugby
Typical sprint: 20 m- Change of direction70
- Repeated sprints80
- Upper body80
Acceleration into contact, repeated sprints and plenty of upper-body gym work.
See the planHandball
Typical sprint: 15 m- Change of direction90
- Repeated sprints70
- Upper body60
15 m fast breaks, feints and a strong shoulder for throwing.
See the planTennis and padel
Typical sprint: 10 m- Change of direction100
- Repeated sprints50
- Upper body40
10 m bursts, brake and go on every ball. Change of direction is everything.
See the plan
The courses, with their measurements
In speed work the measurement is the instruction: where the cones go, how long each segment is and which part is timed. The app shows you this sketch before every course-based drill, with the distance adjusted to your sport and level.
- Acceleration
Hill acceleration
A 5-8% slope over 15-25 m. Walk back down: the hill gives you the forward lean for free.
- Max velocity
20 m flying sprint
You need 50 m of clear ground. Only the last 20 m are timed: this is the top-speed test.
- Max velocity
Ins and outs
When you release you do not brake: you hold the speed relaxed. It teaches you to run fast without tensing up.
- Change of direction
505 test
Only the 5 m in and the 5 m back around the turn are timed. Alternate the turning leg.
- Change of direction
5-10-5 (pro agility)
Start at the middle cone: 5 m one way, 10 m the other and 5 m back. Touch the line with your hand at every turn.
- Change of direction
T-test
Forward on the way out, sideways without crossing your feet, backwards on the return. It measures braking, shuffling and re-accelerating.
- Change of direction
45° cut
Plant the outside foot. Knee in line with the foot, never caving in: that is the movement that protects the ligament.
- Change of direction
Cone zigzag
Five cones in a line 3 m apart; you are the one zigzagging. Short steps into each cone and push off the outside leg.
- Change of direction
Reactive change of direction
You do not know which side until you reach the cone: your partner points. That is what happens in a match.
- Change of direction
3-step deceleration
Sprint 10 m and stop in three steps, hips back and chest up. Braking well is what protects the knee.
- Repeated sprints
Shuttle repeated sprints
15 m out, touch the line, 15 m back. The next one starts every 25 s. For when you do not have 40 m of straight ground.
- Repeated sprints
100 m tempo
At 65-70%, relaxed and on grass if you can. Active recovery that adds metres without punishing you.
Measured with what you have: a friend, a tape measure and a phone
Every five weeks, in the deload week, the app walks you through a short test battery. No €300 GPS pods, no lab: three attempts, the best one counts, and the result is compared against yourself.
10 m
Acceleration: the start.
A friend with the phone stopwatch, or normal-speed video.
30 m
Acceleration plus transition; top speed is estimated from here.
Same. With a 10 m split if you have two watches or video.
20 m fly
Pure max velocity. Optional, for advanced players.
30 m build-up and 20 m timed: you need 50 m of clear ground.
Broad jump
Horizontal power, the one that drives acceleration.
A tape measure. Best of three.
Vertical jump (CMJ)
Vertical power and neuromuscular fatigue. Optional.
With My Jump or height estimated from video.
505
Change of direction and left-right asymmetry. Optional.
Two cones and a stopwatch, two attempts per leg.
The two numbers you see
- Top speed (km/h)
The number people quote in the changing room. From the 20 m fly, or estimated from the 10→30 m split.
- Speed-power index (0-100)
Percentile against players of your sex and level, weighted by what you said you wanted to improve. It places you; improvement is measured against yourself.
So that noise does not count as progress
- Hand-held stopwatch: the app adds 0.24 s (Mann 2015) and notes it on the record.
- With two or more tests, your own typical error sets the smallest change that matters: about 0.06 s over 30 m, about 6 cm on the jump. Below that, no improvement or loss is announced.
- If you change timing method, the app warns that it is not comparable and starts a new series.
- What already comes in from Strava or Garmin (top speed of each activity) counts as a trend, never as a test.
Work out your top speed
With a friend and the stopwatch on a phone. Enter your times and you will see the same number the app gives you.
Your first weeks, in detail
Week 3
In season, cycle 1: club Tuesday and Thursday, match on Saturday| Day | Session type | Detail | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Base strength (MD+2) | Back squat 3×6-8, Barbell hip thrust 3×6-8, Bulgarian split squat 2×6-8 per leg, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Pallof press 2×10 per side, Short lateral hops 4×10, Standing broad jump 5×3 jumps | 54 min |
| Tuesday | Club + speed microdose (MD-4) | Build-ups 40-60 m 2×40 m, Flying 10 m (20 m build-up) 4×10 m | 28 min |
| Wednesday | Acceleration (MD-3) | High knees 2×20 m, Butt kicks 2×20 m, 3-point start 3×10 m, 10-20 m sprint 2×20 m, 10-20 m sprint 2×20 m | 39 min |
| Thursday | Team training (MD-2) | Your coach runs today. Eat well and sleep: it is load the plan accounts for. | — |
| Friday | Rest (MD-1) | Recovery | — |
| Saturday | Match (MD) | Play. Afterwards log the minutes you played: the plan adjusts the next two days. | 90 min |
| Sunday | Rest (MD+1) | Recovery after the match | — |
Week 8
Pre-season, cycle 2 (strength and power): load week| Day | Session type | Detail | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Acceleration | High knees 2×20 m, Butt kicks 2×20 m, 3-point start 5×10 m, 10-20 m sprint 3×20 m, 10-20 m sprint 4×20 m | 49 min |
| Tuesday | Max strength | Barbell jump squat 3×5, Back squat 3×4-5, Barbell hip thrust 4×4-5, Bulgarian split squat 3×6-8 per leg, Romanian deadlift 3×6-8, Isometric hamstring bridge hold 3×25 s, Pallof press 2×10 per side | 62 min |
| Wednesday | Rest | Recovery | — |
| Thursday | Max velocity | Wickets 3×20 m, Build-ups 40-60 m 2×50 m, Flying 20 m (30 m build-up) 6×20 m, Short lateral hops 5×10, Standing broad jump 5×3 jumps | 68 min |
| Friday | Rest | Recovery | — |
| Saturday | Extensive tempo | High knees 2×20 m, Extensive tempo 100 m at 65-70% 8×100 m | 29 min |
| Sunday | Rest | Recovery | — |
These examples are real extracts from the EntrenAI planning engine. Your personal plan adjusts to your level, equipment and availability.
Equipment needed
EntrenAI automatically substitutes any exercise if you don’t have the gear.
- 40 metres of grass, track or park to run straight (with 20 m you can do 10 m flying sprints)
- Two or three cones, or anything that marks a line
- A friend with the phone stopwatch, or the app's video timer if you train alone
- A tape measure for the broad jump
- A gym with a barbell, or dumbbells and bands: the plan substitutes exercises for what you have
- Optional: sled (or a hill or a band), mini hurdles, box, medicine ball
- Optional: GPS watch or Strava, to make use of the top speed from your matches
What most people get wrong (and how to avoid it)
- 1
Sprinting on two consecutive days
Among the best coaches it almost never happens: max velocity needs 48-72 hours to perform again, and stacking two intense sessions is the recipe for a hamstring strain. The plan keeps 48 hours between any two demanding sessions, match included.
- 2
Doing intense repeated sprints three days before the match
Short-rest repeated sprints on MD-3 increase match-day soreness. The app reserves MD-3 for max velocity or acceleration, which leave you fresher the next day, and pushes repeated sprints far from the match or into pre-season.
- 3
Confusing running a lot with running fast
A 10×30 with 20 seconds of rest trains you to repeat efforts at 90%, not to be faster. To raise top speed you need 10-20 m flying sprints at 95-100% with 3-6 minutes between reps. They are short sessions, 60 to 150 metres in total, and boring to wait through. They work.
- 4
Cutting rests when you are short on time
EntrenAI's biofeedback trims reps, never rests or intensity. A sprint at 90% is a different stimulus, not a reduced version of the same one. If there is little time, there are fewer sets.
- 5
Trusting a hand-held stopwatch without correcting it
A hand-held stopwatch runs 0.22-0.26 seconds fast compared with electronic timing (Mann, 2015). The app adds 0.24 s and notes it. And it only announces an improvement when the change exceeds your typical error: about 0.06 s over 30 metres, not 0.01.
- 6
Doing the full Nordic curl in the first month
Nobody does a full Nordic in week one without paying for it with three days of soreness. The plan enters at the rung you can control (isometric bridge, sliding curl, band-assisted, partial) and moves up once you have controlled the descent in two consecutive sessions.
- 7
Skipping the weekly max-velocity dose in season
Players who reach 95% of their max speed at least once a week get injured far less than those who stay at 85% (Malone, 2017). If the week has no room for a session, the plan adds a microdose of 4-6 flying 20 m runs after club training, and warns you after 7 days without exposure.
Speed and power plans by goal and level
- Speed training for football players, without leaving your clubAI speed plan for amateur football (soccer) players: 20 m sprints, gym and hamstring prevention placed around your club sessions and Saturday's match.
- Speed and agility training for basketball, built by AIAI speed and agility training for basketball: 15 m sprints, braking, change of direction and vertical jump, placed around your club sessions and your games.
- Speed and power training for rugby, built by AIAI speed and power plan for rugby: sled acceleration loaded to your profile, upper-body work in the gym, repeated sprints and prevention around your match.
- Speed training for handball: faster on the fast breakAI speed training plan for handball: 15 m fast breaks, feints and changes of direction, jump shots and upper-body strength, built around your match week.
- Speed and agility training for tennis and padel, built by AIAI speed and agility training for tennis and padel: 10 m bursts, brake and go with the 505 and T-test, gym strength and adductor work around your matches.
- Gym workouts to get faster: strength and power for sprintingNo room to run 40 metres? Leg strength, loaded jumps and plyometrics in the gym to sprint faster, plus one weekly outdoor sprint outing to keep top speed.
Frequently asked questions
No. With 40 straight metres of grass or park, two cones and someone to time you, you can do the whole plan. Without a sled you use a hill or a band; without 40 metres, 10 m flying sprints with a 20 m run-in; and if you only have a gym, the sprint session becomes power and jumps with one weekly outdoor outing.
With a friend and the phone stopwatch: the app adds 0.24 seconds to correct for human reaction and notes it on the record. If you train alone, the app includes a video timer: you film the sprint at normal speed (not slow motion), mark the start and the finish and the time is the difference between frames. A GPS watch works as a trend, not as a test.
It is the maximum speed you reach, in km/h, the number people quote in the changing room. It comes straight from the 20 m fly; if you do not do it, it is estimated from the 10-30 m split, whose average speed is 93-95% of top speed depending on level. In the app's reference tables, an adult amateur male team-sport player usually sits between 29 and 34 km/h, and a female player between 26 and 30.
That is its main use case. You say which days you train with the team and when you play, and the app places its sessions by distance to the match: speed three or four days out, gym the day after sprinting, nothing hard the day before, prevention the day after. The minutes you played adjust the recovery, and if your coach already includes all-out sprints, they are not duplicated.
If it was in the last three months, the first cycle has no flying sprints or 30 m test: you come back through short acceleration, the Nordic ladder and extensive tempo, and the sprint test is replaced by a 20 m one. With hamstring or groin pain in the daily check-in, the speed session turns into prevention.
Every five weeks, in the deload week the engine already reserves for it. They are 10 metres, 30 metres and broad jump, with optional 20 m fly, vertical jump, 505 and six repeated 30 m sprints. Three attempts per test with full rest, the best one counts. If you have no marks when you start, week one brings a test day and your profile comes from there.
It works for football, basketball, rugby, handball, tennis and padel, and there is an option for other sports. It changes the distance of sprints and tests (10 metres in tennis and padel, 15 in basketball and handball, 20 in football and rugby), how much change of direction weighs and whether the gym includes upper-body work, which matters a lot in rugby and handball.
Yes. It is one more EntrenAI sport, with the same 7-day free trial and the same price as the rest: €7.99 a month or €23.99 a year, cancel any time. The speed panel (top speed, index, profile and marks with trend) lives in the performance screen.
Start your personalized plan today
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