When it comes to sprinting, your legs may be doing the work, but your arms are calling the shots.
Our bodies are hardwired to function best when movement is coordinated. Try sprinting with slow arms—it doesn’t work. Your arms and legs are part of the same system, and when one speeds up, the other naturally follows. While complex movement patterns (like drumming) can be trained to work independently, when it comes to building raw sprinting speed, simplicity wins: fast arms = fast legs.
Focusing on aggressive, intentional arm action helps your lower body keep pace. Whether you’re a youth athlete aiming to reach top speed or an adult looking to recapture athletic movement, training arm mechanics is essential.
How to Build Arm Speed: Start with the Basics
We like to strip it down and focus on the fundamentals first. Two of our go-to drills for teaching proper arm mechanics are:
🔹 Seated Arm Swings
Why we use it: This drill isolates arm movement without involving the lower body, helping you master the pattern before adding complexity.
How to do it:
- Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front. (If tight hamstrings make this hard, bend your knees slightly to stay upright.)
- Keep your core tall—no slouching!
- Arm swing should come from the shoulders, not the elbows.
- Drive your hands from the cheek of your face to the cheek of your butt.
- Be aggressive with your back swing—think of your hand like a hammer driving a nail behind you.
Try this:
3 sets of 4 rounds of 10 seconds fast swings followed by 20 seconds of rest.
🔹 Split Stance Arm Swings
Why we use it: This progression introduces posture and balance elements without full sprinting. It’s great for reinforcing coordination between upper and lower body.
How to do it:
- Stand in a narrow split stance, with a slight forward lean (~45 degrees).
- Use the same arm swing pattern: from face cheek to butt cheek, powered from the shoulders.
- Drive your arms back with intention—remember, hammer the nail!
- During rest, perform backward shoulder rolls to keep posture clean and tension-free.
Try this:
- 10 seconds work / 10 seconds rest
- Switch lead leg and repeat.
- One set = 4 x 10-second rounds (2 per leg)
- Do 3 total sets
Why It Works for Everyone
We prescribe these drills to our Youth ADP athletes, weekend warriors, and even our most mature clients—as long as they have pain-free shoulders and understand posture basics. These drills are a safe, scalable way to build speed and athleticism at any age.
- For older athletes, the split stance drill offers a way to experience sprint-like speed while maintaining control and avoiding injury risk. Sprint-style movement—at any intensity—has powerful benefits for longevity and neuromuscular health.
- For younger athletes, isolating upper-body mechanics helps them internalize sprint technique more effectively. When combined with lower-body drills, this leads to faster acceleration and cleaner top-end speed.
Make It Count
Incorporate either drill 2x/week for 3–4 weeks as part of your speed or athletic development program. Then, as you move into sprint drills, bring the same arm speed and technique with you.
🏁 Do the simple things savagely well. Mastering fundamentals like arm mechanics can be the difference between average and explosive.
Want to build speed, power, and athletic confidence—no matter your age or experience?
💻 Visit www.pitraining.ca or reach out at info@pitraining.ca.
Let’s get you moving like an athlete again.