Sideline to Frontline: How Sprinting Can Revolutionize Your Injury Prevention Strategy

It was a problem. I had another hamstring injury with my hockey team. I had been working with a men’s hockey team since 2019, and this was a chronic problem. One season, I had 7 different hamstring injuries. I was pulling my hair out, and being over 30 now, you cannot risk doing that.

This started me on my journey to where I am today. I have been down many a rabbit hole, from looking at the latest hamstring research to speaking to multiple sources and watching plenty of presentations by leading experts.

Hamstring injuries are multi-factorial, with the majority of injuries coming from high-speed running actions. Factors such as hamstring strength, endurance, flexibility, pelvic position, fatigue, etc., have all been associated with injury prevention. I have tried many of these approaches, and a lot of them do work. However, I am convinced that there is one thing I have done that has made the biggest difference to my hamstring training. That is sprinting

I started down this rabbit hole reading and watching everything I could from Derek Hansen. This article, “An Acceleration-Based Approach to Performance,” and this presentation have been my biggest influences on my programming this year.

How did I go about this process? Well, from Derek’s presentation, he stated that if you can only do a small number of things, you should start with the following: warm-up, drills, and acceleration. So, that is what I did 1-2 times a week for a full year. We did acceleration 10-20m using different start positions with a total of 50-80m per session.

Sprinting is an amazing stimulus to the body, and there is nothing in the weight room that replicates the speed and forces that the body experiences. In 7 strides, you can be exposed to 70% of your max speed. Performing this movement regularly will develop your skill and ability to execute this key skill. During acceleration, the hamstrings have been shown to be key for force production and stabilizing the knee. There is also a skill to any sporting action, so being able to coordinate the muscles to produce force, with correct timing, rhythm, and positions, improves your ability to execute this skill.

Improving your capability to sprint improves your capacity to repeatedly perform these actions within gameplay and training. Individuals who have higher outputs and efficient technique become more economical, improving their fitness as a byproduct. Finally, repeated exposure of this quality decreases the detraining effect that occurs from lack of exposure, meaning you are less likely to get injured.

How do you fit this in, you ask? Well, my solution to you is simple. Firstly, look for an opportunity within your gym session to get some exposure to this type of training. However, if you do not have space within the facility, using the warm-up for training is a simple tactic. Instead of standing around playing keepy-uppies for 20 mins prior, how about spending 15 minutes of that time performing some short accelerations? You will be shocked at the effect it has on your body.