Same practice. Different training.

A starting spot is usually decided by what a coach sees at practice. But practice itself is not necessarily the same training for every athlete. Two players can spend the same 90 minutes on the field and come away with very different amounts of sprinting, high-speed running, and hard stops and turns.

That gap can be easy to miss. A non-starter may be present, paying attention, and doing everything asked. Yet the player taking the live reps with the first group may get more chances to move at full speed and make game-like cuts. Over weeks, those differences can add up.

It may help explain a familiar frustration: “He works just as hard, but he never seems to get faster.” Effort matters, but so does the kind of work an athlete actually gets to do.

How the practice structure creates a training-dose gap

This isn’t usually anyone’s plan to shortchange a bench player. It’s often a byproduct of how coaches organize practice when the starting group needs to prepare for Friday.

The first group may take the live 11-on-11 reps and the full-speed tactical work. Other players may serve as the scout team, copying an opponent’s shape or moves. They may spend more time in walkthroughs, where the goal is to learn positioning rather than reach top speed. A player can be working hard in each role and still get fewer full-intent sprints, accelerations, and changes of direction.

Research gives us a useful example. In a study of 31 young adult soccer players competing in the third division in the Czech Republic, researchers tracked 212 individual training-week records during the season. Starters and non-starters covered almost the same total distance during training. But starters accumulated about 14% more high-speed running, 25% more sprint distance, and 11% more acceleration and deceleration distance. That last measure was the clearest difference between the groups. The gap was especially pronounced on the day before a match, when starters rehearsed together and non-starters often played the opposition role. Read the study by Varjan and colleagues.

The study was about soccer players, not every youth or high school sport. Its specific numbers shouldn’t be treated as a forecast for a basketball, lacrosse, or football player. But the broader practice-structure issue can arise in team sports wherever some athletes get more live, full-speed repetitions than others.

Why the missing reps matter

The work that can be hardest to count is often important in the moments that catch a coach’s eye: getting to top speed, accelerating into open space, stopping under control, changing direction, and repeating a hard effort after a short recovery.

If an athlete’s weekly dose of those efforts is consistently smaller, “just keep working hard at practice” may not be the complete answer. The athlete might be giving full effort in the role assigned and still not be getting enough chances to practice the physical qualities they hope to improve.

That doesn’t mean a bench player is out of shape. It doesn’t mean a coach is doing something wrong. Coaches have to prepare a team, protect players’ readiness, and make decisions with limited practice time. It’s a bookkeeping problem: a shared practice schedule does not guarantee an equal training dose.

And the pattern isn’t universal. Some athletes get plenty of high-intensity work in other sports, training, or competition. Others may already have a demanding schedule. Before adding sessions, take the whole week into account and, when appropriate, check in with the athlete’s coach or trainer.

Start with a simple one-week audit

For one week, write down how many times the athlete actually reached top speed at full intent during practice. Count genuine fast efforts, not a jog through a drill or a few strides during warm-up. Also note opportunities for hard acceleration, stopping, and changing direction.

The number may be lower than the family expects. That observation isn’t a complaint about the team or a judgment about the athlete. It’s just useful information. It turns a vague feeling of “I need to work harder” into a more specific question: “Am I getting enough quality speed work to keep developing?”

If there appears to be a gap, the next step can be one planned high-intensity session a week outside team practice. It should fit the athlete’s age, schedule, sport, training history, and recovery needs. More is not automatically better.

What a focused speed session can look like

At Athletic Republic Knoxville, a short, individualized session can include acceleration work on high-speed treadmills, where speed is set and measured rather than guessed; first-step and change-of-direction work on the turf; and short repeated sprints with enough rest to keep each effort fast and technically sound.

Video and timing feedback help an athlete see whether a rep was actually quick, not simply whether it felt hard. In an 18,000-square-foot facility, certified trainers can tailor the work to the athlete rather than handing everyone the same session.

Aim for about 20 to 30 minutes of real, focused work. One honest session beats three half-hearted ones. The point is not to leave exhausted. It is to practice fast movement at high quality.

That distinction matters. High-quality sprinting needs recovery between efforts. If the athlete is so tired that every rep is slower and mechanics are falling apart, the session has shifted toward conditioning. That may have its place, but it is not the same stimulus as practicing speed. The short format is deliberate, so it can complement the team schedule rather than pile another full practice onto the week.

A small study by Nedrehagen and Sæterbakken offers one example of a purposeful in-season approach. Twenty-two adult soccer players were split between a group that did a weekly repeated-sprint session and a group that continued regular technical and tactical training. The sprint work took about 20 to 30 minutes and used short shuttle sprints with turns and recovery between efforts. After eight weeks, the sprint-training group improved its Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test distance by about 15% and reduced repeated-sprint times by about 1.5%; the regular-training group did not show significant improvement on those measures. Overall training time and intensity were similar between groups. The results are encouraging, but they come from a small adult soccer sample, not a guarantee for every young athlete. Read the study by Nedrehagen and Sæterbakken.

What athletes can do during team practice

There may also be opportunities to get more from the practice already on the calendar. Without demanding special treatment, an athlete can volunteer for the harder role, ask a coach whether there’s an opening to take reps with the first group, or ask to play the scout-team role at full speed when the drill allows it. Staying after for a few additional reps may be an option if the coach approves and the athlete is not overdoing the week.

Walkthroughs are different from live play, and an athlete should follow the coach’s instructions. But when a drill allows movement at real tempo, treat it as a chance to be sharp rather than merely go through the motions. The goal is to be useful to the team while looking for appropriate opportunities to compete.

A note for parents

When a young athlete is frustrated, a parent’s first instinct may be to say, “Work harder at practice.” But that can sound like criticism when the athlete is already doing everything they’ve been asked to do.

A more helpful starting point is recognizing that the practice structure may create a difference in training dose. Ask your athlete what they want to be faster at: the first step, closing space, changing direction, or repeating a sprint late in a game. Then let them help own the plan. Support the process without turning every practice into a test or adding extra work without considering recovery.

A fair fight, not a promise

Closing a training-dose gap does not buy a starting spot. Coaches make decisions based on practice evidence, scheme fit, trust, communication, and qualities no treadmill can measure. A carefully planned speed session cannot replace playing time, team experience, or a coach’s judgment.

What it can do is help make sure an athlete isn’t quietly losing ground in the physical qualities they’re trying to show. That’s a fair fight, and a fair fight is all anyone can ask for.

Athletes and parents who want to learn more about individualized options can explore student-athlete training at Athletic Republic Knoxville. To try a session, request a free trial class.