Speed changes when you understand what the best actually do - Dan Pfaff explains why

Dan Pfaff explains how contact and flight ratios evolve across different phases of a sprint, from acceleration to max velocity.

Speed changes when you understand what the best actually do. In this clip, Dan touches a distinction with huge coaching implications: contact and flight ratios evolve across the sprint. Early acceleration has one set of demands. Transition changes them. Top speed changes them again. And when world-class athletes spend more time in the air than on the ground at max velocity, that tells you something important about rhythm, projection, stiffness, and how speed is organized. That matters, because too much coaching treats sprinting as one thing. One model. One set of cues. One set of drills. But acceleration is different from transition. Transition is different from upright sprinting. Different problems. Different solutions. This is the level of reasoning we work through in The Coaching Eye. Not just what to look at, but how to interpret what you see and connect it to intervention. Because better coaching often starts with seeing distinctions others blur together. ⏳ Registration closes tomorrow night. Last chance to join this Spring cohort before we begin May 2. Four masterclasses. Eight live immersion sessions. Direct access to Coach Pfaff working through problems like this in real time. If you want a deeper lens for speed, movement, and diagnosis, join us while doors are still open. 📍 Secure your place here: loom.ly/qtcqnio