One second in one hundred years raises a difficult question. In a century of technological and scientific progress, sprinting has barely improved.

Runners struggle to improve speed because the traditional speed formula is incomplete. Without accounting for this key element, cadence and stride length cannot explain or produce speed.

Andre De Grasse’s plateau exposes a recurring flaw in sprint training: isolated physical qualities rise, yet speed remains unchanged. His case highlights the deeper mechanism most approaches overlook.

For all their variety, an overwhelming majority of WODs have one constant – running. That’s a lot of running in a community that says it hates running!

Whatever your current running speed is, you can run faster immediately by simply changing just one thing. Nothing else will give you the same result.

In general, better balance translates to higher precision of movement regardless of sport, but how does our balance affect our speed?