One of the most important factors in coaching speed is mechanics. It is what I look for when training athletes. Which is what happened when I started coaching coed at a private school in the Manhattan area. There was one athlete in particular who wanted to improve in the one-hundred meter and two-hundred meter races in order to compete in college. Both times for the two events were not adequate to compete for a Division I school.The athlete lacked ballistic ability which is an inhibiting factor. There are also other inhibitors yet I would like to focus on mechanics.Now one thing that bothers me is bad sprint posture – maybe I inherited that from my coach who was a stickler for consistency and body mechanics. Actually, the athlete had an upright posture and Kept the hips high. The problem was the push-off phase. It lasted longer than it should have, which led to long sloppy strides. Spending too much time on the ground and too much for my liking. We focused on plyometrics and various cone drills to limit backward mechanics. The drills helped immensely. Which led to a drop of nearly a second in the one-hundred meter time. It was great to see all that hard work pay off. Truly a brilliant way to end the season. I could not coach the following season due to a timing issue, yet I followed the progress of the athlete who was only a sophomore at the time I coached. Unfortunately, the athlete regressed and was not able to run as fast as before. The lack of sprint mechanics was to blame. This is why I focus on mechanics. Like I said, there are other factors involved in speed yet mechanics can make or break your performance.