Stuart McMillan coaches sprinting as a technical skill, phase by phase. Here's how to coach the drive-to-upright transition.
Most coaches treat speed as a fitness quality - run more, run harder - and leave real speed on the table. Stuart McMillan of ALTIS treats sprinting as a technical event: distinct phases, each with its own mechanics, and a late-acceleration transition from the forward-lean drive into tall, upright running that makes or breaks top speed. This breakdown covers his coaching in our own words, adds our take for coaching speed online, and turns it into a sprint-phase map you can work from.
By Markus Evers · September 2026 · a Coachway video breakdown
the short version
McMillan's case is that sprinting is a coachable technical skill, not just fitness: a sprint has phases - drive, acceleration, max velocity - and the late-acceleration transition, where posture rises from the forward-lean drive into upright running in step with the athlete's speed, is one of the biggest levers on how fast they run. The one thing a coach should do about it: stop treating speed as 'run harder' and start coaching the phases and the posture transition as technique - drill the positions, and let posture rise with velocity instead of standing up too early or too late.
Stuart McMillan (ALTIS) - The Keys to Late Acceleration (Stuart McMillan, Part 2)
Source: ALTIS on YouTube - "The Keys to Late Acceleration (Stuart McMillan, Part 2)", featuring ALTIS coach Stuart McMillan. Watch on YouTube. We embed the public video and summarise it in our own words; the video and channel belong to ALTIS, and nothing here implies their or Stuart McMillan's endorsement of Coachway.
Who is Stuart McMillan, and why coaches watch
Stuart McMillan is the CEO and a lead sprint coach at ALTIS, an elite track and field training group, and one of the most respected voices in the world on sprinting and speed. He has coached Olympic and world-level sprinters, and ALTIS's educational content is a go-to resource for coaches who want to understand how top speed is actually built and taught. Coaches watch him because sprint mechanics is a genuinely technical discipline that most strength and team-sport coaches never learn properly - and getting even a little of it right is a large, cheap speed gain for their athletes. This look at the acceleration-to-upright transition is a clear example, which is the lens this page is written for.
What McMillan actually argues (our summary)
This is our summary of the ideas in the video, in our own words - not a transcript. Watch the original for his exact framing and examples.
- 1
Sprinting is a skill with phases. Drive, acceleration and max velocity each have their own mechanics - you coach the phase, not just effort.
- 2
Late acceleration is the transition. Moving out of the forward-lean drive into a tall, upright posture as speed builds is where a lot of speed is won or lost.
- 3
Posture rises with speed. The body angle comes up gradually, in step with velocity - standing up too early or staying down too long both cost speed.
- 4
Coach positions and projection. Where the limbs are, how the athlete projects, how cleanly force goes into the ground - these are technical, teachable things, not 'try harder'.
- 5
Progress it like a skill. Use drills and cues to build the correct positions, then let the athlete express them at full speed.
Coachway's take
We love this because speed is so often left uncoached. Team-sport and general coaches will happily program squats and conditioning and then send athletes to "do some sprints" with zero technical instruction - leaving one of the biggest performance qualities entirely to chance. Treating sprinting as a skill with coachable phases, the way McMillan and ALTIS do, turns speed into something you can actually develop rather than just test.
Where we'd be honest for most coaches: you don't need to become an elite sprint coach to benefit, but you do need to respect that this is a real discipline. Learn the phases, learn what good looks like in the transition, and coach a few high-value positions well rather than overloading an athlete with cues. And remember it's the straight-line half of speed - it pairs with change-of-direction and agility work rather than replacing it, so a field-sport athlete needs both.
For online coaching this is actually a good fit, because sprint mechanics are so visual. You can't fix a stride live from another city, but you can review film, spot the one or two positions costing the athlete speed, and prescribe the drills that build the right pattern - then have them re-film and compare. The coaching moves into the video review and the drill design, which is exactly where a remote coach can add real value if they know what they're looking at.
So our version of his approach is: coach sprinting by phase, pay special attention to the drive-to-upright transition and let posture rise with speed, drill and cue a few high-value positions rather than everything at once, and run it as a film-and-drill loop for online athletes.
Run speed work as a film-and-drill loop
Coaching sprint mechanics remotely is a review-and-prescribe loop, and both halves live in the platform. In Coachway you build the drill progression in the workout builder - the acceleration and transition drills, cued for the positions you're after - so the athlete has a clear plan, not "go do sprints". Then they send a video of their sprint, you review the phases and flag the one or two positions costing speed, and re-scale the drills - the technical coaching happens on the film, which is where it belongs when you're remote. The mechanics are McMillan's; the platform keeps the drills and the film together.
For the other side of athletic speed, the companion breakdowns on Lee Taft on speed and agility and Mike Boyle on single-leg training cover change-of-direction and the strength behind it.
The sprint-phase coaching map (film against it)
A short map of the sprint phases and what to look for in each, to review a client's sprint film against. Coach a few high-value positions per phase rather than everything at once.
Sprint-phase coaching map
| Phase | Look for | Common fault |
|---|---|---|
| Drive (start) | Forward body lean, big push, patient rise | Popping upright too soon |
| Late acceleration | Posture rising in step with speed | Standing up early, or staying low too long |
| Max velocity | Tall posture, clean ground contact, rhythm | Over-striding / reaching, tension |
| Cueing | A few high-value cues, position-focused | Cue overload; 'try harder' |
| Method | Drill -> film -> compare -> progress | Sprinting untaught, judged only on the clock |
How to use it: review a client's sprint film against the phases, find the one or two positions costing them speed (often the transition), and prescribe drills and a couple of cues to build the right pattern. Let posture rise with velocity, coach positions not effort, and re-film to compare. Straight-line speed - pair it with agility work for field athletes.
SPRINT-PHASE COACHING MAP (via Coachway) - coach sprinting as a skill; review film against the phases - DRIVE (START) -> look for: forward lean, big push, patient rise | fault: popping upright too soon - LATE ACCELERATION -> look for: posture rising in step with speed | fault: standing up early, or staying low too long - MAX VELOCITY -> look for: tall posture, clean contact, rhythm | fault: over-striding / reaching, tension - CUEING -> a few high-value, position-focused cues | fault: cue overload; 'try harder' - METHOD -> drill -> film -> compare -> progress | fault: sprinting untaught, judged only on the clock HOW TO USE: Review a client's sprint FILM against the phases, find the one or two positions costing speed (often the drive-to-upright TRANSITION), and prescribe drills + a couple of cues to build the pattern. Let posture rise WITH velocity - not too early, not too late. Coach positions, not effort. Re-film to compare. This is straight-line speed; pair it with change-of-direction/agility for field-sport athletes.
Coaching sprint mechanics - FAQ
Can you actually coach someone to sprint faster, or is it just genetics?
Genetics set the ceiling, but sprinting is a skill and technique is coachable - most people, athletes included, run nowhere near their mechanical potential. How you position and project the body through each phase of a sprint, how cleanly you put force into the ground, and how you transition from the start to upright running all change speed, and all can be taught. Stuart McMillan and ALTIS coach some of the fastest people on earth precisely because they treat sprinting as a technical event, not just a fitness test. For a coach, that means speed work is something you coach and progress, not something you just tell a client to do harder.
What is late acceleration and the transition McMillan talks about?
A sprint has phases - the drive out of the start, acceleration, and top-end max velocity - and late acceleration is the transition between them, where the athlete moves out of the low, forward-leaning drive posture into a taller, more upright sprinting position as speed builds. The key coaching point is that this rise is gradual and tied to speed: standing up too early kills the acceleration, and staying down too long is just as costly. Coaching the transition well - letting posture come up in step with the athlete's rising velocity - is one of the biggest levers on how fast someone ends up running.
How is this different from agility or change-of-direction speed?
It's the other half of 'speed'. Linear sprint mechanics - what McMillan coaches here - is about running fast in a straight line: acceleration and max velocity, posture, projection and ground contact. Change-of-direction and agility, which other coaches specialise in, are about decelerating, planting and re-accelerating in a new direction. Both matter for field-sport athletes, and they're trained differently. A complete athlete needs the straight-line engine and the ability to redirect it; this page is about the straight-line half, and it pairs naturally with the agility side rather than competing with it.
How do you coach sprint mechanics with an online client?
Sprinting is highly visual, so online it becomes a film-and-drill loop. The client records a sprint from a useful angle, you analyse the phases - drive, transition, max velocity - and identify the one or two positions costing them speed, then prescribe drills and cues that build the right pattern. Because you're not there live, the coaching lives in the video review and the precise drill prescription rather than in-the-moment cueing. Progress the drills as the positions improve, re-film, and compare. It's the same technical coaching ALTIS does in person, adapted to a client who sends you clips instead of running in front of you.
More speed and athletic-development breakdowns
- · Lee Taft on speed and agility - the change-of-direction half of speed.
- · Mike Boyle on single-leg training - the strength behind fast, durable athletes.
- · The full library: fitness creator coaching breakdowns.
Build fast, complete athletes
all guidesLee Taft on Coaching Speed and Agility (Coach Breakdown)
Lee Taft's speed and agility method, broken down for coaches: coach change-of-direction as a teachable skill - deceleration first, then plant and redirect mechanics - with reactive drills that transfer to the sport.
Read the guideMike Boyle on Single-Leg Training for Athletes (Coach Breakdown)
Mike Boyle on unilateral training, broken down for coaches: make loaded single-leg strength the primary lower-body method for multi-directional athletes - better sport transfer, exposed asymmetries and lower spinal load than a bilateral back squat.
Read the guideEric Cressey on Rotational Power (Coach Breakdown)
Eric Cressey on why hip-to-shoulder separation - not raw strength alone - unlocks power for rotational-sport athletes, broken down for coaches with how to program the sequencing and ballistic work.
Read the guideFree tools for this: Protein Calculator · Weekly Training Volume Calculator · Calorie Deficit Calculator
Coach speed as a skill, on film
Sprint mechanics are visual, so online they live in a film-and-drill loop. In Coachway you program the drill progression in the workout builder and review the athlete's sprint by video, then re-scale - so speed becomes coached technique, not guesswork. Start your 14-day free trial and turn 'go do sprints' into real speed coaching.
