{"id":2973,"date":"2026-06-27T08:43:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2026-06-27T08:43:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:43:59","slug":"what-are-they-feeding-these-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=2973","title":{"rendered":"What Are They Feeding These Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Everybody is asking the question, why are kids suddenly running so fast? I’ve been asking that same question myself, because we’ve seen a massive shift in what’s been considered national class speed at the high school level. For example, pre Covid 10.50 or better in the boys 100m, 4:55 in the girls mile, and 4:12 in the boys mile would have made you national class in your event. Today in order to be considered national class you must run 10.30, 4:42, and 4:01 respectively.<\/p>\n

We’ve seen this level of change\/improvement across the board in the four years since Covid caused politicians to shut everything down for two years. The question on everyone’s lips is, what’s happened to cause such dramatic improvement in such a short period of time. I’ve been doing some research and following are the five things that I believe have contributed the most to this improvement.<\/p>\n

1. Super Spikes and Shoe Technology\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

In my opinion, the biggest factor in Trackflation among young people, has been the availability of “super shoes”. The carbon plated spikes and running flats with PEBA soles. Initially, these shoes were only made available to elite athletes. However, regulatory changes have made them available to everyone. Spikes like the Nike Air Zoom Maxfly and Dragonfly are being worn by high school athletes with great success. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For young athletes that aren’t as dialed in technically as their adult counterparts, the energy return from these spikes and running shoes can have a tremendous effect on race times. Independent sports science reviews indicate a metabolic and physical performance advantage of approximately 1.2% \u2212 2.1%<\/b> across sprint and distance events, directly translating to a noticeable drop in a standard high school 100m or 1600m race.<\/p>\n

2. The Democratization of Elite Biomechanics & AI Coaching Tools.<\/b><\/p>\n

Prior to Covid, elite level coaching programs were restricted to elite Collegiate programs and professional training camps. However Covid lock downs created a shift in how the internet was used, as everyone began having digital meetings on Zoom, doing YouTube videos, and creating podcasts. Suddenly coaches were sharing training methods, drills, periodization programs and other information on the internet. Available not only for other “elite” coaches to see, but available to anyone that could log onto YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other online platforms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Add the accessibility of video analysis (iPads, cell phones, etc) the ubiquity of high-frame-rate video capture on iPads paired with overlay analysis apps” and youth coaching is\u00a0 <\/span>no longer confined to PE teachers and volunteers with generalized knowledge. High school coaches now have access to the same information as the top collegiate and elite programs. Not just workouts, but nutrition, rest, macrocycles etc. Today’s young athletes are reaping the benefits. Especially those that mature physically. Mature bodies, given elite training, are advancing similarly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. The Post-Covid Training Volume Acceleration<\/b><\/p>\n

While team sports were forced to stop training\/practicing during the shut downs caused by Covid, track and field’s individual nature proved to be an advantage. Those youngsters that were dedicated to track and field were able to put in the work to increase their training bases. Distance runners put in more baseline mileage and sprinters engaged in organized structured off season conditioning programs. So these athletes came out of lock down, better prepared than ever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Growth of\u00a0 <\/span>Private Track Clubs & Year-Round Competition\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

In many areas, youth track has progressed from a three month, school based season to a highly structured, year-round club format modeled after club soccer and AAU basketball. Post-COVID, private youth track clubs have expanded exponentially across North America. These organizations pool regional talent, allowing elite middle and high schoolers to train together daily rather than isolated in local school districts. This structure gives youth athletes year-round access to indoor and outdoor national invitational circuits (e.g., New Balance Nationals, Nike Outdoor Nationals, AAU Junior Olympics), ensuring they compete against deep, elite fields multiple times a year instead of only at state finals.<\/p>\n

5. Ubiquity of Laser Timing Gates and Affordable Wearable Metrics<\/b><\/p>\n

The final driver is the technological revolution in daily training feedback loops. Pre-COVID, precision electronic timing (FAT) was reserved exclusively for high-stakes track meets. Today, portable wireless timing gates (such as Freelap systems) are standard gear for youth club and high school programs. This immediate, objective data allows youth sprinters to instantly measure micro-adjustments in fly-times, acceleration phases, and maximal velocity without human stopwatch error. Paired with wearable tech (Garmin, Apple Watch, WHOOP) that monitors real-time heart rate variability, training loads, and strain-to recovery ratios, youth athletes now systematically target and trigger supercompensation windows while completely mitigating overtraining and injury risks.<\/p>\n

When you combine these things together, it’s not so much about, what are they feeding these kids, as it is about the advanced training that they’re receiving now. The youth aspect of track and field has caught up to the collegiate and elite aspect. They’re now being given the same resources as their older counterparts and are reaping similar results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody is asking the question, why are kids suddenly running so fast? I’ve been asking that same question myself, because we’ve seen a massive shift in what’s been considered national class speed at the high school level. For example, pre Covid 10.50 or better in the boys 100m, 4:55 in the girls mile, and 4:12 in the boys mile would have made you national class in your event. Today in order to be considered national class you must run 10.30, 4:42, and 4:01 respectively. We’ve seen this level of change\/improvement across the board in the four years since Covid caused politicians to shut everything down for two years. The question on everyone’s lips is, what’s happened to cause such dramatic improvement in such a short period of time. I’ve been doing some research and following are the five things that I believe have contributed the most to this improvement. 1. Super Spikes and Shoe Technology\u00a0 In my opinion, the biggest factor in Trackflation among young people, has been the availability of “super shoes”. The carbon plated spikes and running flats with PEBA soles. Initially, these shoes were only made available to elite athletes. However, regulatory changes have made them available to everyone. Spikes like the Nike Air Zoom Maxfly and Dragonfly are being worn by high school athletes with great success. \u00a0 For young athletes that aren’t as dialed in technically as their adult counterparts, the energy return from these spikes and running shoes can have a tremendous effect on race times. Independent sports science reviews indicate a metabolic and physical performance advantage of approximately 1.2% \u2212 2.1% across sprint and distance events, directly translating to a noticeable drop in a standard high school 100m or 1600m race. 2. The Democratization of Elite Biomechanics & AI Coaching Tools. Prior to Covid, elite level coaching programs were restricted to elite Collegiate programs and professional training camps. However Covid lock downs created a shift in how the internet was used, as everyone began having digital meetings on Zoom, doing YouTube videos, and creating podcasts. Suddenly coaches were sharing training methods, drills, periodization programs and other information on the internet. Available not only for other “elite” coaches to see, but available to anyone that could log onto YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other online platforms.\u00a0 Add the accessibility of video analysis (iPads, cell phones, etc) the ubiquity of high-frame-rate video capture on iPads paired with overlay analysis apps” and youth coaching is\u00a0 no longer confined to PE teachers and volunteers with generalized knowledge. High school coaches now have access to the same information as the top collegiate and elite programs. Not just workouts, but nutrition, rest, macrocycles etc. Today’s young athletes are reaping the benefits. Especially those that mature physically. Mature bodies, given elite training, are advancing similarly.\u00a0 3. The Post-Covid Training Volume Acceleration While team sports were forced to stop training\/practicing during the shut downs caused by Covid, track and field’s individual nature proved to be an advantage. Those youngsters that were dedicated to track and field were able to put in the work to increase their training bases. Distance runners put in more baseline mileage and sprinters engaged in organized structured off season conditioning programs. So these athletes came out of lock down, better prepared than ever.\u00a0 4. Growth of\u00a0 Private Track Clubs & Year-Round Competition\u00a0 In many areas, youth track has progressed from a three month, school based season to a highly structured, year-round club format modeled after club soccer and AAU basketball. Post-COVID, private youth track clubs have expanded exponentially across North America. These organizations pool regional talent, allowing elite middle and high schoolers to train together daily rather than isolated in local school districts. This structure gives youth athletes year-round access to indoor and outdoor national invitational circuits (e.g., New Balance Nationals, Nike Outdoor Nationals, AAU Junior Olympics), ensuring they compete against deep, elite fields multiple times a year instead of only at state finals. 5. Ubiquity of Laser Timing Gates and Affordable Wearable Metrics The final driver is the technological revolution in daily training feedback loops. Pre-COVID, precision electronic timing (FAT) was reserved exclusively for high-stakes track meets. Today, portable wireless timing gates (such as Freelap systems) are standard gear for youth club and high school programs. This immediate, objective data allows youth sprinters to instantly measure micro-adjustments in fly-times, acceleration phases, and maximal velocity without human stopwatch error. Paired with wearable tech (Garmin, Apple Watch, WHOOP) that monitors real-time heart rate variability, training loads, and strain-to recovery ratios, youth athletes now systematically target and trigger supercompensation windows while completely mitigating overtraining and injury risks. When you combine these things together, it’s not so much about, what are they feeding these kids, as it is about the advanced training that they’re receiving now. The youth aspect of track and field has caught up to the collegiate and elite aspect. They’re now being given the same resources as their older counterparts and are reaping similar results.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-LX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":454,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=454","url_meta":{"origin":2973,"position":0},"title":"Most Untouchable High School Records","author":"CHill","date":"March 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Perusing the internet early this morning I came across this article which lists the writers\u2019 ten most untouchable high school records. 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