Can you slow down?

Sounds like something my mom yelled at me when I was learning how to drive but it’s also an important question for our athletes.

Athletes are often rated on their ability to accelerate and reach top speeds; they pride themselves on these capacities and work tirelessly to run faster, jump higher, and accelerate more explosively year-round. But there is another skill that is just as important—and often overlooked: the ability to slow down. There is no doubt that acceleration and max velocity are important metrics for sports performance, but there is an argument to be made that deceleration is just as or even more important. This is because of the significantly higher forces that are required to decelerate. For example, decelerating requires 41% more mechanical load per meter than accelerating and results in 2.7x more ground reactive forces as compared to accelerating.

This is why decelerating is a fundamental component of every movement pattern required for sport. Whether an athlete is stopping on a dime, landing from a jump, slowing down before changing direction, or controlling their body after reaching top speed, the ability to efficiently absorb and manage force has a major impact on performance.

Let’s use the metric of scoring during soccer matches as an example here. If we look at all the scoring plays during FIFA world cup games from 2014-2023, we see that deceleration and change of direction directly preceded 41% of all goals2. Deceleration=goals, that’s math easy enough for a PT to do.    Furthermore, the ability to decelerate is likely a major factor related to injury risk as some studies indicate as high as 70% of non-contact ACL injuries occur during deceleration movement patterns (1). This specifically pertains to the deceleration (or eccentric) capacity of the quadriceps musculature and is a mainstay of any good injury prevention program or return to sport rehab following an injury.

So, what can you do to improve your performance and decrease your injury risk? Slow down! Or at least practice slowing down as part of your comprehensive training program. Deceleration shouldn’t be an afterthought in athletic development or rehabilitation; it should be trained with the same intention we give acceleration, strength, and speed. So yes, go ahead and train fast. Just make sure you or your athletes know how to slow down.

P.S. The best way to implement this would be with professional guidance, but feel free to refer to the general recommendations I’ve listed below.

Small space decel exercise video here