When we think about a recipe for success in sports such as hockey, soccer and lacrosse, we think of speed, power, strength and anaerobic capacity.  Although these are all mandatory ingredients needed to enhance the final product (athletic potential), one of the ingredients missing in many of today’s strength and conditioning programs is the ability to accelerate. Acceleration is simply the rate at which speed increases. Very few times in the sports mentioned above do we reach top velocity and sustain this for prolonged periods of time.  However, we do accelerate constantly!  Simple physics states: “The higher the velocity, the lower the rate of acceleration.”  If we don’t sustain top velocity on a regular basis, acceleration is then one of the keys to success.