Sam Portland - Speed Coach

04/06/2026

Testing

Testing 123

Testing 123

08/05/2026

Why Your Athletes Are Fast in Testing But Slow in Games

Learn why traditional speed testing fails to transfer into game performance and how elite coaches fix the problem.

13/01/2026

How to Accurately Measure Sprint Speed (Without Expensive Timing Gates)

If you can’t measure speed properly, speed training becomes guesswork. And when speed training feels like guesswork, coaches default to what feels reliable: the weight room. Numbers go up. Athletes feel like they’re improving. But on game day… nothing changes. This isn’t a motivation problem. It’s not a programming problem. It’s a measurement problem. In this article, I’m going to break down:...

If you can’t measure speed properly, speed training becomes guesswork. And when speed training feels like guesswork, coaches default to what feels reliable: the weight room. Numbers go up. Athletes…

13/10/2025

Strength and conditioning has lost the plot. Every week there’s another “guru,” another magic exercise, another podcast arguing Olympic lifts versus trap-bar jumps. In this episode of The Sam Portland Podcast, 30-year coaching veteran Matt Vickery joins me to unpack what’s really gone wrong — and how we can fix it. The Problem With the Modern S&C World According to Matt, today’s coaching culture is obsessed with middle-ground fluff — endless debate, little progress....

Strength and conditioning has lost the plot. Every week there’s another “guru,” another magic exercise, another podcast arguing Olympic lifts versus trap-bar jumps. In this episode of The Sam Portl…

29/09/2025

Physiological Training Breakdown...

Physiological Training Breakdown

28/09/2025

Maximizing Law of Accommodation for Strength...

28/09/2025

Transfer Principles - Speed System Insight...

27/09/2025

Non Linear Sprinting - Speed System Insight...

Non Linear Sprinting – Speed System Insight

27/09/2025

Focused Training for Acceleration and Skill...

Focused Training for Acceleration and Skill