"Velocity-based training is about listening to the athlete in real time." - Sarah Walsh
In 2026 the way elite athletes train is shifting, and not just in what they lift, but in how they measure progress.
One trend gaining traction among coaches and competitors is velocity-based training (VBT) - a method built around movement speed rather than traditional percentages of weight lifted.
VBT doesn’t just ask 'how much?' - it asks how fast?
Velocity-based training uses sensors and performance data to track real-time movement speeds during lifts. By doing so, it allows coaches and athletes to adjust training loads on the fly, matching each session to an athlete’s readiness that day rather than sticking rigidly to a prescribed weight.
Why velocity matters
Traditional strength programmes usually depend on percentages of one-rep max (1RM): lift a certain percentage of your maximum.
The issue? Readiness varies daily - sleep quality, nutrition, stress, even weather can make a 70 per cent load feel easy or brutally hard. VBT, by contrast, auto-regulates based on how fast you move the bar, and that feedback lets athletes dial intensity up or down in the moment without guesswork.
According to experts, this approach is particularly effective for training speed, power and strength simultaneously - a combination that matters in sports from rugby to cricket, sprinting to agility-based performance.
"Velocity-based training is about listening to the athlete in real time," says Sarah Walsh, a strength and conditioning coach working with elite teams.
"It eliminates some of the assumptions built into percentage-based programmes and lets the athlete express why they’re in the gym that day."
What this looks like in practice
Rather than assigning a fixed weight, coaches will program a target speed for an exercise - for example, a squat or bench press - and athletes use devices that attach to the bar to measure how quickly it moves.
If the bar speed is above the target range, the weight is increased; if it’s below, the weight is decreased. This real-time feedback ensures progress without unnecessary fatigue.
Athlete application
Velocity training isn’t just elite: many mid-level athletes find it increases motivation and reduces the risk of overtraining because they’re no longer chasing arbitrary numbers.
Instead of 'today I must lift X', the objective becomes 'today I must express my best speed', which can help shift mindset from outcome to effort strategy.
The bottom line
As wearable tech and performance analytics continue to evolve, velocity-based training - and the data that makes it possible - is shaping how strength work is framed in 2026.
Rather than chasing percentage targets, athletes of all levels are beginning to train based on real-time feedback that respects their readiness as much as their goals.
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