Even at 32, Turner a speed merchant ... and student ... of running game

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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- You will never run as fast as Trea Turner.

Don’t let it bother you. Very few people run like Turner, who is one of baseball’s all-time fastest. Turner, 32, finished last season as the fastest player in the Major Leagues with a sprint speed of 30.3 feet per second. As a 22-year-old in 2015, he ranked second (30.6) to Minnesota’s Byron Buxton (30.9).

Clearly, Turner has defied the aging curve, which MLB.com’s Mike Petriello wrote so excellently last summer.

But being fast is so much more than being blessed physically. Turner has learned a few things about running great, too.

But has he learned enough to help you run faster? Say, for example, a hypothetical middle-aged, out-of-shape baseball writer needed to win a race in a couple months to win $1,000.

Could Turner help him win it?

“Running form,” Turner said, offering his first tip. “I’ve worked on running form since high school. I feel like a lot of guys are very fast, because they’re just gifted and twitchy and strong. I think your form is the only way to take that talent and maximize it.

“A lot of it is arms, which is kind of funny. Like, pumping your arms. A lot of guys don’t use their arms. A lot of guys don’t knee drive. So, a lot of guys’ legs are kind of behind them. You want to get your knees up.”

Driving your knees is important. It’s especially important at the start, whether it’s the beginning of a race or when trying to steal a base.

Turner has stolen 315 bases in his 11-year career. He has 85 in his first three seasons with the Phillies.

“You’ve got to knee drive, you’ve got to use your arms,” Turner said. “I was told when I was a kid that your legs will only work as fast as your arms. So, if you move your arms faster, your legs kind of have to move faster. It’s that balance of trying to get your arms moving faster, but not to the point that you’re all over the place. It’s kind of hard to explain without doing it, but running form is big, especially with health and staying healthy.”

Once the form is cleaned up, is there a workout or drill that might help?

“Sled pushes,” Turner said.

Turner does them in the offseason.

“I’ll do lunges, stuff where you’re using your whole body and you’re not just jogging back and forth,” he said. “You’re having to drive the ground, push the ground. It’s really good for running. But sled pushes are a good place to start. They’re really hard and you’d probably make up a lot of ground real fast.”

Mixing in a workout would help, too.

“Just getting stronger,” Turner said. “I think some of the faster guys are smaller, but there’s a balance. You can add some strength, and that will help you run more than you think. When I was a kid, I was a little smaller than everybody. And then when I got taller and stronger, I got a lot faster.

“There’s like weight and flexibility. I’m a believer in natural flexibility. If you’re flexible, you should be flexible. If you’re not, you should stay there, too. If you’re too flexible, you can get hurt. You’ve got to control your flexibility. There’s a balance of being flexible and strong and being able to control your flexibility. Bryce [Harper] is super flexible. He’s always been a natural flexibility guy. If he lost that, that would be a problem. And I’m pretty tight, so if I got too flexible, that’d be a problem. I think strength, flexibility and controlling what you have is really important.”

But maybe nothing matters more than just knowing how to run the right way.

“A lot of guys don’t realize they’re running bad until they’re hurt,” Turner said.