Improve basic speed in young runner

Hills would be a good place to start. The incline forces you to drive your knees and land on the balls of your feet more than flat ground, plus it builds strength which is a rather important part of speed. In particular, short hill work (e.g., sprinting uphill for like 6-8 seconds) would do the most for his foot speed. Training should be less specific than that, though, so I would suggest looking up Lydiard's hill circuits, along with contemporary guys like Steve Magness, Renato Canova, Brad Hudson, etc. and come up with a generalized program that would best fit in with what your kid has done and will be doing.

Other ideas -

Barefoot running can sometimes help with developing better foot strike tendencies, though sometimes it doesn't.

If he knows what good running form should be (and this is something you can help him understand if he doesn't), but his form just breaks down during distance runs, shorten the distance he is running to where he is able to run with good form for the entire time, and gradually progress the distance while reinforcing his good habits.

Bottom line: to develop good form, he has to practice good form, so have him do things that will encourage good form and discourage poor form.

Track season is over already? Geez when did it start?

I agree with the other poster.

Everything watchout said.

Also, check out his armswing. On the backswing, the elbows should go so far back the upper arm is almost horizontal to the ground. (Some runners can't do this, so just get the elbows back as far as possible.) On the front swing, the hands should be close to the chest at the top of the swing... no more than 4" away from the chest. Combined, this puts the arm weight more behind the body, which changes the center of gravity, which in turn creates a tiny forward lean, which helps reduce heel striking.

Do barefoot drills on the grass until it feels comfortable. Have him put on shoes and immediately run with the same posture and movement... i.e., forefoot striking.

Switch to a shoe that discourages heel striking. Skechers, and Newtons help with this. I prefer the Skechers GoRun 3 and the GoRun Ride 3. Low heel-to-toe lift shoes also can reduce heel strike somewhat.

All good advice. I'd put a stopwatch on him. Do some short flys. I prefer 35 yards. Go ahead and do some block work too. It's pretty hard to run on your heels when you're coming out of the blocks. Sprinting drills emphasizing form are good. Make him think like a sprinter. I think it was Ryun who said that if you want to go faster, get up higher on the toes or something like that.

Gym work-knees to sternum

Hill sprints

Strides, strides, strides

Show him video footage of elite runners

Barefoot work on grass/sand.

Very good advice offered up here. I will just add that this is the type of stuff I am doing with my wife to get her faster. She was the typical mid lifer that took up running with horrible form. She only had one basic speed whether running a 5K or 50m sprints.

We go to the track for some short speed work, strides and such and I just introduced short hill sprints. It is slowly paying off. Once she saw the benefits she now quite enjoys the workouts.

The neuromuscular training section of this article has a good hill progression: http://www.active.com/running/articles/beginner-s-guide-to-runni