Everything is about track and track is about speed

Its been a long time since I sat down and wrote. In the past I would write on a regular basis. In the last few months I have been listening more. The direct result has been extensive time in introspection. I have read through a few of my old posts and specifically see the enthusiasm and passion for the sport that I still have. Fortunately I now have the gift of experience. I am, of course, not a finished product.

I've enjoyed the writing of Stuart McMillan recently. He works at Altis which is an elite level training center located in Phoenix, AZ. He is able to articulate what I have learned and know about sport. He has also shared some anecdotes about athletes that he has coached that have helped me to work on cuing strategies with current athletes that I work with.

Coaching Speed

When it comes to speed there are a few things that we need to consider. Speed is first and foremost a skill. It is not unlike playing any musical instrument. It is different that much of the skill is based on the neural recruitment of muscle tissue whereas piano is much more about developing and refining motor skills. It is the exhaustion of the CNS that requires periods of rest in between training sessions. The following are essential components to any speed development program.

1. Acceleration
2. Max Velocity
3. Speed Endurance
4. Special Endurance

These qualities are listed in order of development. Early season should begin with acceleration, then to max velocity then finally ending with speed and special endurance.

Acceleration

The skill of acceleration is applicable to all sports, and disciplines. Every single act in the world has an acceleration component. Practicing effective, efficient acceleration skills will enable any athlete to move from a static start into the max velocity portion of their race. These qualities can always be refined and like all motor patterns gain efficiency with practice.

Max Velocity

In my experience, this quality is woefully undertrained. Often this quality is trained without specific intent. Any run that exceeds 30m that does not exceed 70m contains, likely, max velocity qualities. These bouts of CNS stimulus can be as short as 10m and as long as 30m. If this quality is specifically addressed and tracked it is easy to see that gains as small as .02 over 10m can translate into huge gains in 100m where there are 10 10m segments! That is .2 of improvement. The difference between 12.2 and 12.0 for girls and 11.00 and 10.8 for men is huge! Additionally these coordination and neural gains are retained! Interestingly Dan Pfaff mentions that in his experience beyond 40 bouts of Max Velocity have limited gains.

Speed Endurance

I do not like the term "endurance" in relation to speed qualities. I understand the nature of the term, however because speed is so rooted in coordination I would prefer something like Speed Coordination Endurance. Too often coaches get caught up in pushing workouts with recoveries of 2-4 minutes which because of their limited recovery, limit intensities. Speed Endurance runs must be performed with recoveries between 8 minutes and greater. This allows the body to operate at near maximal intensities which allows for specific adaptations to race pace scenarios.

Special Endurance

This term refers to runs that are specific to the race distance, for example Special Endurance 1 refers to runs of 150m-300m while Special Endurance 2 runs are typically 300m-600m. Again the intensity is dictated by the recovery and the recoveries must be long enough to allow for close to race intensities.

Strength Training - Circuits and Power Production

To quickly define some of the goals of my athletes I would first of all start with Maximal Strength levels. Our goal is power production. This is done through further recruitment of the available muscle fibers. We do this by using higher velocity lifts with large ranges of motion, namely the Olympic lifts. For all of my athletes we work from Power Cleans early in the year to Snatches and single support motions later in the year. In the later stages of the year we include ballistic lifts. To be clear at no time we do completely avoid Maximal Strength or  Ballistic lifts.

Our emphasis during the year changes. At all times we include each of the aforementioned exercises but with differing levels of emphasis. The transition between these exercises are referred to as bleeding or blending. Our maximal strength  levels are emphasized during our summer which then bleeds into olympic lifts which bleeds into single support and ballistic lift emphasis later in the year. At all times we want to progress each aspect of strength training.

I don't believe that you can just do maximal lifts, then Olympic then ballistic. They have to each be taught all year long. Progression is sought in each area but at different levels throughout the year.  Of course each type of lifting has a differing effect on the training that is performed during the year outside of the weight room. I don't want my athletes exhausted late in the competition phase because of high intensity Maximal Strength exercises. Instead my goals in and out of the weight room determine the emphasis in and out of the weight room both in intensity and volume. Depending on the time of year each coach has to determine what the proper volume/intensity ratio is for their athletes.

Circuits

At all times during the year we perform circuits. These foster the production of testosterone which provides endocrine support during the recovery  phase of each week and cycle. At the same time the intensity and volume of these circuits provide to enhance the fitness levels of my athletes. I can't have my throwers performing volume 200m workouts throughout the year. They just wouldn't be able to handle the work and it wouldn't be specific to the secondary goals that they have outside of the weight room.

Henrik Holmberg Throwing Discus!

Here is some video of Henrik Holmberg throwing discus.

San Francisco Half Marathon

Mainly I'm posting this so that I'll be able to access the information easily. I'm going to think more about this race and then do an overall evaluation once I've spoken with with Kyle about how he felt during the race. It's a pain to be several states away when you are trying to coach/help some one run faster!

San Francisco Half Marathon

Mainly I'm posting this so that I'll be able to access the information easily. I'm going to think more about this race and then do an overall evaluation once I've spoken with with Kyle about how he felt during the race. It's a pain to be several states away when you are trying to coach/help some one run faster!

Developing Athletes

This summer I have been blessed with a construction job. That's given me an immense amount of time to think. At the national coaches convention this past year I had a conversation with a coaching friend of mine and mentor Lucky Huber. The discussion centered around the development of strength in athletes and more importantly the question of what is enough strength.

Currently we are toying with some ideas about strength levels. Obviously there are differing levels based on events for each athletes. My friend and coworker Greg Binstock mentioned to me in a conversation this past year that it was not until his male high jumpers could put up 400 lbs in squat that they were really able to jump in the 7' range. This past year those same athletes saw a de emphasis in their training on strength at I would suggest the result was a terrible season of jumping.

Recently we went to a summer track meet and long jumped. One of my girls that has made substantial strength gains mentioned that every thing felt easy now that she is so much stronger. She felt that all of her movements were more controlled and thus effortless requiring far less concentration of the CNS.

So here we go. I'll dish out some quick numbers. I think that with your ladies it is not out of this world to suggest that they be able to squat 3-400 lbs for a set of 4 and for your men I think a great goal is 5-600 lbs. These strength levels need to be acquired during the summer when they can focus solely on strength. These strength levels should allow us to focus on a period during the year when we move to plyometrics and from there to more event specific activities. The thing that excites me the most is the idea that we will be able to increase the density of our training. In other words I think that this great strength base is going to enable us to work more on event specific activity and on sprinting repetition which should result in a greater adaptation in speed and power.

The main question that has been continually posed to me concerns the reduction in range of motion and increase in mass. We have tracked our weight gain over the summer and since the substantial increase in strength we have seen no increase in overall mass, rather a change in body composition. I would suggest that as we move from a power/strength phase to a speed/endurance phase we will see a reduction in body fat and an increase in power output/lb of body weight. This should result in an increase in our standing long jump, STJ, flying 30m and 30m from 3 pt. Basically it should make our kids more athletic.

The biggest reason that we have been focusing on strength this summer is that of all the variables that are part of the athletic equation, strength is the least developed in high school kids that come into our program. Most are able to run jump and perform technical aspects of their events, they are, however, limited by their strength. I expect that after the fall all of my women are able to squat between 185 and 255 lbs for a set of 4 and my men to be able to squat 300 - 400 lbs for a set of 4. Those athletes that struggle with more weight have been put on a higher rep endurance lifting regimen. I have them perform sets of 4-5x12 for 185-225. This results in the development of the necessary muscle structure and suppport muscles to support greater weight. It also develops the endurance to perform many body weight reps.

Auxillary Days

I have yet to have athletes develop too much upper body mass. I have them lift bi's tri's and shoulders on their auxillary days. They also include a bar workout which is an abdominal workout. I find that sit ups are not sufficient in the development of abdominal strength. We never do anything with our back on the floor so I have them perform abdominal movements with no support. T his develops the musculature completely. On a later date I will go into further detail on this matter and my findings.

Sprinter Inventory

There are some really good thoughts about training short sprinters here.

deem sprinters inventory

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