Moving the High Point

This past Monday Don Wang and I attempted to move his low point off of his right hip around to the back more. The following are videos that show what we attempted to do.

1 Turn 10-2-08

This is a video that we shot on the 2nd of October earlier this year. This is about 3 weeks after we began working on weight.

1 Turn 11-24-08

This video shows how Don is winding low and back on his right side. Because of that his high point isn't in the front of the ring at all more so at about 30-40 degrees. This explains the lack of balance and the inability to accelerate the ball. Once we focused on getting the low point back to 345-350 Don was able to move the ball around rather than attempting to maintain his balance.

3 Turn with Weight

This is a 3 turn with the weight again focusing on balance.  We need to spend some more time just working to smooth out the turns so Don can get into position to properly accelerate the ball.

3 Turn with Short Hammer

This is three turns where Don focuses on staying balanced. He's also working on keeping his low point in the back of the ring some where around 345 degrees if 0 is the direct back of the ring and the front is 180 degrees.

Throwing Hammer

I'm including this footage so that my athletes can take a look at themselves and so I can share it with other coaches who I am discussing technique with. Again comments are welcome and I'll post more thoughts as I process what I'm seeing in practice further.

Me - this is my first attempt at throwing the hammer

Ed Robson

It's a Straight Pole Party!

Some of my vaulters requested that I post some video of their vaulting in practice. Rather than just upload it to google I've also decided to post it here on one page so that the video's will be easier to access.  Feel free to comment! I'll be posting more video in the future.

Paulina Belsky

Roy Mossy

Ashley Flint


James Dean




Dave Lane

High Jumping with Katie

This morning I had a high jump workout with one of my multi eventers Katie. We took a few jumps from six steps and then we did some full approach work over cones. Our emphasis was on maintaining lean and developing rotation around the bar. We struggled with that all morning long. After taking a good look at the footage that we shot I think that I've come up with a simple solution or answer to our question. If you will consider the two videos below you should see two very different things.

1. Consider the knee of each jumper. You will see that the male jumpers knee lifts to the 90 degree position and stays there allowing the hips to rotate above the head causing the center of gravity to pass below the actual height of the bar.
2. The female jumper continually drops the knee which allows her to jump on the height that she can lift her hips to.

Katie Sheehan

Brad Pruente

In this video you can see that similar to Katie, Brad drops his knee as the rest of this body rotates flat over the bar. Had me maintained his knee positioning even slightly more so he would have continued his bodies rotation around the bar allowing him to pass over this height. This is something that I see over and over again at High School meets.

OR

The 5's Revisited

I realize that I had an earlier post on this but I was reading through a book today and I thought that it would be appropriate to revisit them.

Suppleness - or flexibility; is the range of moement at a joint

Strength: is the ability of a muscle to exert force against a resistance

1. Isometric contractions: occur when isufficient tension is produced to move a resistance. No joint movement occurs.
2. Isotonic contraction: occur when sufficient tension is produced within a muscle group to overcome a resistance. Joint movemtn occurs.
3. Strength Endurance: the ability of a muscle to maintain its contractile force over a period of time. Load 50-75% of macimum for 10-15 or more repititions.
   
4. Power speed:  is the masimum force a muscle can exert over a short period of time. Load 75-90% for 6-10 repetitions.
   
5. Special Strength: involves a comp9onent of power using jumpin exercises such as depth jumping, boxes hurdles, combined jumps. Special STrength is gained through "plyometrics" with the emphasis on the muscles' eccentric contraction.
   
6. Maximum Strength: involves optimal muscle strength at a low velocity. Load 90-100% of maximum for 1-4 repitions.
   

Speed: is running at 95-100% maximum up to 60m or 6 sec (anerobic alactic).

Stamina or Endurance: is divided into anaerobic and aerobic components.

The Conjugate Sequence System of Periodization

This is a great read on the typical western thought on periodization vs the eastern bloc-soviet model.

Most periodized training programs for athletes follow a Western or linear model. The Western model manipulates intensity and volume through different mesocycles during the training year (i.e. endurance, hypertrophy, power, strength, and maintenance) (6). However, there is more production when one skillfully combines various training methods, rather than exclusively training one of them separately in a yearly plan (15). One such method we use for our throwers at Louisiana Tech University is the Conjugate Sequence System (CSS).

The CSS follows what Bompa details in his book very closely. I think I've done my fair share of preaching along these lines but one line in this article caught my eye.

The system simultaneously trains all necessary motor abilities with a constant renewal and re-establishing process, that promotes a steady and permanent adaptation while securing the desired training-effect, hence elevating an athletes functional potential (12).

I couldn't have said it better myself...

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/strength_considerations_for_throwers.htm

Throwers Summit

Well it seems that the effect of the Reno Pole Vault Summit has finally had its trickle down effect on the throwing community. There will be a throwing summit in California on the 3-4 of January. http://www.nationalthrowssummit.com/ The speakers featured at this summit look great and it will be a great chance for the US to advance in the throws.

Bruce Lee - An Excellent Argument for Speed Development

It didn't strike me until moments ago while I was reading an article on Bruce Lee just how much the essence of speed can be trained. During my undergrad years Lucky Huber would constantly say, "To be fast we have to train fast! If we want to run fast we have to run fast!" I always just shook my head and did as he said. Internally I questioned his method for speed development.

This evening, however, a light came on. If Bruce Lee could train his body to do some of the things I've listed below, why can't we train our athletes to move their legs more quickly? It seems obvious to me that the CNS has to be trained to fire the muscles quickly. Steve our strength coach was telling me the other day about how the Snatch is a lift that is focused not on the ammount of weight that is moved but rather the speed at which the weight can be moved. This in turn led me to search the internet questioning what I know about the purpose of  the snatch and the role it must play in developing increadibly explosive athletes.

If He Could Why Can't We?

God didn't create Bruce Lee as the fastest person ever. He was endowed with certain gifts. Lee put in the work to do the amazing things that he did. I guess we do have to run fast to run fast....

• Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.^[50]
• Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24 frames per second, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.^[51][52][53]
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.^[54]
• Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs^[42][49]
• Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.^[48]
• Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.^[42]
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger^{[49][55][42][49]}
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.^[56]
• Lee could break wooden boards 6 inches (15 cm) thick.^[57]
• Lee could cause a 300-lb (136 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a side kick.^[49]
• Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-lb (68 kg) punching bag^[48][58]
• In a move that has been dubbed "Dragon Flag", Lee could perform leg lifts with only his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench and suspend his legs and torso perfectly horizontal midair.^[59]

Knowing it All

For the past few days, almost a full week now, I've been slogging through Running with the Buffaloes. Originally I had choosen the title of the book as the title for this blog but as I began to write it became apparent to me that I was addressing some thing much more important than just this book.

Every year I meet more and more track coaches and as I do I become accutely aware of our differences. There are distance coaches, throw coaches, high jump coaches, hurdle coaches, vault coaches, assistant coaches and head coaches. Each coach seems to want to know or understand "their" event. It seems to me that to be good coaches we must understand our sport in its entireity. In my mind that may be as simple as knowing competitive times in each event. It would be even better to have a strong understanding of the technical aspects of each event. I'm including distance running in this thought process today because I consider that to be my weak point. 

I understand the concepts (you have to run a lot to be good at running a long ways) but I am struggling with what I believe about training distance runners. There is of course the thoughts and techniques that Arthur Lydiard meted out during the 1950's. Since that time Jack Daniels has published this thoughts on the matter. The LetsRun.com crowd has continually called for a return to Lydiard principles which involve higher milage and lower intensity over long periods of time. Tudor Bompa comments in his book that distance runners develop their capacity for work over years rather than months and weeks. This goes along with what Lydiard preached. In contrast to all of this american coaches have become, according to lets run and Running with the Buffaloes, interval junkies.

In closing I believe it's important to know the sport as a whole, which means coming to grips with and forming my own beliefs about training distance runners.

Power Lifting vs Olympic Lifting and Track and Field

Last night it occurred to me that I've been struggling this whole year with a way to reconcile my thoughts or maybe more specifically my needs as a coach for kids with strength. Currently my throwers lift very aggressively in the Olympic fashion. Before I get to far into this thought I'm going to make some definitions.

1.  Olympic lifting is defined or limited to: Clean, Jerk and Snatch
2. Olympic lifting is about moving weight quickly and efficiently.
3. The math suggests the Olympic lifters are able to do more "work" than power lifters.

1. Power lifting emphasizes lifting immense ammounts of weight but not moving the weight quickly.
2. Unlike the Olympic lifts, bench press and arms are all parts of being a good power lifter.

What I need from my lifters is:

1. an increase in explosiveness (Olympic Lifting serves me well here)
2. an increase in muscle mass and general strength.

I am left to the only possible conclusion possible. My lifters must focus more on gaining mass and strength, thus creating increased stability as their core muscles grow in strength. One of the things that is continually pointed out to me by our strength coach is that small Olympic lifters are able to move immense ammounts of weight very quickly. I have, however, yet to have seen a successful thrower who is physically small but still explosive. If this were the case I would seek out our successful sprinters and recruit them to throw for me.

Explosive or Strong?

I need to explain something quickly. I am currently working with  athletes that are roughly 200 lbs and aout 6' tall. Most great throwers are 6'3" or taller and weigh 255 or more. These athletes are still quick and explosive but they are also increadibly strong. I wouldn't be surprised to have an athlete bench over 300 lbs. I need that general strength  and weight to counter act the 35 lb weight and to control the 16 lb shot put.

My Reccommendations

The Olympic lifts are a great tool. I love them, early in the season however I'm going to have my athletes focus on gaining strength and mass. As we progress through the cycles I am going to emphasize Olympic lifts more and more. To be concise, throwers, unless already increadibly strong, need to develop the necessary strength and mass through power lifting and then fine tune their bodies with explosive Olympic lifting late in the season.

UAA's

UAA Conference at Emory University. This was a well run meet and great video put together by one of my athletes, Stephan Beehler.

Emory Cross Country-2008 UAA Championship from Stephen Beehler on Vimeo