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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Nike Cross Nationals

This weekend Sioux Falls will be besieged with fans and competitors. NXN as it's often referred to will bring the best athletes from all corners of the Heartland to compete for a berth at the national event. It was announced on Tuesday that the regional competition will stay in Sioux Falls for at least the next three years. This announcement really helps distance running in the state by giving high school competitors some thing to look forward to in their state that is recognized on that national level. Make sure if you're around to make your way out to the meet. See you there!

Hurdle Drills

My friend from Norway wanted me to post videos of some hurdle drills we were doing the other day. Here they are.

Spacing

Girls
Trail Leg - 5 Steps - Lowest Height
Lead Leg - 7 Steps - Lowest Height

Boys
Trail Leg - 6 Steps - Lowest Height
Lead Leg - 8 Steps - Lowest Height

Hurdle Drills 1 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 2 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 3 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 4 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 5 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 6 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 7 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 8 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 9 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 10 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 11 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 12 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 13 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 14 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 15 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 16 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 17 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 18 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 19 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 20 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 21 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 22 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 23 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

Hurdle Drills 24 from Jim Vahrenkamp on Vimeo.

New Beginnings

Augustana College

I am currently coaching at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. I took the job in late August and have been working hard with our new GA Ray Shadowens to prepare for the coming track and field season. We have been working hard on recruiting because I believe that we can get things turned around here on the track side.

This summer was pretty hectic and I haven't really discussed track and field very much. In my next entry I will discuss my plans for our fall track program and discuss the resoning behind what I plan on doing. I don't claim that the system I present is fool proof. Rather every program should be molded and adapted to the athletes within the program. The most important thing that a coach can do is listen to their athletes. A great coach once told me when it comes to training "trust your gut and when in doubt rest 'em." True words.

It is difficult but important to remember that it is better to have athletest that are 10% undertrained than an athlete that is 1% overtrained. There is something to be said for the competitive nature of athletes.

Learning Progressions in Track and Field

Learning Progression

In the past year I've had many conversations with my athletes as they have attempted to learn new things. We have discussed how difficult it is to pick things up quickly and how frustration quickly becomes a roadblock to skill acquisition. I've attempted to explain the phases that each of them will go through in an effort to make it clear where we were going and just what it would take to get there.

Recently I was reading an article about Loren Seagrave, former coach at Tennessee, LSU and Wisconsin and current coach of Dwight Phillips, that addressed the very issues that I was discussing.

I have included the phases below. I hope that this will assist you in leading your athletes through the skill acquisition phases.

1st Stage: Unconscious Incompetence

The athlete is not thinking because they have never been told to think about anything, and is not very good at new skills. He said that he tells the football players that it is better to look foolish in front of your teammates in practice and get better at the skills than to get embarrassed on Sunday in front of 80,000 people and a TV audience! In this stage, the coach must convince the athlete to lose the inhibitions to looking foolish.

2nd Stage: Conscious Incompetence

The athlete knows what to do but has not mastered the skill; they consciously try to execute it, but are not very good at it yet.

3rd Stage: Conscious Competence

Athletes very quickly progress to conscious competence, where they are skilled but only with conscious effort; they cannot do it automatically and mindlessly. In this stage, unconscious action returns one to previous bad habits. The example Seagrave gave was someone trained in the martial arts would, when confronted by an attacker, most likely revert to ugly, unskilled fighting habits when in this 3rd stage.

4th Stage: Unconscious Competence

The skill is automatic and performed perfectly with no conscious effort. Attainment of this level takes not only practice, but mental imagery and rehearsal. It can take up to 500 hours of practice to achieve unconscious competence with a skill!

Long Jump Runway Phases

Approaching the Long Jump Runway

I have discussed in less detail the differing phases of the long jump approach in earlier posts. I intend to detail further the mid-mark and the push marks and the corresponding phases of the approach and how to implement the use of these marks.

Approach Phases

During the run up or approach of the board the athlete goes through three distinct phases. The initial phase will be referred to as the "drive phase." During this phase the athlete maintains distinct foward lean and develops velocity down the track. Through the transition phase the athlete passes the check mark and begins to transition in to a more up right posture while coninuing to accellerate. Through the final phase the athlete reaches their greatest acceleration at the board. Ideally the athlete will hit their mid and then be perfectly on the board. In the video that I have included you can see the differing phases during the approach.

The Mid

The name of this mark can be misleading as it would seem to imply that it is a mark on the runway detailing the location of the center of the approach. Rather, it is a mark roughly thirty feet away from the board. It should be four steps out and be hit with the same foot that the athlete uses to take off with.

Using the Mid

How should the mid be used? What does it indicate about how the athlete is performing. The answers to these questions lay in a simple understanding of some sprinting mechanics. Each athlete has a certain stride length that is ideal or "correct." Based on this stride length we should be able to predict the distance that an athlete will travel at max velocity over four steps. This is the reason that a mid is used. If an athlete strikes the mid perfectly and continues to perform four more strides at max velocity with correct sprint mechanics we can predict that they should be on the board. There are a few things that can happen in the last 4 strides.

1. The athlete strides out. If the athlete reaches on the last 4 strides their last step will be over the board. The correction is not to move the athlete back on the runway but rather to encourage the athlete to run correctly through the last 4 strides.
2. The athlete stutters and comes up short of the board. Again the mid indicates what the proper changes that need to be made in the sprint mechanics are for the athlete.

Obviously the mid mark isn't something that can be thrown in at a track meet and used real effectively. It is most effective when used as a teaching tool to develop the best runway mechanics possible.

The 2,4 and 6 step Check Mark

These marks are wholly dependent on the length of the total approach. Obviously an approach that is a mere 95 feet from the board would be difficult to use a 6 step check. This mark is used to give the athlete a visual point to steer (aim for) towards and which signify's the end of the drive phase of the approach.

Using the Check Mark

As a coach I attend many track meets. I'm continually struck by higher level athletes and the way they conduct themselves on the run way vs. lower level athletes. This is not to say that they lower level athletes are unable to compete, quite the contrary! I am saying, however, that I see a distinct difference in the way that these athletes moderate themselves on the run way.

In an effort to allow coaches and athletes to better moderate themselves on the runway I suggest the use of a check mark to signify to the athlete and the coach the end of the drive phase on the runway. It is difficult to know if the athlete is driving far enough without a mark. This allows for another variable which cannot be controlled. As the athlete becomes more consistent the check will likely become ingrained in the way that they approach the runway.

As the approach lengthens the drive phase also should lengthen. Again the mark is used to indicate what the athlete is doing in the early part of the approach. Are they properly developing velocity? Are they shortening their strides too much, being "too fast too early?" Or are they bounding too far and not really gaining the necessary velocity to jump far?

Summary

These marks do not circumvent the necessity of teaching athletes how to run. They almost require that athletes be aware and competent in sprint mechanics to truly understand what they are doing on the runway. I would postulate that in an effort to illustrate to athletes proper development and maitenence of speed on the run way that speed gates be employed over the last 10m of the runway. This would provide an appropriate feedback.

Sprinting

Today in practice we took some time to shoot some video of our sprint mechanics and made an attempt to chance some of the things that we do.

1. We tried to recover the foot to the butt with the knee lifted.
2. We tried to keep our lean forward as we drove out of the three point stance.
3. We tried to keep our hips feet and shoulders in line throughout the process.

I think that we were able to get better but we still have things to work on. Posted below are videos of our attempts.

Roy Mossy








Jim Vahrenkamp


Paulina Belskey











James Dean





David Lane







Stephen Beehler

Hurdling 4-8-09

Andima











Jasmin

Jacksonville State Javelin

So we traveled over to Jacksonville State this past weekend and the guys got a chance to throw the javelin. There were some good throws but I think that that following video's highlight exactly what we need to correct. I've included comments with each one.

Don Wang






Brad Pruente




Ed Robson

Zac Warsaw and the Hammer 4-2-09

Zac and I finally shot some video. Yes I know it has been a long time coming but its done now. I'm posting a few of them both for Zac and so that Dan can take a look at them. I've got some posted of Thomas as well so that he can see what he's doing. Enjoy the viewing!

Zak Warsaw







Thomas Bright

Sewanee 2-38-09

Roy Mossy




Miss at 3.95
If Roy would roll he'd be way over this.



Stephen Beehler



Make at 3.95




Miss at 4.10



David Lane

Vaulting 2-18-09

We are finally back on 14 steps. These are just a few video's that I had a chance to upload to facebook. I'm struggling with figuring out how to get them to display properly but at least they are up.


One of my Multi Eventers.




Roy Mossy




Roy on 2-16-09




Ashley Flint

Trouble for Facebook....?

Facebook hosts Video

In what might be the begining of  the end for facebook, I've recently discovered that I have the ability to upload video's that are hi-def on an  unlimited basis. As a result I shot a video of where I work and included it below. Watch for more videos to follow.......

As things so happen I guess that I've got to figure out how to allow the widescreen video to display on these blog posts. If any one knows it would help out if you'd comment.

Learning to run Fast

Loren Seagrave added me as a friend on facebook today which prompted me to seek him out on google. I found this read on speed development. I the following quote interesting and partially true.

The point? It does not matter how strong one is, no strength would help to do that skill faster or better. So strength is not the key. Speed is a skill: just like any other skill, it can be improved. Any coach can make you tired - but that is not the purpose of training for speed; the purpose is to become faster! A coach must apply a systematic approach to improvement. There is also a profound difference between coaching and training.

I love this one

Stride Length

Take a young Costa Rican sprinter and say, "Run with long strides for coaches." She would probably exaggerate her strides to please the command of the coach. She would increase her actual SL from the toe of the right foot at takeoff(t.o.) to the toe of the left foot at touchdown(t.d.). This is the simplistic concept many athletes have of stride length. But SL is better understood in relation to the athlete's Center of Gravity (COG), and the distance the COG travels from t.o. to t.d. is used to figure the actual SL.