I get a lot of questions about how to train track and field sprinters. I’ve noticed that, over the course of the 5 1/2 years I’ve been online and running Athletes’ Acceleration, your questions have gotten far more specific and take more thought to answer.
This is an excellent sign!
If you post your questions in my blog, (and they are reasonable, i.e. you don’t tell me to analyze your entire season) I will generally answer them. (Complete sentences also help your chances!)
So here are my answers to 10 excellent questions including my take on the top 2 most frustrating questions I get. (I answered those first.)
QUESTION #1:
Coach- If you were my coach I would be running in the low 21’s right now, wow your program is amazing. Basically, my head coach is a distance freak and got our sprinter coach to leave because he was never allowed to assemble his own relays. We have 3 amazing 800 runners 2 sub 1:55 and one around 1:58. Understandably, he tried to make me the 4th leg on this my senior year, this year. I would have none of it and basically half assed the workouts to make me look slow and then I realized I was only wasting my valuable time. Coming off football I ran a 6.77 with no speed work and then did not realize I would have 0 speed work the rest of this season and still split 22.89 on our indoor national qualifying SMR. I am trying to figure out what to do because I am the fastest on the team 55/100/200 but I am working solely with the middle distance and distance guys. Should I come in early before school and follow your speed program and then do about half the workout he gives me or what? I am always lifting heavy since I have a football background and have that “skating” stride you talk about. I’m really trying to open my hips but sorry for the extremely long passage but your info is great. -Owen
>>>Owen, that’s a tough call. In theory, coming in early and getting a partial speed workout or a lift in would a good compromise. My concern is simply overtraining. If you’re fatigued after your speed work, even half a workout, and then you have to go do a high volume of low intensity training, I’m concerned you’ll end up burning out and/or getting an overuse injury like a hamstring, adductor or hip flexor strain.
If you only do half of your coach’s workout, that could cause problems because your coach does not appear willing to update his philosophy and will get upset if he sees you half assing his workouts and gets wind of you training on your own in the AM.
I don’t like to endorse going around your coach’s training, but I get this question all the time and there is no good answer because you can’t get fast by running slow. So, while my answer is unsettling to a degree, I would say that if you do want to get faster, you will have to get some speed work in a couple days per week on your own in the AM.
Just make sure you are not doing AM speed work the day after a lactic acid workout with the distance/mid distance group because that will compromise the quality of your speed work.
If you’re ’skating’, much of the problem is lack of hip mobility. I would focus on doing more hurdle mobility drills and a longer warm down and stretch. A foam roller wouldn’t hurt either.
QUESTION #2
I have a situation with an Old Fashioned very successful High School coach who is in my opinion providing the same old style of workout that you have on many occasions said is outdated and won’t help the kids reach their best times…….
You know how you told us running 8-200’s and 6-300’s an 10-150’s, day after day is not What sprinters need to get faster, especially when they are not being timed and no data is being kept. WELL THAT IS WHAT’S GOING ON AND IT REALLY CHAPS MY ASS! I DON’T WANT (my son) TO WASTE 4 YEARS DOING COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORKOUTS. He broke the middle school Records last year in the State finals running 10.7 in the 100, and 21.67 in the 200 at 14 years old. Both were FAT times. A lot of coaches were there and said he has some real God given talent.
I coached him and his team in middle school. But now he graduated and is in High School this year doing one aerobic workout after another. HE’S NOT AN 800 METER RUNNER LATIF!! I want and need to approach this 70 year old coach but am not sure how. He is just a freshmen and is running on the varsity this year. The coach loves him and his relentless work ethic. I don’t want to ruin our relationship with him….
Coach Brad
>>>Man, that’s a tough question. And it’s the question I get most often from frustrated parents and athletes. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that coaches don’t like to be told there’s a better way than how they’re doing it. My advice is to approach him very humbly, like you’re getting conflicting information elsewhere and you’re coming to him to clear things up.
If coaches feel threatened, they will do some amazingly obnoxious things.
He’s an Old Dog and likely doesn’t want to hear it. But I’d say your only option is to come to him like he’s the Godfather or something and get a feel for whether or not there’s any chance he’s open to your (or any) suggestions.
I’d go with something like:
“Coach. I was reading an article on a track website the other day and the author talked about how speed work is the foundation of any sprinter’s training. It made a lot of sense to me, but I see that you don’t have your sprinters training that way. You’ve been very successful so I’d like to hear your philosophy on training sprinters so I can understand both points of view.”
All the great coaches I know love answering questions. You can see their excitement when they’re asked, especially if the questioner isn’t presenting it in a confrontational way. If the coach gets upset with this line of questioning, it’s because he does not have an answer. I find that, in most cases, coaches don’t allow or promote questions because they’re not really qualified to be coaching.
I’m not saying this is the case with your son’s coach, but never assume that results are indicitive of good coaching. Give a monkey a stop watch and 20 years and he’s going to coach some state champions.
If you want to move to New England, I would be more than happy to train your son!! (You don’t want to move to New England 
QUESTION # 3
Latif- Off topic here but I was wondering how you take relay splits for your runners in the 4×200m relays on 3 turn staggers. Middle of the Zone? – AC
>>> Splits are always taken in the middle of the zone. In the 4×2, the only tough one is on the first exchange, since it is lanes. So you have to try and eyeball where the middle of the zone is. For the other 2 exchanges, I take the split when the baton crosses the start/finish line, regardless of whether or not the exchange has been made. In relays, we time the baton, not the athletes. And taking it in the middle of the zone insures each split is based on 200m, not a 193 if an athlete gets it late or a 207 if they get it early.
QUESTION #4:
Latif, I coach 7th and 8th grade track athletes, most of them have never really trained or been exposed to track and field. I would almost think that training these kids on the 55-200m model would be better than the 400m, even if some of them might be running the 400m in meets. My thinking is that in the short to long program, we need to develop speed first, if most of these kids have never really worked on speed, then that is what needs to be developed first. However, if I find a kid that seems to be suited for the 400m I could work some 400m work in on them. I guess what I am asking is, is it better to work new track kids at the 55-200m model than it is the 400m? – Scott
>>> Most great 400m runners at the elite level are former 100/200 runners. I develop my middle schoolers the same way you speak of – short to long and focusing on developing flat out speed. Your plan is exactly how I would do it.
QUESTION #5
Hey Latif, quick question about this video i’ve just watched. When your talking about how to work out what speed 75% is, you say that you should multiply a persons pb for that distance by 100 then divide. Should you not be multiplying that persons target pb for that distance by 100, then dividing? If you have athletes running at 75% pace of their current pb how are they going to get faster?? Ive heard you speak about this before in a video, and in that video you said use target pb’s. Maybe I heard wrong in that clip, if i have please let me know.
>>> Good question. And I suppose you could argue for that. I don’t remember, off hand, if I contradicted myself in one video versus another. If so, it was a speaking error. I do know that I always base these recovery day times on current best. Reason being that I’m not trying to make speed/Personal Best based improvements in my tempo runs. I want it to be recovery work from their speed work. So if a kid runs 11.3 in the 100m, but I base the tempo work off of a goal time of 10.8, now they’re running faster in that tempo work than their current speed says they should go. Now what was an aerobic workout (extensive tempo) has become a mixed aerobic/anaerobic workout (intensive tempo) and that’s not what I want. So I base tempo work on their current best times because we’re doing more than enough quality work on our ‘workout’ days to generate faster top speeds and new personal bests. Hope that makes sense.
QUESTION #6
LT,
I understand training for different power systems. When working with a multi-event athlete that does the 200,400,TJ,LJ, & HJ, which system should be the focus? This athlete’s main focuses are TJ & 400 in that order. -Ric
>>> Speed, strength and power should be the focus. Anaerobic alactic and then Anaerobic glycolytic. Get them faster and stronger and they’ll run faster and jump further. Don’t make it complicated.
QUESTION #7
Latif, How do you feel about about having your athletes running a stride pattern at “max velocity”? I’ve seen and heard sprint coaches use this drill to work on stride frequency: They place sticks (or tape) 5 feet apart for approximately 20 to 30 meters, then they have the athletes complete a 30meter flying run stepping between the sticks. As the season and/or athletes progress the coach moves the marks further apart. They alternate the “stick runs” with flying 30 without the sticks. Thanks, JD
>>> I sat here for 5 minutes trying to figure out how I would justify that workout and can’t do it. That’s trying to be complicated just for the sake of being complicated. And it’s going to confuse any normal kid whose sprinting skill isn’t where I want it to be in the first place. Stride length is a byproduct of strength and power levels, running mechanics and consistency, specific flexibility, etc. Different athletes will have different stride length based on skill and body type. So I’m not going to control stride length or I’m creating more problems than I am solving. I could say, when talking about arm action during sprinting, ‘don’t cross the midline of your body’ or I could say ‘avoid lateral deviation across the sagittal plane’. The former is just trying to get results, the latter is trying to sound smart for no reason. I choose the former.
QUESTION #8
I understand your criticism of the ladder work in general but I think your assertion about “identical clones” is a bit off the mark. If one looks at the best 100 meter sprinters in the world, it’s easy to see that they cover the first 10 meters in 6.5-7.0 steps. These athletes can range from 5′8″-6′4″, be tremendously strong in the weightroom or not lift that much at all. Interestingly enough, there’s plenty of guys who can cover 10 meters in 7.0 steps but how many can do it in less than 1.90 seconds? – Rich
>>> Fair point Rich. But neither I, nor 99.8% of the people who read/purchase/coach are dealing with sub 10 100m runners. At the developmental levels, which is where I spend the majority of my time, I think you are limiting an athlete’s development by restricting stride length during the early part of their race by forcing them onto an acceleration ladder. But, my mind is always open to opposing viewpoints.
QUESTION #9
Thought this was good information. It reconfirms much of what I already believed. Here is my query: Do I treat the 600 as a sprint or as a middle distance event? As a sprint coach, I have thus far treated it more like a 400 than an 800 and my 600 runners have had reasonable success. That said, I do have some doubts about strictly employing a 400 program , and I have been sticking in some 800 type workouts here and there. Any thoughts or advice is most welcome! – Fred F.
>>> Fred – That is an excellent question and one I consistently wrestle with. I personally have a hard time calling the 600 ‘mid distance’, especially on the boys side. Good kids are running less than 90 seconds, the best closer to 80 and I just can’t see that as mid distance. I’d say that my philosophy is very similar to yours – treating them like 400m runners with a higher volume of recovery work and the occasional ‘800′ workout. I do not do any mileage with my 600 runners. I still believe that developing a speed reserve is the key to running fast 600s. I also have a tough time using a straight 400 model with my 600 runners, but my program looks *much* more like a 400 program than an 800 program. They do the same lifts as my 55m runners, also. So, I say: Speed, Speed, Speed! To me, a great 600m runner is simply a natural 400m runner who is more Type IIa than Type IIb – i.e., someone whose 800m time is going to be comparatively faster than their 200m time.
In my program, where some 600 runners train with me using a ‘speed model’ and others train in a different group using a ‘distance model’, the speed based kids ran the fastest times across the board.
QUESTION #10:
Excellent information on training 400m runners. This reinforces my ideas and thoughts on how to train sprinters. For anybody that doesn’t have the Complete Speed Training DVD’s and signed up for Complete Program Design For Sprinters, it is well worth the money. Latif does a great job of presenting the information in an easy to understand way. My question would be, how do you set up the workout for those sprinters that do jumping events also? When do they get time to work on those events without compromising a workout that they need to do? – Coach Coppoc
>>> Thank you for the kind words, Coach. This is a very popular question. I take my philosophy from what I’ve learned studying the combined events. I look for commonalities between events and training qualities and match them up in practice. It just means your athletes who do multiple events must be generalists and not specialists, i.e., do a little bit of everything.
So your long jumper 100/200 runner does approach work on Monday. That is his speed/acceleration work for that day. He doesn’t do the track workout. If you’re doing VMax that day, he does most of the LJ approach work and then 1 or 2 fly runs at the end. If it’s a heavy jump day, he does none of or less of the plyos the sprint group is doing since he’s getting plyos in with his jump work. If it’s block work, he does half the approaches and half the block work. Keep the total volume the same, but break it up based on specific event needs and individual strengths/weaknesses.
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If you have thoughts, further advice or questions related to today’s post, please ask them below.
To your success,
Latif Thomas CSCS, USATF II (Sprints, Hurdles, Relays)
2005 MA State Track Coaches Association – Coach of the Year
Resources I recommend:
Complete Speed Training
Complete Program Design for Sprinters
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