This is my favorite time of year.

No, not because it’s the Holidays.

Where I live, today is the first day of winter track season.

This afternoon I’ll be meeting with a group of 40-50 athletes
I’ve never coached before. I’m told the group is talented,
but I’ve purposely avoided asking questions about the athletes
so I can go into the season without biased opinions on any
of the kids.

It’s exciting because it gives me the opportunity to put my
system in place from scratch and see what kind of results I
can get, whereas in the past the only new athletes I’d have
would be incoming freshman.

High School track is interesting because we have exactly 10 weeks
to go from Day 1 to the League Championship. So periodization
can’t be drawn out the way it is when you have full control
over athletes across a long period of time.

The truth is this:

I know what I want to get done. I have the themes for my
mesocycles and microcycles planned out. Will it work out
according to plan?

Probably not.

Because I’m working with a large group of 14 - 18 year old
boys and girls for the first time (by myself) there are a
ton of variables I can’t specifically plan for.

That said, there are a few track and field program design
resources that I reference continuously and will continue
to go back to when I get stuck or have questions.

In face, I have been involved with the creation of these
resources since before we even had authors to write them.

We felt most of the information available about program design,
strength and conditioning for track and field was written
for Division I and Elite level coaches.

And it was presented in a way that assumed you have control
over your athletes from September to June.

And for most of us that just isn’t the case.

So we wanted elite coaches to create an easy to understand
and apply resource for the ‘regular’ coach who doesn’t
have 12 weeks for the Prep Periods, doesn’t necessarily have
a USATF Level II certification, etc.

So we had resources created based on our experience as youth
and high school coaches and based on the questions that we
get from you every day.

They’re written by 3 Olympic Level Track and Field Coaches
who have all been designated as Master Coaches by USA
Track and Field.

In fact, only a small number of people have had the
opportunity to get their hands on these resources so if
you coach the Sprints, Hurdles, Jumps or Combined Events,
I strongly recommend you add these texts to your own
coaching library.
For more details on the Sprints/Hurdles program:

==> http://tinyurl.com/35jdtx
For more details on the Jumps program:

==> http://tinyurl.com/2u9drk
For more details on the Combined Events program:

==> http://tinyurl.com/2jror2

To your success,

Latif Thomas USATF II
2005 MSTCA Coach of the Year

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 10:11 am and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.