A few years ago I started the practice of giving every athlete
a goal sheet.

It has a few basic questions about their previous season’s
accomplishments and asks what the athlete’s goals are for the
upcoming season.

I sit down with each athlete, review their goals with them and
then give them a second goal sheet that gets even more
specific.

Kids often aren’t very clear about what they want to achieve.
And in my opinion, if you can’t reach a goal if you haven’t
specifically identified what that goal is.

I’ve gotten great results from ‘forcing’ kids to sit down
and think about what they’re trying to get out of their
training.

This winter I’m working with a new group of athletes so I
wanted to get a basic understanding of their ‘Training IQ’.

Their answers didn’t exactly surprise me, but I think they
are typical of what the average high school athlete knows
about training.

And it also explains why some basic, proactive changes to
that training can reap impressive results.

Now, if you’re guilty of using any of the following workouts
on ’speed days’ you need to make some immediate upgrades to
your training/coaching system. Here are those upgrades:

==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com

Here is the first question I asked and some of the responses
I received:

QUESTION 1: Define ’speed work’. Give an example of a workout
that would improve your fastest top speed.
ANSWER (16/F): Striding the straightaways and jogging the
corners

(Here is another similar answer to the above:)

**ANSWER (17/F): Laps around the track, 70% most and 90% on
the straightaways
>> Really? Broken down the suggestion is to run 100m at 70%
and then go right into a 100m ’sprint’ at 90%. This is how
these athletes expect to improve fastest top speed?
**ANSWER (15/M): I don’t know the typical workouts to achieve the
fastest top speed.

>> When a 15 year old can’t even wager a guess as to what
type of workout would make him faster, do you really think
this athlete is in any position to maximize his potential?
**ANSWER (16/M): A bunch of 300s at full speed, some wind
sprints maybe with like a distance of 50 yards as fast as I
can and a break of like 3 minutes between each 300 and
probably like 30 seconds between each 50. Then maybe I should
run a couple of miles with no rest.

>> I kid you not. But the truth is, the majority of athletes
(and coaches and parents) believe that going all out for
any distance, followed by short recovery, is the standard
method for getting faster.
**Answer (17/F): Repeat 200s (for those 400 runners) Shuffle
jog or walk back is the rest. Flying 50s and 60s: run
progressively faster for the distance. Should be close to
top speed at the end. Rest is as long as it takes to return
to the line.

>> Classic. Repeat 200s is the meat and potatoes workout for
the old school coach running a track workout, regardless of
sport. Yet, repeat 200s does not qualify as speed work, nor
will it improve any athlete’s fastest top speed. While
fly 50s is a great way to improve speed, the rest here is
far too short and the athlete is doing a build-up, not
running a fly.

(No wonder this sprinter runs heel to toe.)

**ANSWER (16/M): To get faster one drill I like to do is
sprint a 100m jog 100m, sprint 200m jog 100m, sprint 300m
jog 100m, and finally sprint 400m and jog 100m.

>> This will improve fastest top speed? You are the ones
teaching this to athletes. Responses like this are typical.
Coaches and parents of athletes in every sport are using
this type of training to develop faster athletes.

Not a single response above will improve an athlete’s top
speed.

I have many more answers that follow this same format.

But the responses lead me to believe that no coach in any
sport at any point since these kids started playing sports
has either told, taught or coached these kids to truly
get faster.

And these athletes run at a school known for having strong
athletic programs across the board year after year after year.

These responses aren’t isolated. It’s an epidemic.

It’s also why we started Athletes’ Acceleration. To give
coaches and parents the resources to help their athletes
compete to the best of their ability using effective, modern
training techniques.

If you are using any of the above workouts (or anything
similar) as ’speed work’ for your athletes in any sport,
you are not helping them get faster.

If you want to ensure you’re giving your sons, daughters,
athletes or program the very best in speed development,
click here to learn more about our most popular resource:

==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
To Your Success,

Latif Thomas CSCS, USATF II
P.S. Post  your comments below.
 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 8:33 am and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.