Make your holiday shopping fast and easy for the coach and athlete on your list (maybe even treat yourself).

For the next 2 days, Thursday December 6th to 11:59pm Friday December 7th, get free shipping when you order any product from Athletes’ Acceleration.

Speed Training Products:
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You will even receive no-shipping costs with our most popular products and monthly specials (where you already get a great discount):

Best Sellers - Most Popular Products
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Monthly Specials
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Yours in speed,

Patrick Beith

P.S. - Remember, this offer ends Friday December 7th at 11:59 pm. To take advantage of this special, go now to:

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/products.html

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.
 

I just wanted to let you know about a new section that Latif and I set up that can help you with any questions you may have.

We just added ‘Ask the Experts’ to www.AthletesAcceleration.com.

Any question you have you can send them to us and we will post the answers.

Not only will Latif and I answer your questions, but we also have some elite coaches coming in to answer any question s that are specific to their specialty.
Here are some questions that were answered that you may be able to learn from:

Question: My 16 year old son is training for the national underclassmen combines in NJ. He has been training very hard for the past several months. At the end of last season he could run a 4.8 40 but now he can’t break 5.2. He has put on 10lbs. of muscle but we can’t figure out where the speed has gone. it looks like he is struggling almost fighting to run. He is doing a 40 min. aerobic workout 3-4 mornings/week, he is weight training 5-6 days/week and working on speed drills 3-4 nights/week.

Any suggestions on how to find a couple of tenths in the next 3 1/2 weeks?

>> Click below for an answer from Latif Thomas

 http://tinyurl.com/yntfe3

Question: My greatest interest is with the sport I coach - soccer. Soccer requires both speed and endurance. I would like to learn more about how to develop a training program that incorporates both and how that program might evolve during the course of a season. Can you help?

>> Click below for an answer from Jeremy Boone

 http://tinyurl.com/2y9a8n

Question: Recovery/Rest is my big question: What can an athlete do during recovery without jeopardizing his next speed/jump training workout (for 14 and 15 year old basketball players)?

>> Click below for an answer from Lee Taft

  http://tinyurl.com/yp9wxz
Question: I hear a lot about recovery from high intensity training and besides eating right and sleeping 7-9 hours a night, I’m not sure what else I can do to speed up my recovery. Any suggestions?

>> Click below for an answer from Dr. John Berardi

http://tinyurl.com/yp9wxz

Be sure to check back as we will be updating the ‘Ask the Experts’ section frequently!

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/experts.html
Yours in speed,

Patrick Beith

P.S. - If you want to discover how to run successful speed camps and clinics from 5 top experts, make sure you checkout:

http://www.speedclinicempire.com/

As a speed coach, my belief is that we should never get
away from speed work.

Even when your athletes are out of season, they should still
get some acceleration work in even if it is just once per
week. Because if they don’t use it they will lose it.

I just finished my first week of practice working with a new
group of high school sprinters. After watching them run
and asking some questions an incredible fact was revealed.

In the past, these *sprinters* didn’t actually do any true
speed work.

In my experience, most coaches (and athletes, trainers,
parents, etc.) don’t actually know what true speed work is.

And if it isn’t being done with track sprinters, then it sure
isn’t being done right in other sports.

So let’s define what ’speed work’ actually is:

Speed work is defined as 2-8 seconds of high intensity (that
means Full Speed) running without the presence of fatigue.
To avoid fatige athletes should rest *at least* 2-3 full
minutes between each rep.

Yes, minutes.

Any workout you have your athletes do that does not fit
into this definition is *not* speed work.

That means it will not improve your athletes’ fastest top
speed.

So repeat 200s at race pace or goal pace is not going to
improve top speed.

Repeat 40 yard sprints with less than 3 minutes rest
is not going to improve top speed.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do those workouts.

They are a great supplement to training. But they won’t
make your athletes faster. So if workouts like the above
are the foundation of your training, you should immediately
rethink your strategies.

If your goal is to develop faster athletes, that is.

So check out this article on the most effective way to
make athletes faster, regardless of sport:
http://tinyurl.com/yq75kq
To your success,

Latif Thomas CSCS, USATF II
2005 MSTCA Coach of the Year

P.S. Here is how I teach speed from A to Z:

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
“I have heard people say ‘you can’t teach speed.’  I can
tell you, after just one month of using Complete Speed
Training, that is a huge myth.  I am a 46 year old man
with a 13 year old son.  With only a month to go before
he started football we trained for 4 weeks. Both of us in
that short of a time made quantum leaps in our speed and
quickness. Oh my goodness. It is an enlightening experience. 

My biggest regret is not getting it sooner.  Seeing how
much faster and quicker my son is, feeling how much more
spry I feel, I cannot say enough.  Anybody that cares
about athletic development should put what you teach to
work.  Thank you.”

John Reagan
Monterey, California
==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
“Your information helps my track & field athletes perform
magic. (best performer, girl 15 year old running 100m
11.92 (electronic)and 200 m 24.88 (electronic) she took
part in 100m hurdles event for age 17 with a time of
14.61 two weeks ago. In April 2007 won the South African
Junior Champion Ships for girls 15 (90m hurdles). Without
Complete Speed Training I do not think it would have been
possible.”

Dirk van Rensburg
South Africa

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