OK, I have a couple questions I’d like to
ask you…

You may have never really let yourself think about
this, but I want you to give it some thought…

Has the lack of consistent progress and speed of your
athletes ever made you worry you might not be as good
a coach as you thought you were…especially since
other programs seem to be good year after year?

Or maybe your son or daughter is underachieving and
you’ve lost faith that their sports coaches are ever
going to help them meet their potential…and you
can’t sit back and do nothing any more.

You’ve read some free articles online, maybe even
purchased a book or video. You tried to explain the
drills and ran the exact workouts they said to run…

But somehow the results just didn’t show up like you
thought they would.

I understand what you’re going through because I’ve
been there.

Now…every once in a while I’d start to see progress
and I REALLY thought my athletes were going to move up to
the next level…

But it was short lived and when it counted they reverted
back to their old ineffective technique.

They just couldn’t pull it all together.

I took their lack of success personally.

I made excuses. I just didn’t have any talent to work
with. Those other teams’ kids were ‘naturally fast’.

The other schools were bigger and had a larger talent
pool.

For a while I told myself whatever I could to convince
myself that the blame was not MY FAULT…

After all, I didn’t think I was any less intelligent
than the coaches or parents of the really fast
athletes.

I just couldn’t pull it all together.

So I made a plan.

I read every article I could find. I subscribed to
every training forum that existed. I posted every
question I had.

I spent thousands of dollars on DVDs, books and
manuals. I went to conferences and took notes. I
went to the presenters and asked them questions.

I looked up coaches online and called them at their
Universities…and kept calling until they answered
my questions.

All the while I started applying what I was learning
to my groups of athletes.

I took notes and recorded results. I got feedback from
them and wrote that down.

Before long I started noticing something…

They were winning more races. Earning more playing time.

They were becoming confident. Instead of HOPING to do
well they started EXPECTING to do well.

They started breaking records and getting their names
in the paper.

Their friends started coming to me for help. Parents
were approaching me at the gym and at competitions
asking me to help their kids - even at rival programs.

My program was becoming one of those programs I
secretly DESPISED.

I realized that I had started to figure this whole
speed training thing out.

And it wasn’t as complicated as some of the ‘experts’
made it seem.

I needed to get this information out to people so
they could get the same results without having to
dedicate their lives (and thousands of dollars)
to figure it out.

So I took all my notes. I took all my drills and
teaching cues. I took all my progressions. I took it
all broke it down into pieces.

I progressed everything from simple to complex so it
would be easy for any one to understand. A new coach
could jump in and use it from the beginning.

A more experienced coach could jump in a little bit
deeper into the program…

When all was said and done I had 191 minutes of footage
spread across 5 DVDs. I had a training manual. I had
a 4 week sample program that covered everything you
would need to do for every workout.

Then I said to myself: But what if people still have
questions?

So I added a 30 minute phone consultation so you
could ask me any questions you have. That way there
is no way to be confused.

Because everything else out there only covered bits
and pieces of the training puzzle.

Or it was geared toward college athletes. Or coaches.

Or it spoke like you had a Masters degree in
biomechanics.

And I knew most coaches and parents aren’t any of
those things.

The result is Complete Speed Training.

It’s the most comprehensive speed development program
available. And it’s also the most straight forward
and easy to understand.

It was designed to give you a foundation for long
term athletic development…

And also give quick fixes to minor problems.

If you work with athletes and you want to see consistent
eye opening results, then this program is going to
CHANGE YOUR COACHING LIFE.

Go here to the page where you can get all the info:

http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
To your success,

Latif Thomas CSCS, USATF II
2005 MSTCA Coach of the Year
P.S. Since releasing Complete Speed Training, we now
have satisfied customers in over 72 different countries
(at last count) and all 50 US States:
“The improvement of speed and overall conditioning of
my athletes is amazing.”

“I implemented the fundamentals of “The Complete
Speed Training Program” in my club, with great
success. Every athlete benefits from this
program. Not only for fast track athletes, also
slower field athletes. The benefit goes beyond Track
& Field. The improvement of speed and overall
conditioning of my athletes is amazing.

This year 2007, we had six athletes qualifying for
the National Championships, and between them managed
to bring home 3 Gold, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.
One of my athletes came 9th in the final of the 5th
IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava (CZE). In
any language, that is IMPROVEMENT.

“The Complete Speed Training Program” is necessary
for any coach and athlete who are serious about
excelling and improving God given talent.”

Dirk van Rensburg
Bethlehem
Free State, South Africa
 
==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com

The *only* way to make your sprinters and hurdlers faster is
to run at full speed in practice.

You can’t run repeat 200s, striders or do any training with
less than full recovery if you expect to see improvements to
the personal bests of your athletes.

What’s a specific example of the type of workout that develops
that type of speed?

Here’s an example of one that will improve your sprinters’
acceleration:

10 x 30 meters at full intensity with 3 minutes rest between
each repetition.

You’re giving your athletes a heavy dose of this type of
workout, aren’t you?

Here’s one that improves your sprinters’ fastest top speeds
as well as their ability to maintain near top speeds for
longer:

5 x flying 30 with a 20 meter buildup. Rest 5 minutes between
each repetition.

These two workouts are staples of any successful sprints
program from youth levels through the professional ranks.

If you’re not using these two workouts on a regular basis,
you *need* to start. Immediately.

If this is general knowledge to you and you want to know more
about program design for your sprinters and hurdlers, check
out this resource from certified USA Track and Field Master
Coach and former Women’s Sprint Development Chair Tony Veney:

http://tinyurl.com/35jdtx

If you coach track and field athletes at any level, I highly
recommend you invest in this resource.

To your success,

Latif Thomas USATF II
2005 MSTCA Coach of the Year

We live in fast paced society full of impatient people who
want results right now.

This same impatience holds true for uneducated athletes,
coaches and parents who want to improve their own speed,
their athletes’ speed or their child’s speed.

Lately I’ve seen quite a few colleagues continue to try
and stress the fact that when it comes to athletic development
in general and more specifically speed development (ultimately
they are both the same) we must take a long term approach if
your interest is truly to maximize the performance of your
athletes, team and program.

When I say long term I mean you need to think in terms of
many months and even years, not many weeks and even months.

I know what you’re thinking…

‘But Latif, are you saying that you can’t improve speed in
a couple weeks or a month? But my son/daughter/team has a
big competition that their life depends on in 3 weeks.’

I’m not saying you can’t make improvements in a short period
of time. And while it won’t sell as many Complete Speed Training
Programs to say this, such an *approach* won’t lead to optimal
or long term results.

Quick fixes are like cramming for an exam the night before
the test. Sure you might remember the information
the next day and even get a good grade. But a few days
later you won’t be able to recall much of the information.

The same applies to trying to get fast results (pun intended)
in a very short time period. If someone tells you otherwise
they’re trying too hard to sell you something.

Ultimately there are 4 stages an athlete goes through when
acquiring a new skill. This has been broken down in many
ways and said in different formats. So I’m certainly not
taking credit for ‘inventing’ these steps.

The fundamental principles of this version, as I came across
them, were attributed to top level sprint coach Loren Seagrave.
I will add my own experiences to expand his concepts.

I will go over them in respect to learning the skill of
running fast, which I will refer to as sprinting. Primarily
I will focus on sprinting in terms of acceleration development
as acceleration is fundamental to success in pretty much
every sport:
1. Unconscious Incompetence - The athletes are not thinking
because they have never been told to think about anything.
If they have been told to think anything, the advice was
inconsistent, wrong or (more likely) both. Therefore the
athletes are not very good at new skills. 

Seagrave tells his athletes that it is better to look foolish
in front of their teammates in practice and get better at
the skills than to get embarrassed in front of an audience.

I wholeheartedly agree.

For further analysis of this concept, let’s look at my
current group of male and female high school track sprinters.
This year the group is brand new to me so I have the opportunity
to build these athletes from the ground up.

Because of the success of the program in general, I assumed
that most of the upperclassmen would be beyond the level of
unconscious incompetence. They would, at the very least, be
at the second level of skill acquisition.

I was mistaken. In asking them simple, basic questions
to assess their knowledge of sprinting (the act itself and
the training process as a whole) I quickly realized
from the blank stares and self conscious smiles that these
athletes didn’t know the first thing about running fast.

I recently wrote an article on some of their written responses.
They are sadly consistent with what I hear from most athletes
in most sports at most levels.

And that means their coaches are teaching them this stuff.
And we shouldn’t place the blame on the current coach in the
current sport. Most athletes have been on many teams in many
sports over many years of athletics. It’s disappointing that
most athletes have gone 0 for life when it comes to effective,
modern speed training techniques (regardless of sport).

You can check out that article here:

==> http://tinyurl.com/ynvxyb
If you are new to the art of speed development, it is
quite likely that the level of unconscious incompetence is
where your athletes currently reside.

If you’re not new and have been receiving my emails for a
while, it is still likely that any new athletes you work with
are at this level.

Either way it is critically important that you have a specific,
pre-planned system for teaching, developing and progressing
your athletes if you have any reasonable expectation of either
short or long term results.

If you don’t have a specific, science-based, field tested
system for developing speed, please do yourself a favor and
get a copy of Complete Speed Training:

==> http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com
Depending on how effective your system of speed development
is as well as your effectiveness at conveying these concepts
to your athletes in a way they can interpret and apply,
they will eventually reach the second level of skill acquisition.

Keep in mind, athletes will reach this level at different
times so you must always be testing new ways to improve the
effectiveness of your program, progress fast learning athletes
to more advanced levels of training, yet allow slower
developing athletes to continue to progress at their own pace.

The second level of skill acquisition is:
2. Conscious Incompetence - The athlete is starting to
understand the skill both conceptually and experientially.
They try to execute it but are not very good at it yet.

This is the stage where I believe things get tricky. Seven
weeks into working with this group and this is where most
of my athletes are.

And I think this is where most coaches/trainers/parents make
a mistake. Many of the athletes are ‘tweeners’. That is,
they are firmly entrenched in this second level of skill
acquisition, yet they simultaneously display many of the
characteristics of the third level.

The ‘results now’ coach would be tempted to take any signs
of progress and continue on to more complicated and technical
stages of training.

For example, we are 7 weeks into the season and beyond the
halfway point for even the best athletes. (In fact many
athletes will be done in 2 weeks.)

Yet I just introduced maximum velocity training (top speed
training) this past Wednesday. And only to part of the
team. Because I didn’t think the group (or any of the
individuals within the group) had become proficient in
their acceleration development, I did not let them run at
or develop their top speed on our speed days.

In effect, until this past week the athletes were not allowed
to run more than 30 meters at any one time.

(I’m talking about during true speed workouts. Of course they
ran longer during tempo and special endurance runs. These
types of runs are submaximal and therefore do not develop
faster speeds.)

For the non-track coach this isn’t necessarily a big deal
because you’re going to spend the bulk of your time
developing acceleration and multidirectional skills. What
you should take from this is the fact that I am not in a
rush to progress any athlete (even the ones I believe will
challenge for a State Title) based on time of year. Instead
all decisions are based on competence and execution.

For track coaches it may seem crazy that we have not
progressed to doing fly runs, sprint-float-sprints or more
traditional speed endurance runs. But the fact is they aren’t
ready. So adding that layer just sets them up to do it poorly
and therefore underachieve over the long term.

So then what are the results of being patient?

*All* of my sprinters, top to bottom, ran their
*lifetime bests* by the 4th week which was the second
competition of the season.

Needless to say it has been exciting for me and for the
athletes. Because they understand the *why* behind everything
we do, they know that they have a long (long) way to go
before they can expect to meet their full potential.

Most of the group ran personal bests the very first meet.
And the truth is none of them expected to (I didn’t either
because they were all over the place in practice) because
they understood that they had no idea what they were doing.

We are now at the point where many of the athletes are
starting to show glimpses of competence. Here and there they
will run a repetition where they will execute to expectation
for several strides or meters. Perhaps even most of a
repetition.

(Let’s just say I have well above average standards for what
qualifies as ‘competent execution’ of a particular skill
or movement pattern.)

The most important element of this is the fact that they
are able to identify those moments. Because they have been
taught to assess their own running as well as their
teammates’, they know what to look for.

Because we break the process down into segments, they know
what it should feel like.

That makes them excited to train because they aren’t just
‘running to run’. The athletes are now willing to work harder
and stay later because they can see and feel specific
improvements to their running ability.

Recently one of the coaches said to me ‘Wow I can’t believe
you have them here at 5:30 on a Friday night and they’re
the ones asking to stay longer and do ‘just one more start’.
Last year they would have been out of here by 4 o’clock.’

This is what happens when athletes buy into your coaching.

They take the initiative to get themselves to the next level
without any prodding or pleading from you.

But it starts with establishing a foundation of development
and basing your progressions on their level of competence
and execution, not time of year or relation to major
competitions.

If you are truly interested in maximizing the performance
of your athletes, you will adopt this philosophy with your
own coaching.

Next Friday I will cover the final two stages of skill
acquisition.
To your success,

Latif Thomas
P.S. If you want to see all the programs I use and recommend
for maximizing the speed and athletic ability of athletes,
regardless of sport, check out:

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

I was at a track meet last week when I struck up a conversation with a parent. We just finished watching the 55 meter dash and he was a little disappointed with where his daughter finished.

Let me get this straight first. He was upset, he wasn’t yelling at her, he wasn’t going to send her straight to bed with no supper, he wasn’t starting a fight in the stands, he was just thought she was going to do better.

He was saying that “she looks so fast” and her friend that beat her “didn’t seem to be running as fast as her “.

I saw the race and it was the classic example of his daughter spinning her wheels.

Right from the start she stood straight up and tried to ‘run fast’. Her legs were moving fast but she wasn’t going anywhere. In her mind she was thinking that if her legs are moving that quick then she must be going as fast as she can.

Imagine you’re driving a Ford Mustang (you can add any car with a lot of horsepower in place of the Mustang but we will use this because I just miss mine) and it’s raining and you are at a stop light. When the light turns green, if you step hard on the gas to try and speed off, what will happen? Right, your wheels will be turning/spinning fast but you won’t be going anywhere.

It’s the same concept with running. You need to work your way through the gears.

You can see this with athletes in every sport. An athlete’s legs that seem to be moving really fast but it takes them forever to get down the field, court or track.

 It’s not all about turnover and conversely it’s not all about stride length. You need to find the optimal level of both stride length and frequency.

The saying “you get faster by running fast” is true but we need to clarify it a bit. If you run repeat 100’s at full speed every day, you may get a little bit faster but you are doing yourself a disservice.

 You need to focus on the different aspects of speed.

Acceleration, top speed (maximum velocity) and speed endurance all have different techniques that need to be mastered in order to reach your full “speed potential”.

I discussed with the father how his daughter should be driving out at about a 45 degree angle and when she does that she should focus on driving down and back (her knee will be coming up close to her chest and then that leg will be forcefully driven down and back behind her center of gravity). It should be more like a piston action then the cyclical leg action that she was using in her race.

I gave the father some drills since he was adamant about learning more and to find ways for his daughter to improve. I showed him the Wall Drill and the Partner Acceleration Drill (which is pretty much like the wall drill except with a partner holding you instead of the wall being there) so his daughter can learn what the 45 degree angle feels like and so she can get the motion and sensation of driving her leg down and back when accelerating.

Now those are 2 simple drills can help his daughter. She does need to realize that there are different stages to running and there are different techniques to work on. Acceleration, top speed, and speed endurance all require attention if you want to be efficient as possible so you can be as fast as possible. That’s why segmenting and breaking down these separate skills is important in practice.

 In fact it’s critical to developing speed in athletes regardless of sport.

 If your athletes’ speed isn’t developing the way you think it should it may be as simple as making a few minor changes to the way you teach them. Or it might require wholesale changes to your training program.

I’ll answer your questions about how to teach speed in a future email. Simply scroll to the bottom of this article and ask your biggest question in the comments section.

Yours in speed,

Patrick Beith

P.S. To get your hands on the exact same speed drills, techniques,  training cues, exercises and speed workouts I use to dramatically improve acceleration, top speed and speed endurance in athletes of every age, sport and ability,  check out:

 http://www.CompleteSpeedTraining.com