Last month I got the chance to sit down with Boo
Schexnayder, one of the world’s premier Jumps coaches
and the Jumps coach for the 2008 US Olympic Team.

I asked him a few questions about training your jumpers
that address some issues that are being neglected,
especially at the youth and high school levels.

Now, the truth is this:

My microphone was not working so the audio isn’t
great. You’ll have to turn up your speakers a bit to hear
what Boo has to say.

But you don’t want to miss it because he raises a couple
very interesting points that aren’t often talked about
when discussing program design for improving jump height
and distance.

Click here to watch that video:

Boo Schexnayder Jump Training

Saying this is against everything I stand for as a die hard
Boston Celtics fan(and *always* have been).

But I have to give the Atlanta Hawks players credit.

After two snoozers they’ve almost made this a
series again. But I’ll wait until tonight’s game to make
a judgement on that.

Despite the Celtics being the best defensive basketball
team in the NBA for the entire season, the fast and
explosive Hawks players picked the defense apart Saturday
night.

Why?

Because their speed and explosiveness gives them an
advantage you can’t always counter with X’s and O’s.

Josh Smith, Al Horford and Joe Johnson simply drove
past the Celtics defense and got to the basket at will.

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times:

Speed is the Difference Maker.

And as any intelligent coach, parent or athlete knows,
speed can be developed. It just takes knowing the proper
techniques and doing the right kind of training.

And you can discover those techniques and skills here:

http://tinyurl.com/68m7mf

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. So while the Celtics fan in me hates to admit it,
when someone is quicker and faster than you, there’s
not much you can do to stop it.

Except make your own athletes quicker and faster.

==> http://tinyurl.com/68m7mf

The other day I posed a question about a debate I
had with some colleagues on whether or not to bring
certain athletes to certain track meets.

Here are the questions and the results:

There is a State Level Freshman/Sophomore meet
coming up. There isn’t enough money in the budget
to take everyone, but parents volunteer to drive.
You would:

91.45% said:

Go to the meet with deserving athletes because it
is a great opportunity for up and coming
underclassmen athletes to participate against their
peers in a state meet atmosphere for both competitive
purposes as well as to keep them interested in the
sport.

8.55% said:

Not go to the meet because if the kids are any good
they will get plenty of opportunities to compete in
their regular duel meets, league meet and state
meets. How many meets do underclassmen need to run
in anyway? Plus those meets are just fundraisers
for the State Track Organization.
My second question was:

There is a State Level Invitational coming up.
Qualifying standards are the same as the State Meet
and the vast majority of the best athletes in the
state attend the meet. There isn’t enough money in
the budget to take everyone, but parents volunteer
to drive. You would:

Exactly 96% of you said:

Take qualifying athletes to the meet because they
need to compete in a State Level competition and
atmosphere against the best athletes in the State.
It’s a great opportunity to run personal bests and
these types of meets are what your best athletes
train for in the first place. To skip this
opportunity would be an injustice to your hard
working varsity athletes.

A mere 4% of you said:

Not go to the meet because only some kids will
qualify and it’s a waste to spend an entire day
with a relatively small group of athletes. Besides
if those kids are any good they don’t need to race
against top competition until the League and State
Championships. Running time trials against lesser
competition in duel meets will get them plenty of
experience for Championship Season.

So what do you think? What would you do? Share your
thoughts by posting below.

Now, the discussion I had with my colleagues got me
thinking about different types of coaching philosophies.

So listen to the audio below to hear my take on
the pros and cons of Socialist vs. Capitalist
programs and then weigh in below.

I want to hear if you agree with my logic or if you
think I’m just a crazy commy!

- Latif Thomas

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I recently engaged in a debate with some colleagues
about how often and when and where athletes should
compete.

By definition, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer,
but I would like to get a consensus of opinions on
this interesting topic.

So please take a minute to participate in this
quick survey  and let me know if you think this is
a Good Idea or Bad Idea for Track and Field Athletes?:

http://tinyurl.com/4gmmze