If you didn’t compete as a hurdler, you probably struggle teaching the event more than you do with the sprints.

OK, I’m talking about myself…

But, even if you were a hurdler, as my mentor told me the day he hired me many moons ago,

“Just because you ran fast doesn’t mean you know how to teach people to run fast.”

Those felt like harsh words when I was 22, but no truer words were ever spoken.

There are a ton of drill based hurdle DVDs out there. And I’ve got a lot of them.

But, as I’ve learned, drills alone aren’t the answer. And there is a fundamental lack of information out there aimed at running a quality hurdle program, especially if you coach at the high school level.

So I decided to fix that problem. Last year I sent a survey to Complete Track and Field readers asking them for their questions about the hurdles. Then I had one of my hurdle mentors, Tony Veney, create a resource that covered all of the topics you want to know about.

So, long story short, here it is – Training the Sprint Hurdler

I’m taking a slightly different approach with this email. I’m not going to give you a thesis on why you should get it. I’m not going to lay out all the features and benefits of the program. The type of coaches who will invest in this resource don’t need it.

You know we put out good information here at Complete Track and Field. Coach Veney’s program is no different.

If you’re the type of coach who likes to learn things, apply them at practice and make track more fun for your athletes, you’ll check it out.

I’ll be basing my hurdles program on it. It’s half price for the rest of the week. It’s digital so you can start watching it in about 3 minutes. And Coach Veney will answer your questions.

Here is Tony Veney’s ‘Hurdling Training Program‘.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

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To succeed, athletes in team (field & court) sports must develop two skill sets:

1. Sport specific skill (how to play that specific sport)
2. Athletic  movement skill

But most team sport coaches only focus on sport specific skill, ignoring athletic development.

It doesn’t matter why, it only matters that most young athletes lack the ability to get themselves in and out of position to make the big play when it counts.

Because you work with these athletes, you have an opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives and on field success of these kids.

My friend, Dave Jack, is one of the best movement specialists in our industry. This summer, he and I ran a speed clinic for coaches, teaching them how we teach speed and agility to our young athletes.

I want to share a clip from that Closed Door session, where he showcases one of the most important movement skills you can teach your athletes.

Check it out:

A Critical Skill for Team Sport Athletes (Video)

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. On Monday, September 26 at 8pm Eastern, Dave and I will be hosting a special teleseminar called ‘7 Truths About Training Youth Speed and Agility’.

We’ll be covering 7 specific lessons about training speed that we’ve learned over the years and how these
lessons have fundamentally changed the way we coach.

If you like to stay on the cutting edge of how successful coaches are developing their athletes, you’ll want to be on this call!

http://youthspeedspecialist.com/dave-jack

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I work primarily at the high school level. And I’m a firm believer in the idea that every high school coach, regardless of sport, should be certified by a reputable organization.

Because, the truth is, 8 out of 10 high school coaches could not pass a basic strength and conditioning test. And I’ve worked with quite a few of them.

You know who I mean. That angry, incompetent and morbidly obese dude that clearly hates kids (and Christmas), but has nothing else to do after school except torment some teenagers.

We need to get these people out of coaching. And being really good at what we do is the only way to drive these people into coaching extinction.

Not to mention the fact that these types of ‘coaches’ are the reason your athletes feel compelled to seek outside coaching when they’re competing in a season they’re not with you.

(If you’re one of those ‘outside the school’ trainers, this is another reason to look into this certification…)

And if you’re both equally uncertified, it’s hard for you to tell a kid not to go to that ‘personal trainer’.

If we, as New Breed Coaches, are going to drive the bad coaches into retirement, we have to be the change we want to see in others.

That starts with educating ourselves and then our athletes.

Not only will they work harder for you, but they’ll get better results, have more fun, and, most importantly, stay injury free.

If you agree with what I’m saying, you should take a serious look at this HS Strength & Conditioning Certification from the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA):

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/highschool

I know that certifications aren’t the ‘end all, be all’ of whether or not we’re good coaches.

But I know the guys and the organization who created this one.

They’re smart people who care about our industry and care about kids. And if you study their information, you’ll become a better coach.

And that serves the greater good. It helps you. It helps kids. It helps your sport. It helps our industry. Check it out:

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/highschool

To your success,

Latif Thomas

3 Reasons to Follow Me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/latif_thomas

1. I share info there that I don’t put in my standard emails & blog posts.

2. You’ll get my uncensored thoughts & opinions on every topic anyone would consider interesting.

3. There are no other speed, strength & conditioning coaches saying anything funny, so experience priceless Latif comedy that can only be contained by Twitter servers.

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If you train athletes, especially at the high school level, you do not want to miss this.

Effective training systems are about taking what you’ve got, understanding the realities, knowing what’s best and then turning out what makes the most sense for your situation. And the key to understanding how to effectively train high school athletes may not be what you think.

The IYCA’s own coaches Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Brian Grasso & Wil Fleming got on a call recently and covered their step by step system for training high school athletes. They ran this exclusive teleseminar last week and I thought that you would greatly benefit from it.

The content they covered was great but they only sent it out to their members. So, I had to convince Brian Grasso to send me the recording so I could share it with you (thanks again Grasso!). I hope you enjoy.

Click the play button below to learn more about high school strength and conditioning…

If you’re like me and would rather read then listen, I have included the transcription of the teleseminar for you – Click Here to Download the Transcript (PDF) or Click Here for the Word Document Transcription

Please leave your comments below and let me know what you think.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/latif_thomas

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In the United States we have a distinct ‘jogger mentality’.

When it comes to any discussion of ‘getting in shape’, the default belief or mindset is to ‘go for a run’. And that misguided belief bleeds over to the way we train our athletes.

Dan Pfaff said:

“Beware the myth of building a BASE. The better question is a Base of what?”

I know that coaches believe in building a base. But, chances are, you’re building the wrong kind of base.

Recently, I interviewed UTEP coach and Pfaff protege Kebba Tolbert on this subject.

He said something very interesting. It might turn your entire program upside down.

Here is part of the transcript of that conversation, where I just asked Kebba about Coach Pfaff’s quote about ‘building a base’:

Kebba: Dan’s absolutely correct and it’s something that he’s helped me with mentally over the years. In terms of prioritizing it means that it’s something that we’re concerned with, maybe even obsessed with that we really put it first and foremost in our plans. That’s something from the very first day of training that we do and it’s something that we’re concerned about from the very first day of training of developing those qualities.

So I do believe in a base for sprinters and jumpers and hurdlers and throwers. I believe in a very big base. I think it’s absolutely crucial. However, it’s a base of speed and power. It’s not an aerobic base.

There are aerobic components that we look at when we look at sprinting and hurdling and jumping and throwing in basically all of the speed power events, but those are almost an afterthought or a side effect of doing other things, but our main concern is to make sure that those qualities are being developed, that they’re being used in a correct fashion and that they can be expressed when we need them.

Latif: Now would there be any differences in that philosophy if you were developing ,say, a 60 meter or 100 meter specialist versus a 400 meter runner or 400 meter hurdler?

Kebba: Not really because you’ve gotta be real fast if you’re gonna be a great 400 runner or a great 400 hurdler. You can be good with just average speeds and average power, but if you wanna be great, elite at whatever level, then you’ve gotta have good speed and power qualities. So even for those events that’s something that we’d be put a serious investment into.

————
Good stuff, right?

Click here to read the full transcript of my Kebba Tolbert interview.

And don’t forget, you can get a full 7.5 hours of video on topics like this by getting your copy of the Learning from the Legends Program with Coach Dan Pfaff and Coach Tom Tellez.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

Get my uncensored thoughts and opinions on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/latif_thomas

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