In the last year the guys at OnlineBodyByBoyle have posted almost 100 hours of educational video content that covers a wide range of subjects from strength and conditioning, to assessments, to speed training, to rehab, and much more. And this content isn’t just coming from Mike. In the first year they have had talks from Sue Falsone (Athletes Performance/LA Dodgers), Charlie Weingroff, Dan John, Kelly Starret (MobiliyWod), Nick Tumminello, Negar Fonooni, Joe Sansalone, Charles Staley, and more!

The subjects have included, kettlebell training, sandbag training, a talk on the thoracic spine, mobility with bands, rotary training, the FMS, and more.

They also have their exercise database on there along with the same programs that they use with their high school, college, and professional athletes.

Check it out for yourself here:

http://www.OnlineBodyByBoyle.com

Online Body By Boyle gives you the newest approaches and techniques to assist you to get your finest result. If you want better results from your strength and conditioning program, this resource is what you’re looking for.

http://www.OnlineBodyByBoyle.com

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

I also wanted to let you know that Eric just added an additional Bonus for you if you buy during his World Series Sale for his best selling product, Show & Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and
Move Better.

This new Bonus is called ‘Warm Ups 2011′ and it goes behind the scenes in his gym Cressey Performance and shows you how he prepares some of the top athletes in the world to prevent injuries and maximize performance.  One of his professional baseball players even demonstrates it.

If you order Show and Go before at midnight on Thursday you can get this bonus along with all the other great components of the Show and Go System for 50% off the normal price.

You can check it out here:

Show and Go: High Performance Training

And here’s the article that I mentioned from Eric:

5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting Stronger

By: Eric Cressey
Like just about all lifters, I got a lot bigger and stronger in my first 1-2 years of training in spite of the moronic stuff that I did.  In hindsight, I was about as informed as a chimp with a barbell – but things worked out nonetheless.  That is, at least, until I hit a big fat plateau where things didn’t budge.

Think I’m joking?  Sadly, I’m not; otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent about 14 months trying to go from a 225-pound bench to 230.  When you’re finished laughing at my past futility (or about how similar it sounds to your own plight), we’ll continue.

Ready?  Good – because self-deprecating writing was never a strong suit of mine.  I have, however, become quite good at picking heavy stuff off the floor – to the tune of a personal-best 660-pound deadlift at a body weight of 188.

My other numbers aren’t too shabby, either, but this article isn’t about me; it’s about why YOU aren’t necessarily getting strong as fast as you’d like.  Let’s look at a few mistakes many people make in their quest to get stronger.  Sadly, I made most of these myself along the way, so hopefully I can save you some frustration.

Mistake #1: Only doing what’s fun and not what you need.

As you could probably tell, deadlifting is a strength of mine – and I enjoy it.  Squatting, on the other hand, never came naturally to me.  I always squatted, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it took the back seat to pulling heavy.

Eventually, though, I smartened up and took care of the issue – by always putting squatting before deadlifting in all my lower-body training sessions (twice a week).

In addition to me dramatically improving my squat, a funny thing happened: I actually started to love to squat.  Whoever said that you can’t teach an old dog (or deadlifter) new tricks didn’t have the real scoop.

Mistake #2: Not taking deload periods.

One phrase of which I’ve grown quite fond is “fatigue masks fitness.”  As a little frame of reference, my best vertical jump is 36” – but on most days, I won’t give you anything over 34.5” or so.  The reason is very simple: most of your training career is going to be spent in some degree of fatigue.  How you manage that fatigue is what’s going to dictate your adaptation over the long-term.

On one hand, you want to impose enough fatigue to create supercompensation – so that you’ll adapt and come back at a higher level of fitness.  On the other hand, you don’t want to impose so much fatigue that you dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of without a significant amount of time off.

Good programs implement strategic overreaching follows by periods of lower training stress to allow for adaptation to occur.  You can’t just go in and hit personal bests in every single training session.

Mistake #3: Not rotating movements.

It never ceases to amaze me when a guy claims that he just can’t seem to add to his bench press (or any lift, for that matter), and when you ask him what he’s done to work on it of late, and he tells you “bench press.” Specificity is important, folks, but if you aren’t rotating exercises, you’re missing out on a wildly valuable training stimulus: rotating exercises.

While there is certainly a place for extended periods of specificity (Smolov squat cycles, for instance), you can’t push this approach indefinitely.  Rotating my heaviest movements was one of the most important lessons I learned along my journey.  In addition to helping to create adaptation, you’re also expanding your “motor program” and avoiding overuse injuries via pattern overload.

I’m not saying that you have to overhaul your entire program each time you walk into the gym, but there should be some semi-regular fluctuation in exercise selection.  The more experienced you get, the more often you’ll want to rotate your exercises (I do it weekly).  We generally rotate assistance exercises every four weeks, though.

Mistake #4: Inconsistency in training.

I always tell our clients from all walks of life that the best strength and conditioning programs are ones that are sustainable.  I’ll take a crappy program executed with consistency over a great program that’s only done sporadically.  In my daily practice, this is absolutely huge for professional athletes who need to maximize progress in the off-season; they just can’t afford to have unplanned breaks in training if they want to improve from year to year.

If a program isn’t conducive to your goals and lifestyle, then it isn’t a good program.  That’s why I went out of my way to create 2x/week, 3x/week, and 4x/week strength training options – plus five supplemental conditioning options and a host of exercise modifications – when I pulled Show and Go together; I wanted it to be a very versatile resource.

Likewise, I wanted it to be safe; a program isn’t good if it injures you and prevents you from exercising.  Solid programs include targeted efforts to reduce the likelihood of injury via means like mobility warm-ups, supplemental stretching recommendations, specific progressions, fluctuations in training stress, and alternative exercises (“plan B”) in case you aren’t quite ready to execute “Plan A.”

For me personally, I attribute a lot of my progress to the fact that at one point, I actually went over eight years without missing a planned lift.  It’s a bit extreme, I know, but there’s a lesson to be learned.

Mistake #5: Wrong rep schemes.

Beginners can make strength gains on as little as 40% of their one-rep max.  Past that initial period, the number moves to 70% – which is roughly a 12-rep max for most folks.  Later, I’d say that the number creeps up to about 85% – which would be about a 5-rep max for an intermediate lifter.  This last range is where you’ll find most people who head to the internet for strength training information.

What they don’t realize is that 85% isn’t going to get the job done for very long, either.  My experience is that in advanced lifters, the fastest way to build strength is to perform singles at or above 90% of one-rep max with regularity.  As long as exercises are rotated and deloading periods are included, this is a strategy that can be employed for an extended period of time.  In fact, it was probably the single (no pun intended) most valuable discovery I made in my quest to get stronger.

I’m not saying that you should be attempting one-rep maxes each time you enter the gym, but I do think they’ll “just happen” if you employ this technique.

To take the guesswork out of all this and try some programming that considers all these crucial factors (and a whole lot more), check out Eric’s new resource, Show and Go: High Performance Training to Look, Feel, and Move Better.

**************************
Be sure to check out Show and Go before the price doubles
tonight (Friday) at midnight:

Show and Go Performance Training

This video shows you not only how to fix your squatting technique but how to Master the Squat. Watch it and you’ll know exactly what to do to:

If you’re serious about improving your athletes’ speed and strength, you should check this out from Coach Eric Cressey:

http://www.showgotraining.com

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

Now, the video is 15 minutes long. That’s right. I talk a lot. I know that bothers some people. If you’re one of them, I invite you to create shorter videos on your blog. I will not complain in your comments section…

But, I’m also a man of the people. Some might say the People’s Champion. (that’s an indirect hint, kids) So here is a quick breakdown of the topics I discuss and the time stamps I cover them so you can skip around. As always, post your questions and comments below.

1. Private School Superiority is a Myth (The difference between public school and private school kids) (0:00 – 4:08)
2. It’s Always Better to Be Yourself (Why turning weaknesses into strengths is a waste of time) (4:09 – 8:45)
3. Sometimes You Have to Rob Peter to Pay Paul (Compatibility training is a great idea…if you live in San Diego. Otherwise, try this.) (8:46-13:40)
4. Free CST Shirt Contest + Dartmouth Relays Anyone? (13:41 – 15:02)

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. Click here to see all of my recommended coaching resources (and get your CST shirt!)

You can catch me live and in person at the following conferences in 2011:

Wisconsin Track Coaches’ Clinic – February 11-12 (Milwaukee, WI)

New England Track & Field Clinic – March 18-19 (Framingham, MA)

I recently heard Boo Schexnayder say acceleration is about finding the ‘resonant frequency of oscillary patterns’ in terms of developing and improving the efficiency of locomotive mechanics.

I recently heard Gary Winckler say, “90% of speed development is technique.”

I once heard Will Smith talk about understanding how the universe works by ‘studying the patterns.’

Well, I’ve been studying the patterns, and, in doing so, one fact has become overwhelmingly clear:

Our athletes will be faster when they develop this quality.

Our athletes will be more explosive and powerful when they develop this quality.

Our athletes will be on the board (instead of over and behind) and won’t trip over hurdles (or themselves) when they develop this quality.

Our athletes will consistently hit their times during tempo runs and race modeling sessions once they develop more of this quality.

So, if all I’ve said here is true, then what is the most important word in all of speed training?

Coordination.

Everything we do in practice is designed to improve the ability to express technique in order to positively influence performance. An athlete’s inability to express said technique simply boils down to lack of specific coordination.

Of course, I didn’t invent this concept. I heard Gary Winckler talk about it. Then I thought about it. Then I stole it. Now here we are.

Here’s an example. Last week I ran the exact same workout with two different athletes.

One was a 16 year old high schooler with a 200m PR of 26.1. The other was a 22 year old post collegiate with a 200m PR of 24.7.

The high schooler has been doing consistent technical work all summer and fall, going back and forth between me and another great sprints coach, Marc Mangiacotti. (He and I will be running a sprints clinic this summer, so, when they come, your sprinters will get to learn what we’re doing first hand…)

In our last session, she looked incredible. Her bad runs are now vastly superior to what good runs looked like in June. She can break down her own technique before I say anything which, to me, is a sign of wildly improved kinesthetic awareness and skill acquisition. Her confidence is light years ahead of where it was 6 months ago. I’m very proud of her and can’t wait to see her reap the rewards of her hard work.

The post collegiate, on the other hand, comes from a (Division I) college program that did absolutely no technical work, no speed work and sent 200m specialists out for 30 minute runs on a routine basis even in the middle of the competitive phase. She came from a good high school program (cough, cough), so that’s roughly the last time this athlete had good technical instruction (a 25.02 HS PR vs 24.71 collegiate PR is not a comforting improvement over the course of 4 years at the D-1 level).

Needless to say, this athlete was some sort of Hot Mess. She could feel it wasn’t right.

It wasn’t lack of effort or focus. And it sure wasn’t lack of ability. It was pure lack of coordination.

She lacked (’lost’ might be a better word) the strength (coordination training under resistance), endurance (coordination training under event specific time constraints), speed (coordination training to express highest force in the least amount of time and resulting in optimal displacement) and mobility (coordination training to dynamically express forces through desired/required ranges of motion) to accelerate to top speed and maintain that velocity with any semblance of efficiency or consistency of execution.

Once she acquires the coordination that the high schooler currently possesses, I know one thing for sure, she won’t be grinding to dip under the times she ran when she was 16.

My point is pretty simple. If you want to run a 21^st Century program, it’s not enough to just run fast in practice. As coaches we have to have our own process for solving the acceleration equation. And, just as importantly, we have to be able to help our athletes solve it themselves. Because we can’t cue them or engage in technical feedback once the gun goes off. Their success fundamentally depends on the ability to feel what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ and make corrections in real time, under the stress of competition and with 6-7 other athletes trying to beat them. Or with a crowd of people staring at them while they barrell down the runway.

It’s not enough to send kids into the weight room if you don’t have the same technical standards for a squat or clean as you do for coming out of blocks or doing phase work in the triple jump.

But if you reframe your training perspective with coordination being the ultimate goal and strength, speed, endurance and mobility being interdependent qualities, it will be easier to connect the dots between movements, event groups and specific skill development.

At your next practice, watch your athletes perform all the drills and exercises that make up their practice with this concept of ‘coordination as the ultimate goal’ in mind. It will be both liberating and overwhelming at the same time.

Here’s the first step to solving the coordination equation:

How to Build Champion Sprinters

To your success,

Latif Thomas

UPDATE (March 24, 2011): I will be running a sprints/hurdles clinic this summer with ‘Building the Perfect 100m Sprinter’ creator Marc Mangiacotti. It will be for athletes AND coaches. I will have a website up with full details and we will begin taking registrations (we have a limited number of spots available) in the next 2 weeks. However, this much is confirmed: The clinic will be held in Massachusetts  on Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, 2011. Send your athletes and/or attend yourself.

Check it out and, as always, ask questions if you have them:

#1 Best Seller: Complete Speed Training Volume 2

Sure, I’m biased because I created it. But, if I didn’t know what I was talking about, you wouldn’t be reading this right now, would you? And, here’s the bottom line:

CST2 has sold more copies than all the other programs on this list….combined.

If you don’t have CST2 yet, I’m sure you have lots of great reasons, all of them involving the word ‘price’. And that’s cool. I totally understand. But, it takes money to make money. All of the coaches I go to for advice get  results because they have more tools in their toolbox. Common sense says I should go out and purchase the same tools. And I do, which is why I get results. And you can be sure the elite coaches I study didn’t get those tools from scavenging the interwebs for free sample programs.

If you’re offended, my bad. Really. But I bet no customers are offended. It’s just that you’re probably picking rusted wrenches out of dumpsters and I won’t apologize for recommending a pair of Channellocks.

But, in truth, it’s a win/win for me. If you get a copy, I get the satisfaction of knowing you’re going to help a lot of kids. If you help kids, then I help kids and that’s the reason I started doing this in the first place. If you don’t, it just means even more of my kids get to stand on the podium at the big meets. And kids love that.

Click here to learn more about Complete Speed Training Volume 2.

#2 Best Seller: Complete Program Design for Sprinters

Again, one of my core programs. CPD is more advanced than CST2 because it’s not about showing you how to teach drills and exercises. So I wouldn’t recommend this for novice coaches.

Instead, I get into the science of workout planning, training phases and managing energy systems. I go into the psychology of getting kids to buy into your program hook, line and sinker.

If you already feel good about how to teach the mechanics of speed, but want to know more about where, when and why to do various types of speed work based on training age, event group and training phase, then you’ll be pretty excited about CPD.

Click here to learn more about Complete Program Design for Sprinters.

#3 Best Seller: Complete Track & Field Conditioning for the Endurance Events

At first, I was surprised to see the #2 most popular event group of my list of coaches isn’t jumps or hurdles. It’s the distance events. Then I realized that I live in New England and 9 out of 10 head coaches is a distance coach. (Which explains why so many sprinters around here run on their heels, but I digress.)

Scott Christensen is arguably the top HS distance coach in the country, a 14 year lead instructor for USATF Level II Endurance school, has had 7 Minnesota State Champions at 800 and 1600 since 1996 and has had 4 former athletes go on to run sub 4:00 in the mile since 2003.

So, yeah. That’s pretty solid, don’t you think?

If you’re a distance coach and that doesn’t get you salivating then I highly recommend checking yourself for a pulse because you may have inadvertently ingested some puffer fish.

Seriously, I don’t even coach middle distance/distance runners and I study Scott’s information. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Click here to learn more about CTFC for the Endurance Events.

#4 Best Seller: Complete Track and Field Conditioning for the Jumps

If I have a question about the jumps, I’m calling Boo Schexnayder. If you’ve been involved in USATF Coaching Education, you’re a Boo disciple. If you get involved in The Academy…Boo.

Not only is Boo one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever met, he’s also one of the smartest. (No one draws a series of stick figures like Boo Schexnayder!) And he’s probably the best jumps coach on planet Earth.

So if you’re looking for some introductory level information in regards to workout planning, training inventories and progressions for your jumpers, you would be crazy not to have this book in your library. It’s not Level II school, but if you’re still lumping your jumpers in with your sprinters every day and then just separating them on ‘jump days’, my good friend, please come join us in the 21^st Century.

Click here to learn more about CTFC for the Jumps.

#5 Best Seller: Complete Track and Field Conditioning for the Sprints/Hurdles

I was on the phone with Tony Veney last week and, listening to him talk, I felt a bit like the younger Bizarro World version of…Tony Veney. I agreed with everything he was teaching me, he just has a much bigger toolbox full of better tools. That is the value of experience combined with open mindedness.

I’ll admit it’s a bit frustrating talking to guys like Tony because they understand things on levels I have yet to reach. But, then again, it’s not nearly as hard to humble myself now as it was when I was 22 and knew everything…

At the same time it’s great to know that a USATF Master Coach reads my emails and has positive things to say about my training philosophy. Tony is one of my ‘go to guys’ when I have a question about my sprinters or hurdlers. (And we both agree that speed and power is the key to fast 400 times…yeah, yeah Clyde Hart. Isn’t that what you were going to say?)

Here’s the truth: If you already have CST2 or CPD, then you’ll probably find Tony’s book a bit on the basic side. But if you don’t or you can’t bring yourself to spend the money on those programs, please do your athletes a favor and get Tony’s book on developing programs and training progressions for your sprinters/hurdlers.

Tony’s knowledge is as good as it gets. When you’re shopping for new tools, not every job requires a Sawzall. But that rusty hand saw ain’t gonna get it done either.

Click here to learn more about CTFC for the Sprints/Hurdles.

Got questions about which program is the right fit for you? Ask below.

To your success,

Latif Thomas

Oh yeah…

Clear your schedules my friends. In 2011, I’ll be taking my talents to:

Wisconsin Track Coaches Clinic – February 11-12

New England Track & Field Clinic – March 18-19

How do I effectively coach my sprinters while also appropriately developing their jumps and hurdle needs, without turning practice into a mass of kids going in different directions at the same time?

If you coach at the developmental level, you wrestle with this issue on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

I’m going to answer this question in 2 parts. Today I’ll outline the weekly training goals/demands for each ‘subgroup’. That way you’ll know what you need to get done each week with each group of athletes. On Thursday, if you’re a Complete Speed Training 2 or Complete Program Design for Sprinters customer, you’ll get a video showing how I break this down into an actual week of training, what I do, when I do it and how to make sure every athlete competing in multiple events gets the just the right amount of training.

(If you still don’t have CST2 or CPD, order now so you get access to Thursday’s video.)

In the meantime, check out this video:

Invest in the success of your athletes and program by joining the
New Breed of Coaches using CST2 and CPD as the foundation of our sprints programs:

 
Complete Speed Training Vol. 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters

Complete Program Design for Sprinters

To your success,

Latif Thomas

P.S. Don’t forget, in 2011 I’ll be speaking at:

- Wisconsin Track Coaches’ Clinic (February 11-12)
- New England Track & Field Clinic (March 18-19)

And I will be stealing as much of it as possible.

Back in the day, when I was an inexperienced coach attending events like this, coaches would talk about endocrine system profiles between males and females or what kind of training caused muscle spindle fatigue and my eyes would start to bleed. After all, I don’t have a degree in exercise science or kinesiology, and, especially when dealing with the elitist attitude (some….many) college coaches take toward HS coaches, it was easy to feel like I was in over my head.

When they talked about their training progressions, there were so many holes in what I was doing I wondered how I would ever bridge the gap. Despite the fact I thought spontaneous combustion was imminent, my contempt for mediocrity pushed me to keep learning and refining what I was doing.

Can I get the Cliffs Notes on Rotational & Oscillary Factors in Locomotive Mechanics?

That’s why it was a good feeling to go to this conference and see that what I’m doing now, where my program and philosophies are trending, is very much in line with what these guys are doing. They just do it much better and work with a completely different level of athlete than I do. They have girls running 11.5 in the 100. Most of my boys can’t run 11.5 in the 100.

So if I had to take that whole weekend and wrap it all into one big Takeaway that you and I can both apply immediately to our programs, it would be this:

Efficiency.

My focus this year (in all areas of life) isn’t so much about adding layers of complexity to my programs. Instead, I need to focus on taking what already works and make it work better…in less time and with less chaos. Because a practice involving speed work, hurdles, jumps and weight room is chaos for high school coaches like me with a staff of one or two. 

First and foremost, making this work requires knowing why one method works and why another doesn’t work or doesn’t work as well. So I’m not saying we don’t need to learn anything new. Quite the opposite. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the easier it is to streamline your progressions. And therefore get results.

I’m expecting my biggest group of sprinters of all time this year. And I’ve never worked consistently with any of them. So it’s going to be a hot mess. I also don’t have a track in the winter and our weight room is a crime against humanity.

Welcome to the first day of track practice!

But there are a lot of people paying attention to the results I get. In fact, my business depends on those results. So, pressure or no pressure, good facility or bad, no one cares about my sad story. Therefore, one way or the other, I need to make it happen.

In order to address the demands of God knows how many kids with essentially no training age and ranging from 55-400m, plus hurdles, long jump and high jump and with no track and a bootleg weight room, I need to get the most out of every drill and exercise I do.

I suggest you take the same approach when planning out your season. (Which, I hope, you’re doing by now.)

The results I expect won’t come from obsessing about how many 200s to run on our tempo day. Or whether to do 150s or 300s at 77% or 82.5% with 3 minutes rest. Or 4. Or 4.5.

Irrelevant.

So what does this ‘Efficiency Model’ mean in practical terms?

Here are 3 specific areas I’m making changes this year.

       1.  Thematic consistency throughout practice

If the theme of practice is ‘Acceleration’ then everything we do in practice, from start to finish, should be geared toward teaching the skills required to accelerate explosively and efficiently.

Foot prep, overcoming inertia, glute activation, low heel recovery. Not only does this aid in teaching acceleration, but it also addresses many of the general strength, mobility, coordination and endurance/work capacity qualities we need to develop.  Hmm. I think the warm up just covered all 5 biomotor skills. I wonder if that’s important to running faster…

Same goes with your plyos. If the focus is on acceleration, then do exercises that develop similar qualities. Standing long jump would be an example.

Same with the weight room. If the focus is on acceleration, then do exercises that develop similar qualities. Cleans from the floor and deep squats would be examples.

      2. Even more strength training

If we have practice, we’re doing strength training. I didn’t say we’d be in the weight room every day. But we will strength train. But we’ll keep things in line with the topic I just discussed.  If it’s an acceleration day, we’re training power or max strength in the weight room, depending on the training phase.

Recovery day? We’re doing bodyweight work. Intensive tempo? We’re bodybuilding or doing some type of circuit. But we’re going to get stronger and more coordinated even at the expense of volume on the track.

That’s right. I said it. I will sacrifice volume on the track and still run fast because volume is highly overrated.

        3.    Technical/Coordination Focus vs Volume Based Approach

I’ve been saying this for a while and it was great to have it validated. Technical skill and coordination are more important to success in the sprint events than obsessing about hitting X amount of volume for the week.

Sprinters are not distance runners who just run shorter repeats.

Your sprinters shouldn't be built like this guy

So my focus will continue to trend toward developing the ability to coordinate increasingly powerful and efficient movement patterns and not on getting out to the track to run repeats as soon as possible. This approach will do more toward putting your sprinters in a position to develop consistent patterns and maintain posture at high intensities than following a protocol of endless submaximal running. Not only do sprinters hate doing that type of work, but you’re going to have a rash of shin splint, foot and knee problems and your kids will burn out.

Sure, they’ll get faster at the beginning because any progressive overload in a 15 year old is going to stimulate an adaptation. But long term, that approach is a little too 1970’s for my tastes. And I don’t think it works as well.

My New England Champion 4×100 team still broke the school record in the 4×4 (the only time they ran it) training like 100m runners. Because speed and strength are the key in *every* sprint event.

Follow this approach with your sprinters this season and not only will you see outstanding results, but you’ll keep your head from exploding.

To your success,

Latif Thomas
Complete Speed Training for Sprinters

Workout Planning for Sprinters
 
P.S. This year I’ll be speaking at both the Wisconsin State Track Coaches Clinic (February-6 sessions!) and the New England Track and Field clinic (March- 3 sessions) so if you live in those areas, make plans to attend!