If any of your athletes have inflexibilities or posture problems, like me with my lordosis due to my tight hammy’s and week glutes, then this site can be another reference for you if you do not already know all of this.

http://exrx.net/Kinesiology/Inflexibilities.html

http://exrx.net/Kinesiology/Posture.html

http://exrx.net/Kinesiology/Weaknesses.html

Thanks again.

>>> Congratulations! All American is All American, now just focus on improving your skill as a sprinter. Thanks for the links.

LT

>>>Owen, that’s a tough call. In theory, coming in early and getting a partial speed workout or a lift in would a good compromise. My concern is simply overtraining. If you’re fatigued after your speed work, even half a workout, and then you have to go do a high volume of low intensity training, I’m concerned you’ll end up burning out and getting an overuse injury like a hamstring, adductor or hip flexor strain.

If you only do half of your coach’s workout, that could cause problems because your coach does not appear willing to update his philosophy and will get upset if he sees you half assing his workouts and gets wind of you training on your own in the AM.

I don’t like to endorse going around your coach’s training, but I get this question all the time and there is no good answer because you can’t get fast by running slow. So, while my answer is unsettling to a degree, I would say that if you do want to get faster, you will have to get some speed work in a couple days per week on your own in the AM.
Just make sure you are not doing AM speed work the day after a lactic acid workout with the distance/mid distance group because that will compromise the quality of your speed work.

If you’re ’skating’, much of the problem is lack of hip mobility. I would focus on doing more hurdle mobility drills and a longer warm down and stretch. A foam roller wouldn’t hurt either.

LT

Great stuff, but what can you do if you have to be outside and for several weeks the weather does not get above 32 degrees? You really can’t run fast in that stuff. Thanks

>> No you can’t. So you either have to run inside or run a higher volume, lower intensity program. It sucks, but those are your options. This is the reason why people in warm weather climates run so much faster – they don’t have this problem. A kid running a 21.50 200m in Texas would not be running a 21.50 if they lived in Vermont.

LT

>>>This is covered, in detail, in the video.

LT

>>>Yes, if I had no meets.

LT

>>> I’m not in college shape, but I weigh the same, if not slightly less. Of course, if Willie Gault lived in the Northeast, I doubt he’d look or run like a 25 year old. I would certainly still compete if it wasn’t so cold out here. I’m entertaining the idea of running this summer because I think I can still throw down, especially at the Masters level.

LT

>>> Most great 400m runners at the elite level are former 100/200 runners. I develop my middle schoolers the same way you speak of – short to long and focusing on developing flat out speed. Your plan is exactly how I would do it.

LT

>>> Good question. And I suppose you could argue for that. I don’t remember, off hand, if I contradicted myself in one video versus another. If so, it was a speaking error. I do know that I always base these recovery day times on current best. Reason being that I’m not trying to make speed/Personal Best based improvements in my tempo runs. I want it to be recovery work from their speed work. So if a kid runs 11.3 in the 100m, but I base the tempo work off of a goal time of 10.8, now they’re running faster in that tempo work than their current speed says they should go. Now what was an aerobic workout (extensive tempo) has become a mixed aerobic/anaerobic workout (intensive tempo) and that’s not what I want. So I base tempo work on their current best times because we’re doing more than enough quality work on our ‘workout’ days to generate faster top speeds and new personal bests. Hope that makes sense.

LT

If I asked you this — “Can weakness in a single muscle decrease performance?” — you’d say “yes.” We all know this. And yet, the idea of using single-joint movements to strengthen specific muscles is widely disparaged.

That said, it’s not always obvious where the weakness is, or the best way to fix it once we find it. That’s why physical therapists, chiropractors, strength coaches, and other rehab specialists have jobs.

My point is that we have hundreds of exercises to select from when we design training programs. We shouldn’t eliminate an entire category of exercises — you never know when they’ll come in handy

>>> I’m going to have to call you out on this one. As I have said on countless, countless occasions – the only real value of a single joint movement is for bodybuilding or rehab. With a finite amount of time to address strength training, no single joint movements would make my list of exercises that are either specific enough or give enough bang for your buck to be worth adding to the program.

I appreciate your point, but nothing you said validates single joint movements as effective exercises in the normal sports training/athletic development strength training setting where the goal is to develop specific strength and power.

Outside of the rehab or bodybuilding setting, tell me a single joint movement you would advocate as part of a standard strength training program. While we’re on the topic, tell me a movement in sports that only involvues a single joint.

>>> I answered your single joint movement question in your post above or below this one. Leg extensions and hamstring curls have no specific value to running fast. Tell me where in sprinting you go through the range of motion in a leg extension or hamstring curl. I’ll answer that for you, you don’t. 1 leg cable kickback – don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t sound like a single joint movement. Step up is not a single joint movement. As a sprinter, why would you commit an entire day to chest and another entire day to shoulders? That’s not efficient. You, my friend, are on an old school 1970s style bodybuilding breakdown and, with all due respect, based on the little info you’ve provided, you appear to be on an inefficient and outdated system of developing strength. Sorry.

LT