The World’s Most Dangerous Workout?
This was sent to me be a colleague who read it on
a sports training form and, well, I knew I had
to address it right away.
Take a look, see if you can figure out the problems
and then I’ll break it down. (Note that the author
has fancy letters after his name, so theoretically
he should know better.)
*Note* – I added the times for each portion of
the training session in myself to
supplement the video. They are not contained
in the original post.
_____________
Forum: High School Coaches
Topic: Pre-season Conditioining for H.S.
Posted By: L. I., MS , ATC
Dear Coaches,
I’m doing the conditioning for my H.S. Athletes.
This is my program:
Dynamic warm up (water Break) – 20 minutes
Agiility (w.b.) – 20 minutes
Core training(w.b.) – 15 minutes
Speed run(w.b.) – 20 minutes
Plyometrics(w.b.) – 20 minutes
Speed endurance(w.b.) – 20 minutes
cool down – 10 minutes
Stretch – 10 minutes
Total time for the session: 135 minutes
In my next email I’m going to break down the
second part of his training program and show
you some ‘action footage’ showing why the
following progression doesn’t work for
developing speed in athletes of any age, sport
or gender:
I INCREASE 10% THE # OF YARDS THAT WE RUN PER
WEEK AND ALSO EVERY WEEK DECREASE THE RECOVERY
TIME.
To your success,
Latif Thomas
P.S. If any of this is new information, you
don’t immediately see the flaw in increasing
volume 10% each week while decreasing recovery
time or you want to know the right way to put
a speed program together, than all the more
reason to invest in one of those complete speed
training programs…
July 25th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I really enjoy your emails this very subject I have encountered with high school coaches in my area.
I like to tell you your materials help me to perfect my craft and aids me in developing my athletes.
I look forward to a seminar offered on the west coast.
Thanks,
Jason
July 25th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
This workout is indeed dangerous. I have been privately coaching track athletes for over 40 years and this may be the worst approach I have ever seen.
I believe a little less is better than a little more, and this is a lot more than is digestible for a young athlete.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:30 am
135min workout is for my taste way to long. The athletes will either “die” or train poorly. The first thing I would recommend would be splitting it into 2-3 more specialized training sessions about 60-70min long. The represented times are also somewhat lacking 20 min for doing 400m dashes is far shorter than 20min for acceleration/speed work in terms of repetitions, distances and rest times.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I definitely agree with your approach and assessment. Coach means well but is creating a recipe for failure. No recovery periods in addition to not breaking down all of the components into separate days to concentrate on each phase of speed, agility/quickness and speed/strength endurance doesn’t work. The mainstream kids may be conditioned eventually. The kids on the each end of the spectrum (i.e., advanced & novice) typically don’t get the benefits. I call it a “microwavable” approach which many clients want but will have a negative impact.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
That training session is not dangerous, it’s stupid!
Less is more.
February 16th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
This gotta hurt. I play varsity volleyball in my college days and with this kind of training, the team would all be vegetables afterwards.