Wednesday, January 26, 2011

"Fly Ins"; "In and Out" Training

One of the main reason to post workouts from various top coaches is not to copy them, but to incorporate the ideas into your training program.

You should tailor the number of reps, sets, distances and recovery to each individual athlete, including yourself, if you run in the Masters.

If you are not familiar with the name Lance Baumann, you can read a quick bio on Lance Brauman: Speed & Power Drills For Sprints & Hurdles.

The 30 meter “Fly in” drill (2 x 3 x 75 meters)

This is 2 or 3 sets of 3 x 75m where it’s broken down with cones at 15m, 30m, 30m. 3 minute recovery between reps and 5 minute recovery between sets.

The first 15m is the “head-down” acceleration phase, followed by 30m of transition to get into a full upright position with increasing acceleration. The last 30m is all out, hence the term “fly in”, keeping an eye on good dorsiflexion and landing your foot directly under your hips. No over-reaching or over-extending.

Thoughts: 3 minutes is barely enough time to slow down from top speed, stop, turn around, and walk back to your blocks. With limited recovery, you are turning a high intensity workout into an upper end medium intensity workout. The price you pay might be in degrading technique, which would be bad. Highly conditioned athletes may find this sufficient, but if you notice their form dropping, you may want to either add more recovery or shorten the distances.

In-and-out Drills (2 x 3 x 55 meters)

This is 2 sets of 3 x 55m where it’s broken down with cones at 15m, 10m, 20m, and 10m. 3 minute recovery between reps and 5 minute recovery between sets. A 3rd set can be added for elite or advanced sprinters later in the season.

The name implies moving “in and out” of top speed sprinting. Like a car, you are constantly shifting gears as follows:

  • 15 meters of acceleration
  • 10 meters of an aggressive turnover phase
  • 20 meters of “floating and relaxed running” but don’t slow down nor accelerate
  • 10 meters of an aggressive sprint

Thoughts: This is a good workout for a 400 meter sprinter to teach them to accelerate into the curve at 200 meter mark. Even 200 meter sprinters should learn to accelerate when they reach the straightaway at the end of the curve at the 100m mark. The thought of “picking up speed” when you are already running full speed may sound confusing.

This drill or workout is also good for the 4×100m relay when used in a desperation attempt to catch the outgoing runner!

Like the above 30 meter “Fly in” drill, 3 minute recovery may be too short. So you will want to modify it to make sure technique is not compromised. When it does get shoddy, stop the drill.

Conclusion: the overall concept of these 2 workouts or drills will definitely help you & your athlete. Just add seasoning to taste.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Paris: Paul Faber Sports Centre

Dear Friends & Sportsmen,

Bonjour from Paris. Hope this email finds you well.

How is your training coming along?

If you ever get to Paris and staying at the Le Meridien, Etoile, (opposite is the Concorde Exhibition Centre), you can get to a nearby Paul Faber Sports Centre.

It's a fabulous place to training, with beautiful weather. Unfortunately, yesterday was windy and cold about 10degrees Celsius.

But my guilt of laying off too long, got me the compulsion I should skip this training opportunity.

So, I walk to the below stadium and had an hour's training, just by doing "Dynamic Training" (comprising of In-Place Dynamic Warm-Ups, Drills & Runs all at once).

I didn't dare do too much as my last training was in the Weight Room in Auckland, about a week ago. But my run training, had not taken place since my return from AMA Meet, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Thus, I am struggling to get back my fitness level.

But the secret is to be "SPECIFIC", and work on the Biomotor Abilities of the Sports/Event.

So, the following were my training workout:-

WARM UP:-
DYNAMIC In-Place Stretch:-
In-Place Calf Stretch
Jumping Jacks (Forward/Side/Diagonal)
Reverse Lunges
Half Squat Stance (60 seconds, then Up & Down 10x reps)
TRACK DRILLS:-
Skipping (High/Forward) 2x
Butt Kick 2x into a 20-30m run
A Drill 2x into a 20-30m run
High Knee 2x into 20-30m run
RUN WORKOUT:-
5x Fly Runs (because it was my first run training)
WARM DOWN:-
Half Squat Single Leg
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch

After the training, I rewarded myself with a meal (Mee Pok Ta - Dried Flat Noodles with Seafood) at the nearby Chinese Vietnamese Restuarant (pictured).

Felt good after that.

Hope you will learn to be Discipline and Specific, which can be of great help to get you started.

'au revoir, salut, à la prochaine, à bientôt'
(Good-Bye)

All the best,

PAUL SU

How To Race And Train For The 200m: Part 2

Part 2: How to Train for the 200 Meters

Generally, I follow the flow of their training schedule.

Assuming a 12 week season, the training focus is generally going to look like the following. Now keep in mind, this schedule breakdown considers that the athlete competed in a sport or did some degree of organized training the previous season, even if it wasn’t track. Therefore, the prep periods are not as long or as general as they would be, say, during winter track (if you compete indoors in your area):

Weeks 1-3

During this time we’re going heavy on the acceleration development, speed drills and mechanics. We’re also going to start in the weight room immediately and focus on improving work capacity and pillar strength on recovery days. We’re doing 2 days of low intensity, double leg plyos.

They’ll likely spend one day per week with the 2/4 group (through the whole season) and perform a rep or two of short end Special Endurance II or long end Special I. I know that once the season is in full swing, with many 2 and even 3 meet weeks, we’re not going to be able to do a ton of formal training. So building a ‘base’ is important now, just not a base of excessive low and middle intensity training.

We’ll probably have our first competition at the end of this period. Ideally, I’ll run the athlete in the 100 and 400 or 100/4×4 plus field event/s. Trust me I understand that most times athletes run what you need them to run to win meets.

Weeks 4-6

During this mesocycle, things are starting to get a little bit more specific. We’re still doing the things we did during the first 3 weeks, except I’m reducing the volume of tempo work on recovery days and I’m moving from 2 days per week of speed to 3 days over the 6 day schedule. I’m also transitioning to single leg plyos only if athletes have proven themselves.

Now I’m adding maximum velocity work (fly 30s – 40s, sprint/float/sprints), working out of blocks and starting to work on running the turns.

We’ll also move from Special I runs to some long Speed Endurance runs at the low end of intensity (90%), most likely with the 200/400 groups, assuming their speed work is on schedule.

In meets they’ll see their first open 200. In this time I like the 200/400 double and probably a 400/4×4 double toward the end of the cycle as things will be getting much crisper and faster in the coming weeks. This is the hardest part of the season from an energy system and psychological standpoint. Kids are sore, they can smell the end of the season and they’re running lots of meets. On recovery days and days where you’re competing, say, Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Saturday you have to break the monotony of doing the same old thing, especially since there isn’t the possibility of getting in a workout. That’s when I break out the movement based games. Ultimate Frisbee, speed tag, split the cone and other games are really fun and your athletes will request them on the next recovery day.

It can breathe new life into a long season.

Weeks 7-8 – Pre-Competition

We’re now getting to the early stages of the part of the season my athletes call ‘Fun Track’. Fun track is when we’re not doing tempo work or GS circuits every recovery day, but we’re still doing aerobic capacity work and GS work. Practices are shorter and contain less drills, reps and exercises.

The weight room is still going strong (3x per week), some athletes have graduated to single leg bounding drills and they can hold Swedish Ab (plank) positions for a good 2 minutes before threatening to kill you or quit the sport forever.

We’re doing fly 40’s and Speed Endurance transitioning from the turn to the straightaway. Blockwork is taking place on the turn from all lanes and we’re learning to how to drive for the 5-6 seconds out of the blocks before going into a float.

We’ve mostly left ‘intervals’ behind us in favor of ‘reps’, meaning that our rest periods are much longer, we’re doing far fewer total runs and all speed days require spikes.

Athletes can now hit their times within a tenth or two in either direction and can generally tell you what their workouts should be (if you’ve taught them well) and by week 8 they aren’t complaining about feeling so ‘heavy’ all the time.

In meets, athletes are running more open 100s and 200s. The 4×4 is still part of their lives, generally at least 2/3 meets during this time.

Weeks 9-12 – Competition

True ‘fun track’ has arrived. The League Championship or first major meet is just a week or two away. Recovery days consist of extended warm up routines and a few strides. Non-CNS days are done in 45 minutes and people either take off right away or stay to socialize. Athletes are smiling in the warm weather and talking about where they’re going to be seeded for the upcoming championship meets. There’s a good chance there’s a few seeding sheets going around and people are talking about the PR’s they’ll run and how their relays will do.

Speed work is all full recovery and you generally let athletes run when they’re good and ready. Additionally, speed work is all various elements of race modeling:

  1. The start and drive phase
  2. floating the turn
  3. the transition from the turn to the straight or sling shotting the turn
  4. lifting over the last 50meters
  5. even learning how to time the lean at the tape

We’re still in the weight room of course. Generally we’re in there until athletes start to peak. Some athletes prefer to keep lifting a couple sets early in the week of a major meet, others don’t.

At this point of the season, as the saying goes:

The hay is in the barn.

You’ve either prepared your 200 runners to get through the rounds and run a good relay leg or you haven’t. But there’s nothing you can really do about it now.

Meet events are all business and athletes are trying to prime themselves for a big PR at their biggest meet. So they’re running their post-season events now.

If you follow this general format for your season, the timing of your progressions should all come together at the right time. Of course, this is all dependent on your writing your athletes’ training plan starting from Week 12 and working backward to Day 1, Week 1.

You have to know where you want to go before you can figure out how you’re going to get there. But by teaching your athletes how to run the race the way I suggested and following this general outline, your 200 meter sprinters will run their Personal Best.

How to Race and Train for the 200 Meters (Part 1)

The 200 meter sprint is the Rodney Dangerfield of the sprint events. It gets no respect. When we commonly think of the sprint events, the 100 meter dash gets all the glory and the 400 meter dash gets all the respect.

That leaves the middle child, the 200, left out in the cold. As an athlete whose primary event was the 200 at the collegiate level I’ve developed a certain affinity for running and coaching the event. While I’ve arguably had the most coaching success at 400 meters (and, where I’m from – the 300) I still love the Deuce best of all.

In this article I’m going to break this event down so that your athletes can find greater success in the event. Because a solid 200 meter runner can run the 400 (open and relay) and likely can drop down to the 100, or at least run the backstretch of the 4×100 (generally the longest leg of the 400m relay).

As you read this article, I invite you to think of questions and bring them to the discussion.

Before I dissect how I break up my macrocycle, let me first explain the simplest way to teach your athletes to run the race.

The main problem with inexperienced 200 meter runners is the fact they run the race like it’s the 55, i.e., they try to sprint the whole thing. The reason so many athletes get run down in the deuce is because they treat it likes it’s a race to the straight away.

It’s not possible to all out sprint the 200. There has to be a conservation of energy somewhere. Remember, athletes get run down not because the competition is accelerating past them, but because they are slowing down much faster than the competition. Top speed can only be maintained for a max of 2 seconds before deceleration begins (why even the 100m can’t be run all out). So, at best, 200m runners are going to start slowing down by the 60m mark. By the time they’re coming off the turn, of course they’re going to start rigging up.

All that being said, this is how I teach athletes to run the 200. It has worked quite well for my athletes.

Phase 1 – 0-40m (or first 5-6 seconds): Go all out

Phase 2 – 40m – 110-120m: (around the end of the 4×1 exchange zone, depending on skill and strength of the athlete): Float

You have to teach athletes they must float during this time no matter what is going on around them. It’s tough when the other athletes are burning the turn, but that just gives your athletes someone to run down when they start tying up at the same spot yours start to bare down. This is a learned skill and we practice it specifically starting late week 6 or early week 7 through the rest of the season (see below).

Phase 3 – 110-120m – 130-140m: ‘Re-accelerate’

We know that’s not what’s actually taking place, but that is what it should feel like. Have athletes ‘re-accelerate’ to full speed over a distance of about 20m. Focus on driving the arms down and back and applying force to the ground like they were starting from a dead stop.

Phase 4 – 130-140m – 200m: Relax, Relax, Relax

Relax the face, Relax the hands, Relax the shoulders. They want to try and outrun themselves over the last part of the race. But straining is the kiss of death. They have to run here with maximum speed, but minimum effort. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s the key to the finish.

I have found, with a few modifications depending on the athletes running style and physical strength levels, that this is the best way to learn how to run an effective 200 meter dash.

Now, how do we build the skills that maximize the effectiveness of all of these phases of the race?

Most athletes who will run this event in big meets are going to be 100/200 runners or 200/400 runners in practice. In our programs, we have always divided the training groups, generally, into these divisions based on the skill sets of the athletes and for time management purposes. An athlete who is concentrating on the 200 will spend 80% of their time in the 100/200 group and 20% of their time in the 200/400 group.

As a ‘tweener’ event, you have to consider a few things. First, during Championship Season, 200 meter runners are going to have to run rounds. Depending on where the athlete lives, that could be anywhere from 2-4 races over the course of the day. This has to be considered from the start of the season. A bad first or second round race can stick an athlete in Lane 1,2 or 8. And that is a tough spot for a young athlete to advance in later rounds, let alone win. Even worse, I’ve seen countless poorly prepared, highly seeded 200m runners run a banger of a semi-final. But once they got into the final, they were spent and faded coming off the turn.

That is why I’m a firm believer in the idea of having 200m runners race at 400m earlier in the season, whether in the open event or the relay. And usually both. At the same time, the pacing is not nearly as controlled as in the 400. So acceleration, maximum velocity and speed endurance are at a premium in this race, whereas a pure 400m runner can get away with less skill here.

Thus the open 100m and 4×100 are excellent ways to prepare for this distance. The good thing is that athletes will have many meets to run all these races and prepare for their end run. Because there are so many dual meets, relay meets and smaller invites early in the season, you can enter the athlete in events at your discretion.

The 3 Laws of Speed Development

The First Law of Speed Development:

Speed is a Skill

The dividing line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (if you believe in such concepts) coaches starts with understanding that running fast requires developing technical skill in your athletes, regardless of sport.

Ignore, neglect or dismiss this Law and your athletes have already lost.

Running fast requires significant degrees of coordination, consistency and deliberate repetition. Because most athletes have never been taught the specific qualities inherent in the fastest athletes, they need the skilled and watchful eye of a coach in order to make consistent improvements and/or experience consistent success.

Think about how many steps your athletes have taken in their lives during practice and competition. If they’ve never been taught the Skill of Running Fast, every step they’ve taken has further ingrained bad habits into their neuromuscular system. As coaches, our responsibility is to teach athletes to unlearn these bad habits and replace them with specific skill.

Acceleration is the most important component of running fast. If we can’t accelerate properly, we’ll never actually hit top speed. For sprinters, this would be the Kiss of Death. For field/court sport athletes, the problem is the same, it just manifests earlier in the competitive environment.

But for today’s purposes, let’s look at acceleration. Here are 8 specific skills athletes must be able to successfully and consistently execute before they reach top speed. For sub-collegiate athletes, top speed will be reached somewhere between 20-30m. This means athletes must be able to coordinate the following within 3-4 seconds:

1. Drive the lead arm
2. Drive out at a 45 degree angle
3. Take a big first step
4. Triple extension before first contact
5. Drive the arms/hands down and back
6. Push the ground back and away (foot strike below or behind the hips)
7. Low heel recovery for the first 6-8 steps
8. Let the upper body unfold naturally

As coaches, the above list should be common knowledge to us. If we don’t already have a system for introducing, teaching, cueing, correcting and adding to this list, then we are not doing a sufficient job of coaching our athletes. It’s just that simple.

The Second Law of Speed Development:

Run a ‘Short to Long’ Program

This is where the inefficacy of ‘fly 40s’ during the first week of practice comes into full light. A ‘Fly 40’ (or any ‘fly’ run) is considered a top speed exercise. If you’re unfamiliar with what a ‘fly’ run is, here is a quick description.

A cone is set up at the starting line (0m), 25m, 65m and 95m. The athlete sprints to the first cone using the skills they are learning under the umbrella of the First Law of Speed Development. Once the athlete reaches top speed (25m) they should be fully transitioned to top speed mechanics and effort (a topic for another day). They (attempt to) maintain top speed mechanics during the ‘fly’ portion of the run (25m – 65m) which is where the term ‘fly 40’ comes into play. At 65m they shut it down, coming to a full stop NOT before they reach the 95m cone.

Here’s the problem: The purpose of the ‘fly’ run is to focus on the 25m-65m portion of therepetition, i.e. teach/cue holding top speed and slowing the rate of deceleration that begins roughly one second after reaching top speed (25m).

If this type of workout is done during the first few weeks of the season, it becomes the ultimate example of putting the cart before the horse. Because the coach has ignored the First Law, athletes have not developed the appropriate Skill of Acceleration. Therefore, their ability to accelerate is wildly inconsistent and inefficient. They’ll never reach their potential top speed at 25m, so having them try to maintain and develop the Skill of Maximum Velocity before acquiring the Skill of Acceleration is simply impossible.

Such a practice is the coaching equivalent of sending a kid to college before they start high school. It’s a recipe for disaster, or, at the very least, a recipe for a mediocre program.

A ‘fly 40’ with a 25m buildup is a run of 65m total. Your athletes can’t sprint for 65m, with an appropriate degree of Skill, before they’ve learned how to run properly for 55m. They can’t sprint for 55m before they’ve learned to correctly sprint for 45m. They can’t sprint for 45m before they’ve learned to correctly sprint for 35m. They can’t sprint for 45m before they’ve learned to correctly sprint for 25m.

To the educated coach, this is common sense. A student doesn’t have the knowledge base to complete their senior year of college if they never completed their junior year. They don’t have the knowledge base to complete their junior year of college if they never completed their sophomore year. And so on back to the beginning where fundamentals are taught. Generalization before specialization.

This is why the Second Law of Speed Development is the ‘short to long’ program.

My athletes start out running 20m accelerations. Once they show proficiency at 20m, we go to 30m. Display proficiency and we go to 40m. Now that we’re running reps at distances putting us at top speed, we introduce fly runs using the same principle as with acceleration development.
First we do ‘fly 10s’. Once athletes develop top speed proficiency doing a ‘fly 10’, we go to ‘fly 20s’. Once athletes develop top speed proficiency doing a ‘fly 20’, we go to ‘fly 30s’.

This is the structure of the ‘short to long’ program and it is the most effective method for teaching and developing the Skill of Sprinting.

The Third Law of Speed Development:

Speed Work IS the Workout

You can’t get fast if you practice running slow just like you can’t get better at chess by playing checkers.

So, if the goal of training is to get faster, you have to look at your quality work/high intensitywork as the workout. Most training is based on an endurance model which is why most coaches default method of training is distance work and submaximal interval work.

In terms of developing speed, submaximal (less than 90% intensity) training is designed to supplement and aid in recovering from full speed training so that you can…..

…do more full speed training!

So when designing training (especially for true speed/power sports like football and track sprinters) you must focus your intentions on your speed/power workouts and use submaximal training (aka ‘conditioning’) as a training modality whose purpose is to build the qualities which allow your athletes to do a higher volume of high intensity training.

The fatal flaw in most coaching/sports programs is that coaches do the exact opposite. They focus on running and increasing the volume of repeat 100s/150s/200s, etc. which only trains athletes to be good at running slow. Great news if you’re training athletes for a 5k, but otherwise not so much.

If you really want to develop faster athletes, spend your time addressing the speed, strength and power qualities which serve as the foundation of faster times and not the general training, low intensity work that is *indirectly responsible for getting results.

These are the 3 Laws of Speed Development. Make them the foundation of your speed training and you can’t go wrong.

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