Drills to Improve Mechanics, Speed, Coordination & Elasticity

1

Standing Stationary Arm Swings

Arm Action

Purpose
Improve running mechanics and speed by providing teaching cues for upper-body movement while in a stationary position

Procedure
● Stand with the feet together and swing the arms in a sprinting motion.
● Each arm should move as one piece with the elbow bent at about 90 degrees.
● Keep the hands relaxed.
● The hands should come up to about shoulder level in front of the body and should pass the gluteus in the back.
● The arm action should be forward and back without crossing the midline of the body.

Complex Variations
● Seated Arm Swings: Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you and swing the arms as described above. Be careful not to bounce off of the floor as the drill becomes more vigorous. This drill will help train the correct position of the arms as the hands pass the lowest point of the swing by avoiding contact with the ground.

● Weighted Arm Swings: Use light dumbbells held in the hands to work on shoulder strength. Use enough resistance to provide a good training stimulus but not so much as to alter good arm
mechanics.
● Contrast-Resisted Arm Swings: Perform arm swings with 1- to 2-pound weights for 10 to 20 arm swings, then drop the weights and perform 10 to 20 arm swings without resistance.

2

Ankling

Basic-Technique Speed

Purpose
Increase foot speed and elastic ankle strength

Procedure
● Jog with very short steps, emphasizing the plantar flexion phase of ground contact and low foot recovery.
● Keep quiet but fast feet.
● Land and push off the ball of the foot. Minimize ground contact and maximize foot contacts.

3

Straight-Leg Shuffle

Basic-Technique Speed

Purpose
Increase hip strength and elastic ankle strength

Procedure
● Run while keeping the legs straight and the foot dorsiflexed.
● Emphasize fast ground contact with the ball of the foot and pulling through with the hips.

4

Butt-Kickers

Basic-Technique Speed

Purpose
Increase foot speed

Procedure
● From a jog, pull the heel of the lower leg up to and bounce off the gluteus.
● As the leg bends, the knee should come forward and up.

5

Wall Slides

Basic-Technique Speed

Purpose
Improve knee lift and enhance frequency of turnover

Procedure
● Perform these the same way as the Butt-Kickers but do not allow the heel of the recovery leg to travel behind the body.

6

A-March Walk

Supplemental Speed

Purpose
Increase foot speed

Procedure
● March using perfect posture and arm action.
● The knee on the recovery leg should be brought high and stay fully flexed while keeping the ankle close to the gluteus and dorsiflexed.
● When the recovery knee is at the highest point, the opposite "ground" foot should emphasize plantar flexion.

FROM: Training for SPEED, AGILITY and QUICKNESS: Editors: Lee E. Brown and Vance A. Ferrigmo--Chapter 3

How To Improve Sprinting Speed

Improving Your Sprinting Speed
– do not force yourself to stay low
The drive phase happens right after you react to the starting gun. Your initial 8-10 steps is
considered your ‘drive phase’. The biggest problem seen with athletes in the drive phase is that
they know that staying low will create better exit angles to set-up the ideal acceleration phase. The problem is that athletes are ‘trying’ to stay low.
When athletes try to stay low they normally hold themselves down by breaking at the hips. This
will limit the amount of force you can apply to the ground and leads to poor acceleration. Let your upper body unfold naturally. You want to keep a straight line from your back ankle all the way to your head. Staying low will occur naturally if you are already strong enough.
Acceleration phase
Since the acceleration phase (0-30 yards) is associated with a higher stride frequency then at
maximum speed, athletes are concerning themselves too much trying to be quick with their legs.
So, instead of trying to drive out and be powerful, athletes are ‘spinning their wheels’.
Make sure when you are running the 40 that you getting triple extension (ankle, knee, hip) and that you ‘feel your feet behind you’. If you are getting the sensation of your feet driving well behind your centre of mass, then you know you are finishing off your leg drive to be as powerful as possible. If you try to be too quick with your legs, you will not be using your full strength to drive out and, although you might feel a little faster because your legs are moving quicker, you will actually have a slower time and not set yourself up to be in the best possible position.
Relaxation
One of the hardest things about running is trying to stay relaxed while you run. Most athletes first think that, in order to run fast, that they have to run hard. They associate running hard with trying to create as much tension as possible. You can tell easily if an athlete is too tense, just by looking at their facial expression. If you see an athlete with a tight face, their eyes will be squinting, teeth are mashed, and you know that they are trying too hard and are forcing themselves to be slow down. If you see an athlete with their cheeks flopping up and down as they run, you know that they have mastered the relaxation technique and are getting the most out their sprinting. I remember sprint coach guru Charlie Francis saying that you must ‘let the speed come’. You have to let your muscles work for you and not against to maximise your speed potential. This is a tough concept to learn and must be practised if we want to get the most out of our speed. Other things to look for if you are running tight are clenched fists, elevated shoulders and a shortened stride.
Arm action
The arms play a significant, yet overlooked, role in sprinting and speed development. Without
specifically and regularly addressing proper arm mechanics within your speed training programme, full speed potential will not be realised. Today we will address this issue so that we can continue to make improvements on the athletic field.
The role of the arms is to stabilise the torso so that power can continue to be efficiently transferred through the hips. It is this ability to transfer power effectively through the centre of mass that not only improves rate of acceleration, but also facilitates reaching maximum velocity, maintaining those top speeds and reducing the rate of deceleration. So, as you can see, the arms both directly and indirectly influence the ability to run fast.
Now let us get into the specifics of improving our arm action. When running, it is very important to keep your hands relaxed. Think about holding a potato chip in each hand. No matter how hard you run, no matter how tired you get, you cannot clench your hands so that the potato chip breaks. This is a good way of thinking about how loose your hands should be at all times when running. When you start to clench your fists tightly, that tightness spreads through your forearms, biceps, shoulders, neck and face. Once you tighten up and lose range of motion in your arms, it reduces stride length, which is difficult to get back without burning a lot of energy.
While sprinting, it is important to get a full range of motion with the arms. Remember, speed is a
product of stride length and stride frequency. Stride length and frequency are determined, in part, by the motion of the arms. If you are lazy or passive with your arm action, you are limiting your potential for speed. Your front arm angle should be between 60-90 degrees at the elbow and your back arm should be between 90-120 degrees, also at the elbow. If your arm angles fall outside of this range, your running mechanics will be negatively affected. In short, you will run slower and get tired faster.
When running, arm swing should be initiated at and through the shoulders. You should think of
your elbow as being locked in place. Elbow angle should only change slightly, as a result of elastic response. Range of motion with the arms should generally be hip to cheek. That is, the hand clears the hip in the back and comes up to about cheek height in front. Much more than that, in either direction, will result in over striding which, as mentioned before, will cause breaking and can lead to strains, pulls and tears in the muscle.
When running, emphasis should be placed on driving the elbows down and back. When runners
fire their arms straight back, without first driving them down, it often leads to bunched up
shoulders, which causes tightness and limits range of motion. It is important to focus on driving the arms back as they are recovered elastically by the stretch of muscles in the shoulder. So, do not drive your arms up and forward because stretch reflex is going to bring them forward anyway.
Another aspect of arm action is to avoid lateral deviation beyond the sagittal plane. What this
means is that your arms, when they are brought in front of you, should never cross the midline of
your body. Your right arm should stay on the right half of your body and your left arm should stay on the left side.

When you move your arms laterally, across the midline of your body, you rotate your hips, which
basically burns much needed energy and makes you run slower and get tired faster, all for no
reason other than laziness and lack of concentration.
Remember, you compete like you practise, so, if you do not correct technical issues in practice,
you cannot expect them to be fixed in competition.
Think of some example exercises.
This drill can be practised either in a group setting, or alone by standing in front of mirror.
Stand with the feet between hip and shoulder width apart. Bring your weight forward onto the balls of the feet. You should be far enough forward that your heels are slightly off the ground, but not so far forward that your toes curl to maintain balance. It is this slight, two to four degree lean that is ideal for simulating sprinting.
Start with one arm forward, 90 degrees at the elbow and one arm back, also 90 degrees at the
elbow.
Perform this drill following the guidelines presented in this article:
• Arm action at 50% intensity.
• 2 sets of 30 seconds.
• 15 second rest between sets.
• Arm action at 80% intensity.
• 2 sets of 20 seconds.
• 20 seconds rest between sets.
• Arm action at 100% intensity.
• 4-5 sets of 10 seconds.
• 25-30 seconds rest between sets.
Mastering proper arm action is simply a function of knowing what to do and then repeating the
proper pattern until muscle memory makes it the new natural pattern.

Hands – open versus closed
Cueing the hands can be a touchy subject. Some coaches believe that having your hands open is
the best way, while others like a closed hand for their athletes to use while running.
First, I would look at the athlete. If they look as if their shoulders/arms are staying relaxed, and are not crossing the midline, then you should not cue this athlete too much with hand technique. Thereare so many other cues and techniques to work on then to worry about their hands if they do not seem to be causing a problem.
If your athlete is not staying relaxed in their arms and shoulders then I would address their hands.
Usually, if the hands are wide open with the fingers and palms straight, the forearm tends to be
flexed. This causes tension of the arm and the upper arm and shoulders, and, as you know, this
can affect the elasticity of your muscles, causing you to fight yourself as you move. The same
thing can happen when you make a fist and try to run. Holding your hands clenched, causes your
forearms to be tight and you will run into the same problem as the ‘open’ hand.
I teach in between both of these. You want your hands to stay relaxed. I am sure you have heard
this saying before – to ‘pretend you are holding a potato chip in your hand and you do not want to break it’. You can actually feel your fingers almost bouncing up and down as your run. This is the type of relaxation that should carry to the rest of your arm up to your shoulder. Keep the hands loose, but not open.
Another thing to note is that, looking at the top receivers and defensive backs, they never run with closed hands because they want their hands to be as soft as possible to catch a ball. If their hands are closed, their arms will be tight and it will take more time to open them and create the soft hands that they are looking for.
Stride length
We touched a little on stride frequency, now let us get into stride length. Your optimal stride length should be about 2.5-2.7 times your leg length (measured from the crest of your greater trochanter to the floor).
While optimal stride length is important, I would stay away from certain exercises to try to increase it. Excessive downhill and over speed running can actually cause problems with your running technique. If the slope going downhill is too much, and if you are being pulled fast during over speed work, your legs starts to create a braking action. This is where your foot plantar flexes (toes pointed down) in front of your centre of mass to try to stop that speed. So, you are fighting yourself and stopping any speed you are trying to create. This can not only cause damage to your hamstrings, but can also create neuromuscular integration problems.
Flexibility (dynamic ranges of motion and static stretching) and strength and power training (which will also help joint stabilisation) are the best ways to reach your optimal stride length level.

Other sprinting tips/cues
• Hips tall.
• Foot strikes on forefoot and under the centre of mass.
• Ankle steps over the knee.
• Shoulders down and relaxed.
• Face and neck relaxed.
• Tight stomach, flat back, hips forward.
• The foot hits the ground a short distance in front of the centre of mass, the farther away the
foot strikes away from the centre of mass, the higher the braking force.
• Toe up – reduces hamstring fatigue.
• Heel up.
• Knee up.
• Drive with the elbows.

Speed Endurance Magic Workouts (Part 1)

Do magic workouts exists?

At first, I always say “No”, there is no such thing. Consistent, injury free training is the way to go.

But after pouring through hundred of hours of live conferences, video conferences, recorded videos and books, I’ve changed my stance on the definition of a “magic workout”

The answer is “Your little friends are wrong. Yes Virginia, magic workouts do exists”. But ONLY if you can reach the target times of a workout for a certain performance, that is.

To me, that’s the magic workout you need to reach your goals at the next race. If you can’t reach those times in practice, how do you expect to do it on race day?

Real Time Examples of Magic Workouts

I recall at one conference, someone asked the coach of Marita Koch (Woman’s 400m WR holder of 47.60 set at the 1985 Canberra World Cup) what was her toughest workout. Was it 2 x 500 meters? Was it 4 sets of 6×60m?

No, it was the classic speed endurance workout of 4×30m, 60m, 100m, 120m, 150m. All with full recovery which took well over 2 hours to complete. She said she felt “bagged” for the next few days afterwards. CNS overload as well as the high demands on the alactic system.

One way around CNS recovery as well as training the muscular system is by using EMS devices. More on that in another post or read Derek’s review here.

Ben Johnson’s Magic Workout

Ben Johnson had the same workout (Charlie Francis was inspired by the East German system) and prior to his 9.83 world record set at the 1987 WC in Rome, ran:

workout: 30m, 60m, 100m, 120m, 150m

times: 3.80, 6.38, 9.90, 11.78, 14.68 seconds

He went on to run a 9.83 WR. That 60m time extrapolated to a 9.80 and 9.85 for 100 meters. See article on 60m to 100m conversions.

Bruny Surin’s Magic Workout

Both Dan Pfaff and Tom Tellez do similar workouts as above but in descending order of distance.

Bruny Surin’s (coached by Dan Pfaff) workout prior to his 1999 WC in Seville silver medal in 9.84 behind Maurice Green is shown below. In that race, a drug free Dwain Chambers finished 3rd. If you remember that race, in fact, Bruny was ahead at the 50 or 60 meter mark (video below or click here on YouTube)

workout: 120m, 90m, 60m, full recovery

times: 11.8, 8.7, 6.3 sec

No surprise, that workout wiped him out for a few days afterwards.

Again, another 6.3 for 60m.

Even Tim Montgomery was running 6.3 in training easily for 60 meters indoors in November after his Project WR of 9.78.

But as the article on 60m to 100m conversions mentions, just because you can run 6.3 for 60m is no guarantee you can run 9.8 for 100m. By the way, Usain Bolt’s splits were 6.32 and 6.29 for 2008 and 2009, and those are FAT splits.

End of Part 1. Part 2 will look at the Special Endurance workouts (i.e. 300-350m) of Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner.

Speed With the Masters

Speed decreases with age. That’s a fact of life. Check the World Records in different age groups if you don’t believe me.

I call it "The Law of Attrition".

I used a random sample of the 2007 WMA results in Ricionne, using the M40 – M65 5 year age groups as my sample pool:

• 100m 0.4 seconds attrition
• 200m 0.8 sec
• 400m 1.6 sec

If you really want to get depressed, you can look at this at an absolute level and estimate an attrition rate of almost one-tenth of a second per year for the 100 meters, or 0.35 seconds in a 400m every year!

Yuck.

This is one reason why some masters athletes don’t bother showing up when they reach the tail end of their age group. Sure, injuries, scheduling and financial reasons also factor in the equation, but these statistics show just how difficult it is to compete with athletes even 4 years younger than oneself.

Some rare elite athletes like 40-year-old Troy Douglas of the Netherlands and 47-year-old Merlene Ottey of Slovenia (formerly of Jamaica) still competed at the elite level. Genetic freaks like Usain Bolt do exist.

You really have to forget your past if you want to run Masters Track. Muscles have a memory – if you sprinted before, the chances are you still "have it".

With the odd exception, the faster you were in your prime, the faster you’ll be as a Masters sprinter compared to other athletes. The law of attrition doesn’t lie. Of course, some Masters athletes like Holland’s Eric Roese or USA’s James Chinn could still run relatively close to their prime.

I get a chuckle when I hear good amateur golfers dreaming to join the Senior PGA tour when they turn 50. Sorry to break the news guys, but I think when Greg Norman or Tiger Woods turns 50, they’ll have the edge on you already.

Same with track. Bill Collins was an alternate in the 4×100m Olympic relay in 1972. And he just kept it up.

But I’m not here to discourage you. I believe in the "absolute" rule. It’s all about YOU improving relative to YOURSELF. No one else. Just you and the clock. If you win some medals, that’s bonus. The post-race beer taste just as good.

3 Considerations before Starting Masters Sprints

But seriously, in addition to the neuro-muscular facts of life, there are 3 important considerations for Masters sprinters for anyone contemplating a comeback:

1. Compare your fitness today to your peak in your Youth, College or Elite. Have you kept in good shape? How is your over-all fitness?
2. Flexibility usually decreases with age, unless you’ve been doing Yoga the last 10 years
3. Most people gain weight after College for a variety of reasons. Are you heavier than in your running prime? Sure, you may claim to be the same weight, but do you still have the same body composition in terms of muscle mass and fat?

By now, you’ve read hundreds of articles on this blog and other informative web sites. You may have purchased books and DVDs, too. You know WHAT to do, but HOW do you get there?

Focus on the Training Plan

Here are my 3 simple rules to consider in your training plan:

1. Maximize speed training
2. Maximize efficiency & technique
3. Avoid injury by monitoring your workouts in terms of speed and volume. Over-training is a natural reaction for the enthusiastic athlete.

Okay, those are just vague guidelines, so here are some helpful and specific tips:

1. Start with getting in shape, improve flexibility, and losing weight
2. The warm-up is even more important, as your body has to be ready when the gun goes off. Consider a dynamic warm-up over the traditional static stretching.
3. Instead of the traditional 3X per week hard workouts (with 1 rest day afterwards), consider 2X per week hard (2 easy or rest days after each hard workout)
4. Balance speed, speed endurance, and special endurance (see my article on the 6 types of workouts)
5. Train on grass surfaces (use old spikes with long needles) or simply use training flats
6. Spend more time (and money?) on recovery, regeneration, and staying loose and supple. Maybe incorporate Yoga? Since you have more money than in College (hopefully!), a good massage therapist cost $70-$90 an hour for a good session.
7. Alternate training methods: weight training and plyometrics. Weight training and dynamic Olympic lifts are great for CNS stimulus leading up to the big meets
8. Focus on technique, staying relaxed, reach top speed more efficiently more important
9. Really watch the diet and caloric intake, and if you must, consider extra supplements, including brain supplements like Tyrosine or Theanine.

Phil Campbell’s Summary

Phil Campbell’s summarized it best with his 4 tips on running a 40 yard dash:

1. Cover the First Ten Yards in 5.5 to 6 Steps in Perfect Acceleration Position
2. Stretching to Improve Range of Motion
3. Correct Technique, Especially when Squatting
4. Train for Explosiveness – Even in the Weight Room

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.

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.