These are acceleration workout options that I will send to my student-athletes that are at home during this tough time. I thought these ideas may be helpful share. Sometimes athletes can’t always do a true acceleration workout because of space and access to equipment. However, there is always a way to check the box. These…
All posts by Marc Mangiacotti
Identifying Mental Traits for the “Workhorse Sprinter”
Have you ever had an athlete or athletes that could win multiple events at a championship meet? These athletes are better referred to as your “Workhorse Sprinters…” Your multitalented sprinters who can run the 60 meters through the 400 meters and who might even be able to find success in a field event or on…
Multi-Sport Athlete Transitioning to Track & Field
Often, at the high school level, it is common for coaches to persuade their athletes to join the track and field team after finishing up their preferred fall or winter sport. Likely, the main goal for encouraging an athlete to go out for the track team – or the objective for an athlete transitioning to…
Summer Training Ideas for Sprints, Hurdles & Jumps Part II
Summer Training Ideas for Sprints & Hurdles & Jumps Part II “Summer, summer, summertime… Time to sit back and unwind” Related Article: Summer Training Ideas for Sprints, Hurdles & Jumps Part I A longer season is a successful season… Each championship meet your athletes attend has the potential to be a qualifier for the next….
Know Your ABCs
Early morning commutes to Harvard are pleasant. No matter the season, the drive past Fenway Park is warming — easily reviving images of a boisterous crowd of Red Sox fans dressed in red, white and blue. In a city filled with some of the nation’s oldest historical sites, the 26-story Berkeley Building is one of…
You Coach Some ‘Half Fast’ Sprinters
I saw the “Half Fast” commercial by Verizon the other day. The innuendo had me in stitches. As I thought about the phrase I realized that I have encountered some “half fast” athletes in my career. What is a half fast athlete? In short, one who simply does not put the pedal to the metal….
3 Ways to Teach Rhythm in the Sprint Hurdles
Hurdling without rhythm is like trying to dance the tango with two left feet— indeed disastrous. Since the hurdle race has several different components to rhythm, athletes with high cadence typically make great hurdlers. A hurdler’s rhythmic stride pattern begins the moment they take their first step out of the blocks. In hurdle races, the…
Early Season 400m Training Workouts
A coach asked if I would consider writing an article about early season 400m training. Here is a look back at a few of my articles that cover this topic. A while back, I wrote an article entitled, “Circle of Truth.” This is a workout I use for all sprinters and hurdlers as conditioning in…
Beware of the Blog
For coaches, the inclusion of the Internet has offered unlimited access to training materials of all sorts. Though I typically encourage the use of online blogs, books and video series to gain better knowledge of the sport, I caution coaches to filter the “good” from the “bad.” In order to become an expert you must…
Speed Training Starts Early
A coach once accused me of being one of those “speed coaches” who does speed work all year round. Initially, I didn’t know if he was insulting my coaching style or if he was just curious to know more about speed work. “I resent that remark,” was my response, before I began to school him…
Competition in Practice
It was the fall, the perfect time of the year to begin incorporating speed work into our training regimen. After my sprinters completed the acceleration warm up and were preparing for a few sets of block 10’s, 15’s and 20’s, a freshman eagerly approached me and asked, “How fast should I be going in these…
8 Tips on Preparing Your Athletes for a College Visit
Is preparing athletes for college visits part of your coaching philosophy? If not, it should be. It’s been said that it takes merely 6 seconds during a first encounter, for the average person to judge another person. First impressions last and are crucial during the recruiting process. For this reason, when visiting a college…