I didn’t think there was anything controversial about Ron Grigg’s 400/600/800 program or the way that I promoted it.
But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned posting training information on the Internet for the last 10 years, it’s that some people hate kittens, Christmas and the laughter of children.
It all started when I posted an article and video titled ‘Why 10k Pace is Critical for 400/600/800 Athletes’.
Some people read the title of the post (and nothing else) and took offense to the idea of a 400m runner running at 10k pace and then, in a move surprising no one, invoked the name Clyde Hart.
At that precise moment a Kraken was released.
Scroll down to the comments section of that post and read Coach Grigg’s eloquent and way-more-mature-than-I-am response. It could be an article by itself. And, for the record, I was in the room last year at the convention when Clyde Hart came in to watch Ron’s lecture on 400m training.
But, wait, there’s more!
They say the freaks come out at night.
Well, the internet trolls come out under fake names and email addresses so they don’t have to be accountable for their difficulty in comprehending basic concepts. In the words of Ron Grigg:
“They don’t know, but the real problem is that they don’t know they don’t know.”
Say word, son.
This particular troll took offense to my article/video ‘The Best Way to Teach Top Speed Mechanics? The Wicket Drill.’
My good friend ‘Carl’ was crippled by the overwhelming cognitive dissonance resulting from my having stated, over the course of time, both ‘Don’t do Speed Drills’ *and* ‘This is my favorite speed drill’ *and* created/sold products containing speed drills!
I’m also a snake oil salesman on the weekends.
Instead of asking for a clarification the way adults handle such issues, he just said mean stuff behind his fake name and fake email address.
If you’re going to be joining me at the Connecticut HS/Wesleyan Coaches clinic tomorrow, I will address this seeming contradiction in detail. And then we’ll all have a good laugh since it‘s not a contradiction in any way whatsoever.
But, the short answer is: Don’t do speed drills…for the sake of doing speed drills because they don’t teach speed. When I was a young coach, I did speed drills just to do speed drills. Then I learned stuff and now I understand their purpose, which Ron covers at the beginning of the video. I still use ‘speed drills’ with regularity. I just don’t do speed drills.
So check out the videos because they contain good content. And post your thoughts on the videos or the discussion in the comments section because they’re entertaining as well. All I ask is that you do more than read the headline and base your entire opinion on one article/video title designed to get your attention, not convey the totality of a training philosophy.
Happy Friday!
Latif Thomas
P.S. Today is the last day to get Ron Grigg’s ‘Complete Program Design for 400/600/800 Runners’ at the current 30% discounted rate.