I’ll be giving three presentations at this year’s US All Star T&F Clinic in Atlantic City on December 13- 14, 2012. As you probably know, this is one of the biggest clinics in the US so I highly recommend you attend if you can get there. You will certainly leave a better coach.
I’m scheduled to deliver three presentations. Two on Thursday and one on Friday.
As we get closer to the event, I’ll be sending out some propaganda on why you should attend my sessions as opposed to any of the others taking place at the same time. But, for now, here’s a brief overview of my topics and what I’ll be talking about:
Thursday, December 13 @ 11am: Coaching the HS Sprinter/Hurdler/Jumper
At the HS level, many of our kids compete in multiple event groups. Your top sprint hurdler may be your best high jumper and a leg on your 4×1. Your top 400m runner is a state level long jumper. In my program, I am solely responsible for roughly 75 sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. If I don’t run an efficient program, practice will devolve into chaos, kids will over train and get hurt and/or slip through the cracks and miss important workouts.
In this talk, I’ll address two important topics:
1. How to plan training for the HS multi-event athlete so they get appropriate training in all their event groups…without overtraining them or having to create and run multiple programs.
2. How to approach, structure and run separate (but specific) high school sprints, hurdles and jumps programs (as opposed to lumping everyone into the ‘sprints’ group and then breaking off for ‘field events’ twice per week) while giving every kid and group appropriate attention…and without spending 40 hours per week writing workouts.
The last time I spoke on this topic, I had a packed house so this is one of those subjects that can have a big impact on your HS program.
Thursday, December 13 @ 3:30pm: 12 Week HS Sprint Season Program
By now, you’re quite aware of the fact that it’s mostly a waste of time to try and condense college and elite level sprints programs down to your 12 week(ish) HS season.
In this talk, here are some of the topics I’ll focus on:
-Which activities get kids in shape ‘the fastest’ since we don’t have time to waste in our 3 month season
-How to/whether or not to run a ‘short sprints’ group and a ‘long sprints’ group – plus how to manage both at the same time
-Options for dealing with poor facilities (I have no access to a track in the winter), cold weather (I live in New England) and minimal staff (I have one assistant).
-How to motivate kids to buy into your training program and develop more confident young sprinters
In a nutshell, I’ll take the most critical parts of CST2, Complete Program Design for Sprinters, Training HS 400m Runners, condensed and updated along with a bunch of specific topics you haven’t seen and deliver it all in one session!
Friday, December 14 @ 9:15: Finding and Fixing Fatal Flaws in Sprinters
I’ve been to enough practices and track meets to know that your sprinters’ posture and mechanics are probably a hot mess.
So, in this presentation, I’m going to cover some of the most common technical and postural errors I see being made repeatedly by high school sprinters. I’ll tell you what they are, why they happen and how to fix them through specific cues, drills and workouts, as well indirectly fix them elsewhere in your programming.
Here are a few of the problems I’ll help you eliminate:
-Ridiculous arm action
-Ridiculous heel-to-toe ‘sprinting’
-Ridiculous overstriding/reaching/braking
-Ridiculous backside mechanics/poor recovery mechanics
-Ridiculous popping up out of blocks
-Ridiculous falling apart at the end of races
So there you have it. I hope to see you or meet you in Atlantic City this December. If you have any questions, post them below.
To your success,
Latif Thomas
Follow me on Twitter: @latif_thomas
P.S. Click here for more information about the 2012 U.S. All Star Track & Field Clinic