Where I live, the indoor track season starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. And if I expect to have a good season, I better have already spent some serious time planning and creating the annual plan for my short and long sprinters. (As well as my ‘super long sprinters’ who run the ridiculous 600m race here in…
Archives for 100 meter workouts
First Day of Practice: Drills and Workouts
When do you start speed work? This is the question that I am asked most often. The answer is quite simple… We start speed work on the very first day of track practice. There are two ways that I look at the word speed. The word speed as a noun– makes me think of top…
Long Slow Running Builds Long Slow Sprinters
Many college coaches are perplexed with the short amount of time they are able to spend with their athletes during the fall months. Typically, coaches get to work with their sprinters and hurdlers for 6 to 8 hours per week, depending on their conference or other institutional factors. Though this time is limited, it is…
“Take A Week Off”
Despite access to trainers who specialize in athletic healthcare, when athletes sustain injuries, they almost always turn to their primary care physician for diagnosis. And the instruction is invariably the same no matter the injury… “Take a week off.” But some injuries require rehabilitation that includes a range of exercises to help push the recovery…
Floating
As I often reflect on my days at the University of Houston, I can recall a number of valuable coaching lessons I learned while under the tutelage of Mike Takaha and Tom Tellez. The cue “fast relax” or floating, is a term I became all too familiar with as Takaha and Tellez shouted the phrase…
Accelerate Daily
Student-athletes have returned from summer break, are settled into classes and are anxious about getting back on the track. Freshmen athletes are especially eager to begin their first collegiate season. The other day, one of the freshman athletes asked me, “When we will start doing speed work?” I responded, “Speed workouts start the very first…
Why even bother doing that drill?
Last week, I shared a new (to me) drill for teaching acceleration. However, since the athletes in the video displayed poor posture, poor mechanics (or both), there was some disagreement about the viability of the drill. And that brings us to an important teachable moment: You cannot separate reality from the observer. I may think…
Cusano Hurdle Push Drill (video)
One idea I’ve been stressing to coaches this year is that workouts don’t teach the skill of acceleration (like this hurdle push drill does!). Or top end speed. Or sprinting in general. Instead, the ‘workouts’ we use in practice are the byproduct of specific skills we are trying to teach to our sprinters. This is…
Workouts and Training During Breaks
For me, the holiday season or any extended break always brings about a sense of nervousness. It is less likely that I’ll worry if my wife will like the new pair of shoes I bought her, or how much snow I’ll have to shovel to clear the driveway. What keeps me up at night is…
The Circle of Truth
I have received a lot of great feedback and questions about sprint workouts and the Master Class on the 100m. One question that came up a few times pertained to “runs” early on in the season. I was confused at first by these questions because sprinters go on runs every day. As a matter of…
How Tailwind Affects a Sprinter
In the wake of Hurricane Irene one of our volunteer assistant coaches asked me how I thought those 60-70mph winds that this storm created would help a sprinter in the 100m. We all know that a tailwind helps in a race. However…he was amazed that I answered by saying that it all depended on an…
Sprint Training – Energy Systems
Sprint Training – Energy Systems By Tony Veney At the beginning of each track season, you sit down and evaluate the returning and the incoming talent. The thoughts eventually shift to the top sprinters and the expectations we both have for the upcoming season. If girls or boys ran 12.5 or 11.0 last year, you…