For this type of thing my philosophy is to keep it simple. I’ve come to that over years of trying to be too cute with my offseason and summer training programs. But, it’s impossible to know what equipment and spacing options every kid has so trying to design training for every scenario is impossible and…
Archives for Latif Thomas workouts
5 Ways to Approach Summer Training for Sprinters
What to do when the summer months are upon us? You’ve got a number of options, so here’s my take on getting the most out of summer training for sprinters (or any athlete in any sport, for that matter): 1. Consider Not Training At All. Summer competitions are more popular in some places than…
Max Velocity is more important than Acceleration
When it comes to training all elements of acceleration and max velocity (top end speed), I used to be a ‘short to long’ purist. On paper it’s completely reasonable to assume if an athlete can’t accelerate from 0-10m the way you want then having them do 20m and 30m runs is counterproductive. Because it will…
Training in the Hallways: Mangaging Shin Splints and Training Volumes
To make sure I crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’ before launching my new Complete Program Design for Sprinters program, I asked coaches to answer the following: What is your biggest question about training in the hallways? I’ve received 318 responses so far and noted some clear patterns in what you asked. I took…
Stop Doing “Recovery” The Day After Speed Work [PART 2]
In Part 1, I explained the many benefits of using back-to-back training sessions of high neuromuscular demand as a model when your are planning training for your sprinters. In regular people terms this means back-to-back speed days. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth checking out before continuing on here because it explains the underlying…
Stop Doing “Recovery” The Day After Speed Work [PART 1]
“It depends.” It’s the empty, but honest answer to nearly every training question I get from high school coaches about optimizing program design for their high school sprinters. The reality is: What you do at tomorrow’s practice doesn’t matter nearly as much as WHY you’re doing it and HOW you implement it. We’ll go in…
How to Run the 200m Race
The 200 meter sprint is the Rodney Dangerfield of the sprint events. It gets no respect. When we commonly think of the sprint events, the 100 meter dash gets all the glory and the 400 meter dash gets all the respect. That leaves the middle child, the 200, left out in the cold. As…
How to Create an Annual Plan for High School Sprinters
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…
Will This Actually Improve Your 400 Meter Runners?
I like to think I’m a pretty good sprints coach. And that I create pretty good sprints coaching programs. So, of course, you won’t be surprised when I tell you how much I think you’ll like my recent program, ‘Compete High School 400 Meter Training’. Or that if you order today: You will get immediate…