Cross Country Assessment of the Primary Physical Components To improve athletic performance in any sport requires ongoing development of the five primary physical components: speed, endurance, strength, flexibility, and coordination. Balanced development in these five bio-motor skills is sport specific with the training emphasis on each of the five determined by the demands of the…
Archives for Scott Christensen cross country
Endurance as a Primary Physical Component in Cross Country
Endurance as a Primary Physical Component in Cross Country It can be said that a high level of endurance is the most important of the five primary physical components found in a cross country runner. The danger in making such a statement is that it may diminish the importance of the other four: speed, strength,…
Should You Get This New Advanced Topics in Cross Country Training Program?
If you’re the type of cross country coach who, when the right program comes along, isn’t afraid to spend actual human money in order to get better at coaching, keep reading. That being the case, I’ll skip all the standard fare marketing strategies and get right down to brass tacks: Is Scott Christensen’s new Advanced Topics in Cross…
Coordination as a Primary Physical Component in Cross Country Running
The first step in designing training programs for cross country runners is visualizing a clear understanding of the physical components needed for success. Designing distance training schemes without a clear purpose in mind is an inefficient process at best, and at worst is a hodge-podge of this and that from impractical weight room exercises to…
Flexibility as a Primary Physical Component in Cross Country
There are five primary physical components that are targeted for improvement during physical training. The degree of emphasis placed on each of the five components of strength, speed, flexibility, coordination, and endurance is sport specific. All must be addressed for any athlete to improve performance capacity. In cross country running, the component of endurance is…
Strength Training as a Primary Physical Component for Cross Country Runners
Strength is categorized as a primary physical component of the human body. The other primary physical components are speed, coordination, flexibility, and endurance. The aim of physical training is to improve the fitness of these five components in a balanced program to meet the specific demands of the sport. The role of a coach is…
Age Appropriate Distance Training
One of the most important reminders for those coaches involved in training young distance and middle distance runners is they are not simply miniature adults. Not only are the bodies smaller, the mind less experienced, the systems of the body not at full development, but also training has far different effects and considerations as compared…
High School Cross Country Training: Positive Team Culture (Part 2)
As infant humans proceed through daily activities in an instinctual manner just like all of the other animal species on our planet. However, instinctual behavior beyond the age of 1 or 2 in humans becomes curiously rare. With the largest proportionally-sized brain in the animal kingdom, humans quickly move from instinct to learned behavior…
Cross Country Training: Developing Positive Team Culture (Part 1)
Cross country running is considered a team sport by those in the know. Because the scoring of the meet is so tied into the efforts of all seven runners on a team it is imperative that a positive and selfless synergy exists between these runners if the team is to be successful. The coach is…
Peaking Workouts for Cross Country Runners
The championship week is the culminating microcycle of training for a long macrocycle of aerobic and anaerobic development. Unlike team sports, the “championship week” in cross country varies from athlete to athlete and from team to team. For some members of the team it may be the week of the Conference Meet and for others…
The Nine Day Cross Country Training Microcycle
Applying the principles of contemporary training theory is an important aspect of coaching cross country runners. In general, training theory applies the laws of the natural world to the science of longer distance running so that coaches do not have to rely on trial and error or anecdotal beliefs in setting up a sequential training…
Scott Christensen’s 2 Favorite Cross Country Workouts
Most cross country coaches have been running since high school and college, or newly enjoy running now. There are some workouts that seem to always go very well for you, but others that result in an endless struggle. From these workouts emerge favorites, but they may not be the best type of work for your…