Bud Winter Endurance Sprint Program for Lee Evans

June 21, 2007 by Jimson Lee

Bud Winter coached at San Jose State University from 1944 - 1974 and was responsible for the legendary “Speed City” in the mid 1960’s.

In total, he produced 1 NCAA Championship, 49 NCAA records, and 27 Olympians including including Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, and John Carlos, just to name a few. He also coached Greece’s Chris Papanicolaou, the first man to pole vault 18 feet.

His basic approach to sprinting was a simple 8 step plan:

Use high knee action
Use good foreleg reach
Run high on toes
Have good arm action
Maintain good forward lean
Bound forward, not up
Run tall, with back straight
Be relaxed, with loose jaw and loose hands

I posted Tommie Smith’s training methods here.

Many thanks to Gary G. from Scotia, NY, for providing the information below.

Here is the Endurance sprint program used by Lee Evans. Every day the sprinters warmed up with a 1-3 mile jog then they stretched and then did 4x pick-ups @ 100m, slow, medium, fast and high knee, they then did drills, and when in top shape did that relaxation test I earlier described, they then took starts every day but Monday and now were ready to commence the main work for the day as outlined below.

After the main work they did one lap of “killer dillers” which i earlier described, then jogged down to finish. Bud Winter was not big on weight training, the San Jose sprinters lifted but only in the winter, very light and many reps, he said he tried heavy lifting with Ray Norton and he started to look like a shot putter and his relaxation suffered, given the choice, Bud Winter said he would take relaxation over strength any time.

Fall:
Same as the short sprinters, work up to 10 mile run in 4 weeks.

Pre-Season:

Monday - 3x 600m, 600 walk (no time given, probably slow to faster times)

Tuesday - Ladder: 1-2-3-5-3-2-1, time them, walk same distance that you ran.

Tuesday - 10x 100m on grass with the sprinters, walk 100 (start @ 15 down to 11 by start of season)

Thursday - 3x 320m, 15 min. rest (start @46, down to 38)

Friday - starts/finishes, finishes are 6×200m

Saturday - Test Day: 2x 60 yards, 2x 320m, 15 min. rest

Sunday - Jog easy

In-Season:

Monday - 2x 600m, no time or 2x 500m

Tuesday - 500-300-200-100 (NT) or 5x 200m, no time

Wednesday - Time Trial Day: 2x 60 yards, 1x 165 yards, 2x 320m, hard but not all out

Thursday - starts/finishes or Rest if big meet on Saturday

Friday - Rest

Saturday - MEET

Sunday - jog or rest

If you are a big fan of Lee Evans as I am, be sure to read his biography The Last Protest: Lee Evans in Mexico City.

This book covers literally every race he ran in immaculate detail, including surviving two Olympic Trials for the same Olympics. It is written by Frank Murphy and he definitely has his own style in his storytelling.

The Americans are so rich in the 400 meters that only the top 4 went to the Games, not 6 as we have today, and no politics from other qualified events (200m, 400m hurdles) despite rumours of Tommie Smith running a leg. Many of the best American 400m runners stayed home and could have made the finals easily if USA entered more than 3 individual sprinters!

In the USA: The Last Protest: Lee Evans in Mexico City

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