Success in Track & Field ... and Life
Share One of the biggest fallacies in sprinting fast is the muscular legs and thighs in sprinters. I recall watching a meet and someone said “look at the size of Dwain Chambers’ quads!” I simply remind them to look Blanka Vlasic legs with her tiny calves… thus the power is in the hips. Even the [...]
Share Linford Christie is the only British man to win a gold medal in the 100 meters at all four major competitions: the Olympic Games (1992), Worlds (1993), Commonwealth (1990, 94), and European championships (1986, 90, 94) Here’s a poor quality video digitized from analog tapes. He does a variety of single leg and double [...]
Share Excelsior Sports has a new DVD series called The New School of Human Performance. Below is an excerpt for a 40 Yard Dash set-up from the NFL Scouting Combine Preparation series "40 Yard Dash" DVD. Presenting the 10 minute YouTube video is Steven Plisk, who earned his BS in Exercise & Sport Science at [...]
Share This is part one of a series entitled, What’s on Your Bookshelf? I’m always inspired by someone else’s reading list. Or Bookshelf. Have you ever watched a comedy movie with a group of people? Do you notice how some people laugh at certain scenes, while others laugh at other scenes? It’s the same with [...]
Share Last year, I reviewed the DVD Building a Better Runner by RunningDVDs.com. This training DVD was produced by Coach Jay Johnson, the middle distance coach at the University of Colorado, and Mike Smith, the head cross country coach and middle distance coach at Kansas State University. This is a great product as it doesn’t [...]
Share Now that I’m living in Italy, one of the most popular foods and spices is basil, otherwise know as Ocimum basilicum. Basil is the key ingredient in pesto – along with pie nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil. That’s it. It’s my emergency meal when there’s nothing in the house to eat. When I’m [...]
Share INDIANAPOLIS – Some of the world’s most respected coaches and scientists are among the scheduled presenters for USATF’s Podium Education Project, Dec. 10-13 and Dec. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla. The featured speaker for both sessions will be German biomechanist Dr. Klaus Bartonietz. The author of countless articles on biomechanics and technique for throwing events, [...]
Share Several years ago in the days before YouTube, there was a viral video of Ato Boldon doing a 60 inch or 1.50m box jump (approximately). Obviously, people confused this with the vertical jump or vertical leap test, but it is a good indication of explosiveness. And bravery. I am a firm believer in plyometrics, [...]
Share In the YouTube video below, we have Veronica Campbell-Brown training with Tyson Gay. Two world class athletes. Fast forward to the 1:20 mark and you will see VCB doing a variety of 4 drills with a sled or harness. First, who am I to argue if these drills and exercise are crap, considering the [...]
Share Can you imagine having a 17 year old male sprinter on your team who runs 11.45 for 100 meters, then the following year as a Junior he runs 10.50. 10.30 is the IAAF “A” standard so you dare to write him off as “Nah, he’ll never be a world class sprinter” kind of attitude. [...]
Share With the World Series in full swing (no pun intended), I couldn’t help but notice how baseball players run “slightly different” than Track and Field sprinters. I’ve often argued that in a 40 yard dash test, technical changes are required just to cover the distance in 36.8 meters. The starting position is a good [...]
Share Once again, with standard time approaching and daylight savings time ending, you actually gain an extra hour of sleep and that alone can screw up your sleeping patterns. At least temporarily. But what about oversleeping? How many people, especially teenagers, sleep over 10 hours a day? WebMD carried an article on Physical Side Effects [...]
Share During my prime running years, Pietro Mennea’s 200m WR was the holy grail. 19.72 was the 200m WR standard for 17 years. In fact, Pietro Mennea won the 200m 1980 Olympics in the Moscow Boycotted Olympics. He also won the Bronze medal at 1972 Munich Olympics at the same distance. Mennea competed in 4 [...]
Share Bill Bowerman is more famous for co-founding NIKE and coaching long distance runners, but he did coach sprinters and field events. I covered Harry Jerome and Otis Davis in previous articles. From his book Bill Bowerman’s High-Performance Training for Track and Field (Third Edition) he compares the training patterns of Stan Wright, Jim Bush, [...]
Share DYNA-BAND 6ft Green Medium Resistance Band Resistance bands are great. They can easily be rolled up to take along for travel. You can tie 2 together and make a large loop. You can shorten the length for extra resistance. Resistance bands are available in a range of colours that relate to their stiffness or [...]
Share Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson – step aside… Why on earth would Kenenisa Bekele and Usain Bolt race each other at 600 meters is beyond me. If anything, it would help promote Bekele as he is not a household name as compared to Bolt, despite his amazing accomplishments. If you don’t believe me, just [...]
Copyright © 2012
Powered by eShop v.4
Steven Bradbury – Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics
Share With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics approaching, this has to be one of my best memories of any winter Olympics. Steven Bradbury of Australia is most well-known for his unexpected gold medal at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games in the men’s short track 1000 metres event from three unlikely events occurring. The [...]