• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Click here to download the  free ebook of Alberto Juantorena’s  detailed training workouts leading up to the 1976 Montreal Olympics

SpeedEndurance.com

Success in Track & Field ... and Life

  • Home
    • About
    • Contact
  • Track & Field
    • 400 meters
    • 800m & Mile
    • 1/2 & Full Marathons
    • Long & Triple Jump
    • Hurdles
  • Training
    • Weight Training
    • Abs & Core
    • Injury Prevention
    • Shoes & Spikes
    • Masters
  • Coaching
    • Freelap Friday Five
    • Interviews
    • Sports Nutrition
    • Sport Psychology
  • Archives
  • Shop
    • My account
    • Checkout
    • Basket

Jeremy Wariner New Adidas Track Spikes

You are here: Home / 400 meters / Jeremy Wariner New Adidas Track Spikes
0
SHARES
FacebookTwitter

June 30, 2008 by Jimson Lee 6 Comments

Last Updated on November 28, 2008 by Jimson Lee

I’ve been waiting for this article to come out.

There was a lot of news with Michael Johnson’s Golden Track spikes back in 1996.

And we are still waiting for the Asafa Powell spikes expected to make an appearance at Beijing. We’ll see if he wins a gold after Usain Bolts 9.72 World Record and Tyson Gay’s 9.68 wind aided performance. Nothing is guaranteed.

Here is a good read from the NY Times.


Breaking In a New Coach and New Shoes

EUGENE, Ore. – In an attempt to win another Olympic gold medal and set the world record at 400 meters, Jeremy Wariner made two dramatic moves this year changing his coach and his shoes.

The first move, parting with his coach, Clyde Hart, brought a shock to track and field circles in January. Hart, after all, is widely considered the top quarter-mile tutor in the world. He coached Wariner to Olympic gold in 2004 and previously guided Michael Johnson to Olympic supremacy and the world record of 43.18 seconds.

The second move, wearing Adidas spikes that address the significantly different ways in which Wariner’s left and right feet strike the ground, was an effort to shave hundredths of a second off his personal best of 43.45 seconds, the third-fastest time ever run.

Wariner will run the first round of the 400 on Sunday here at the United States Olympic track and field trials. So far, his switch to a new coach and new spikes has proved both encouraging and a risky gamble. Wariner has posted the world’s fastest time this year, at 43.98 seconds. But he was also handed a rare defeat — to the American LaShawn Merritt — at a meet in Berlin on June 1.

Some now view Wariner as vulnerable, though he clearly does not admit any susceptibility. He firmly believes he can become the first person to break 43 seconds and is determined to win Olympic gold medals in the 400 and the 4×400 relay.

“I feel I’m going to go out and P.R.,” Wariner said Saturday, meaning setting a personal record. “If anybody wants to beat me, they’re going to have to P.R. by a whole lot.”

When Wariner was beaten this month in Berlin, he summoned his kick “and I didn’t go nowhere.” Since then, he has worked to strengthen the final portion of his race, doing repetitions of 450 meters at practice, sprinting through the first 400 meters in 50 or 51 seconds when he once aimed for 53 seconds.

If he has put other quarter-milers in his rearview mirror, though, he has not yet fully escaped the backlash that came from severing ties with Hart, his longtime coach.

According to Hart, who coached Wariner at Baylor and then professionally, the move was a monetary decision. Wariner thought he was not making enough money after paying Johnson, who is his agent, and paying taxes, Hart said, and wanted to reduce his annual payment to his coach. Wariner previously paid him 10 percent of his earnings, Hart said, but wanted to cut that amount nearly in half.

Hart declined to take a pay cut.

“I don’t feel I’m a discount coach,” he said. “Jeremy had the best year of his life last year. I didn’t feel like a cut of nearly 50 percent was justified.”

Hart also said that Wariner might not have wanted such a strict coach now that he had become so accomplished. Wariner disputed Hart’s account. It was not money or strictness, he said. Wariner said he was concerned that Hart, who is in his 70s, would soon be retiring. Without being specific, Wariner also said, “There’s things I wasn’t comfortable with, and I needed a change.”

He is now coached by Michael Ford, an assistant at Baylor. His workouts are exactly the same, Wariner said, and if he needs Hart’s advice, he is certain Hart will oblige.

“He’s losing experience — when to do a workout or how to change things a little,” Hart said.

Johnson stayed out of the dispute, Hart said. Both sides say they wish each other well. His focus now, Wariner said, is repeating as Olympic champion and breaking Johnson’s world record.

To that end, Adidas has developed what it calls the first asymmetrical track spikes, creating shoes that are meant to perform different functions for each foot.

Adidas engineers found that Wariner uses his left, or inside, foot for stability and his right for propulsion. His left foot strikes the ground along the midline, while his right strikes on the outside and rotates inward as he pushes off with his big toe and second toe.

Essentially, Wariner’s right foot is always running the curve, even when he is on a straightway, said Mic Lussier, the head of Adidas’s innovation team.

To facilitate Wariner’s power and traction in the curve, the new shoe, called the Lone Star, contains plastic claws, or crampons, on the inside front edge of his right shoe. Lussier compares the design to a racecar with different suspension systems on the left and right sides for racing the turns.

The second curve of the 400 “or the third 100-meter section” is considered the strongest part of Wariner’s race. “A lot of people seem to relax a little bit and take a breather real quick before they get into their kick,” he said. “That’s where we make up a lot of ground.”

The sole, or plate, of the shoe is made of carbon nanotubes, which make it 50 percent lighter and a third as thick as Wariner’s previous shoes. The spikes themselves have also been redesigned. Many spikes are pyramid or Christmas-tree shaped. Wariner’s new spikes have a tiny head and broad shoulders.

This design is meant to compress the surface of the track instead of piercing it deeply, thus preventing a valuable loss of energy by ripping in and out of the track with each step. Wariner’s spikes penetrate the track only about two or three millimeters, compared with six or seven with other spikes, Lussier said.

Shoes alone will not bring a world record, though. Wariner says he needs to improve his start and forget about time.

“When you try to force time, you’re going to tighten up or think you’re running too fast or too slow,” he said. “I’ve got to run comfortable, let it come.”

See also  Obituaries: Olympic Medalist Paul Drayton 1939-2010

Category icon400 meters,  Shoes & Spikes,  Track & Field,  Witty Tag icon4x400,  Adidas,  Asafa Powell,  Clyde Hart,  Jeremy Wariner,  Lashawn Merritt,  Michael Johnson,  Mile,  Nike,  Olympics,  relay,  speed,  Tyson Gay,  Usain Bolt

About Jimson Lee

I am a Masters Athlete and Coach currently based in London UK. My other projects include the Bud Winter Foundation, writer for the IAAF New Studies in Athletics Journal (NSA) and a member of the Track & Field Writers of America.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. adarian says

    July 1, 2008 at 7:44 am

    “This design is meant to compress the surface of the track instead of piercing it deeply, thus preventing a valuable loss of energy by ripping in and out of the track with each step.”
    The above is from the article posted on JW new shoe. It would seem that more power is not the issue in going faster. But better energy return from foot contact. Or just being more efficient.

    I have been writing about maximizing ground contact for the last 6 to 7 seven months and teach it for about a year along with increasing your efficiency to increase your speed.

    Maybe the above will get people to start looking at other ways to become faster beside more force and increase effort.

    Reply
  2. Jimson Lee says

    July 1, 2008 at 7:58 am

    @Adarian – I find it amazing how there are always innovations in running shoes but not in running spikes.

    When you see a shoe catalog, what is the main description and criteria for Spikes?

    The Weight!

    In the past, Shoe giant manufacturers just focused on weight alone… I think it’s time for some fresh thinking.

    Reply
  3. adarian says

    July 1, 2008 at 11:37 am

    “To that end, Adidas has developed what it calls the first asymmetrical track spikes, creating shoes that are meant to perform different functions for each foot.

    Adidas engineers found that Wariner uses his left, or inside, foot for stability and his right for propulsion. His left foot strikes the ground along the midline, while his right strikes on the outside and rotates inward as he pushes off with his big toe and second toe.”

    This here looks at how he does thing and not how we (shoe companies) think you should do something. One problem does everyone get a custom pair design for their running pattern?

    Also will question force plate and attempting to get the same forces out the right and left leg. But if people are reading correctly they should have a lot of questions about how we train sprinters.

    Reply
  4. Jimson Lee says

    July 6, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    @Adarian – you also have to execute on race day too! (as seen from the US Trials 400 meters)

    Reply
  5. adarian says

    April 4, 2010 at 7:43 am

    Everybody runs with a propulsion side and a stability side.
    The question is how to train people base on which leg is the propulsion leg and which leg is the stability leg.
    There is an easy test to determine which leg is which without using high tech equipment.

    Once you have that information, coaching and training for track and field or any sport becomes real easy.
    Even how you lift weights will change once you understand which leg is which.
    Asymmetrical training is the best way to train.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Recommended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbs-aWxyLk

Shop Our Store

  • Bud Winter (9)
  • Championship Productions (6)
  • Clyde Hart (2)
  • Derek Hansen (1)
  • Electrical Muscle Stimulation (2)
  • Jim Hiserman (6)
  • Jimson Lee (4)
  • Uncategorised (0)

Articles by Category

Products

  • Jim Hiserman - Developing 800m Runners: Identifying, Categorizing and Developing 400m-800m Type Athletes $42.99 $39.99
  • Private Coaching - Monthly Plan $600.00 $525.00
  • Jim Hiserman-Developing-Distance-Runnersv2 Jim Hiserman - Developing Distance Runners Volume 2: A Systematic Approach to Developing Individual Success within a Dynamic Team Culture $34.95 $29.95
  • Feed-the-Cats-Clinic-3-Pack-701 'Feed the Cats' Clinic 3-Pack $64.99
  • Tony Holler's Feed the Cats": A Complete Sprint Training Program Tony Holler's "Feed the Cats" Complete Sprint Training Program $49.99
  • Bud Winter and Speed City presents Arthur Lydiard 509x716 Bud Winter & Arthur Lydiard MP3 [Download only] $9.99

RECENT POSTS

  • Oregon22 Coaches Club now Online
  • IFAC 2022: The Return of In-Person Conferences (with Virtual option)
  • Here is our 400m Discussion Recording… over 2 Hours Long
  • The Best Free Coaching Book – post Beijing 2022 Olympics
  • The Ultimate 400m Track Webinar for Coaches & Athletes
  • NACAC Athletics Coaching Science Series 2022
  • Top Six 400m Predictor Workouts (Number 4 is my Favourite)
  • Best 6 Podcasts for 2021 (and Beyond)
  • Why Karsten Warholm’s 45.94 400mH WR is my Highlight of 2021
  • Sprinting: 10 Research Articles for Effective Sprint Training [Part 23]

Copyright © 2023. SpeedEndurance.com is owned and operated by Aryta Ltd. Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}