Marc Mangiacotti Speed Training Principles

Last Updated on December 2, 2013 by Jimson Lee

Yesterday’s post on 100 Meter Training Videos with Marc Mangiacotti raised the question:

Who the heck is Marc Mangiacotti?

Here’s a chance to get a transcribed 1 hour interview with Coach Mangiacotti and Latif Thomas of Complete Speed Training.  It’s over 29 pages long which should take you less than an hour to read, depending on your ability to speed read.

There’s no “selling” or self promotion of his 100 meter program during the interview.  They just phoned and talked track for about an hour.  (I do that constantly with other coaches)

You can get the interview, no strings attached, by clicking on the home page and entering your email address in the beginning.  The 29 page PDF will be sent to you by email.  No strings attached.  You will be put on their mailing list, but you can easily unsubscribe right after.

Here is a snippet of the interview to show you the track talk between two coaches.  Because it’s a transcribed version, incorrect grammar and slang may be present, so be warned.

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Latif Thomas:  Getting back to the speed work. Can you give us an example of one of your favorite acceleration drills or workouts that you use to develop the technique in efficiency that we talked about a little earlier?

Coach Mangiacotti: Well really my favorite drill that I use for acceleration is a straight leg bound into a buildup. And I generally use the straight leg bound because the athlete is gonna spend longer on the ground and less in the air, just like they would feel when they’re in acceleration. 

And as they transition into higher speeds and start running, they’re gonna start feeling like they spend less time on the ground and more time in the air so it’s more like max velocity. So they can understand the feeling of both parts of the race.

And so that’s something I use quite a bit. And after they master that I put them in a set of blocks where I ask them to get a little bit bound-y or kind of extend themselves during the first ten meters of the block start.  And then start to build on that and move into what we call max velocity mechanics. And by them understanding the straight leg bound first, the feeling of it is gonna make it easier to transition and carry over into the actual race out of block.

And then after they can push for ten meters and then transition for ten meters and use max velocity mechanics for ten meters, as time goes on we can adjust those distances to whatever amount or distance we want them to push transition and use max velocity mechanics later on.

And so for instance, at some point in the year, I’ll switch the first component of 50 meters from the blocks. So they’ll push for 15, and then they’ll transition for 15 meters, which is the first 30 meters which we call the acceleration phase. 

And then I can move the final cone 10 meters from the second cone or 15 or 20 meters, whatever distance I want so they’ll feel the max velocity part of it as well. So they can really transition from doing a fairly simple drill which is a straight leg bound into a build up into something that’s highly advanced.

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Latif Thomas: Talking about acceleration and transitioning maximum velocity and obviously max velocity is a critical component of the 100 meter race as well, what should coaches be focusing on when it’s time to transition to max velocity? In terms of queuing and anything on the topic. And how is it different than teaching acceleration? 

Coach Mangiacotti: One of the things I talked about before was that in acceleration we spend more time on the ground and less time in the air and then max velocity is the exact opposite. So one of the things that we talk about is the arms and I talk a lot about with max velocity about their arms because whatever your arms do your legs are gonna do.

So during acceleration we talk about doing arms the full range of motion so that your legs go through a full range of motion. And when we get to max velocity we talk about arms moving from – well I should say your hands moving from cheek to cheek.

So that we get our body in the correct position and our lower body in the correct position to push on the track. So a lot of the times what we’re doing is really focusing on what our arms are doing but reminding what we want our legs to be doing at the same time.

And how range of motion can be dictated by what you’re doing with your arms because as Sir Isaac Newton said there is an equal and opposite reaction. If your arms are moving through a specific range of motion your legs are going to go through that same range of motion.

Click here to get the full interview Marc Mangiacotti.

For more information on Marc’s programs, see Advanced Concepts in Training 400 Meter Runners and  Complete 100 Meter Development.

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