Interview with Lance Brauman, Coach of Tyson Gay

This is Part 9 of a multi-part series from my recent trip to Orlando & Clermont, Florida.

Part 1 was with Dennis Mitchell.  Part 2 was with Brooks Johnson.  Parts 3 & 5 was Hurdle Touchdown Times with Kellie Wells Training and Part 4 included Håkan Andersson.  Part 6 was my interview. Part 7 was with Stephen Maguire, coach of visually impaired sprinter Jason Smyth who is just 0.04 seconds off to make the able-bodied Olympics.  Part 8 was a run-in with USADA and out of competition random drug testing.

Lance Brauman is the president at PURE Athletics.  His impressive roster includes Tyson Gay, Trinidad’s Keston Bledman and Kelly-Ann Baptiste and many more.

To learn more about Lance Brauman’s training methods, you can checkout his 2 DVDs titled 16 Speed and Power Drills for Sprints and 30 Speed and Power Drills for the Hurdles.

I had the pleasure of shadowing him and Stephen Maguire for a day last April.  To go through a workout and pick apart some of the details in sprinting biomechanics was an eye opener because I don’t have a 9.69 sprinter on my roster.  Heck, I’ll be happy with anyone running 10.18.

At the end of our session, I grabbed my video camera and asked a few questions just before they headed up to the weight room.  Unfortunately it was windy, and I didn’t bring the cover for my microphone.

1. What are the differences in training a College Athlete vs. a “sponsored” Elite athlete?   Work volume comes to mind.  I read somewhere Tyson Gay’s training starts at 9:30 am and finishes around 3pm?
2. What are the challenges when you have a healthy 9.9 and 19.8 sprinter show up in October for another year? How do you get them to 9.7 and 19.5? Do you keep on doing the same things? Tweak a little here and there?
3. Outside of track workouts, how much emphasis do you place on strength and explosive training?  In the weight room, do you balance strength exercises (i.e. bench and squats) and explosive work (Olympic lifts)?
4. Is there a particular biomechanical preference you look in sprinting, or do you let the athlete’s natural build and technique set the standard, and go from there?  I guess I am referring to Asafa Powell’s 2nd step toe drag, or Justin Gatlin straight arm movements.
5. What the heck are wicket drills?  And when is the best time to use them in athlete development?  How does it help the sprinter?  (see Increasing Stride Length: Lance Brauman’s Wicket Drills for more details)

Related Posts on Lance Brauman

• Increasing Stride Length: Lance Brauman’s Wicket Drills
• Lance Brauman’s Fly-In Drills, In and Out Drills
• PODCAST – Interview with Lance Brauman… where he gives a sample training week for his athletes.
• Lance Brauman: Speed and Power Drills for Sprints and Hurdles (DVD)