SPRINT TRAINING: Emphasis on Specificity, Variability and Simplicity

This is Part 1 of 2 of Developing A Sprint Training Philosophy For High School Athletes guest blogged by Jim Hiserman.

He is the author of 3 books:

Emphasis On Specificity, Variability And Simplicity

Since starting to coach Track and Field in the early ‘seventies (while still a college student) I have experienced a huge number various sprint training philosophies and trends that have come and gone and come again.

In working with high school coaches and athletes again, after twenty years of collegiate coaching, I have found that high school sprint coaches seem to have more drills, workouts, circuits and “toys” to manipulate in training than they know what to do with.

The huge volume of training methods creates problems like:

“how” to integrate all these drills into workouts;
“how” to get all the “magic bullet” workouts into the training plan;
“how much” volume of each workout should be used;
“how many times (density)” to use Speed, Strength each week;
“how” to plan Mid-Week Meets into the overall scheme;
and “what” training philosophy (Long to Short, Short to Long, Mix of both) should be adopted.

You can surely add to the list above with:

“how” to teach sprint mechanics;
“how” to strengthen and improve posture (include Core Strength here),
“how” to develop optimal warm-ups;
“how” to address the full spectrum of Bio-Motor AND Bio-Energetic abilities so as to improve performance capacities, prevent injuries AND screen for imbalances that need therapy-type exercise prescriptions for individuals.

I could add a lot more considerations that need to be addressed in high school track and field programs, such as division of athletes by:

TRAINING AGE (in T&F),
BODY TYPE (Neural or Muscular Type),
TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY (sprint mechanics, during start, acceleration and maximum velocity).
and STRENGTH/POWER LEVELS.

One answer to the “how’s”, “why’s” and time constraints facing high school sprint coaches is to adopt the MED philosophy.

[Tweet “The Minimum Effective Dose: Train as much as necessary to win, not as much as possible!”]

The Minimum Effective Dose

MINIMUM EFFECTIVE DOSE (MED) requires simple plans that involve application of sprint-specific training methods, at volumes specific enough to each individual, with adequate recovery methods and time periods so as to allow for adaptations to sprint-specific & strength training to take place.

Assuming coaches only have a few weeks (usually 4-5 weeks at most) of Pre-Season before competitions begin, with League Championships another 8 weeks down the road, it is important to KEEP PLANS & METHODS SIMPLE.

This can be done by adopting either a 3 or 4 week Block Plan allowing for Sprint-Specific Training Methods with “Specific” BIO-MOTOR ABILITIES integrated throughout the block in proper densities. In addition, integration of a well-designed recovery/regeneration methods scheme is critical in order to insure optimal adaptation to training and prevention of injuries is optimized.

SIMPLIFICATION of training requires that coaches reduce the scope of training to only the needed essentials. One example of this would be to consider these four areas:

Teaching Sprint Mechanics
Development of Speed & Energy Systems specific to Speed & Speed Endurance
Development of Specific Strength Qualities relative to sprinting (Elastic/Reactive, Max Strength, Explosive Strength), and
Integration of recovery/regenerative methods that advance the adaption to training AND the overall health of athletes.

One important point I wish to make concerns VOLUME.

I read an article where a well known European coach characterized American training programs with the following statement:

“If American coaches would have built the Great Pyramid, it would have a base of 300 acres and top out with an elevation of 30 feet.”

Too many coaches still subscribe to the notion that “conditioning” or fitness is related to WORK CAPACITY rather than the ability to produce performances in an event, or events, that realize the optimal ability of the individual.

“Conditioning” should be specific to the sporting activity mechanically and bio-energetically. This involves only enough training volume at the right intensities that result in consistent improvements in sprint race performances.

[Tweet “If American coaches built the Great Pyramid, the base would be 300 acres with 30 feet elevation!”]

In addition to activities for the development of sprinting mechanics, concurrent integration of methods for energy systems development need to be included.

The energy systems required for sprinting distances of 60-400 meters, and the utilization of methods for developing sprint-specific strength need to be planned in a sequential manner over the course of the competitive training cycle.

The training volumes should ideally be only the minimal necessary for the specific body type and training age of each athlete so as to elicit a positive adaptation. Monitoring athletes’ postural efficiency/integrity and mechanical efficiency during workouts should be the guide for coaches to either suspend, or continue, with the planned workout volume for each athlete. Once athletes cannot maintain proper sprint mechanics, their workout needs to be suspended or reduced.

One of the best examples of keeping training specific, simple and minimal can be seen in the training methods of Decathlon World Record Holder/ Olympic Gold Medalist Ashton Eaton. With Eaton, who needs to train for 10 events “more is less”. Consider his recent reply on Twitter concerning training loads: