Track and Field Toolbox

Contrast Training Method for Sprinters

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What is Contrast Training? How can it help sprinters develop more speed?

This article was provided by Complete Track and Field and is republished here with permission

By Travis Hansen

Before I dive into the details for why sprinters and athletes should utilize this type of training, I’m going to first define what it is exactly.  Contrast Training was first introduced to me by Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell.  This type of training involves a “contrast” or some source of variable resistance as you perform an exercise throughout a range of motion.  Bands and chains placed around the bar are the most common implements used to create this effect.

Contrast Training addresses the concept of “Accommodating Resistance.”  Due to changes in the detail of movement throughout an exercise, the degree of difficulty or level of resistance working against us changes automatically.  I’m sure many are probably familiar with what I’m talking about.  Take the back squat as an example.  At the top it is easier to move the load versus the bottom of the movement.  Bands and chains then ensure that you provide more resistance where the load is lower so you work harder and build strength throughout a full range of motion.

Fortunately, this style of training can provide value to your speed and power development efforts as well.  Below I’m going to introduce a few concepts, and then show you how they help

#1-Teaching Triple Extension

#2-Control and Stability

#3-Length-Tension Relationship

#4-Overload

#5-Speed and Power

This is one of the features of this style of training that I enjoy the most.  Traditionally, sprinters and athletes have regularly utilized bounding variations and other types of plyometrics to really ingrain leg drive and propulsion which creates triple extension at the ankle, knee, and hip, among other things, and I view contrast training in the same light.  It’s just another way of accomplishing this objective.

Our neuromuscular system tends to relax and quit driving during a lift as we reach lockout, or extension in a lift.  By adding a source of continuous overload via bands and chains, the muscles are forced to continue contracting harder and harder during the exercise, as we reach extension.

Triple extension is a key precursor to stiffness, vertical force production, stride length, and higher running speed, and any max effort squat or deadlift variation combined with contrast is going to reinforce the development of these abilities in the sprinter or athlete.  What is interesting is that 2 studies found that muscle activity of the quadriceps and hamstrings increased with contrast training versus non-contrast work. 1 2

Another benefit of working with bands and chains is that they require a sprinter or athlete to tighten up.  Any subtle change in body position will cause the bands to react, or the chains to sway in all directions, and we have to instantly maintain control of the bar by creating tension and stability at our joints.  I should note that even though bands and chains are generally implemented bilaterally off two legs or two arms, they can still be used unilaterally to really accentuate this effect like with sprinting.  I still think bilateral work can have some carryover though.

Control and preventing energy leaks during sprinting such as too much trunk rotation, or knee collapse is more common in beginner-intermediate level sprinters and can be remedied some with this approach, but there is still value to be had with contrast work for higher level athletes as well, which I will discuss shortly.

The next element has to deal with our muscle’s natural stretch to strength ratio, referred to as “Length-Tension Relationship.”  Quite simply, if we stretch a muscle too much it loses force potential and vice versa.  Keep in mind that this can be overcome by neural processes, and I’m referring only to the muscle here.  It’s understood that if a sprinter is too stiff when they land, then they will not rebound off of the ground and run as fast.  On the contrary, too much bend or compliancy and speed is lost.

There has to be a certain degree of pre-stretch to a muscle in order for it to act with more strength and power.  Keeping this in mind, there then becomes a standard range of motion where our muscles act most explosively during each movement.  The actual value that I located for this function is not practical and doesn’t make sense so I’m not going to reference it here.  But if you learn to analyze joint angles of the lower extremities during athletic based movements such as sprinting, jumping, and cutting it would seem that a three quarter to half squat seems to be optimal for power.  You can produce a high amount of force and express it fast at these points.

Analyzing a squat and deadlift with contrast, you will notice that the resistance and overload is peaking or near it in these ranges of motion.  Thus, you could argue that contrast training helps to optimize strength production in the ranges of motion that are common or specific to sprinting and other movements perhaps more so than straight weight alone.

Of course there is a time issue here, but working in certain ranges of motion using partial rep exercises such as: pin presses, board presses, scap drills, bridging, etc. has been shown to help develop other movements, and contrast training shares similarities to partial rep drills because you are adding an extra load at specific ranges so it may work.

Related Article: Using General Strength in the Training Regimen

Adding extra chains and bands to your max lifts does a great job at adding more total overload as well.   Athletes will be able to lift more total weight with this approach, which will create specific neuromuscular adaptations or changes that are also partly responsible for becoming faster.

For example, research has shown that strength training can induce both improved motor unit synchronization as well as rate coding. 3 4  Each of these adaptations that occur during high intensity resistance training can potentially make an athlete faster and are strongly encouraged with the use of bands and chains.

Chris Beardsley and Bret Contreras provided a tremendous amount of research on contrast training, 5, and I will disclose how their findings relate to this discussion.  The conclusion of the various studies that examined how bands and chains affected total barbell load showed that chains tend to really increase the amount of work performed in the middle part of a movement, while bands heavily increase output at the top of the movement.  6

Lastly and most importantly is the effect this type of training can have on power levels, which could have implications on running speed since power output has been shown to be integral to getting faster.  Of all the possible effects contrast training could have on performance areas, power output seemed to be the most promising according to several studies.  7 2 8 9

The benefits to be had with contrast training heavily outweigh the negatives for sprinters and athletes.  I should note that the studies referenced experienced trainees, so contrast training would definitely be a good addition for someone who has lifting experience already.  Linear and basic strength training progression systems will work great for beginners and this approach is not a must at this stage of development.  Exhaust the basics and then move to more advanced programming and techniques later on.

So let’s review.  Contrast training could help increase muscle activity levels according to emg reports which could affect sprinting performance, especially through the start and acceleration where knee angles and quad activity is higher.  This increased production from your lower body musculature will help to groove triple extension and other speed characteristics.

Control and stability are vital components that contrast training helps improve as well.

There is greater overload seen while using bands and chains in comparison to straight weight, which could accentuate neuromuscular adaptations and changes in the body.  Moreover, the overload will be provided at joint angles and phases of movement that are specific to the sprint pattern, and lastly, contrast has shown promise for developing power output which is a foundation for running speed.

Training Resource: The Speed Encyclopedia

I could not locate any direct studies of this technique on sprinters or athletes, but I still think it is definitely worthwhile, nonetheless.  I know it’s not specific, but neither is tempo work, active recovery, stretching, and other methods, and we all know they have confirmed value in a comprehensive speed training system.

Complete Track and Field is a great resource for Track and Field Coaches to find tools to help them be successful in their profession.

 

 

SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:

#1-https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/3344

#2-Israetel MA, McBride JM. Kinetic and kinematic differences between squats performed with and without elastic bands.  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 1: 190-194, 2010.

#3-Rutherford, O.M., and D.A. Jones. The Role of Learning and Coordination in Strength Training.  European Journal of Applied Physiology 55: 100-105, 1986.

#4-Schmidt, RA. Motor Learning Performance. Champaign, IL. Human Kinetics, 1991.

#5-http://www.strengthandconditioningresearch.com/2013/10/14/bands-chains/

#6-Schoepe TC. Elastic band prediction equations for combined free-weight and elastic band bench presses and squats. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 1: 195-200, 2010.

#7-Wallace, BJ.  Effects of elastic bands on force and power characteristics during the back squat exercise.  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2: 268-272, 2006.

#8-Baker, DG. Effect of kinetically altering a repetition via the use of chain resistance on velocity during the bench press. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 7: 1941-1946, 2009.

#9-http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/4533

 


Training the Workhorse Sprinter

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What characteristics do the “Workhorse Sprinters” have in common? What kind of athlete can win you multiple events?

This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

Have you ever had an athlete or athletes that could win multiple events at a championship meet?

These athletes are better referred to as your “Workhorse Sprinters…” Your multi-talented sprinters who can run the 60 meters through the 400 meters and who might even be able to find success in a field event or on a relay leg.

And then there is the combined event athlete who can score points in an individual event and the MultiEvent.

Can you think of any athletes on your team who fit this description?

Since the sport of track and field requires a lot of mental strength, it is important to note the mental capacity it takes to be considered a “Workhorse Sprinter.”

With mental traits, the first thing we have to look for is someone with a positive personality. These student-athletes are going to be working with various event groups so you want to make sure that they are a positive contributor to each event group.

You don’t want someone with negative personality traits because then they are carrying all of that negativity, not to just one event group but to every event group they might be training with on a given day or given week or throughout the entire year.

We also want to find a highly motivated, highly driven student-athlete.

Are they willing to do more work?

We also want to find student athletes with good self-esteem. If you do one event you’re probably going to get a lot of constructive criticism from your coach. If you do multiple events you are probably going to get more constructive criticism from your coach. So, we need to have good athletes that understand what constructive criticism is, how to internalize it and stay positive, move forward and learn.

We also want to find people who are leaders especially if they are going from event group to event group to train with other people.

We want people to lead in the right direction and not the wrong direction. We also want to look for athletes who have a high pain tolerance. They are going to have to do a lot of different types of training and sometimes it’s going to be really hard. So, we want to make sure this is something that they are up for.

Are they up for the challenge?

It is important to take a look at the history of stress for your athletes. The athlete as a “Workhorse Sprinter” will deal with high pressure situations. They are going to be in more events than most, which means they are also going to have more stress and more pressure. And if they are someone that doesn’t do well with stress and pressure, then being a “Workhorse Sprinter” is probably not something they will care for.

One of the tests I use is the 4×400 meter relay test. Towards the end of a track meet if you walk up to group of athletes and you ask them to hop on the 4×400 meter relay, if they are the first ones to walk away, they are probably not going to be positive team members with good leadership that are highly motivated and they probably don’t have a high pain tolerance.

So, they are not going to be the people that you identify as Workhorses. The ones that jump at the opportunity to do something are the ones that you probably want to focus most of your attention on.

NEW RELEASE:

Training & Race Day Tactics for Your Workhorse Sprinters – Marc Mangiacotti (Harvard University)


Sprint Training: Weekly Plan

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Creating a weekly plan for your sprinters’ in-season training will help you make sure that you have all critical aspects of their training and recovery addressed.

In the video below Mike Ford, Associate Track Coach at Baylor University, shares his weekly in-season training plan for 100/200m sprinters. The video is taken from a recent Glazier Track and Field Clinic.

Here is a quick breakdown of his training plan:
Monday – Tempo Endurance: 200’s or 30/30
Tuesday – Speed/Blocks: Flying 20m-40m, 4×1 exchanges
Wednesday – Off Day/Pool Workout/Speed Endurance/4×1 exchanges
Thursday – Speed or Speed Endurance/4×1 exchanges
Friday – Pre-meet shake out/Speed Endurance/Heavy Lift
Saturday – Competition
Sunday – Religion/Rest/Rehab

For information about how to gain access to Coach Ford’s entire presentation, as well hundreds of other great clinic presentations, clicks the link Glazier Soccer Clinics

The YouTube video below has audio, so please make sure that your volume is turned up. Note that some schools block access to YouTube. Click the arrow to play the video


Training Shallower in the Same Pool

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This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

Training shallower in the same pool means incorporating back to back sessions of high neuromuscular demand with the first being the more difficult or challenging and the second being lighter and less challenging

By Latif Thomas

In my previous article, I explained the many benefits of using back-to-back training sessions of high neuromuscular demand as a model for developing your high school sprinters.

If you haven’t read it, I recommend reading it before continuing on here in order to ensure you know the underlying ‘Reason Why’ behind the activity selection discussed below.

Click here to read Part 1: Training Deeper in the Same Pool.

Building on the ideas contained in that article, we’ll now move to our next preferred practice session format:

Training Shallower in the Same Pool

Training shallower in the same pool means incorporating back to back sessions of high neuromuscular demand with the first being the more difficult or challenging and the second being lighter and less challenging. (It can also be for low neuromuscular demand type sessions, but we already covered that.)

For all intents and purposes, the deeper/shallower formats are simply the inverse of the other. However, training shallower is my preferred format when max velocity/top end speed is on the menu, especially early in the season or with the freshmen/Year 1 kids.

In my experience, once kids get out into that 35m – 60m range, injury risk rises by 47%.

I don’t have data on this. I pulled that number from the ethers. My measuring system is the level of cringe I feel when watching unskilled sprinters flop their limbs around as fast as they can.

Toe first landings. Heel first landings. Casting the lower leg. Poor recovery mechanics/excessive backside mechanics.

If you’re looking for a surefire method for finding yourself in a team wide shin splint, hamstring, adductor, and/or hip flexor injury epidemic, continue to allow these postural failures to repeat themselves endlessly, day in and day out, in spikes, and at velocities they can’t control.

I’m not advocating to *only* go shallower in your maximum velocity/top end speed themed sessions. I do both on the regular.

Just be cautious. And remember this:

Most of your sprinters are completely vertical within 3 – 8 steps.

Therefore, top end speed technique is a far more important skill to learn and apply than acceleration.

If your sprinters live there for 90% of their race, even in the 100m, then you should be living there in practice as well.

Our sample sessions for training shallower in the same pool use a max velocity/top end speed theme during the “Special Preparation Phase” (if you believe in such a concept.)

Actually, let’s talk about “training phases” for a second. In this case, ‘Special Prep’. Or ‘Specific Prep’. Whatever.

Traditionally, the Special Preparation Phase is the part of the training year where, in practice, you are trending toward more event specific activities.

But, here’s the thing though:

We’re always trending toward specificity. But, if it looks like crap, it’s crap. Stop doing it.

Maybe we’re trending toward still not being able to put their foot down flat so top speed technique consists of having them walk/jog/run up some stairs or bleachers.

I don’t let the phase determine I have to switch to a different volume or intensity in practice. In fact, I don’t care about volume. I have no volume goals.

Instead, the training phase has more to say about the level of intensity and expectation for the practice.

Let’s use wicket drills and how this might apply in practice:

General Preparation Phase: They can’t get to wicket 1 in 6 steps, they kick over the wickets, double step, and forget to run off the wickets through the cone.

I’m not that worried about it. I just want them to get a feel for the drill and attempt to apply some things we’re doing elsewhere in practice.

An entirely heuristic approach.

Specific Preparation Phase: They’re expected to get to wicket 1 in 6, get through the spacings clean and carry through the cone without making me feel sad.

Less heuristic. If/when they don’t/can’t execute, there will be more feedback and instruction. I may ask them (the group or individual athletes) to execute a specific movent or display a particular postural position.

I show decreased patience and I’m not making jokes with repeated failure. I remind them that little things add up to big things and the inability to focus and execute comes at a steep price later in the season.

Continued lack of attention to detail gets varsity athletes demoted to a remedial spacing. That usually solves the problem real quick.

PreCompetition / Competition: I expect everyone to be focused and dialed in. I don’t want to hear talking and goofing off between efforts or while waiting in line. The only talking I should hear is athletes coaching each other and giving each other feedback.

I expect consistency of execution at the highest range of their current ability level.

They may be timed through the drill. There may be competition.

Less instruction. Instead, I explain how their particular failures/successes in executing the drill specifically impact their races.

I think the set up for Monday is pretty standard. Nothing stands out to me as trying to be too cute by half. Plus, I explained training unit construction via a commonalities based approach to training back in Part 1.

No need to be redundant.

Getting out to 22 wickets isn’t something we do right away. Generally we’ll start with 11 and I’ll have multiple spacings set up using as many lanes as possible.

Regarding the Main Session, Ins/Outs is a technically challenging activity. So, let’s be honest, for 90% of the team those are just 50m sprints because they’ll have no idea how to shift gears during the 10/10/10.

As you know, top speed sprinting is a vertical activity. So hurdle hops for our plyos and in the weight room.

About Tuesday…

Because this is the lighter/easier day, I’m treating the entire session as a culminating activity. The activities, cues, volumes, and intensities will largely depend what I saw in Monday’s practice, from the group as a whole, but primarily kids who are on the varsity relays.

In the Technical/Postural Development unit, I consider the list of activities an inventory of options. I’m not going to try and do everything on the list in the order it’s written because that is just drilling to drill.

It’s a classic example of ‘coach what you see’.

What’s more interesting to me in a session like this is:

A) Who is making the connection between yesterday and today by showing technical improvements and/or making a volitional effort to change how they move in order to match a revised understanding of how I want them to execute. B) Are they asking different questions or answering questions in a way that implies a change in experiential understanding of the skills being taught in practice?

When these things begin to happen, it means we can start spending more time in practice doing things that look like Monday’s session and less time on partial movements and remedial technical and postural development activities.

Last year I took over a program that was a hot mess. I remediated everything and our ‘deeper’ workouts looked a lot more the ‘shallow’ workout. We literally walked up stairs and ran upstairs because they needed to learn to land flat with a vertical shin and recover correctly (toe up, lift the thigh) with the heel coming up underneath the hips instead of flexing at the knee with the heel going backwards.

From a coaching standpoint, it was the most bored I’ve ever been in my life. Because when they can’t walk up stairs right, where do you go from there?

But, I took the long approach within the 2017 indoor/outdoor season, as well as the 4 year plan. So even though we did infuriatingly remedial stuff instead of fly runs and ins/outs, it was the only way. And you can still get decent results without using 5 figure speed machines.

I had 9 girls in the winter and 15 or so in the spring. Here’s how they placed at the RI State Championship, even on a strict diet of ‘you’re only allowed to do what you can actually do’.

55m: 2-3-6
100m: 2-5
200m: 1-5
300m: 2-3
400m: 1
4×200: 1
4×400: 1

3. Booty Lock
That’s a scientific term. #Fact

Booty lock workouts are crucial to the success of any sprints program, especially your long sprinters.

And that goes double for your girls.

(Fine. If you want to be a nerd about it, I’m referring to Lactacid Capacity themed workouts.)

I’d also recommend being careful with the frequency and volume of these workouts because being proud of inflicting misery on kids and expecting to grow your program is literally the worst coaching idea I’ve ever heard. Literally nobody would be stupid enough to use this as a marketing tool for the team.

For example, I just finished my first year in a new program. Three of my best long sprinters didn’t do indoor because kids were not really enjoying their experience in the sprints/hurdles/jumps group under the previous administration.

(I base this on the fact I only had 3 girls on my indoor team who were not freshmen. That’s correct. Three. Two juniors, one senior, and six freshmen. Total. [No worries though, we won the State Championship in the 4×200 and of the six girls in the entire state who qualify for New Englands in the 55m, my team of nine sent …three.])

Point is, these girls weren’t in shape because they were couching it for the previous three months.

At the end of the spring season, they told me they HATED one of my staple booty lock workouts: 4×300 with 4 minutes rest.

Yes, some workouts suck. That one sure does. It’s the nature of being a 400 runner. And I know from experience how hard it is because I was a DI collegiate 400 runner.

(That’s why 94% of your sprints group swears they’re 100 runners.)

BUT, I need them to like track. Kinda important. Like remembering to bring your spikes to the meet so you don’t have to run in sneakers. (What you never had a varsity athlete forget their spikes?)

So, had I known, I could have easily changed 4×300 to 3-4 x 2 x 150 or any of countless other things.

I’d get the same physiological result, but without anybody cussing me out behind my back.

(Yo. High school girls can be mean, man.)

So the purpose of Booty Lock workouts isn’t to make them puke or have everybody laid out on the track. That is not impressive.

I’m not saying I’ve never had kids laid out after a workout. I have.

But nobody ever joined the track team after hearing from their friends that every Tuesday, Coach Thomas makes you do a puke workout.

Short story long, two of the three girls ended up being members of our State Champion 4×400 team and all three are doing indoor this year.

Hearts and minds, coach. Hearts and minds.

Once again, to nobody’s surprise, I have strayed from the original point…

Apologies.

So I’ve become a huge fan of following a speed day (not more than once per micro, though) with some type of booty lock workout, especially during the Preparation Period and especially with long sprinters.

Look, Booty Lock Tuesday is every long sprinter’s least favorite day of the week. (For the sake of simplicity, assume no dual meet during the week and also the Fact short sprinters never REALLY hurt so they are never allowed to complain.)

So Monday is technically challenging, long, and of relatively high neuromuscular demand. Tuesday is a different kind of terrible. So it’s two different, but difficult practices.

So how have I turned track into a cult at every school I’ve ever coached?

Well that’s a multifacted conversation beyond the scope of this article. So, for now, I’ll focus on how I smash kids on Monday and Tuesday and they keep coming back for more.

(Because they get fast. And winning is fun.

COACH! Stop distracting me from the point of this article!)

In practical terms, I let them know if they grind for those two back to back days, Wednesday is going to be very short and very easy. It has become known as ‘Yoga Wednesday’ (not that we necessarily do yoga) and I keep practice to 30-45 minutes, maximum.

They can talk. Goof off. Be loud. Have fun.

Much different than the demands of Monday and Tuesday.

Two hard days they can buy into. Three hard days in a row would break them down physically and mentally.

Two hard days …then a goof off/fun practice, that makes all the difference.

Now…

For purposes of running a compatible and complimentary program, as well as for my own sanity, I try to keep the Monday workout as similar as possible between the short and long sprints groups.

But, on Booty Lock Tuesday, that’s probably not going to work. Especially with the girls.

Please understand, I’m not making arbitrary and/or misogynistic distinctions between boys and girls.

From an endocrine system development standpoint, high volume/low intensity training with longer recovery times tends to benefit males. More moderate intensities combined with higher volumes tends to lead to improved endocrine system profiles in women.

Additionally, higher training volumes are associated with growth hormone increases, especially for athletes with lower training ages.

Well, that’s what my USTFCCCA Event Specialist manual says. I’m taking their word for it.

I majored in history.

At a state school.

If you are interested in learning more about how Latif Thomas build speed in his sprinters check out his Complete Speed Training  3 (CST3)


Why You Need to Develop Speed Reserve

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This article was provided by Complete Track and Field,  a great source of coaching tools for track and field coaches
Posted by Latif Thomas

Developing a ‘speed reserve’ through a well designed speed development program is essential to success in any sport where combating fatigue is a requirement for success. Though we look at this term primarily when discussing track and field sprints, it’s applications apply to a range of sports. Speed reserve is, essentially, the difference between an athlete’s maximum speed and their maximum aerobic speed.

In many coaching situations, we look at an athlete’s perceived inability to finish a workout in the expected time as a matter of not being ‘in shape’. (A discussion of what ‘in shape’ actually refers to in the parameters of anaerobic training is a topic for another time, but one that fundamentally affects the way athletes are coached.) The solution, for many coaches, is to add more reps, slow the athlete down, give more rest, etc. This is done with the underlying belief that more ‘conditioning’ will allow the athlete to ‘hit their times’ or ‘finish strong’. And I will admit that after being conditioned by this belief for years, I will often find myself reverting to this mindset when I see my athletes breaking down in their workouts. I must, however, override this impulse the same way an athlete in a close race must override the belief that straining harder will get them to the finish line faster.

What this means is that, in large part, the reason that athletes are not hitting their times or that they are falling apart at the end of a game or race is not that lack aerobic or anaerobic capacity or need to do more over distance training. In fact, the answer is often that the athlete simply has not developed the pure speed required to take maximum advantage of the energy system requirements of that particular sport, race, interval, etc.

A classic example of the importance of developing a speed reserve is seen at the elite levels in the 400m dash. The vast majority of world-class 400 meter runners are former 100 and 200 meter runners who moved up. When is the last time you saw a National Championship or major track meet where the finalists comprised a majority of former 800 and 1500 meter runners who moved down? Chances are the answer is never. I use the 400 because it is a classic example of an event that requires both anaerobic and aerobic qualities. How much of each is a subject of debate. I have seen as great as an 80/20 anaerobic to aerobic split over 400 meters, while Clyde Hart claims that the split is more along the lines of 60/40 anaerobic to aerobic. I bring this up to point out that the training applications here, from an energy system standpoint, apply to many sports beyond just track and field.

We must look foundationally at the training concepts that are presented and draw parallels to the specific sport/s that we are involved in as opposed to dogmatically announcing that particular information does not apply because ‘I’m not a (insert sport here) coach.’

 Let’s look at a practical example, using the 400, that explains why a focus on developing more speed is usually the answer to an athletes perceived inability to achieve expectation as opposed to reducing the speed and intensity of their training for more so-called ‘conditioning’ and over distance. This, of course, is not a new example, but one that is quite effective at proving the point.

We have ‘Athlete A’ and ‘Athlete B’, both of whom are going to be competing against each other in a 400 meter sprint. All other things being equal:

Athlete A has a 200 meter personal best of 22.0
Athlete B has a 200 meter personal best of 22.5

Both athletes know that they will likely need to run a 49.0 to have a good chance at winning the race. Therefore, their individual race strategies must comprise this fact. They will use the race distribution suggestion from the USATF Level II Sprints manual, which says for male athletes:

1st 200m – Best 200m + 1.0 – 1.5 seconds
2nd 200m – 1st 200m + 1.0 – 1.5 seconds

Using this chart (and splitting the difference) each athlete’s race strategy should be as follows.

Athlete A: 1st 200m – 23.25, 2nd 200m – 24.5 = 47.75 seconds
Athlete B: 1st 200m – 23.75, 2nd 200m – 25.0 = 48.75 seconds

As a side note, I have found that with high school kids (and with younger athletes there will be an even greater difference) this may not be an incredibly realistic distribution. I find that the difference between first 200 and second 200 is usually between 3-4 seconds.

If you’re athlete B and you run a smart race, you’re going to lose by a full second as long as your 200m PR is .5 seconds slower than your competitor. That only leaves him with one choice if he wants to win. He has to go out at his competitor’s pace and hang on down the stretch. But here’s the problem, if both athletes go through the first 200m at 23.25, Athlete A is running at 94.6% of his 200m PR pace, while Athlete B is running at 96.8%. Through the first half of the race, Athlete A has reserved a differential of over 2%. He’s simply not working as hard as his competitor. Who do you think is feeling fresher at this point?

Over the back half of the race, Athlete A needs to run at 89.8% of his PR to achieve the goal time he believes will win the race. Athlete B, already running 2.3% harder than his opponent, must run at 91.8% of his 200m PR just to stay even. What can we expect for an outcome to this race? Do you think Athlete B, working over 2% harder to just to keep even, will out kick Athlete A? Not likely. Even if you argue that Athlete B has more aerobic power than Athlete B, that’s a lot to make up for. You may be saying, ‘But what’s 2% over an entire race?’ All things being equal, the best Athlete B can hope for going into the race is a 48.75. But if he tries to go fast, tries to stay with the athlete who is flat out faster and loses 2% off his goal time, he crawls in at 49.73. The point in all of this, when you look at the numbers, is that Athlete A turns a .5 second advantage in speed reserve (over 200m) into a near 2 second victory (over 400m).

The athlete with more speed is going to win a foot race, regardless of event or sport. This even applies under a state of fatigue and even when considering lactic threshold (which will occur at around 40 seconds in a sub-elite athlete). In track terms, if you want to run a good 800 you have to be able to run a good 400. To run a good 400, you have to run a fast 200. To be a great 200m runner, you need to have 100m speed, etc., etc. But this idea applies just as specifically to sports other than track and field. A prime example is a sport like soccer. At the age group levels, I see the great majority of training for this sport being done using Long Slow Distance (LSD) and long slow intervals. Then parents and coaches wonder why their athletes have no acceleration or top end speed or run heel to toe. Yet, in competition, the sport is characterized by short bursts of speed followed by a jog or moderate paced run, followed by a burst of full intensity sprinting.

I’m not going to cover training for soccer and similar sports. I just want you to consider how you train athletes in your particular sport and whether your focus is on developing speed and thus a speed reserve versus over ‘conditioning’ your athletes so that they are really good at running slow for extended periods of time. Even in soccer, let’s use a quick example similar to the previous one.

Athlete A and Athlete B are both chasing a loose ball that is 25 yards downfield. Athlete A specifically develops her acceleration and does speed endurance work specific to the demands of her sport. Thus she can cover that distance in 4 seconds (as a round number) under a state of fatigue. Athlete B’s training is based on running mileage and doing long repeats around the soccer field. She may have faster mark in the timed mile than Athlete A, but she’s weak, mechanically inefficient and slow. Do you think she can compete with Athlete A’s 4.0?

So which athlete gets control of the ball in that situation? What if there was a breakaway, who would you want on your team, offensively or defensively? How do you develop speed reserve in your athletes? It starts with knowing and understanding the energy system demands of your sport. From there, you have to implement a short to long speed development program (see my article from the previous issue) that spends the bulk of time, effort and instruction on acceleration development. The important thing is not to be in a rush.

Speed development is a skill that takes time, particularly at the beginning. Don’t be in a rush and progress athletes who have not developed their skills, even if that means it is another coach or program who sees the full maturation of that athlete or group of athletes. But when you develop athletes that are faster than the competition over each progressive distance and use program design techniques that are specific to their sport, they can rely on their speed reserve once fatigue kicks in. It is that reserve of anaerobic speed, not aerobic conditioning, that is going to make the difference on the track, competition or practice field.

Here is a great resource to check out. Click the link for more information

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