Begin each conversation with a smile

It was challenging being a young coach in 2007, and trying to earn respect. I think that I left with the feeling that I was trying to be a friend, and not a coach.

A coach can not expect his/her athletes to demonstrate genuine respect, unless their needs and thoughts are placed higher than their coach's. I think that is the key to a successful coach: being more adaptive to a student's needs than a student complacent to the desires of the coach.

Working at Principia College, I understand the intimate side of its learning concept. It was formed from the platform of higher learning, in a spiritual way, for all of its academic, cultural, business activities. It was established "to serve the cause of Christian Science." I take my role as coach very seriously and see no reason not to act from the basis of seeing each individual as an expression of Mind, or God. However, preachiness is something that I want to veer from entirely.

As a first-year coach, I didn't deal with too many tears, or had to seriously consider restrictive practice times because of one thing or the other. It was a good year of learning for me, and there were plenty of mistakes. I learned it is better to under-train, and never to over-train. My best athlete, a female hurdler, would have very likely succeeded to the NCAA level had I not disregarded her wincing, and at times sluggish behavior. It takes practice to really listen, and patience to know that they will feel cherished by your mutual giving in their work.

When former head coach Ann Pierson resigned, she left in her wake a longing for a woman leader with a reputation of coaching acumen at an elite level. I think Chuck has the coaching acumen, and experience with high-level athletes, but we have yet to appeal to all the talent at Prin College. Though, we don't love our athletes any less.

In The Loop

Awkward that I'd be writing about loops when they're people out there right (maybe reading this) who would characterize me as "loopy." And, that's not saying enough. Sometimes, I'm really off my rocker...but I'll just get to what I mean.

In track and field, athletes usually run in loops, called the oval, or parts of the track. And, I'm not one to boast or make rave reviews about any oval action, but a product of The Principia, Cedric Diakabana, through some prodding and faithful encouragement discovered that at the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, they have a men's track and field team. Though, the team does not have an indoor (the women do), he survived as the only walk-on candidate to stay through time trials with the team.

I have slimmed down his email, with parts pertinent to this blog:

"To give you a quick update, coach, I made the team, after running 5 events at the time trails. I ran the 150, 600, 300, 4x400, and 800. Everyone had to run, not just the new guys, the cross country runners as well (only 600 and 800). It was extremely intimidating. We ran all of them outside because we don't really have an indoor track, in-fact they are in the process of building one for us. The one actually have has only 4 lanes, and it is at the basketball arena, and there's been a lot of basketball games going on. Each of those days we ran the time trails it was either raining a lot or freezing cold. We ran the 800 in early December, and it was about 34 degrees outside. Well here are my times:

• 150 meters: 17.4 sec
• 600 meters: 1:22. 1 (2nd place)
• 300 meters: 35. 8 sec (3rd Place)
• 4x400 meters: 49.7 secs (1st place) I ran the first leg on my relay team
• 800 meters: 1:56.1 (3rd place)

I guess the coaches were impressed by my 600 and 800 times, and they have I hope that I will get better. So far I am the only walk-on left who made the team. Some of the recruits and guys who were already on the time from years before got cut. We actually had a couple of seniors either get cut or quit the team because of the pressure. Overall, the time trials was a great learning experience.

Mrs. Jane Reider gave me a quote to study by Mrs. Eddy, "Perfect love casteth out fear." I would always tell myself before each race that there was nothing to fear because I loved the moment, and the opportunity to even tryout among "division I" runners. They have not updated the roster yet, however they have our season schedule up on the athletic website. We open the season on February 1st and 2nd at Kentucky, against the SEC (Florida, Tenn, Georgia, Arkansas, LSU...ect)."

I found these times to be quite impressive. Cedric had let the sport of track and field take a backseat, because he concentrated on attending community college for general ed courses, and like...finding himself, etc. But, he stuck through and LET it happen! Now, all that he has to do is hold onto his dreams and work hard. It's great when you have contact with student-athletes that go on to do good things and make the most of their life experiences, then come back and tell you about. Even if I never coached him, I feel proud to have been a part of his only year at Principia College. I'll find a way to attend one of his meets. Well, we'll see...I've gotta run!

Go 2008!

In its full glory, track and field is the classic sport that burns in each of us.

In my 2008 coaching blog, I will post bi-weekly workouts where you can learn how your workouts should begin (in my presence or absence), such as warm-up routines, and find my feedback so that you can temper or intensify your training approach as we progress through our indoor season in January into late May 2008.

I hope to grow with you and use your daily practice and insights to shape the workouts that are kinesthetically-minded to your fitness levels and goals.

I will also post detailed results with a description of your performance and times to illustrate what you can do to improve, as well as your achievements, on and off the track.

I will coach by the idea of under-training versus over-training, and believe me, without your communication I may overwork you. So I need your efforts to help frame the day-to-day and week-to-week plans. If we can both work the season without injury, you could learn to love track and field.

Sprinter-Hurdler Training Year

In this post, I have provide a general training year for the hurdler/sprinter, and this was from notes compiled through a lecture given by Amy Deem (below) at a clinic in Columbia, Missouri.

Training Year

General Preparation

• Speed: Sprint-related drills, acceleration mechanics, sand runs, sled pulls, hill runs
  
• Strength: Proper lifting technique, circuit training, general strength
  
• Coordination: General, sprint drills
  
• Flexibility/Mobility: Static, Dynamic
  
• Work capacity: Aerobic capacity and aerobic power, hills

Specific Preparation

• Speed: Acceleration mechanics, block starts, in and out runs
  
• Strength: Maximum strength, general strength
  
• Coordination: Event specific drills
  
• Flexibility/Mobility: Less emphasis on static stretching
  
• Work capacity: anaerobic capacity, aerobic power, specific endurance

Competition

• Speed: Blocks 20-60m, runs from 30-60m from stand, 3 point or fly
  
• Strength: Power, general strength
  
• Coordination:
  
• Flexibility: Dynamic work
  
• Work capacity: Speed endurance, lactate tolerance, race tactics, anaerobic capacity

Looking at a microcycle within the different mesocycles (or training phases) --

Preparation Training

• Monday: Warm up, Multi-throws, multi-jumps, accelerations, weights, hurdle mobility, cool down, stretch



• Tuesday: Warm up, aerobic capacity, general strength, cool down/static stretch



• Wednesday: Warm up in grass, hurdle mobility weights, barefoot tempo run on grass, pillar strength, stretch



• Thursday: Hills, general strength, cool down, stretch



• Friday: Warm up, in place jumps circuit, weights, pillar strength, cool down, stretch

Specific Preparation Training

• Monday: Warm up, Multi-throws, multi-jumps, acceleration drills, blocks 10-30m, weights, cool down, static stretch



• Tuesday: Warm up, anaerobic capacity, general strength, cool down/static stretch



• Wednesday: Warm up in grass, medicine ball circuit, weights, MB pillar circuit, diagonal strides on grass, stretch



• Thursday: Warm up, technique, general strength, cool down, stretch



• Friday: Warm up, short and long hills, pillar strength, cool down, stretch

Competition training

• Monday: Warm up, Multi-throws, blocks from 30-60m, 40-60m flys, weights, cool down, stretch



• Tuesday: Warm up, speed endurance or lactate tolerance, multi jumps, general strength, cool down/static stretch



• Wednesday: Warm up in grass, aerobic power or capacity, weights, pillar strength, cool down, stretch



• Thursday: OFF/TREATMENT



• Friday: Pre meet warm up


• 
  
  Saturday: COMPETE
  
  
  
  
  

Clinic Lecture by Amy Deem, University of Miami (FL), Head Women's Track & Cross Country Coach

Coach Deem presented on the long and high hurdles training and teaching technique. She placed a strong emphasis on having student-athletes learn the technique. She has found that you can look at a high hurdler with a lot of speed, but when they are running over lower hurdles their technique dwindles, and therefore, it is critically important to work on technique in preparation phases and the macrocycle, not the end (definitely not).

As a side note, I was surprised to know that she has worked with Bahamian Debbie Ferguson and US sprinter Lauryn Williams, but I am not surprised that she has the ability and knowledge base to help them excel. She's worked with wonderful people and I think that that makes the difference, because Williams and Ferguson also have genuine character and are honest workers of their craft, as I believe Coach Deem intended for herself to be as a coach.

My notes followed her talk about hurdles training in general, as she tried to serve the lecture needs of both high and low hurdles coaches. It would be interesting to ask her if there would be a reemergence of half-lap hurdling into the sport of track and field, because I think it would greatly serve the training preparation needs of the low hurdlers around the world and perhaps at the amateur level, but not high school or in specially exclusive meets. And, here are my notes:

• Establish race rhythm in the long hurdle race
• A sprint hurdler sprints; there is a speed component integral to their training that should be implemented from day one
• Critical elements of training coupled with technique training are acceleration and the mechanics of speed
• First hurdle in every race helps to establish the rhythm, outcome of the hurdler's race
• Hurdling is a rhythmic event

In the preparatory phase, Deem focuses on circuit training as her main introduction to strength training. In fact, when I asked her about hurdle mobility functions and how she shows student-athletes to exercise the hurdling ranges of motion with the trail and lead legs, she replied that she does not take them to the weight room. I believe that she goes with the same school of thought as Willie Banks, another presenter at the MTCCCA clinic, that speed and strength training should primarily take place on the track so that student-athletes can transfer their work directly to the event and their competitive ideals of performance. Deem makes sure that the circuit training focuses for a greater portion of the general and specific preparatory phase on the core (abdominal and back). She coaches athletes through hurdle walks, and instead of hurdle drills, Deem has the hurdlers sprint over hurdles and at lower heights if she believes that this is the way to go when they are starting to learn.

All sprinters and hurdlers do hurdle walks for mobility and conditioning to help them gain more flexibility. I like the idea of getting away from most hurdle drills because it would detach the athlete from the driving off of the ground. I can still be just as creative in planning workouts.

Active recovery stimulates speed endurance for the athletes during workouts if the coach can have them go through an exercise or circuit with short rest periods, in a range of 30-90 seconds, even 120 seconds. When they are able to do this, then it seems much easier for them to building their "work capacity," or endurance despite not being proficient over long distances. Getting away from the school of thought, which embraces the falsehood of long distance running as the way to building sprinter strength is so invasive. Now I feel coaches are taking anew the idea to have their athletes focus on working hard specifically to their own event.

Once the specific preparatory phase begins, hurdlers can work on their block starts, use sled pulls, focus on stride frequency in shortening of the hurdle distances. I think that there will be something to gain from buying Brett McFarlane's book.

Coach Deem pointed out that shortening the women's hurdles distances to 7.6m and the men's hurdles distances to 8.5m would help them to focus on the three-step stride pattern, and at the same building a technical regimen to put their work together for a solid competitive performance on the track. She said something interesting as I walked into her clinic: 'You need to be able to run 10 meters if you're gong to run 60 and 100.' Certainly 110 meters would be a part of that equation as well. She denied the school of thought that said that having hurdlers run on the runway would deteriorate their ability to run with the right stride frequency, basically that the student would not be able to run 3 strides between hurdles. False! Of course, though, she mentioned that each individual athlete is different and must have their ability and technical levels taken into account at the start of the season.

Deem uses dynamic stretching in her warm up to the hurdle workout sessions. These are some of the exercises: backward jog, backward cycle, leg swings, hurdle walks. Both sprinters and hurdlers should do the same warm up and cool down exercises together, because in essence they both benefit mutually like a triple jumper and a long jumper, even though dissimilar share similar functions of motion and competitive rhythms.

In the competitive phase, or strength phase, Deem emphasizes quick movements and fine-tuning the learned skills which hopefully at the end of season have been mastered or the student-athletes gained measured proficiency. She emphasized in getting the race pace that you want in practice, for competition.

A muscle group that matters most to the hurdlers in their legs, and more specifically their ankles, joints and shins especially because their is a slight trajectory of the c.g. over the hurdlers and a reacceleration resulting in a need for strength in this lower leg area. She advised to do this, the coach can have the athletes:

• do barefoot running
• running uphill on the chapel, or downhill on bare feet
  
• playing ultimate frisbee barefoot

Floridian coach Mike Holloway, as Coach Deem mentioned whom I have little contact with over email, has his athletes do barefoot running and probably sprinting as well. And, at the end of her session (sidenote), she said that the Bahamian practice their hurdling on a grass track and they can certainly do this barefoot which would help to build the strength of joints and muscles specifically where there would need to be targeted strength. So, more running barefoot on soft surfaces!

Coach Deem also understands that some student-athletes have a strong backside mechanics, and this can be eliminated gradually over time by:

• running stadium steps
• over indoor steps

The action of driving the knees up and the foot up, not back and up will increase stride frequency and remove the tendency to float, which would affect their rhythm and cause their speed to mimick more of a beginning sprinter mechanics.

I enjoyed her comments about the fact of developing more strength in the hurdler because then s/he will exude the confidence to demonstrate the necessary functions of a seasoned hurdler, and be able to practice difficult ranges of motion because they feel up to the task and will not talk themselves out of demonstrating skills critical to good performances. Building greater strength through med ball circuit training and some hurdle mobility work will go hand-in-hand.

As part of her conclusion, she focused a sample week workout for the specific prepatory phase of the hurdles training. On Friday, the pre-meet day she pointed out that athletes will put on their spikes and go over a few hurdles a couple of times to "get the muscles fired up." And, this can be a time to get to know the students better and how they work in a coach-athlete relationship, whether they like a hands-on or hands-off approach to their training. When there is downtime, this would be the time and place for one-on-one conversations. And, a day to have one-on-one meetings with students and if they wanted to talk about their lives outside of the track and the field.

At my first clinic lecture in 2007, I sat in on a triple and long jumping session.

Willie Banks was the first to speak and that was awesome. I had never seen him in person nor though that I might ever, but there he was. He started telling us about himself and his fabled rhythmic clapping that is now evidenced as valuable to the sport, and critical to athletes' performances. Most field athletes now get the crowd involved with having them clap. Just go back and watch the javelin, the triple jump, the long jump, the high jump and you will hear the sounds of Willie Banks enthusiasm as he captivated a Swedish audience and surprised the world with his historic hops, steps, and jumps.

Banks demonstrated some things for us and also stated that the triple jump and long jump share characteristics, but are quite dissimilar. The triple jump is a "controlled run." Rhythm is an absolutely critical element to training and performance of the triple jump since it is a controlled motion of three fluid jumps. I forgot to ask him if he incorporates music into this workouts or just thinks performances are good for that.

As his presentation started, he pointed out that to profile an ideal triple jump, they need to possess these qualities:

1. Fast, strong, flexible, agile
2. Lean, light and powerful

He also illustrated on a projector that there are 4 macrocycles and 5 microcycles. Active rest was also a key point to getting athletes to ease into their development and to peak at the right times. In the training, there should be a distinction between when to add quantities and when to shave back to add qualities both to the practice design and for the athletes mental and physical performances.

Within the four macrocycles, he wrote that in this order, the athlete should gain proficiency:

1. Speed endurance
2. Speed strength
3. Jump technique
4. Competition/fine tuning

Within the five microcycles (10-14 days), the athlete should experience focused work (any order) on:

1. Running technique
2. Jumping technique
3. Strength technique
4. Agility training
5. Psyche training (jumping off of a high dive)

Banks discussed what each of the four areas within the four macrocycles mean. In speed endurance, an athlete can run 150 meters. Within that distance, he encouraged running the first 50 meters without breathing, the next breathing and the last 50 meters not breathing to build-up work capacity. Hills are a staple of helping athletes not to peak too soon, as well as training the body to drive for short distances and improve explosive power in the legs. Speed strength refers to box jumping, steps, stairs or stadium steps to help build general strength in the legs and is a weight-less form of exercise to develop good technique in the cycle-through, touchdown, and foot placement. Pushups also are a staple of workout for the triple jumpers that have worked with Banks. He uses a dynamic set of pushups where the athlete starts out in a wide pushup to middle to close pushup, and starts again at wide. He said that most athletes will not be able to do that five times. This can be a good thing to practice as a warm up routine to weightlifting. Instead of doing too much strength building in the weight room, we can focus on getting weight routines to focus on explosive power to match the frame and quality of event to the athlete. And, he emphasized, "you don't have to be in the weight room to build strength." He demonstrated that we could take weights to the track and have the athletes then release the weights and sprint for a certain distance to build the necessary drive and explosive strength relative to the event.

Jump technique refers to simply getting on the runway and apply the two previous areas of focus in the macrocycles. Lastly, competition is competition where the only adjustments that are made are checkmarks and the coach(es) find ways to give the athletes simple cues to accomplish their goals.

In the triple jump, the athlete is not sprinting, but jumping, and the jumper must push off the board in order to maintain that control and speed. The critical difference between true triple jumping and long jumping lies in the fact that in the TJ, the jumper lifts the foot cycling over the takeoff knee and planting, and not just cycling through with close top speed, as found in the long jump.

At this point, Mike Powell finally showed up and he interjected with his comments on the approach and takeoff which he, along with other expert coaches and studies in the field of the sport, says are the most critical to long jumping success. Teaching athletes to count every other step, be consistent, and courageously run fast enough to be in control and nearly out of control. Coach Powell works under Joanne Bolden at UCLA, his alma mater, and was famously named "Mike Foul" for his lack of consistency in NCAA competition but later showed everyone his true meddle as a world-class athlete.

Powell began with explaining the basics of approach running and told coaches to look for a 16-step approach with an 'A' cycle. To develop the muscular strenght and memory for the explosive range of motion necessary in the long jump, the athlete should work on arm pumps through sled drives, hill work in practices. In order to maximize work on the approach, the athlete must learn to work on a short approach to a smooth transition to the end of their approach. The hips do mostly everything in the long jump, for the power of the jump and transferrence of weight. "Your head leads your hips," he said and being able to accelerate through the takeoff, think of being tall, bouncy and light. At the takeoff, the penultimate step, there will be a long step and a quick, short, powerful step following. A coach should give a cue of "Long to short!" to help the athlete focus on this end phase of the jump. Keeping the head up and the shoulders square looking straight ahead will help drive the hips, or c.g., through at the right trajectory for in-flight motion.

Banks interrupted Powell and made a circuitous comment about triple jump. That athletes should take 22 steps versus 20 in the LJ. If athletes start from a static stand they could be off of the board by 2-3 feet. So, it is important to establish rhythm from the very beginning.

Powell continued on his course about consistency and the different parts of the approach to takeoff, that having checkmarks to keep athletes consistent is a great tool in learning and teaching. An active start is better than a static start, showing that there are similar characteristics of both TJ and LJ.

Sprint Training for 100-200

Tom Lester, Raytown South High School

An active warm up for a short sprinter will consist of a 40-45 minute routine to get them prepared for training on a hard day or prior to a race on competition day.

The active warm up consists of active work, not static or stagnant movements in this order:

• individual stretching (10 minutes)
• jogging and dynamic flexibility (10-15 minutes)
• sprint drills (10 minutes)
• acceleration drills 15-20 meters (5 minutes)
• 100-meter build-ups x2 (2-3 minutes)
• partner stretching (3-5 minutes)
• 3x 50 meter build-ups @ 90-95% (3-4 minutes)

Either on a sand or soft surface area, the sprinters should do more plyometric circuits work versus a lot of powercleans and squats because:

• it has physiological advantages over the challenges of stress on the lower back
• helps build ball and socket joints
• facilities control of balance on both sides of the body
• and, can increase short explosive sprint ability with eaach set of sand circuits

And, during the season, weightlifting should range in frequency during the microcycle at 2-3 times per week. The sprinters should lift at the beginning of practice to stay fresh and the major lifting that should occur would be bench, incline, arm swings. Any thing that will help with upper body explosiveness would serve as enhancing their track performance.

In this notes, Coach Lester points out training odd distances over traditional interval training. He emphasized the 150 meter, 250 meter, and 350 meter distances for specific reasons. One, I believe is that the last 50 meters can be isolated and made the opportunity for the sprinter to really determine how well they can finish the last part of their race, by staying calm and driving through the finish line. Also, the 150 meters can help to build threshold strength where the sprinters can maintain 100% effort without much deceleration. The 250 meter distance allows the sprinter to maintain 90% effort, and lastly, not least, the 350 meter distance poses the great mental and physical challenge for the "long" sprinter who must understand that the spirit of sprinting is "heart and desire" to drive through the remaining 50 meters without timidity or hesistation.

He has provided specific thoughts for the high school athlete and coach, but certainly this can be generally applied to the collegiate coach and athlete who will be segwaying from high school to college, depending on the program and the year of the athlete entering a track and field program, as well as their athletic ability.

Originally written on October 7, 2007:

Before I had cancelled my first MySpace account, I wrote a strong and preemptive piece on Marion Jones and what has now culminated in a public statement from Jones about her dishonorable abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. Basically, she cheated and the whole world could witness the shame of this once star-studded athlete destroy her chances of ever being a legend.

What I had previously stated in a blog now gone and deleted was that if you really wanted to know if Jones was involved with BALCO and steroids, as is already evident, is by following the trails of "bread crumbs" left by her former husband and steroid user C.J. Hunter, who was an Olympic shot putter, as well as Tim Montgomery whom Jones had a young son with, though they did not marry.

Jones will be stripped of her medals, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeks to do this as quickly and as effectively as possible. The IOC does not play games or stall on illegal drug enforcement. They bring the hammer on anyone and it just doesn't matter who. In fact, Michael Johnson had to forfeit a gold medal won as he anchored a 4x100 relay with Tim Montgomery, because at the time Montgomery had cheated and this indelibly affected the performance of the relay team. So, in the same manner, teammates of Marion Jones at the 2000 Sydney Games will also consequently be stripped of their medals. Ain't that a....!

So, in conclusion, with all of the hub-bub about Marion Jones and her now open secret of abusing steroids like EPO and others, not flaxseed oil or some balm, we in the track and field world will pay for her mistake and others like Montgomery and Ben Johnson. They have tainted the image of the sport and every talented and starry-eyed athlete that breaks a world record or runs a certain time before not reached will be questioned and forever skepticized by those who do not really appreciate this sport -- the most original of all sports in its essence.

I love track and field, and this is why I'm a coach. But, however, much I love it, I will always have a nagging thought in the back of my mind now when I watch Asafa Powell blaze across the finish line, or see Yelena Isibinyeva soar over the vaulting bar, or hear the pounding strides of Tatyana Lebedeva as she seeks to defy the odds as a phenomenal triple and long jumper.

Jones has once again reopened the wounds left by Justin Gatlin and scores of coaches and athletes too greedy to play and run the sport honestly. Out...