I was always very intrigued by the FTC philosophy until I read some FTC thoughts on hurdle training.
Anybody who could master hurdles in the low volume advocated there is a top national talent already.
i know there's still a lot to learn form the FTC way, but I don't believe in it as a complete program philosophy. At least not with the type of talent that I get to work with.
its funny you mention FTC hurdle training - based off of this thread and some other stuff ive been reading, the FTC approach to hurdle training is one of the few parts of the program I agree with. I had several teammates train under a FTC hurdle training method last year for the first time, and their times dropped massively - one guy went from being stuck at 42 for 3 years to running 38 high, and we had a girl go from 46.1 to 44.8, not to mention the high hurdle times, where the same guy went from 16.3 to 15.00.
Overtraining in sprints is a bummer, but overtrained hurdlers are dwelling in a nightmare. Pretty much the ultimate "cat" event.
Would you be willing to share some programing? I'm trying to add more of a Clyde Hart style with my older runners. We've gone nearly full FTC and like others have stated our 400 and even 200m runners are caught in "no mans land" in terms of endurance. You said you got some clarification to Clyde Harts system can you pass some of that on? I would appreciate that greatly!
I was always very intrigued by the FTC philosophy until I read some FTC thoughts on hurdle training.
Anybody who could master hurdles in the low volume advocated there is a top national talent already.
i know there's still a lot to learn form the FTC way, but I don't believe in it as a complete program philosophy. At least not with the type of talent that I get to work with.
its funny you mention FTC hurdle training - based off of this thread and some other stuff ive been reading, the FTC approach to hurdle training is one of the few parts of the program I agree with. I had several teammates train under a FTC hurdle training method last year for the first time, and their times dropped massively - one guy went from being stuck at 42 for 3 years to running 38 high, and we had a girl go from 46.1 to 44.8, not to mention the high hurdle times, where the same guy went from 16.3 to 15.00.
interesting. with all the hurdle training i've ever seen, I just can't imagine 6 reps of only 2 hurdles being enough for those guys. Maybe during competition season, if you have the luxury of a long pre-season build-up. but 10 hurdles is a lot to go over when you are only ever working on 2 at a time.
When it comes to sprinting you generally have two philosophies: Long to short or short to long.
Clyde Hart works under a long to short philosophy, aiming to extend the endurance before working on speed. Keep in mind Hart was also getting talent who already had elite speed to begin with, which is the main argument against this philosophy for high school runners.
Your average high school runner doesn’t have elite natural speed and needs to develop it, which is where a short to long philosophy comes in. The only unique thing about Feed the Cats is that is basically just stays short the entire time and never goes long. If I had to guess, and I’m no sprint expert but they’re probably leaving a little something on the table in the 400.
I’m a Hart fan but unless you have a young kid who is naturally very fast and wants to be a strict 400m specialist I’d work under a short to long program.
But Tony Holler is also a d1ck so I’m all for not inflating his ego any further.
That's so ridiculous if there's really a dichotomy like this. Why not just train for the specific requirements of the event you want to do, as well as the needs of the athlete which will always include some ratio of both long and short.
One of the problems with sprint training is there just aren't as many resources out there as there is for distance running, which is why people think "Feed the Cats" and Clyde Hart are the only two options. Most sprint coaches keep their cards pretty close to their chest. If you look up "The Charlie Francis Training System" you'll find a pretty complete training program for sprinters that works great for developing speed as well as developing athletes that can compete up to 400 meters. Charlie Francis' system has a nice mixture of short, fast sprints for developing speed and a fairly high volume of tempo running on recovery days, not unlike Clyde Hart's use of 200m repeats for developing 400m runners. I recommend adjusting the volume of the tempo workouts down some for high schoolers, just as you would have to do for Clyde Hart's program. Francis' speed days are very "Feed the Cats"ish, but he does more lactate work than Tony Holler. Of course Charlie Francis predates "Feed the Cats" by a couple of decades.
Another good resource is "The Sprinter's Compendium" which gives a good breakdown of the different strategies for training sprinters and has lot's of example workouts and training weeks in the back. It does not give you an out-of-the-box training program but it has all of the pieces you need to create your own. I found it especially useful to compare the sample training weeks provided by various coaches in the back and find the similarities and differences.
Why I Coach the 400m With a Feed the Cats Approach | Sprint the 400 ... This was from a recent clinic at TFC Sacramento 2023. The link to the all of the cou...
Most of us coaches on a "love of running" site aren't going to relate as much, but his point is well-taken that gifted, fast-twitch natural athletes will probably do better in high school on a FTC-type system (and will be identified sooner and elevated accordingly).
Well he did sucessfully train runners into low 11s. Not just one or two but multiple of them so his methods working so I'm assuming no one can do anything ;-;