I am a first year coach at a very small school.
All of my experience has been with distance and middle distance in the past.
I have someone to coach the throwers but I am going to be coaching the sprinters/ hurdlers and ditance runners.
I am going to have literally no experienced athletes. There were 6 on the team last year but 5 graduated. I should have at least 20 kids running this spring.
Do any coaches have any advice or links to training schedules. '
Thanks
try to get as mnay kids out as you can and make it fun.
This is a great site for track and field training, especially sprints and jumps. Lots of great articles and a reasonably active message board.
My suggestion is to read some very basic books on track and field, rather than look at what the elite are doing. Go to either MF Athletic track and field site or Track and Field News site and see what books are available to you. Keeping training progressive, simple, and consistent will provide your new athletes an opportunity to learn and develop at a reasonable pace. Check around your league or conference for coaches that have done a good job with their sprinters and ask them for help. Most will be very willing to help you. Some may even have some sources they will share with you.
Allowing for the appropriate recovery is the most important. Do not try and rush them through a workout. And be prepared to spend more time with sprinters than distance runners. Failure to do this will shot what little credibility you did have, and you won't get it back.
I have had success with a simple program:
Mon-strength day (quarter miler type session)
500-400-300-200 or 5 x 300 etc.
Tues- Speed development (most important day)
pure top end speed:
6 x flying 40's, 50's, 60's with full recovery
Wed- recovery day/strides/techincal aspects/relay exchanges
Thursday- 150's or some sort of cut down (250-200-150-100-50)
Fri- No meet: High intensity 2 x 300 @ full with 10 min. rec. You might alternate this day with another speed day like tues.
This is simple, but has proven very effective. Best of luck to you. I am of a similar background and have really enjoyed working with the sprinters. Like the above poster said, be patient; they won't likely be like you were as a distance runner (tough, driven etc).