form drills

I'm in the same boat and would like to know an answer. At my school we do a cool down run and then we go lift. Would it be bad to do the lifting first and then the cool down?

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You usually want to be warmed up well but still fresh enough to retain good form and be able to stay relaxed. Relaxation and proper execution are important, so be physically and mentally sharp when you do drills. This means you'd normally do drills after a progressive warmup of slower-to-faster jogging and before the main portion of a workout. If you're going to do a hard running workout following the drills, add a few more short strides following the drills to readjust to a range of motion and recruitment pattern specific to running and to establish a probable starting pace.

Don't do drills when completely fatigued from hard track work which causes you to tie up or immediately following an easy run which keeps you at a restricted pace and limited range of motion for a long time (unless you do a few progressively faster short strides after the easy running and feel good doing them).

An exception to the "early in the workout" rule can be made in the event you're doing a workout consisting of several sets of short strides. In this case, explosive drills (but not static, strength-focused drills) can be added prior to the final set of strides. Some degree of additional concentration will be required to perform the drills following so much prior running, but if you haven't tied up or experienced form breakdown, you should benefit from the added concentration requirement, since this will force you to summon a wide spectrum of motor neurons.

The stage of training should also dictate which drills you emphasize. The resistance-oriented drills which target absolute strength and minimizing the inhibitory effects of the Golgi tendon organs should be stressed during the preseason and should gradually be phased out in favor of explosive drills which target reducing the "electromechanical delay" and improving neural coordination. Addressing static strength first provides a more suitable framework for the "speed-strength" to come later, since rapid movements can only be as explosive as overall joint integrity will allow.

Drills make you good at......

drills. Running makes you good at......

running. That is all you know, that is all ye need to know.

I don't know, i found that doing drills helped me maintain my form late in races. I met a sprint coach over Christmas break one year and i got to talking to him. We both considered form drills more as a form of strengthening exercise then anything.

Newly Retired D-I Coach wrote:

Drills make you good at......

drills. Running makes you good at......

running. That is all you know, that is all ye need to know.

Sounds like you should be a less newly retired D-1 coach.

Newly Retired D-I Coach wrote:

Drills make you good at......

drills. Running makes you good at......

running.

Of course you shouldn't focus on drills to the extent they become a replacement for running. Running is the best exercise for getting better at running. In fact, short sprints (up and down hills and on level surfaces) can effect almost every change the explosive drills can effect; moreover, sprints are vastly more running-specific. You should include short sprints at times. But drills can be a helpful part of a dynamic warmup routine. They require different recruitment patterns and distribution of impact, so (if properly applied) they provide refreshing changes to normal forces to the legs while still allowing you to warm up and get in some exercise that can train you to reduce the time you spend in your plant phase.

In addition, the different combination of neurons activated and the variety of forces encountered can be helpful in injury prevention; for example, if you suffer a misstep while fatigued, you may be better able to withstand the unfamiliar stress or immediately and subconsciously correct for it mid-step. Summoning new recruitment patterns can also manifest itself in races which feature sudden pace changes. Faced with sudden physical stress when already fatigued, it's often difficult to make good decisions (or enact them if you do decide to make them), so the introduction of a variable set of neural patterns to your protocol can be of benefit (unless the time spent on it eats into your acquisition of basic running fitness, of course).

I'd say running drills are at least as important as stretching and calisthenics. You shouldn't expect to become a better runner by stretching alone, but you shouldn't completely avoid it. Likewise, pushups, pullups, ab work and other upper body exercises won't make you a good runner by themselves (otherwise, gymnasts could hop straight off the pommel horse and be good distance runners), but people who are muscularly weak normally have less vigor, stability/balance, posture and basic health than athletes with reasonable muscular fitness, so you don't want to be a grade A weakling. Flexibility and upper body muscular strength should be afterthoughts for runners, but they shouldn't be non-thoughts. Neither should drills.

no one worth a damn has retired recently so i'm not too concerned with your comments. go cash your check and get over to the golf course.

ok to summerise:

Running comes first-

But jog warm up, stretching,and form drills are extra value added parts of a good, structured training schedule.

Likewise strength (gym Circuit work) once a week builds upper body muscle.

These are the accepted and proven elements of successful distance running. Ask any elite!

ok to summerise:

Running comes first-

But jog warm up, stretching,and form drills are extra value added parts of a good, structured training schedule.

Likewise strength (gym Circuit work) once a week builds upper body muscle.

These are the accepted and proven elements of successful distance running. Ask any elite!

1. Stretching does not belong in a discussion about form drills. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that stretching improves performance or reduces injury rate, which is why USATF is at present conducting its own research on runners and stretching. There are scientific studies on both bench press and sprinting that show stretching before makes an athlete slower and weaker. According to "Train Hard Win Easy" Brother Colm had his St. Pateicks runners do stretching after running, and US runners would do well to follow them, IF they do it at all. We no longer do any stretching at all--dynamic warmup only--because the scientific evidence against it is so strong.

2. A LIMITED amount of form drills after the slower part of warmup, not just improves from, but also gets the athlete prepared for faster running by moving the legs through a larger range of motion. This reduces the probability of strains and injuries (the opposite of stretching).

In our programs, we have athletes doing high knees, butt kicks, B-skips, and alternate leg bounding. These are done as part of the warmup (each not more than once or twice each over 20-30m), and the whole drill routine takes just a few minutes. We have distance people doing these after a 10-15 min jog and before strides, and the sprinters doing them after strides and before starts. The keys here are "perfect practice makes perfect" and consistency. There is no need to bore athletes to death with an hour of drills as I have seen occasionally from some coaches. If you do the basic drills consistently, distance runners will have form more like Ethiopians or 800 meter runners, rather than US marathoners (unless you want to run a marathon).

thanks for all the replies guys. one more quick question, if i'm doubling can I do these drills on my second run of the day which during break is my real easy run? Does it hurt the purpose of the run at all?

I doubt that you're a 'Newly Retired D-I Coach', you're more than likely a 'Newly Fired D-I Coach'.

With that lack of logic, I bet you think that weight lifting is only good for weight lifters? Or that high-tech clothing is only good for hipsters and high-tech folks.

Do drills after a warmup of a minimum of 5-10 minutes of easy jogging, but before the main workout.