Alan Webb: Can Anyone Describe the Plyometric Program Used by Scott Raczko as Described by Abdi Bile's Coach, James Cook

I honest don't understand why people insist on the validity of training modalities that are CLEARLY worthless. There is an argument to be made for plyometrics, but GOOFY CALISTHENICS and dancing around some hurdles plainly have nothing to do with running. Oh but Alan Webb does them, so they must be great. Never mind that he's been head-and-shoulders above his peers since day one.... lets just attribute his success to hurdle drills. GET FUCKIN REAL PEOPLE!!!

Dear Mr. Know-it-all,

I'd surely love to engage you in discussion and am wondering exactly what credentials you may have in saying:

1. Hurdle drills are WORTHLESS. They have no value other than making you good at hurdle drills.

2. That I overestimate the value of plyometrics and that the benefits I describe here are largely vague and meaningless. (As a caveate I would agree that plios carry a relatively great risk of injury in and of themselves. That they are generally more dangerous than running is questionable logic if done properly, and I speak from Spring '05 experience.)

3. Running simply does not require much so-called "core strength" - it isn't a limiting factor. Furthermore, running itself produces "core" conditioning to the extent that it is required for running.

I have both a certification with the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a trainer and experience in having both worked in a gym setting with athletes and in dynamic situations with student/athletes as a coach for years.

Simply put, plios don't make the athlete. They make the athlete better.

Core strengthening has shown to work just as resistance training (weight lifting such as power cleans) has for athletes. If indeed the body uses less ATP to efficiently stabilize the core during running less energy is uselessly spent in the endeavor of running fast. It's widely accepted that work strengthening the core makes the body more efficient at supporting itself during running, whether you think it does or not.

Nevertheless, I enjoy the banter but also frown on your use of unyielding language and insulting tone.

What are your credentials and what type of athletes have you successfully helped with your disdain of plios, drills and core strength work?

-Spinney

...and I do not attribute Webb's success to his doing hurdle drills.

Get less vulgar Mr. Know-it-all!

he was caught out for taking epo.plyometrics was made a big deal of when he improved so much and everyone in ireland wanted their coach to implement it.now they realise the big jump was epo.

ok Im going to ask one last time if anyone has an answer to the original question?

SpinneyLives wrote:

What are your credentials and what type of athletes have you successfully helped with your disdain of plios, drills and core strength work?

My credentials, as well yours, are completely irrelevant. You need to get over the personality behind an argument and focus on its logical merit without regard to WHO makes a particular claim. The validity of a training method has nothing to do with WHO endorses it.

FITNESS TRAINING CERTIFICATIONS are particularly worthless, particularly with regard to training athletes. The fact that you submit your NASM creds as evidence of your credibility actually diminishes it, IMO.

FYI, I have degrees in human physiology and biophysics... but I have never been so ignorant as to believe that these confer credibility with regard to training. I have been a self-coached middle distance runner since I graduated high school and, while I'm not quite as fast as Alan Webb, Ihave improved rapidly and consistently, and have achieved a level of performance unlikely for someone of my talent level. I am achieving my POTENTIAL, and that's the true gauge of a training program - not how fast you run. I've also coached; high school kids mostly, and also a small handfull of competitive college-age ameatures.

I don't care if my opinions run contrary to those who coach elite athletes, because frankly I know better than most of them.

oh and if you want my times........ 4:01.11 MILE, 1:52.09 800m........ not elite but nothing to laugh at, and considerably fast with respect to my level of speed

Mr. Know-it-all,

I will now return control of your computer.

Thanks for playing.

-Spinney

p.s. Best of luck doing as you please, as we all do. I'm off to converse with humans who listen and converse.

I think Coe ate grits for breakfast too.

awesome post. thanks joe

Well, I read the novel by Christopher Lear on Alan Webb and if you read it it really answers alot of questions about training. Plus, just being on Raczko's team is an experience no one forgets. He coaches the girls' long distance team at Oakton HS which I was a part of. The training included basic stuff almost identical to the short-distance coach's, Kiernan's, at Oakton HS.

Mr. Know-it-all wrote:

oh and if you want my times........ 4:01.11 MILE, 1:52.09 800m........ not elite but nothing to laugh at, and considerably fast with respect to my level of speed

If you had done some explosive speed training (20-30m flys), plyos, hurdles, Maximum strength and power endurance lifting with a PROPER flexibility and core stengthening routine (rather than the bulimapilates routines runners do), you could've destroyed the world man.

Not to insult at all, but to not be open to a new idea is dooimg yourself for failure.

I have a video of the 2004 olympic coverage by NBC where they are interviewing El G and showing him training and one of the excercises he is doing is hopping over hurdles. That sounds like Plyometrics to me.

I have a video of the 2004 olympic coverage by NBC where they are interviewing El G and showing him training and one of the excercises he is doing is hopping over hurdles. That sounds like Plyometrics to me.

cushmace,

can you see that video over the internet?

what more excercises is he doing?