Hi Folks,
Recently been appointed a coach of a small highschool sprints team and am looking to try and further my knowledge as much as possible as my background is mainly in distance running.
Aside from the Charlie Francis and elite track sites can anyone make any other recommendations of where to find the best resources? Books? pdfs? (Basically anything I can get my hands on)
Any advice would be appreciated.
Charlie Francis is a crackpot
check out Vern Gambetta, Elitetrack.com...
Just remember this... long slow stuff will create slower athletes. From a metabolic standpoint, interval 200's at 75% of PR is great, but only once a week.
Split up the days in terms of acceleration, max velocity, interval (recovery) work...
Mon- acceleration (10-30m) 4x10, 4x20, 4x30m
Tues- interval work (100-200m) examples- 12x100 or 10x150 or 8x200
Wed- recovery circuit type work
Thurs- max velocity (30-50m) example 6 x flying 30m
Fri- metabolic circuit type work
Sat- speed endurance (80-150m) example 80, 100, 120m with 6+min rest
Even your 400m kids will progress with this type of work... you don't have to be doing 500m breakdowns!
For high school coaching, there are few resources better than all the stuff you can get at
http://completetrackandfield.com/
Some stuff is free and some is for sale, but when I started coaching sprints a few years back, Latif's stuff really helped me scale stuff to the high school environment as I was a former collegiate distance runner who had coached only the distances before that.
Also, check out the free stuff from Boo Schexnayder at:
http://sacspeed.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Another great resource that I use often is at:
The two main things you want to be knowing are
1) the various types of training that are ideal for sprinters (training inventory)
2) Periodization or when to do what and why type of thing (training design)
You don't have to be an expert at drills etc. if you have access to YouTube, you can teach yourself and your kids.
The US Track Coaches Association and USA Track and Field both have really good Coaches Education programs as well if that is an option for you.
Good luck and please ask any other questions.
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