DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPRINT HURDLES
By: Tony Veney
One of the difficult areas to manage as a coach is the development of your sprint hurdlers (110H/ 100H). The books out there will give you plenty of technical things to learn and what I want to touch on is the practice session itself.
Filed under Hurdles by on Feb 22nd, 2012. Comment. 
What To Do With Your Walking Wounded
Marc Mangiacotti – Associate Head Coach, Brown University
I have been coaching long enough to understand that in athletics injury is inevitable. The repetitive motion of running and contact with multiple surfaces can increase the rate of injuries among sprinters. As a sprints coach I am sure you have encountered common injuries such as shin splints, stress fractures and pulled muscles.
Filed under Hurdles, Jumps, Mid Distance, Sprints by on Feb 20th, 2012. Comment.
Coaching the Dual Hurdler
Tony Veney
Having been a high school, community college, and 4-year coach at all three levels, I have had to deal with the dilemma surrounding how to make the best use of the hurdler who can go both ways. If your boys or girl can run 14.1 in the highs but can’t bust a grape in the intermediates, or vice versa, your choices for training are less complex. But what if your boy is 14.2 and 38.00, and your girl is 14.0 and 43.55? How do you give them all they need to perform at the highest level while still attending to the specific needs of two different events?
Filed under Hurdles by on Feb 20th, 2012. Comment.
Cold Weather Training Options
Latif Thomas – USATF II, USTFCCCA Event Specialist (Sprints, Hurdles & Relays)
Bishop Feehan High School, Attleboro (MA)
I live in New England where it stays cold until the end of the spring season. So I know my sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers will be practicing and competing in the cold, wind and snow. Since using distance runs, long/slow intervals and other methods of high volume, low intensity training do not prepare speed/power athletes for success, how can we approach training in a way that addresses our athletes’ needs without compromising intensity or increasing the potential for injuries?
Filed under Hurdles, Jumps, Sprints by on Feb 20th, 2012. 1 Comment.
We’re not quite ready to start taking registrations for this summer’s clinic, but I’m getting requests and questions every day so I wanted to at least give you some information so you can schedule vacations, etc. around the clinic.
Read more on 2012 New England Track & Field Clinic (Save the Date)…
Filed under Hurdles, Jumps, Sprints, Throws by on Jan 30th, 2012. 17 Comments.
Properly Programming and Scheduling In-Season Weight Training
By Matthew Ellis, Primal Athlete Training Center
For the most part, certain sports have it easy when it comes to in-season weight training. Football has games on Friday nights so weight training on Mondays and Wednesdays makes perfect sense. For many other sports like track and field, competitions can fall anywhere during the week and on some Saturdays. Sometimes you have two or more meets per week. How are you supposed to keep a good weight training schedule and make sure you are doing enough weight training when competition days change each week?
Read more on Properly Programming and Scheduling In-Season Weight Training…
Filed under Hurdles, Jumps, Mid Distance, Sprints, Throws by on Jan 6th, 2012. 11 Comments.
Workouts and Training During Breaks
by Marc Mangiacotti, Brown University Sprints/Hurdles
For me, the holiday season or any extended break always brings about a sense of nervousness. It is less likely that I’ll worry if my wife will like the new pair of shoes I bought her, or how much snow I’ll have to shovel to clear the driveway. What keeps me up at night is wondering if my athletes are doing their workouts. At different times throughout the year we all send our little cherubs home for the holidays or spring break.
Filed under Hurdles, Sprints by on Jan 5th, 2012. 1 Comment.
Testing
By Marc Mangiacotti, Brown University
Every November for the past 10 years, I have tested my sprinters in order to improve the training for each individual athlete, and to help me become a better coach. All of the tests that I use are designed around specific track and field events. Testing is beneficial for both the athletes as well as myself. The tests are events that the athletes can be successful in early in the year. In November, the athletes are not prepared to run a personal best in the 100m, 200m, or 400m. During testing, it is common for athletes to become frustrated with how they perform, because they usually have high expectations for their results. Testing helps me figure out the strengths and weaknesses for each athlete and the team as a whole. The events that I test can be re-tested later in the season so the athletes can see their growth within a given year. The testing is also done on a yearly basis, so the athletes can see how far they have come as result of their hard work and effort. Since the athletes are aware that testing takes place early in the season, they are more likely to complete fall training correctly.
Filed under Hurdles, Sprints by on Dec 19th, 2011. 20 Comments.
I recently heard Dan Pfaff talk about acceleration being a ‘complicated neuromuscular equation’.
I recently heard Boo Schexnayder say acceleration is about finding the ‘resonant frequency of oscillary patterns’ in terms of developing and improving the efficiency of locomotive mechanics.
Filed under Distance, Hurdles, Jumps, Mid Distance, Sprints, Throws by on Dec 1st, 2011. 6 Comments.
Circle of Truth
by Marc Mangiacotti, Brown University
I have received a lot of great feedback and questions about the Master Class on the 100m. One question that came up a few times pertained to “runs” early on in the season. I was confused at first by these questions because sprinters go on runs every day. As a matter of fact, my athletes ask me every day, “What are we doing today?” My stock answer for that question is usually, “I think we will try running today.” Questions about general runs, fitness runs, cardio runs, distance runs or whatever you want to call them keep coming up.
Filed under Hurdles, Jumps, Mid Distance, Sprints by on Nov 25th, 2011. 14 Comments.
