Hello…I´ve been looking in the older threads about Allan Wells and his training, but I didn´t find much specific about his methods.
Would be interesting, as I read, Charlie wrote that for athletes with poor facilitys you should look into his work. Sprint and strength.
Does anyone got some “real deal” info?
Remember that he had addaptations…creativity in coaching is dealing with the problems of budgets (or lack there of), equipment, learning styles, motivation needs, facilities, time, ect. Being without much equipment some part of the year or with poor weather Alan made some great addaptations.
from what i have heard Wells used the speedball for his upper body strength year round
Yes, I heard something about him using some kind of boxingexersice for upper body work. And as what I read here at the forum, pushups,chins and so on.
Bodyweight exersices, don´t know if he used heavy weights…
Try to find in some good bookstore the “Allan Wells Book of Sprinting” written by Margot Wells. 96 pages with many photographs, but not much text…
Quoted from page 75:
“The most common strength work-out is weight training. Although Allan used this type of training when he was long-jumping, he has never used weights since changing his event to sprinting. The main reason was that he found a more than adequate substitute in the speedball […] If we were to use weights for sprinting then we would used light weights doing fast repetitions. This all i am going to say on this subject as i do not feel qualified to expand on weight training when weights are not sued as part of our programme and when there are so many experts in this field”.
Later after his career, Alan would comment that he might have dropped the speedball training becuase it may have cuased a little tightness in his upper shoulder muscles. (Side note to sprinters, if you use the speedball, use the 2 left-2 right -2 left -2 right -2 left etc… tecnique, rotating after each double punch. This is the technique Mike Tyson usually uses and it won’t cuase the tightness.) - instead of just being square on 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 all the time.
I’m sure Alan Well’s muscularity did not just come down to sprints and speed ball and core work. I read somewhere he did a lot of chin ups and dip jumps. (Dips, whereby the bar is very high, and whilst holding the bar, jump up and then finish the upward momentum by pushing up. Knid of like some-one getting out of a swimming pool but athletic.)
The dipjump (if I understood it properly) maybe is a similar exercise that works like the powerclean…but backwards… :rolleyes:
And does anyone know what he used as for legs…jumpsquats without bar and weights maybe?
And any info regarding speedball and other exercises, reps/time/recovery, peaking or similar all year.
It´s interesting how many roads that leads to speed.
speedball: 6 x 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute break between rounds - aim for 300 hits on one hand for each round…thats thru GPP and 3-5 times a week and in season 6 x 1 min or 30 sec rounds, approx 120 hits per rnd for 1 min, 80 hits per rnd for 30 sec
Dils, is that from Allans training, or a recomendation from your training?
Thanks…
Well it is from mine but from what i have heard from other top runners who have used the speedball this is the ideal level that has been found to be most effective
300 hits one after the other on same hand is not going to help a sprinter. It’s going to help a boxer/kickboxer. Just double punch with each hand and rotate torso after each double punch and next two puches from other hand.
Form, rythm and speed. The sprinter is not aimming for great muscular endurance in the upper body.
I have the book written by Margot Wells, it is extremely tough to find, go to Alibris or Bookfinder. As for squats, he did body weight squats in high numbers along with the other exercises mentioned, he never jogged, did repeat 100’s in sets as a warm up and cooldown, while warming up, each one was faster, his training is very interesting, never went more than 200m, if you have limited facilities in the winter, his program is worth looking at.
I’ll have to look at my notes on Margot, saw her at a conference in October 1997. What I do remember was insane(in my opinion) sprint volumes, very little recovery between sprint sessions, and actually they considered some seemingly random distance of around 253m or so (don’t remember the actual distance) as being a crucial distance of SE I that they would target in some training. It was a distance they considered to be very important to the overall program. I hope to find the notes but am in the midst of a move.
Pioneer, if you find those notes by Margot, can you please share them with me? I will then compare to the book, that does seem like an odd distance, the book was written in 1981 so perhaps she changed the program?
Thank you! 
300 for each hand ie 600 per 3 minute round, alternating hands.
I’ll look though it will probably be tough to find. I finally remembered that the odd distance was actually 233m. Unsure of the exact stated significance of that distance but do recall that it was considered in some way important according to Margot.
Why 233m? Maybe it’s the estimated distance where Wells’ average speed in meters per seconds (whole distance) decrease (for 100m 10.11 is 9.891m/s, for 200m 20.21 is 9.896m/s). Any guess?
Pioneer, I can back you up on that. I have watched a video on Wells and that distance did come up. However, I’m also with you in that I can’t remember its significance! I also remember him doing lots of circuits that included speedball, squats (no weight), press-ups, chin-ups etc… and on grass-lots of high knee drills over a fair distance (perhaps about 30m- not sure).
Coach for my australian friend said that wells was training in the moscow olympic year (during january and february) in australia.
He reported wells was doing pench press with 150 kilos. Also did heawy weights with squats like 200kg.
I’ve read in a couple of books that he used heavy weight also in the past was a, when he was a long jumper mainly.