Athlete not improving - some advice please

robin1 · January 18, 2010, 9:12am

Hi guys, was wondering if anyone can help. I coach a female athlete very soon to turn 16. I have coached her for a year, her times when she came to me were 13.49 fat, and 8.42 fat (60m i) she then progressed to 8.30 for 60m and at the first meeting of the season April 09 she progressed to 13.2 twice in one day with a legal wind. Following the pb her times slipped 13.3/13.40 fat and a 13.59 wind -2.8. The season continued slipping away until we called a halt at the end of June. After a holiday we just worked on technique (knee lift was low so worked on keeping hips up) and general conditioning. We started the GPP in August, used tempo, med ball, hills 20m - 60m, bodyweight conditioning, technique etc. It seemed all was well, training 3 times per week, plus other stuff at school, progressed into SPP, still keeping med ball and other conditioning going, introduced weights in small doses mainly learning technique (which is sound) difficult to do tempo on grass so not so much of that. Introduced acceleration and speed early enough along with med ball for power and small volume vertical box jumps as first indoor race late Nov and 2 in December. The races did not go well 8.48, and 8.67. I reduced the volume of sprinting slightly and dropped the weights and plio but retained general med ball work to see if she would freshen up then tapered the training a week before a meeting on the 10th January but the outcome was no better 8.65 and 8.62. I have started to increase the sprint volume but all of it at a reduced intensity of 95% and included tempo work albeit over 60m as the outdoor track has been frozen. I’m open to ideas especially from forum users who have had experience of this type of problem with young female athletes. The guys in my group are responding well to the training and hitting indoor pb’s and although she doesn’t always do exactly the same training it is similiar, she obviously needs something quite different.

How are things with her nutrition, sleep, personal life?