Agreed, I continually stress rhythm and relaxation to my guys regarding speed work, power speed, throws, and so on.
While there’s differences of opinion on how to perform power speed, particularly skips, (Pfaff likes flat foot landing) I prefer to instruct skips rhythmically with a forefoot landing and a degree of rhythm and flow to body movement almost as if one were performing power speed to a groove.
Pfaff states that it’s natural to land flat footed or even heel to toe during skips; however, I disagree as that was never my natural inclination nor have I witnessed it in the vast majority of my athletes over the years.
I’m critical of my guys attaining full extension of the support leg so I actually like to see a bit of a forward body angle (from shoulder to heel) during the A skip because this follows a conscious toe off when propelling one’s self forward horizontally.
This is what I went over with Craig James and Jesse Palmer during the small feature that they aired before half time on ESPN.
They both picked it up quite well and, having the requisite mobility and coordination, looked good on the A skips and Running A right out of the gates; requiring minimal corrections.
I’ve heard him say the reasoning behind this is that below a certain forward speed humans are wired to heel-toe. Walking is a heel-toe action and when drilling A skips the body is at a speed slower or similar to walking, so the drills should also be heel-toe.
Yes, I’ve heard him state the same thing;however, as I stated in my last post- I disagree; and again, I work with large numbers of players, and have through the years back to the high school level, and in all these numbers I’ve seen very few who naturally made a flat foot/heel first contact during power speed.
I would argue that footwear has created this thinking due to it’s overly supportive nature (something that I think causes more back and lower limb problems than most anything)
I have my athletes perform a great deal of warm up and power speed in their socks only.
give it a try and you’ll notice how making contact with your heels is not a natural event.
I should also note that power speed is more about vertical action, versus forward speed, so the more dynamic the vertical component becomes- RE Newton- the more dynamic the ground contact dynamics become.
At any rate, I firmly believe in the way I have my players perform power-speed for the reasons I’ve mentioned and I think if any sprinter/athlete clears their mind and just ‘does’ it they’ll find themselves on their forefoot as well.
I have trained hundreds if not thousands in speed over the years and even at a young age, kids tend to land on balls of feet as a natural action. In my experience, those who land heel to toe tend to be the slower, heavy footed runners. Plus, I was always of the belief that in all drill work, you should perfect your running technique. Shorten the lever on recovery and pre load for push off track to avoid the natural collapse that seems to happen when athletes run without pre loading foot for strike.
I don’t think it matters too much, it’s really just a dynamic drill/warm up thing anyway. To each his own. You can’t argue with Pfaff’s success or influence over other track and field coaches in multiple events. It’s kind of like should you put the feet high on the pedals or put the feet with just a little touching the track…WR holders have done both.
As stikki said, with drills you are moving about the same speed as you do when you walk/jog. You don’t walk around on the balls of the feet. You don’t do tempo on the balls of the feet. For him drills are a dynamic warm up and for teaching body position/awareness and he doesn’t really believe technique is getting enhanced by drills, similar to Tellez.
Give me a break! You certainly show your ignorance.
NO ONE WILL EVER take chicken shit and turn it into chicken salad.
Every single coach has to have elite talent to get elite results. The coach is a talent developer and Pfaff is extremely good at this.
I will never understand the Pfaff hate that some exhibit on this board. I have never heard him say one bad word about Charlie so I cannot understand this hate. He is one of the classiest individuals I have ever talked to.
Remember, as Charlie often noted, there’s a different between what’s effective for the best in the world and the rest of the general population.
Thus, on the one hand, you could certainly make a case for ‘it doesn’t really matter’ when you’re dealing with a drill that is not performed near race speeds for the sub 9.8 people of the world.
On the other hand, for the other 99.999999999% of the athlete community I believe something as seemingly rudimentary as power speed is critical to perform in a way that promotes, as speed coach noted, proper sprint mechanics; thereby making it more than just dynamic warm up/rudimentary drill work.
The sensation of performing the drills as speed coach and I are describing them is something I need my players to feel as a fore-brain activity before it can become an unconscious aft brain activity. due to the slow horizontal speeds they are very conducive to fore-brain activity because there’s plenty of time to think and feel how you’re moving.
Remember, most younger/low training age athletes are unconscious-incompetent (they’re unaware that they don’t know what they’re doing)
4 stages of motor learning:
unconscious incompetent
conscious incompetent
conscious competent
unconscious competent
or in my friend Dave Tate’s words:
shit
suck
good
great
Those of us working with populations other than the T&F elite, are dealing with people who are, at best, level 3 in terms of physical preparatory training (not to be confused with their sport skill)
As I’ve noted before, T&F is physical preparation at its finest; thus the higher the level of your T&F qualification the better you are at sprinting/running, jumping, and throwing.
sprinting/running, jumping, and throwing form the basis of much of what I do with my athletes and, sadly, require a great deal of instruction for most in order that they are done with mechanical and orthopedic efficiency while maximizing output potential.
I think some coaches succeed in spite of poor training methods if they have the luxury to work with exceptionally talented athletes!
Ignorance is only displayed when you pipe up about things you have no business speaking to - I don’t think Dan Pfaff needs you to defend him. I was referring to the fact that drills need to be done a certain way and any coach can - no matter what level of performance - make mistakes.
When Dan came to speak at the University of Alberta he spoke candidly about the number of athletes he blew up! And how he learned from those mistakes
Try to keep your delusions of persecution to your therapy sessions!
Of the few magazines I subscribe to, there is one constant. The quality of information is inversely proportional to the quality of the paper it is printed on. The best magazine I subscribe to comes folded an envelope once a month (or two) on Xerox copier paper, hole punched, and almost entirely lacking in colour photographs. Of course, there is no advertising allowed, so the information is of high quality.
Funnily enough, as you stated it seems to work the same in the track world (and many others). The quality of coaching appears to be inversely proportional to the number of official certifications held by that person, the very thing that is supposed to impress (like glossy colour paper). It’s usually the first thing I look for- if you aren’t certified up the ass, I’m interested! If you are, see you later. Liberal arts degrees seem to be really good at teaching people to think.
Well, I have coached athletes for 15 years so I think I have equivalent knowledge to your fathers experience. You are talking about grade school girls and boys. On all levels, regardless of age, the kid’s who stand out have been the ones who for whatever reason, are fore foot runners. The interesting thing is that when the masses “get” it technique wise, that gap between the born freak athlete and joe average closes significantly. I have watched a kid who in 5th grade ran 4.95 hand time 40. Every year he was faster and still is. The interesting thing is he ran 4,52 at Michigan State camp going into 9th grade. A kid I have trained along with him ran a 6.2 in 6th grade. Last summer at U of M camp, he ran a 4.63 going into 10th grade. Oddly, the fast kid works half as hard and has lousy technique on every drill. The slower kid works his butt off trying to perfect everything including me barking toe up through A skips every workout. Oddly, I don’t have to say it anymore, it is unconcious competence, hence James comments. Asafa Powell is one of the greatest technical runners ever and look at his a skip on youtube. Toe up.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad0ToqBV3fo
Regarding sprinting, yes, it is undeniable. And the best distance runners are mid-foot/forefoot strikers too. But skipping is naturally heel-toe. It’s when we teach sprint drills we teach skipping off the forefoot and it becomes learned for that specific drill. If you asked Powell to power skip for height would he still stay on the forefoot?
And that’s what is interesting about Pfaff’s comments, should sprint drills mirror the natural tendencies of skipping or should they mirror sprint mechanics?
to agree with what Charlie taught me. No disrespect to Pfaff, I just think Charlie was leaps and bounds better coach than anyone else. I trusted his opinion and have had stellar results following such. If you like Pfaffs teachings, than I think that is great. I just happen to use variations of CFTS. That is the great thing about this field, more than one road leads to Rome. We have to do what we believe and what is congruent to our learnings to be an effective teacher.
James I’m with you. I was a rhythm/power sprinter and I tell all my athletes who I train (regardless of sport) to try a drill just for rhythmic purposes. (A skips for example). I’ll admit the athletes who have natural rhythm were usually faster but the 1’s who got it after a few weeks showed dramatic improvement.
Cool stuff
I played piano, violin is my main instrument. My favorite thing to do is draw and paint, I’m getting a phd in urban and architectural design, but one day I’ll be a track coach. :o
p.s. Charlie was talking about wanting to post some of his father’s paintings here, is this still possible? (Ange???)
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