Cone Drills

During cone drills (or Ins&Outs) - 20m easy, 20m hard, 20m easy: what is the purpose of the last easy 20m section?

I read about this in Speed Trap but never really understood what the purpose of the last 20m was.

Also, since both 20m sections are ran at an easy pace (I’m guessing tempo pace) is there any need to rest any longer than a regular 20m sprint?

Thanks

Your rest between these fly’s needs to be increased since you will be going through these at Max. Velocity. So, yes, I typically double the time.

The rest also has to be increased due to the extra work needed to perform the 20m or so buildup prior to the max. velocity work. Like Dlive I tend to go with fairly long rest periods after such work. In fact, though I thought my guys took long rests before, we have really increased the rest periods between virtually all sprint reps and the improvements have been well worth the extra time that practice time takes now. Better to rest too much between reps rather than too little.

That’s right Kyle. I made the mistake several years ago by doing cone drills where I went at max speed in the ‘in zone’, then consciously shut it down in the ‘out zone’, before hitting top speed again in the in zone. This invariably resulted in torn hamstrings due to the change in speed. You should just be coasting in the out zones, not consciously slowing down your speed. Too greater differential in velocity ie pouring the speed on, then shutting it down, will result in injury.

In the beginning of your training year your first in should be 12m and your out 20m. As your season progresses your in should increase to 15 and slowly decrease your out slowly until your peak season and should be down to 10 meters
Your out phase is not an easy phase it is a 95% effort recovery phase. Make sure in the out phase that the athlete releases our breathes out through the whole phase.
As the original post asked why end on an easy phase, I beleive those words should never be used in springting. Make sure the athlete knows the out phase is still 95% effort, or the increase and decrease in speed does not turn into injuries.

Coach_luc

When I have used ins and outs (20 easy-20 hard-20 easy). I tell my athletes that it should be like driving down the interstate at 75 mph and you kick your car into neutral for a short period of time. You are still going 75 mph but you are in a coasting mode. Fast but relaxed.