Defranco's View on sprint training

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

I asked over at the t-mag.com guest forum what his principles towards training sprinters would be. They are sound I believe, maybe a couple things I dont agree with.

First of all, strength training is ESSENTIAL to all sprinters - especially 100m runners and below! The shorter the distance of the race, the more important strength and explosive power becomes. Last I checked Ben Johnson, Maurice Greene, etc. all were carrying around some muscle on their frames.

This is a very in-depth question with regards to all of the aspects of training for a sprinter. I don’t have the time to map out an entire program for you; but I’ll give you some key points on how I train my sprinters. Hopefully this helps you to design a productive program for yourself.

#1) The faster you are, the LESS often you sprint. Sprinting at 100% places great stress on the CNS. The faster you are, the longer it takes to recover from workouts. Sprinting all-out in your event should only be done once every 7-10 days for advanced athletes.

#2) Build speed BEFORE speed endurance. In other words, if you have no speed, how are you going to build speed endurance??? Yet, I still see high school coaches having their 100m runners running 400’s to “build a base” for their 100. This is BULLSHIT! The 100 and 400 have completely different energy system requirements. I start my 100m athletes with 10m sprints and work their way up. Remember that the shorter the race, the more important the start and first 10m becomes!

#3) Knowing that the start and first 10m is essential to these short sprints, we must know how to train for them. Your 1st step and 1st 10m power is predominantly a function of your TECHNIQUE and RELATIVE STRENGTH. Build the proper strength in the weight room and then get coached properly in the start and first 10m. (You can practice this aspect of the race much more often than other aspects. Because it’s such a short distance, you recover faster and you’re much less likely to pull a muscle.)

#4) Once you’ve built an explosive start, work your way up by running 30m, 60m, 100m. Remember to build your speed first, then work on the “endurance” aspect of the race.

#5) Work on exercises that have the best carryover to sprinting in the weight room. Squats, deadlifts, barbell reverse lunges, single leg squats, reverse hypers, glute-ham raises, chin-ups, step-ups,etc. Incorporate the dynamin-effort method as well as the max-effort method into your programming. I do feel that high-rep training does have it’s place in a sprinter’s training arsenal as well, but the timing is crucial. Also work on timed sets. For example, if you’re training a 100m runner who’s goal is to run a 10.5, have him perform 10.5-second sets. For example, performing as many single leg squats as possible in 10.5 seconds. Do 2-3 week mini cycles with this type of exercise where the goal isn’t to lift heavier, it’s to lift FASTER.

These are just some tips off of the top of my head. Hopefully they helped.
Oh, one more thing, don’t overlook the nutrition aspect of your training. The people that think weightlifting makes them “bulky and slow” usually think this because they eat like shit! Remember that weightlifting in conjunction with a poor diet CAN make you slower! This is because although your absolute strength may increase, your relative strength may decrease if you’re making poor food choices.

Get stronger, eat clean, work on your flexibility and practice your technique!
Good luck!

Thoughts?

2

A lot is taken from Charlie’s approach, but then the weights methods seem like a bunch of baloney. That 10.5 second thing makes no sense. The speed with which those body weight single legged squats will be done has no relation to that produced on the track, so it doesn’t apply. Doing 10 second sets won’t take you closer to being a 10 second runner. We’ve already discussed this before in those “velocity of movement of the bar” threads. Essentially the same idea. Taking weight off movements to do them quicker in the weight room is irrelevant to sprinting since the speeds will still be so much lesser then those in the track.

3

So are plyometrics and oly’s…yet they are a mainstay in programs and charlie advocates them, does that mean we should scrap those to since they are no where near the limb speeds of sprinting? I know this was discussed before, Im posting what he said…And I think he said just to not up the load throughout the cycle, but focus on more RFD with it.

4

If you take a look outside of the “strength development” box you will see that the purpose of timed sets is to train the energy system, not the nervous system. The question is; is the gym the place to train the enegry system? I would say the the energy system is trained enough at the track and weights work should be directed at improving max (organsim) strength but others might have different ideas?

5

I thought about starting this thread myself, so good work.

Having watched Joe DeFranco’s Combine video, he talks a lot about the 40 yard dash. He has a very interesting start mechanism. Perhaps other more experienced sprinters can comment on it. For me, I don’t think it’s as fast as a regular track start. Also, Joe talks a lot about stride length as being key, which I think runs contrary to Charlie’s ideas, which state (I believe) that stride rate is far more important and easier to improve.

6

#2) Build speed BEFORE speed endurance. In other words, if you have no speed, how are you going to build speed endurance??? Yet, I still see high school coaches having their 100m runners running 400’s to “build a base” for their 100. This is BULLSHIT! The 100 and 400 have completely different energy system requirements. I start my 100m athletes with 10m sprints and work their way up. Remember that the shorter the race, the more important the start and first 10m becomes!

The only problem i have with saying that “The 100 and 400 have completely different energy system requirements.” is that it is just as much bullshit to completely ignore the energy systems that a 400m requires as a 100 meter runner, as it is complete bullshit to ignore the top speed required for a 100 as a 400 runner. There is a balance with speed and endurance, but to completely ignore the endurance aspect of your 100m is plain retarded.

I am a highschool athlete/coach, so I am biased towards a more complete sprinter, somone that can do 100/200/400 all compitently. Unless you’re training elite athletes, I think that a lot of those principles (what’s his name?) need to be taken with a bit of salt. Often times, untrained runners can benifit a lot more from a holistic approach then a super-specific training method. Even if the specific training method does work, then you’ve got ONLY one event you can run. Woopdy fricked doo.

7

they are different energy systems…all hes saying is he preaches a short to long approach…Charlie preaches building speed then the capacity to hold it next…so is he full of shit too…? And what again is the purpose of SE days…

8

I think this was a poor example by coach DeFranco. The football coaches at my school provide a better example of incorrect trainning. They have you begin your 40 yard dash training by running 2 miles a day. But I see what coach Defranco is saying, why try to run a long run, and suffer severe form breakdowns, when you can begin shorter and build up. It is contingent on the type of athlete you have. Most football players (DeFranco’s main clients) do not know how to run outside of a game situation, and need to be taught proper start, acceleration and top end mechanics. So this method does have some validity.

9

I think the short to long training program is not a sufficient method of training athletes that have very little athletic experience. That is all I was trying to point out. Charlie is not full of shit, but if you try and apply ELITE training methods to a 16 year old who has only played football for one season in their life, a short to long program is not going to make them the best sprinter that they can be. For top level experienced athletes a short to long program is generally going to be the only type of program that they will benefit from. What I’m not trying to say is that a 2mile run could in any way increase your speed for a 40y dash. (#1 I know that few people on a football team would actually run that 2 miles fast enough to get any benefit from the run any way) But just as a long to short program can be TOO long and end up being TOO short, a short to long program can start TOO short and not end up TOO long for there to be any benefit to the sprinters at all. Charlie says to focus on one part of your event at a time, work on mechanics, then work on strength, then work on top speed, etc. That short-long method works fine for a sprinter with one event, but I was referring to high school athletes. Most HS runners need access to all of their different abilities (speed, endurence, etc) In intervals that can be as much as 5-weeks apart. (League prelims, league finals, sectionals prelims, sectional finals, etc) It would be severely detrimental to an athlete’s performance if they got 1 week before league prelims and their coach comes up to them and says, “okay, time to work the endurance part of your race” and proceeds to pound them with heavy work. Even it out during the mid-season so that you don’t have all this backlogged work to do. Of course, for the more experienced athletes this wouldn’t be a problem. Less endurance work would need to be done, but for beginning athletes I think the GP should be extended or SE work should be started earlier.

10

I disagree entirely with DeFranco’s emphasis on the the importance of strength training for sprinters. This is typical of strength coaches who mainly work with football players and the 40y. For example, in his T-Mag interview:

The bottom line is, if you’re weak, you’re slow! Athletes who are strong in relation to their bodyweight (relative body strength) are always fast. Think about this: the primary function of your body’s 600 plus muscles is to contract to move body parts. Only muscle can cause movement. If your muscles are weak, they can’t move your body fast. Simple enough

Now this is complete BS… there are many excellent sprinters who do not lift weights and are not particularly strong. His argument also implies that stronger muscles contract faster, which is obviously fallacious. I don’t think DeFranco really knows what he’s talking about on the subject of sprint training.

11

Um, the shorter the race the more that strength matters. This was covered in one of the OLy lifters v sprinters thread. Although some sprinters don’t lift weights (if you are refering to Carl Lewis, he lifted for a time), they are probably pretty strong.

Also, i don’t see anywhere where he mentions that strength helps the muscles contract harder. If you mean the part about muscles are the only thing responsible for movement, i can see some truth to his statement. If one’s force velocity curve is crappy (translating to being weak), one is going to be slow.

Why so quick to call others opinions BS? I can understand debating ideas, but why the personal attacks?

12

BINGO!

Short to long is a fantastic approach for an already developed athlete. If you are not already in fantastic shape than the short to long approach will not be the most beneficial way to structure your training.

13

Just because they dont lift weights dont mean they are not strong. It does take alot of strength to sprint. Those sprinters that you think are weak probably have a smaller build with less weight. But pound for pound they are strong. Look at kim collins, his is small as hell but i bet he can jump out of a gym. Look at carl in his prime. He used to compete in the nike dunk contest. They look weak but they are explosive. And to have explosion you have to have strength coming from somewhere. The more force you apply to the ground the farther you will move and the faster you will get down the track. YOu cannot apply that force if you are weak.

14

I think you guys miss the point sometimes.
This is not all of the training or a determination of volumes etc. Whatever method is used, you must develop general conditionning first (get the 5 seconds available in the 200m before worrying about the .3 available in the first 30m) This is what I mean by thre “Right to Left” shift of trainng throughout a career, BUT the means to general conditionning may not be related to the selection of Special Endurance distances. in fact a 15 year old should not be running SE beyond 150m, yet he can work on General conditionning without a problem, and an athlete emphasizing shorter runs may be far fitter than an athlete using longer SE.
The selection of approach should have more to do with individual aptitude.

15

This is exactly what I meant. Sorry if I didn’t make myself clearer in my post.

16

That is almost criminal incompetence. Kids that could be better are stymied by their coaches.

17

1: DeFranco refers to strength-to-weight.
All successful sprinters are strong relative to their weight, though that strength may not (and need not) be expressed in the weight room. Carl Lewis is the best example. He didn’t lift much, yet he could propel himself over 30 feet (toe-hold or not). Now that’s strength!
2:Although being strong won’t always make you fast, as there are limits of build type, leverage etc, being weak will always make you slow.
3: Stronger muscles DO create faster movement around a joint than weaker muscles, when confronted by the same resistance.
4: Speed on the football field is very limited in distance and doesn’t enter the realm of Speed Endurance (over 8 sec) at all- mostly pure accel and gen endurance/fitness.

18

hmmm anyone care to say that Mr. Charlie Francis is full of shit, it seems he is not neccesarily advocating Mr. Defrancos methods, but seems to confirm their validity(not sure if this is a real word…)…

19

I agree that the track is the place to train the energy system for track, though this approach may be more difficult for other sports. I doubt you’d ever need to move beyond 8 sec there.

20

I don’t think Charlie is the only one who uses this approach. He may be the first to make it public, but i’m pretty sure their are others who use the same or similar approaches. But anyway it’s a great approach. Not tryin to take anything away from him. Best from of flattery is imitation.

I believe that 10sec deal in the weight room, is geared more toward energy systems. This isn’t the first time i’ve heard this before. Although I believe the energy system he refers to only lasts for 6sec. It doesn’t apply to just sprinting. Whether your jumping up and down or cutting down a tree, you have 6secs of “free energy”. So it doesn’t matter what speed you do them. As long as your putting full effort for a certain amount of time. Have you ever tried to lift til failure? About how long does it take before you feel like you can’t move? About 40sec i’m guessing. :wink: