I was wondering what your opinions were on using gpp as the only phase for very young athletes (under 2 years training)? Would it be beneficial to do a gpp phase of 5 or so months to increase speed by the increase of overall fitness? It would be built up to 3 days high intensity (sprints) and 3 days low intensity (tempo/circuits). I would be interested in seeing what your opinions were on this.
I know a coach that trains novice athletes this way. He basically trains them this way because in his opinion ANYTHING will make them faster due to the fact that they’ve never done training of any kind before.
I don’t think its invalid at all. There are certain developmental aspects of a GPP that are more beneficial to a beginner than more specific work.
My question is. . . .
Is this the MOST EFFECTIVE way of training the novice sprinter?
Thats exactly what I have been wondering myself. I have been training for around 4 years, but only seriously for the last year (and only track for a couple weeks). I am wondering if I should go on a 5 month gpp with sprints up to 3 days a week (start with acc dev, move to maxv, and speed endurance) with tempo/circuits 3 days per week. I would still be doing the core lifts of power clean, full squat, bench press, incline bench. I would also do a lot of pullups/pushups, much like clemson has trained some of his lab rats.
How young? And, for you, what would be the major differences between the GPP and SPP? This amost sounds like a long-to-short style of program. Can we have more specifics?
I am 16 years old and have been training for 4 years, but serious training for only about a year now. I have been lifting heavy for over a year, and have done all my previous training for basketball. I have now switched over to track, and think I would benefit a good bit from a lot of gpp training, increasing my times with the increase of general fitness.
I would be starting off with the basic setup of:
Monday: Acceleration Development, Weights, abs
Tuesday: Extensive Tempo, abs
Wednesday: low intensity Medball Circuit, abs
Thursday: Extensive Tempo, abs
Friday: Hills/plyos
Saturday: Low intensity tempo or circuit
Sunday:Off
I would build up to track work 3 times per week, while also doing a lot of pullups/pushups/dips. I would also be really focusing on flexibility (fraid nots manual) and try to build my fitness to a very high level while also working on speed. I would start with acceleration development and still gradually move into maxV etc.
Any opinions/ideas on this?
I think it looks pretty good 
What are your current PBs?
How long on the hills? Also you may want to consider doing longer interval work instead of hills. Performing hills exclusively without longer sprinting work on the flat can mess up your mechanics and actually increase ground contact times which you dont want.