I’d like some critiques on my sprint program. It is for H.S. athletes running the 100,200, and 400. There are 13 weeks to get ready for our district meet. I will keep it simple so the post doesn’t go on forever. I had some help on a previouse post and have made some changes I’m hoping I’m on the right track:
GPP 4 weeks:
Monday-Short Hills
Tuesday-Drills/Hurdle Mobility/Plyo’s/weights
Wed-Tempo (I’m thinking about keepin all tempo at near 80%)
Thur-Drills/Hurdle Mobility/Plyo’s/weights
Friday-Tempo
SPP 3 weeks (all plyo’s and strength will be part of the warm up from this point because of time constraints)
Monday-Special Endurance I
Tuesday-Accel Dev/Block work/Tempo
Wed-Special Endurance II
Thur-Accel Dev/Block work/Tempo
Friday/sat-Meet
Depending on how intense this stuff is and the volume, this could possibly be ok, but in my opinion you have too much high intensity stuff in here. What exactly do you mean by accel devopment? What types of things are you talking about here? I think less could me more, and you will be less likely to injure athletes.
Short accelerations with and without blocks, like 4 x 20 and 4 x 30. My volume is low, only thing I’m concerned about is that I will start with a 90% intensity in week 5 and continue from there through week 13. Of course my tempo days will remain the same.
It seems like once the season starts, you would be working at intensities above 75% for possibly 6 straight days? This is against everything I think Charlie would suggest. I realize the volume is low, but it is still probably intense.
For preseason, I would try to do some accel dev and maybe some other kind of speed work done on Monday, Tempo (<75%) on Tues, special? endurance on Wed, Tempo (<75%) on Thurs (and more accel / speed / special end / your choice) done on Friday.
During the season, with a meet Fri/Sat, I would obviously cut out Friday’s plan.
I am a HS track coach. I usually find myself trying to fit everything that an elite runner needs into the short season (ours is 11 weeks). In reality, there is a lot that I simply can’t control in that time. Once the season starts, the meets serve as a lot of special endurance. A lot of our practice is technique. Luckily you don’t have meets on Tues / Thurs, which is often the case around here. That pretty much ruins any chance we have of getting really quality work done.
The coach who won the state title at our level 2 years ago said he really didn’t do anything in this situation but try to keep their legs fresh.
I have been lucky to have some very good sprinters for our level in my short time as a track coach. Unfortunately, they have all underperformed in the state meet. As a matter of fact, every one of them complained that they tweaked a muscle leading up to or during their event. Obviously, other issues could be to blame and probably contributed to this, but if I don’t do something for these guys I am a turd.
Interesting post. Are your season seriously this short? Where I am from the HS athletes have a 6 week first comp phase, a two month rest period and then a four month main season. I seriously don’t know how you cope with such a short season. I’m use to a 12 week main comp phase (mid jan to mid april) broken up into three cycles of four micros, with the loads being moderate, moderate, high, low.
I agree with Coachf that your load is to high. I’d almost be inclined to extend the main comp phase to six weeks, with two three week cycles, with moderate, high and low volumes. With the lowest possible loads. At least the athletes will go into the competition phase fresh and will reach some sort of peak at the end. I’d also end every micro cycle on the Saturday with another tempo, and loads and loads of recovery stuff, massage, ice baths etc.
Coachf is correct, keep them fresh. With HS kids less is more, especially the girls.
If your meets are always Fri-Sat, once the season starts I would do something like…
Mon = Acceleration and max velocity or speed endurance or special endurance, weights
Tues = Tempo, technique
Wed = Accel and Speed or Special endurance, weights
Thurs = Tempo, technique
Fit handoffs in on some or all days?
Simply put, I would do high intensity stuff Mon and Wed, low on Tues and Thurs. You might even have to cut down some intensity on Wednesday depending on specifics.