Help Convincing Coach

We’ll do the bodyweight/general strength stuff 2-3 times per week. It’s low intensity so we’ll go high for overall reps, but reps per exercise aren’t too high (<15). Remember that Charlie had his athletes doing low intensity med ball and abs well into the 100’s for total volume, if I remember correctly there were days over 1,000.

Regarding football players, the kids who are in love with the weight room never seem to turn out for track anyway. Our football/track kids understand we actually want to help improve their power and speed and help them get better at football. Some of those guys may continue to lift on the side, mostly the linemen/thrower types, and even there our throws coach was a big lifter so it works well together. The skill guys generally take a break from lifting but do notice when they go to spring ball camp after track they feel good and are fast.

yeah, i agree with you. because im actually the top sprinter this year and not a captain, hes actually let me do pretty much what ive wanted, just i need good reasoning so that he doesnt think im being lazy which is really the only thing that would make him mad (or having other kids try to do what im doing, but i just tell them to do the team program)

ok, cool, thanks for the info

i do see the value of a good volume of low int corework and maybe upperbody (for work capacity purposes and the fact that the devel. of slow twicth wouldn’t interfere with the leg muscles) but essentially the program you run is plyos and running only for the legs?

sorry if im being intrusive at all, but i added a lot of strength and have bulked up to where i look the same size as the other 55 sprinters (i used to be very small and thin) and while my vertical and weights have siginificantly improved for me, my sprinting hasnt yet. so maybe the heavy lower lifting isnt for me (ran a 6.98 FAT before ever lifting or speed training, 6.93 now after two years :/)

In season, yes. It’s hills, sleds, med ball throws and jumps, simple plyos and jumps, and a few bodyweight exercises.

Off/pre season they do a simple (3-5 exercises, 3x5-10) lower/upper split four days a week (Well, maybe some of them, I’m not there off season so I don’t know who’s doing the work). That’s in addition to hills, sleds, stairs, and acceleration work. Don’t forget this is the Seattle area where if you don’t mind the wet you can be outside most of the winter. If it was really cold or snowy here we’d have to do more inside stuff i.e. weights but the way it stands right now the athletes get most of their leg development from hills/sleds/stairs.

Stikki - hahaha, where do you find a hill in Seattle winter that isn’t too muddy and slippery to be useful?

We just do them on pavement, there’s a couple of good ones on and near campus. I figure if Asafa and MVP can do them on pavement so can we. Only the strongest guys (usually with worn out shoes) will slip on on paved wet hills, if you give them something to push off for the first step that usually solves it.

ok, cool. if i end up doing outdoor track im thinking about really taking the emphasis off weights because they havent seemed to help me a huge amount (though the winters in NE kind of limit me to needing to use what i have available indoors)

Is there a track club you could join near by? Maybe if you were a member of the club, your HS coach would let you train with them and still compete for HS.

you don’t think your weights helped you in the 55m? you sure?

i moved my squat max from about 300lbs to 400lbs, added much more core strength and increased my bench by 30 lbs to 225 (all at a weight of 150) yet i still havent run any faster than i did last year

i do weigh 5 lbs heavier than i did last year when i started running 6.7h’s but i think the 100 lbs added to my squat probably outweighs that

i think i overtrained and need to unload more, but again, my coach thinks i lazy and looks at me poorly if im not actually injured and im taking it easy

there are probably some in boston, but thats an hour away so between school work and having to use my parents car thats not really an option (though i would definitely consider that if it were possible)

i do have a gym membership with a small ~20yd space i can do 3 pt starts and starting drills, but no where to train top speed during the winter except my school’s track

where do you think the in between season improvements came from? just physical maturity?

i know pineda went from 7.0h as a jr to 6.8h as a sr, tk 7.0h to 6.8h to 6.6h, etc., but neither would big lifters, pineda ran only repeat 200s and tk played football which only does conditioning

if i saw .2 drops in between seasons from my sohp year on i wouldve been in the 6.5x’s camera and i was even a late maturer but didnt see anything close to that drop…