I was looking at the CFTS and how during some of the sprint sessions Charlie would have his athletes do one legged hops for 30m. (L+L+L+R+R+R)
Well, I would like to incorporate this into my Vancouver training because I feel I need it. I feel this way because my legs are not expressing the power that they are generating in the weight room. Don’t ask I just know by feel as Charlie said it himself that some athletes go by “feel” in the CFTS book.
So would the proper way to set up a speed day using the one legged hops would be:
Interesting question…I didnt know about the single leg hops as I could have sworn I see CF say Plyos/jumps shouldnt be single legged due to injury risks…any of the senior or more clued up forum members care to help answer this one?
Charlie’s preference was for double leg jumps. All plyos/hops are general by definition, and switching from double leg to single leg dramatically increases injury risk in the mistaken pursuit of marginal increases in specificity that are not really necessary. If you read and watch Charlie’s body of material you will hear this warning again and again. It wasn’t a one-time obscure comment from him. More importantly, it simply makes sense (which is the main value of Charlie’s approach to training).
The problem with looking at that one reference in the CFTS manual is that there is no context to it, and we don’t know exactly what those hops looked like during execution. I have a feeling they were not large dramatic bounds. They might very well have been tiny little hops. We simply don’t know. What was the skill level of the athlete in those kinds of exercises? What was the fatigue state at the time of the hops? What work had been done prior to or after? Looking at a training diary entry without knowing the answers to contextual questions like these is of no value, which is why Charlie was always hesitant to list specific workouts, whether hypothetical or specific historical examples.
Whenever you see an isolated example in Charlie’s material (or any coach’s for that matter) that appears to contradict the general principles he espoused at length elsewhere, a red flag should go up that there are probably a lot of circumstantial details missing from the picture, which is giving you a false superficial impression.
In one of the graphs (400m S-L) Charlie has a separate Power Speed day with 6 sets various plyos including LLRR. I asked if this could be changed as follows
with the 400m S-L template you have Power Speed & Strength Endurance on Saturday, instead of a separate day could you divide that up over the other 3 HI days so instead of weeks 1-4 being 6 x 30m Power Speed 1 on Saturday you would do 2 x 30m after each session on M, W, F. This would allow another rest day.
and was told yes, everything is possible.
Not sure why you would do them pre starts.
My understanding is Charlie’s issue with single leg was the way they are generally done (1 leg only for distance). LLRR is a much safer option.
Charlie used llrr hops in the programs I have seen and john smith uses them as well. They are done more rythemically than for actual distance although power output would still be high. Sometimes I incorporate 2 sets of 30 meters of LLRR and maybe other variations prior to my speed work but I emphasize rythem and after the speed work I might do a few sets aiming for more power.
That makes sense. That’s why it’s important to clarify these details, because someone might just see a reference to hops and incorrectly assume they are like the more aggressive single-leg plyos.
what i used to do was have the non active foot/leg in a position so when it becomes the active leg it is ready to go. upper leg horozontal to the ground, lower leg vertical, foot horozontal, do not dersiflex the non active foot.
off the topic of hops, but christie’s sprintng style looks very strange to me for such a high level sprinter, seems to be a lot of back side and a lot of forward lean (almost in direct contrast to powell’s style)
When he does his hops note the position of his non active leg, the forward lean is one way of compensating for overstriding without major technical changes
i meant moreso in the couple build ups in the vid than in his hops. i havent watched many videos of people doing plyos so i wouldnt know if his form was typical in those
or is what you’re saying is that he overstrides? which still would be strange to see a pro with a mechanical error that was blatant enough i could notice it
i can’t help to wonder the result if he was to put the hurdles 3m apart and to alternate legs in the hops, he would possibly make the second hurdle then it wouldn’t work.
use the lean as a means of changing ground contact and to correct the lean/ground contact use plyos over hurdles, the foot contact is all i am looking at. if anyone has a link to a vid of olivia tauro or jacquie munroe when they were younger you will see what i mean.
