I do a lot of my stuff with either Tim Abeyie or Christian Malcolm. I’m sure you have all heard of the latter, and possibly the former also. Christian does many of his sessions in London which is miles from here, and the difference with both him and Tim is that they don’t see the importance of year round pure speed development, something which I believe is necessary, perhaps because I am not as talented as them, so it doesn’t come as easily for me as it does for them???
A lot of British sprinters don’t see if there is benefit to year round speed work.
I wonder if this is mainly due to the fact that having an extended rest between sprint reps in British winter weather would be very misserable.
Some of our British sprinters seem to live in the Gym, and their winter track work seems to be high DENSITY, not high INTENSITY.
By doing a lot of work in less time, you get your ass off the track and into the gym or where-ever else sooner. You are also more likely to keep warm between reps with a densitized training session, a concern for British sprinters in the winter. Seriously, I’ve been in colder countries like Finland and Norway where the weather was actually less miserable to go about my business in, than uk weather!
But, worse than that is;
When B division coaches train B leval athletes, they would rather the sprinters keep busy, rather than twiddle their thumbs for up to 15 mins between sprint reps. Too much rest between reps might give sprinter oppurtunity to ask coach some questions 
, lol!
Besides, every ones got to get home in a hurry - sheeze!
Yeah, I think that is part of the problem. i know when dave lease was coaching jason gardener his approach was to try and coach him as he would if they were based in california, i.e. factor out the weather. 9.98-it seemed to work, however, jason got injured a lot, but then he has done with malcolm also, so maybe that’s just jason as opposed to a problem with the training!!
Its definitely necessary. Its easy to “say” you are training yourself, but what can you really see? You need other eyes to see what you are doing wrong. It also helps to have others to train with…but that type of environment isnt available to everyone. So you have to coach yourself and train by yourself…
Or do like I have done…get out in traffic and race cars when they drive by…but make sure you are on the sidewalk!!!
If you have the Vancouver 2004 DVD, pull up the Ben Johnson 1987 annual plan. Look at the annual speed volume spread over the whole year in digestable bits and ask yourself how you can get around this.
I don’t have the DVD, I really should invest I know. I take it though you’re point there is a high volume of speed work that can’t really be missed? If that is your point, I would very much agree, but it’s not always easy to explain why it is so important to others, especially when they run low 10s without it.
I have the same issue. I have had many coaches in my life. The worst being in college. Since i started training by myself, and stumbling onto this site, I have ran my fastest.
I do some speed work with a guy now that has a coach. His coach has him do stuff like 6X200 with a 3 min rest. Then He will do block work with me. In my workouts block work comes first. So Ofcourse I blow him out the water. And his coach cant understand why. He is gonna run him into the ground. THe other day he had him run 5x100m curve then he did blocks with me. I did 4x80 he did 5x100 again. I blew him up again. His coach then asked me if I wanted to have a time trial the next day!
yeah, that’s exactly my point. sometimes, it has to be beneficial to break away from the pack if you believe what they are doing is not going to help you, and in fact hinder you!
That was funny! 
How much speed work should be in a sprinters weekly training?
Would vary based upon the individual and the goal of the training phase. I would argue it should a fundemental element of any training phase though, and something to be focussed on all year round, as the ultimate goal of all training as a sprinter is to be able to run faster!
Definately. No reason to get too far away from your event.
[QUOTE=Lo Hill]Its definitely necessary. Its easy to “say” you are training yourself, but what can you really see? You need other eyes to see what you are doing wrong. It also helps to have others to train with…but that type of environment isnt available to everyone. So you have to coach yourself and train by yourself…
QUOTE]
These are very good points, you cant time yourself or really hear yourself run. So how do you know when its time to stop. Theres always trade-offs. Mind you ive had coaches who didnt time or listen either, so a lot of the time your damned if you do damned if you dont.
i coach myself 
not cause i want to but just because 1) im still in school and 2) my school doesnt have a real hurdle coach.
i had some help last year with hurdles finally, but my coach was just a 23 year old grad student who ran the 400h in college.
soon as i graduate ill be looking for a coach.
it sucks not having a coach but i think im doing pretty good on my own so far.
I think that the less someone knows, the more they need a coach. Personally, I’ve been sprinting for a few months, without a coach, and have dropped my times dramatically. However, I’ve also read thousands of pages of info, several books, and have spent hours every day studying, analyzing, planning, and generally obsessing over training. Anyone who doesn’t want to invest as much time definately needs a coach.
Charlie,
Where can we get a slide of ben’s annual plan on the vancouver e00s dvd? You can’t see it on the dvd itself and rupert doesn’t have a copy of it either.
Thanks for the help.
It is included in the Edmonton seminar PDF files (and the Australian seminar files from memory). Hope this helps.
By Nick Walshaw
August 16, 2007 12:00am
TIGER Woods can thwack. Roger Federer can smack. But is either man really ready to eyeball his reflection and say “Pal, you stank out there today”?
The undisputed titans of world sport, Woods and Federer are now preparing to rock the planet once again by tackling that age-old question: Do elite athletes really need a coach?
Federer, the world tennis No. 1, has began questioning whether he needs “a guy to pick up balls and travel with me” after parting ways with Australian mentor Tony Roche in May.
And Woods is also toning down his partnership with Hank Haney - or asking the coach to “play a less visible role”, as reported by the US Gold Channel - as he closes in on the Jack Nicklaus record of 18 majors.
On the surface, it’s a move us weekend hackers and weeknight tennis plodders see as common sense. After all, who on the planet can even hit a ball, be it yellow or white, quite like these guys?
Asked if Federer could survive without a coach, Australian tennis legend Wally Masur laughs and says: “Mate, I always defer to his judgment . . . every time I watch that guy play I wonder why I ever bothered.”
But surely Masur, himself a mentor at the NSW Institute of Sport, knows the value of a coach?
“Oh, overall, I think all tennis players benefit from a coach,” Masur tells The Daily Telegraph.
"Not because they necessarily add value to their game, but because they act as a conscience for the player, that mirror every athlete needs to look into from time to time.
"One thing about us tennis players, when we lose it’s never our fault. We’re forever protecting ourselves, protecting our egos and as a result we often make excuses for how we lost a match.
“But the right coach, that person you trust, they’re the one who gives you that honest appraisal no matter the result. And that is the way to keep improving your game. Even if it’s only by that little margin of 5 per cent.”
Agreeing with Masur is retired Australian cricketer Damien Fleming, who now works on a consultancy basis as a self-confessed “bowlologist”.
“The greatest bowler I ever played alongside always had a coach,” Fleming says, referring to king of spin Shane Warne.
"Because not only would it be extremely tough for any elite athlete to get to the top by themselves, it gets even tougher to stay there.
"And that’s why Warnie is a great example. While he didn’t always get along with the team coaches, he was certainly always talking and learning from his mentor Terry Jenner.
“And that’s important (for elite athletes) because mentally, you need someone to bounce ideas off. That might not necessarily fall under what we expect of a ‘coach’, but I think that title is eventually going to change anyway.”
Australian British Open Champion Ian Baker-Finch, now an analyst for CBS, says Woods is using Haney more as a “sounding board” while reverting to some old techniques in his swing.
“Hank and Tiger are great friends. They continue to talk and Hank is still Tiger’s coach in a way,” Baker-Finch explains.
“Hank understands the swing as well as anybody, but I have noticed that Tiger seems to be doing a few things differently the last two weeks and it really shows in the shape of his shots.”
i wish i had a coach, but the reality is that you would be better off training alone because 99% of the coaches dont know what the fuck they are talking about and they will just hold you back.
Thank you. If I can scrounge funds I’ll buy the Edmonton series