John is the consumate businessman. He knows very well where the money is in the sport. 400m runner will make you money, but 100m runner can make you rich. 
This is very much a case of the “Devil being in the details.” The fall program is very aerobic in it’s emphasis then progresses to mid-range anaerobic for a guy like MJ or a woman like Sanya. For the rest it may be too much expose to the toxisity caused by prolonged expose to high blood lactate levels. The result is stagnation at best, injury at worst.
Additionally, Baylor’s 4x100 relay is usuall made up of 3-4 400m runners so they get exposure to speed through competition. Not that in an “off” year Wariner and Richards placed a heavy emphasis on the 200m in order to keep their re-charge their speed capacity for the two upcoming “on” years. Other than MJ very few of the Hart trained people could do this as post-grads could do this. I n fact I think that I just named the only 3 who could.
I would say ‘learn’ but Hart himself says: “A lot of what I have done in coaching I have stolen from the British and the best coaches around the world. With any good coach if they have not stolen from the best men in the business then they are a fool.”
I think the comment about why the women are doing 300m, 300m, 350m in their session shows his sense of mischief.
Check the intensity levels first and worry about the implications of the energy systems second. For MJ, even 26sec is below 75% of his max speed so is low intensity BUT most others doing this would be well into intermediate speed (intensive tempo).
Correct. Watching MJ do 28sec. 200’s looked silly, but he did them every year, only dropping the recovery as he could handle the session.
As discussed infinitum, the people that have done best in the program cam in with strong 200m PR’s. Hence thye ran on the 4x100r, while the others never got the chance to develop their speed throgu that event and the hand-off work that was done.
Hart has a template that he works off of, but he is NOT inflexible. I think that he is really intrueged about coaching women and how to alter the plan to get the best results. For an older coach he is still very motivated which seems rare.
Coss approach used ideas from Frank Horwills ideas of multi pace training.
FH figured this out in the 60s and it was the basis for endurance based speed work - rather than sprinting based if you see what I mean.
Reading the comments on Clyde Hart’s training (train slow to run fast) AND thinking of what I have learned from Kitkat … I am a bit confused. Kitkat, Charlie, etc PLEASE help!
In the “Transition” training, we have at least 4 days of 90%+ intensity Day 1, Day 2, Day 4 and Day 5. You have recommended no competitions in this period. What happens AFTER the transition, when the athletes start with their early competitions. Training wise - do you still put 95% - 100% intensity training on the programme or only 90% - 95% and tempo (less than 75%)? If your athletes have
‘minor’ competitions on the Saturday, would you do Speed and/or Speed Endurance and/or Special Endurance during that week? (Meaning a 100% effort?)
My attitude is - we have 6 to 7 weeks before the major competition. When I ‘taper’ for the last 10 days, I won’t let them run at full speed. At this stage, however, I feel they NEED to prepare for a good 400m by running at high intensity. Is this wrong?
I have had success in the past with doing the above mentioned, but as 2008 is not far, I do want to correct ALL ‘mistakes’ in my programmes!
There is a lot of good information Now about how coach Hart works, and we can all learn from it.
But he is not the only coach to have found success at 400m. John Smith, Jim Bush, and many Europeans and Carribean coaches have won success over time. Australia also with the likes of Cathy Freeman and the Olympic silver men’s 4x4 most recently.
What I am saying again is that Hart is a master of His program, but it is not Your program. Not yet anyway.
Don’t be a victim of the last thing you read. You’ll go nuts. If Your program works - and you know why/how it works - then there is safety and confidence in this process for you, the coach.
I would say stick with what you know, but always search for ways to strengthen your program.
If you perceive that your athlete needs speed, and you understand the restrictions of the time-line, then speed he must get.
You need to develop shorter speed, longer speed and elevate the aerobic/anaerobic threshhold to produce a good 400m runner.
If that can be done using one session of each type of work per week, beauty. BUt the time-line sometimes imposes its own special pressures, so we need sometimes to be mindful of that.
Competition on the weekend can/should be a speed (100m) or speed endurance (200, 300, 400) workout. That would theoretically liberate you to work on other things during the week (such as short-recovery tempo).
As for the Transition phase, I would stick to what has been discussed and proven necessary to make This program successful.
Then he races, Someone Else take splits, while You Observe closely and then you can prescribe the next couple f weeks of training based around what you know needs fixing or continued development.
Post Transition, I mostly worked only along Two-Week programs. We know what needs to be done and we just have to manoeuvre - and have the freedom to do so within the Program structure - the athletes and watch them closely to see how they respond to the work.
I would avoid comp during the transition period as you describe it. After that, high intensity 2 x per week will prob be enough. during comp period, I’d still do Special Endurance once per week- IE comp Sat, SE the next Tues and starts and short bends on Thurs, followed by Comp again Sat.
When you think of it, even in the taper phase there are runs at 95% of best time, so if you consider the best possible time over 300 for instance, race pace would still be enough below that to make it work and you need to work on pace judgement anyway
and to illustrate the point that there’s more to running a fast 400m than just pure speed . . . 
Asafa Powell :o wins the 400m in 47.4sec January 2007
Thanks Charlie and Kitkat! Will keep on going!!
Asafa’s face … it says EVERYTHING about the 400m!!
This is the best advice than anyone can give. It takes a while to figure out what you think is the best apporach. If, after thinking it through, you believe that Clyde Hart has the best approach to coaching 400m runners, then adapt his methods to your situation. I can tell you that after long analysis it wasn’t right for me.
Over the years I’ve listened to slew of accomplised coaches including some that have been discussed in this thread. I took me @10 years to come up with something that I thought was decent and another 10 or so for me to be completely secure with it.
Coaching is a craft, and I’m afraid far too many out there look for easy answers and quick fixes. I saw the results of it this weekend just as I like all those that preceeded it.
In planning - How many 400m races do athletes (normal circumstances) need to get in top form? Am I correct that Charlie, in Australia, said - about 3 or 4?
We have a very important decision to make: My athlete has a ‘niggle’, which prevented him to run at full speed for the last 3 odd weeks. We started full training about a week ago, but not yet at 95%+ intensity. From experiences in the past, I have learned the HARD WAY to be patient!!
Our National Championships will take place in 6 weeks time, where my athlete has to qualify for Japan.
Thus - our options are: (1) 2 x 400m races at National meets, the 3rd one Nationals (with 3 rounds) OR (2) No 400m races beforehand, taking the 3 rounds as the 3 x 400m!
The advantage of no 2 is - my athlete will be the ‘surprise element’ … nobody will exactly know what his form is. BUT - we, ourselves, will be guessing about form too, I assume!!
The one disadvantage of no 1 is - the last 400m will be during TAPERING … 1 week before Nationals. Therefore 4 x 400m in one week. On the other hand, the heat and semi at Nationals won’t be ‘FULL intensity’ races.
I hope you’ve got the ‘picture’. Recommendations???
2-3 but he also mentioned the possibility of a 200 in there as well so I took it you could do 2 x 400 and a 200 to be all set.
Is selection based on placings or a qualifying time?
Placings AND qualifying time. Must be 1st or 2nd AND sub 45,5.
The problem with the 200m is - it is a risk with his injury. Kitkat once mentioned that if you want your athlete to perform in the 400m, a 200m PB won’t count. And it is not worth the risk - could make the injury worse.
I think you need a race to get the rhythm right. Can’t you get one outside of the 10 day taper? Alternaivly, set up your own mini meet in training and use a handicap system to give him competition practice? He’ll have someone to chase as well…
sprint coach, your problem may be able to be addressed by looking at your guys competition in the 400m?
In canberra A series, two guys run an A qualifing time
John stefension is overseas racing (or training)
So, thats at least 3 guys already who have already done A qualifing times.
Your guy not only has to run the A qualifiing time at nationals, but also has to run faster than the A qualifing times posted from before too i would gather? Ie, the times ran at the Canberra A meet. And he has to beat the guys who have already won A qualifing times at nationals, in the final.
I guess you goto ask yourself, is it worth running before nationals and potentialy running a 46? Or going all out, and attempting to run a sub 45 which is what pretty much is needed. Or is it best to wait, do some handicapt races in training. Would a 45.4 in a A series race be helpfull before nationals? Perhaps there are some 300m races he can do?
Edit
seem i thought i seen someplace sprintcoach was from Aust. But you are not… My biggie, sorry.
No problem - I would LOVE to be from Australia!! The Commonwealth Games was ‘out of this world’!!
Appreciated your answer. We have EXACTLY the same scenario here - my athlete HAS to run A-qualifying AND get gold, to make it easy to be selected. That is why this is a SERIOUS predicament.
John Steffensen qualified yet? How is he? After CWG, we did not see him in Europe?