Charlie would not use this as part of his ‘Stimulus Package’ at any event bc he would not use anything he could not count on being at most track and field Meets. He mentioned that several times over the years. He needed to remind our dumb asses. In addition, to it not making any sense to do that at all under any circumstance.
Six days out, sure. And only after the speed work is completed.
[video]https://youtu.be/tunOStyMqKo[/video]
History
And speaking about Mike Hurst and Stimulus.
Mike Hurst tweeted many years ago that Carl looked like “the Cat that ate the Canary” when he saw him walking in the tunnel under the stadium the next day. While whistling? Can’t remember the exact tweet.
Here is a video of Carl being interviewed after the bust.
Stating that Ben is a completely different person from Friday to Saturday (24 hours) …he doesn’t know what Ben does to stimulate himself for the Finals.
Carl knew what was coming. No doubt about it.
[video]https://youtu.be/tunOStyMqKo[/video]
https://youtu.be/tunOStyMqKo
Carl’s interview starts at the 1:15 mark
Additionally, SM said with DeGrasse he could not back squat 60kg?! IMO it’s no wonder his acceleration was poor. That deficiency is down to coaching. No, he was never going to approach huge numbers and in truth it’s unlikely he ever needed to but that’s a big miss in preparation. He also points out that he also had Jobodwana (who like DeGrasse moved on) who at 140 lbs. (I’ve seen two numbers for him which have his body-weight at 157 lbs. and another 160 lbs.) “I would not even dare to put that weight on his back because he was so frail.”
Okay, another miss IMO. I think it’s highly unlikely those guys ever needed any massive absolute numbers (or were even capable of it) but in relative terms those numbers demonstrate really poor force output and thus a big missed step in preparation in strength>power development. So, it seems the ways of strength development he employed from his coaching history were a bunch of low output exercises ala Bosch.
Did he really say that?
Here he is squatting 195 lbs or 88. I wonder why he would say that if it’s not true. This is getting weird. I like the guy but let’s get the facts straight. I remember James Smith…who is as we know, one smart fellow…would critique him on Twitter. Mainly on lifting technique for his athletes and SM got bent out of shape. If James gave me any feedback regarding training…it would be more than well received.
https://images.app.goo.gl/qy5UN9UEGaXEajSf6
I’ll take a listen to it soon.
It seems like he’s exaggerating just to support his opinion-that in his mind a heavy squat has little transfer to spring performance. If that’s all someone did I would agree it would lessen the transfer and it’s a mistake though that is not usually the case. The degree of transfer has to also be related to the prior development of the individual athlete and with the capacities he is suggesting I would have to believe the back squat would be more useful in their development. I don’t know why a reduced transfer would occur that would make the lift, itself even at sub-maximal intensities, ineffective. He seems to associate the squat as a lift one can only use very large loads in and then stating it has no transfer?!
If your world class athlete is truly so frail you would not even dare to put 60 kg on his back (let alone attempt to squat it) then you have not prepared the athlete properly. It shows a huge deficiency in development for that athlete. I believe such exaggerations are ridiculous and don’t really serve to strengthen the point.
Never looked into Fran’s Methods. I ask myself if it’s a lifting program or chicken-soup type of lifts. For Team or Sprinters?
I just had a long post that somehow got wiped out. I thought there was auto-save. I also Copied it so I wouldn’t lose it, but no, dang.
In a nutshell, it was about sub 9.8 sprinters all having a trail. Free pass for one (Memo) coming back from JAM with a ton of Puma Gear late 2011/early 2012 posting it on SM and quickly deleting it to stay his distance. I got the screenshot though 
His dumbass must have been backhanded next time he saw them.
PPL NOW talking about CF but have in their tight circle (temp. free-pass) kinda like Ato not knowing about Mo. So watch what you say Coaches…may come out in time.
CF is not to blame for all of this. That’s the Game.
Everyone should just focus on their own good thing and not put down others.
My understanding is that CF used the squat and bench press in heavy loads but low repetitions as an added CNS stimulus ( to fill the cup) I think the wordS are. How heavy they would go would depend on how drained the CNS was from a speed session. That is my interpretation. Also the heavy squat combined with high intensity sprinting didn’t seem to hurt any of CFs athletes, they were all pretty fast. LOL
But SM, it’s beginning to come clear why many athletes are leaving him.
He blew off Ben’s weights background/performances in the podcast describing him being an anomaly. I guess he missed the results of Desai Williams, Angella Taylor-Issajenko and others as they were “pretty good” too reaching WC/OG finals and developed via many of those same methods. Charlie pointed out years ago and I think it still holds true that a general weights approach rather than the specific approach had been a part in creating the best sprinters, historically.
Most shit in life is best when done in simple, fundamental ways. From investing to sports to shooting guns to business. Humans love to complicate shit.
Yes, when people are not getting the results they feel they should or just trying to attain some level of improvement they seem to feel the answer has to be contained within some type of innovation (which is often a good approach) or even re-inventing the wheel and they drift too far away from the fundamental principles. I think the solution is often just changing the relationship of some of the variables-exercises, volumes, intensities, altering the sequencing, etc.
I can think back to years ago when I removed certain parts of my training (as a coach) only to return to something, in retrospect, that I should never have left out. Of course the observation and perceived value of each component is strengthened when you have those moments than if one had never tried to experiment at all. SM should not have, IMO, strayed too far away from DP’s basics.
At least one of his Sprinters was achieving PBs this past Indoor Season. Was it from the Training 90% or the Races themselves?
If it was from the races as some may suggest…well then, who set those races up? Agent, athlete, Coach or a combo of all or two of them. If the Coach scheduled them, great. If not, well I don’t know what to say.
Still haven’t listed to the interview. I have more respect for my time then listening to anyone talk about their resume etc for 20 min. sometimes in a 60 min. interview. If I like what I heard from someone…I will google them quick to learn more about them.
PPL wait for winners all the time at the Finish line. Most don’t care how you got there. Save the resume talk. Get to the good stuff.
I was speaking to Charlie’s roommate from Stanford the other day. We would stay with John and Marylin often in Palo Alto when I was training.
He and I spoke about how Charlie’s key power moves were squats, bench and cleans.
Less is more = a concept few seem to understand as most can’t SEE CNS fatigue. You need to have experienced it, benefit from it and understand via experience how to regenerate it.
QUALITY = this idea seeped into many and all things Charlie and Ange. We were both passionate about doing things well or not engaging in them. Quality food, quality rest, quality training. When you prioritize quality there is not a lot of room left for other stuff. We did not do a lot of lifting but the lifting might take a while sometimes due to the volume of rest needed between reps. Grooster, I live your interpretation as it’s bang on.
Intensity = Sprint first. Get as much out of the speed as possible, prepare in advance to go get what you are able to get an when you have had that quality speed work achieved, then you can go get something to add onto your session ( maybe) with lifts.
This young man I was working with from a school that has the means to know and do better was amazing at lifting but as a 400mh was struggling to perform 1 set of Big Circuit in tempo ( WFT) and had not ever done a 600 breakdown to date. Huge talent this young man but was doing almost nothing intense on the track outside of competitions.
I had an extensive conversation with an established long time coach in track last week. This coach is a long time member of the forums and was singing the praises of this website.
People have to realize the importance of gathering knowledge from the correct source.
My friend in Germany is now a knee surgeon. He went to sport school in Köln. You would not pass unless you performed the sport you wished to coach at a competitive level.
Why does North America not have a sport school(s) to attend to launch one’s coaching career?
In the case of this website one must come into the information having a basic understanding of the role politics have played in track in particular as it relates to speed training on our planet.
We made a rule on this website to not discuss drugs in sport or PED’s in sport. The reason we did this was to highlight the role of methodological training at the developmental level straight up to the highest level of the Olympic 100 meter dash.
The world of coaches and athletes on the planet need to formally give a big thank you to acknowledge Master Coach Charlie Francis’s role in advancing speed training.
I would like to see John Smith and Bobby Kersey and a few of the other’s who have and are producing amazing athletes write books and discuss the in and out’s of their methods.
Why aren’t more coaches sharing their amazing accomplishments for others to learn from?
Tudor Bompa spends all of his time now updating his books and keeping his content in full visibility and he has not actively coached since when? Decades ago now.
Ange,
This site has been a great source of information and discussion for so many.
The only school I know of that has some of what you mention is ETSU. There is a requirement for even their PhD students in sports science to serve as a coach to team at the school. Some of their masters level and doctoral students eventually move into careers in sports science (data analysis, research, etc.) while others have gone into coaching-usually S&C several of whom are with the NY Jets, various major league organizations, minor league baseball teams, UFC, etc.
I, too, have wondered why more materials are not available from many coaches. Smith had some videos many years ago though I can’t recall seeing much of anything from Kersee. As I’m sure many on this site have done, I’ve recommended CF’s books and videos to numerous people.