http://speedendurance.com/2008/01/02/matt-shirvington-1998-training-program-prior-to-his-1003/
Matt never ran 10.03 again. Any thoughts on his training program?
Does anyone know how many races he ran prior to his 10.03?
Matt could never squat 200kg. The weights lifted & sessions are exaggerated for entertainment purposes. When Matt ran 10.03 his pb squats was 120, p/clean 100/bench 100 but he could run 33s 300.
What happened?
- Injuries
- Coach lost the plot, went Dan Pfaff mad
- Spent too much time in London
- Doesn’t train as hard, marriage & kids can change priorities
Went Dan Pfaff mad…?
Did the coach copy direct workouts or something and not tailor templates to his athlete?
Before he ran 10.03 Matt did some work with Tellez in Houston. In subsequent years they shifted towards Dans program. Which was a lot different to the work prior to 10.03.
So basically they went from a L-S plan (Tellez) to a roughly S-L plan (Pfaff).
You probably already know it but Pfaff came from Tellez. Was one of his former assistants long time ago.
Sounds to me as usual it is not the methods but the application of those methods that led to the problems as Dan’s results speak for themselves.
do you know what kind of works he did with tellez and what are the differences introduced by pfaff? I always saw this microcycle of Shirvitgon but I don’t now how was his plan and what “philosophy” influenced his traning
That plan that is always shown as Matt’s, referenced in the link, maybe influenced by Dan Pfaff but it is not like any template, phase, cycle, workout, etc. that I have actually seen credibly sourced to Dan Pfaff or that Dan has personally sent me.
Matt’s training prior to the 10.03 was based on Michael’s education in the Ukraine. There was a considerable build up of power as well as speed endurance in the early phases before any real pure speed development. The speed sessions that I saw followed the typical soviet format eg
blocks to 30m, the fly 30’s then block 60’s.
Michael also told me that Matt used to struggle a little over 300’s but that was in comparison to Pat Dwyer (400m runner) and he was no doubt much better then than he is now over the longer distances…
In the lead up to the trials for the commonwealth games that year Matt opened with some 10.6 runs and then dropped quicky in a series of runs in QLD, His training partner at the time Paul Henderson was so dissapointed in the times of the opening runs that he changed coaches in the week after…
I believe the application of Dan’s work left a few holes, there was not the same emphasis on general work capacity between the high CNS demand days that Dan includes
When Matt went to Tellez they worked his SE qualities. 300 33s then 100 10.9 from short recovery. When Matt ran 10.03 his 200s were 20.4. In recent years they have been around the 20.8 mark. The influence of Pfaff was seen by changes in the weight room & intensities on the track .
Typical in Season format
Monday
sled & accelerations & max vel
Up to 60m + Olympic lifts
Tues SE 120x 5 + intensive circuit
Wed Olympic lifts + drills ( grass)
Thursday Starts
Fri speed weights
Sat race
A lot of guys have got hurt on the Tuesday session. Prior to this plan, the program followed typical L to S prep. However there was a big emphasis on plyometric work.
That plan in the the reference link is not accurate.
[QUOTE=andrewjackson]Matt’s training prior to the 10.03 was based on Michael’s education in the Ukraine. There was a considerable build up of power as well as speed endurance in the early phases before any real pure speed development. The speed sessions that I saw followed the typical soviet format eg
blocks to 30m, the fly 30’s then block 60’s.
Michael also told me that Matt used to struggle a little over 300’s but that was in comparison to Pat Dwyer (400m runner) and he was no doubt much better then than he is now over the longer distances…
In the lead up to the trials for the commonwealth games that year Matt opened with some 10.6 runs and then dropped quicky in a series of runs in QLD, His training partner at the time Paul Henderson was so dissapointed in the times of the opening runs that he changed coaches in the week after…
I believe the application of Dan’s work left a few holes, there was not the same emphasis on general work capacity between the high CNS demand days that Dan includes[/QUOTE]
Therein lies the problem. A HUGE problem. It would be the same thing as doing all of CF’s Hi int days with NO Lo int general work/tempo days between them. Not a very smart thing to do at all. On a typical microcycle Dan will alternate Hi and Lo neuromuscular demand days very similar to how CF does. He will do some Int tempo/Speed End work on Sat (the 3rd “low intensity” day), however it is not uncommon for him to use a reduced volume format for Fri workouts. Which should spread the cns energy over two days instead of CF’s one day at the end of the week.
Sharmer,
I think you might be a bit kind with the around 20.8 mark…
LR1400, I agree with you, the difference was evident when you looked at the 400 runners in Michael squad who followed the same template
the only difference being their SE days were 250-450m runs while matt was running 120-150
ie there was more CNS stress for Matt.
I think the lifting on Wednesday was a problem and the lack of seperation between mondays speed and the Tuesday SE as sharmer mentioned.
21.4 -20.8 in recent times. Apparently over the last two seasons Matt has worked on his SE qualities but I don’t think the same emphasis on plyometric strength is there. You need speed to endure it .
Dan and some the guys he influenced like Boo will do back to back “cns” days during Comp cycles BUT they will keep the volume low and tailor it to the individual. Some may go three in a row or two in a row or every other day for cns days during Comp phases. I think they use it more as a potentiation thing than anything else. I believe Bruny did three hi in a row
LR1400,
Do you have any examples of the content of Dan’s 3 day rollover’s, I have only really seen the outlines.
I don’t have any specifics. At another track site there are some guys who detail it if I recall but in a nutshell it looks like accel, speed, speed end with recovery/low int days interspersed as needed or all three days in a row if that is what the athlete prefers. He talks about it on a clinic dvd I’ll check again and see what he says on it.
I have to agree with this. I have an article that Khmel wrote on sprint training and it looks nothing like anything that Dan Pfaff has ever advocated.
I did read someplace on this board that Shirvington did very little lifting prior to his p.b. rather concentrating on jumps and sprinting. The speculation was that adding weights the equation taxed his CNS to too high a degree. Opinions?
In terms of Tellez, while his approach differs from Charlie’s, he does not overwork his athletes. Vince Anderson is very much a Tellez disciple.
Dan Pfaff is also a Tellez disciple. Was a assistant under him.
Wasn’t Anderson as well?