I need some advice on MaxV in the GPP. My athletes do 1 set of 4 reps of flying 30m or 30m from a three point start. I was wondering if this wasn’t too little, or will any more be detremental to gains in speed? The athletes I refer to are high school kids.
Should they do more or are this enough?
That’s prob ok. Use your judgement. The main thing to remember is that you can work on the technical aspects of max v while still at a sub max speed, so, between the runs at sub max and those that may be at max, there is a lot of room for adjustment.
Just remember, if you see any deterioration, it’s time to stop.
Would that be deterioration in form or times run?
Both. Though subtle deterioration in form may show up first, you should bail on this type of work at the first sign of either.
Thanks Charlie! Another question on MaxV: yesterday my athletes did a 6 x 30m session. We are in the second week of our GPP for next season. One of the senior coaches at our club asked me what my athletes were training for, I stated that we just started our GPP. Later I heard him say to his athletes that we are doing speed work in the off-season at which they all had a good laugh.
I have one MaxV session a week scheduled and one speed endurance session, this I planned for at least the next 3 months. The training group I refer to here are high school girls who do 400m and 400mH.
They all seriously lack top end speed and my thinking was to build this up through the GPP, seeing if we can drop a second off their 200m times by October.
Should one do top-end speed work at the beginning of the GPP, or am I as silly to do this as this coach suggests?
not silly,
try get the GPP dvd, it will explain everything to you. best dvd out of lot i think
some speed training could be realy beneficial even in GPP. But the weather has top be good, but that wouldn’t be a problem in south africa i guess.
This season i tried to incorporate some of the GPP essentials and kitkat tips in my gpp for a 400h. Untill yesterday( i hurt my hamstring in a standing start 80 m sprint…due to cold i guess.) it was workling awesome. all pb’s in short sprints.
So just go on with the speed work, they won’t get any slower from it 
Pindaman, sorry to read of your injury. Is it bad? When it is cold (much less snowing!), reduce the explosiveness by making all the reps rolling start and build up to a manageable velocity.
The other consideration always is you should periodically check with your chiropractor/osteopath and get your hips (pelvis) balanced to help reduce leg-length discrepancy due to a rotation in one hip or the other. I would never allow anyone to time-trial unless they had been to their chiropractor not more than three days beforehand.
I think between the masseur and the chiropractor you can virtually do without physiotherapists and doctors. kk
Stay off the leg for 72 hrs and reasess. If it’s not too bad, you can start with drils primarily involving the good leg and progress from there. Check the archives for threads on hamstring injuries. There’s a lot of good info there.
Hope this helps, pindaman! Swift recovery!
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=1015&page=1&pp=15
Guys, Thanks for the input.
kitkat.
I think the injury isnt too bad, but i’ll rest it like charlie suggested.
I should have used a rolling start… but when “the others” are running i get kinda heated up.
first run went ok, in a time normally run juli/august. So i was exited to go even faster because the first run didn;'t feel good enough.
But i learned my lesson… only rolling start when temp is under 20 degrees celcius 
Niklousky, i did use ice when i came home(i didnt even shower, so my girlfriend didn’t want to sit next to me on the couch 
after 30min ice i went to my pc and did check the thread you mentioned.
this morning i had my calfs checked by my fysio, he also did some light massage on hams.
this evening I have to give a training for a fieldhockey team, I wont do anything but staning on the leg, after that i’ll ice again.
Tomorrrow i go to my chiroprator in the morning.
in the afternoon my fysio might give me a light massage on the leg.
the feeling in the leg i allot better than yesterday, when i limped allot, now i can straighten my leg, and walk almost normally without pain.
charlie> for training i will do only upperbody circuits for the next few days. maybe some swimming.
the nice thing is did a max strength bench of 112,5kg. 2x. thats way better than my 95 kg 1x last year.
I’ll keep all posted on the progrees of injury, races etc.
again thanks for the help
At this stage the weather isn’t a problem, it was 32C. Pindaman, sorry to hear about the injury, I hope you get well soon.
man i wish I had that kind of weather, i might come to stellenbosch in the prep for the new season(if I can get the facilities and cash)
And sorry for “polluting your topic” 
just got back from chiro,
Says it’s a major irritation, there is much tension on the muscle but he thinks its not too bad.
So next few days i have try to get the tension of the muscle by just pressing it a few minutes. Hopefully within 48 houjrs i can do some drills, he also said i could do water drills because the ROM of the leg is good when the tension is lowered.
Pindaman, re “pressing” the muscle . . . BE REALLY CAREFUL with that idea. Don’t go deep-tissue or apply anything like acupressure pin-pointing the damaged area because I had a friend who developed a blood clot from doing that and he had to be rushed to hospital.
Maybe you could consider applying Very Mild pressure with the Open Palm of your hand to the muscle area just Beyond the Perimetre of the tear-zone.
just went to my fysio… Geez, chiro+fysio on 1 day. Seems too good to be true. Just to bad i had to pay for it
but he tested my ham, no bleedings whatsoever, only very sensitive(same as this morning) we did some EMS
he said this would taken about 2 weeks, and i might start some light drill tomorrow.
kitkat> about pressure, I meanyt not to press the injured area, only the belly of the muscle. just to ease the tension. Don’t worry, i got a really motivated medical "team"my chiro offered me some compensation for the cost i have to make to go to him. That’s nice isnt it.
I have had exactly the same scenario - a few years ago. Now that my athletes are champions - the same coaches and athletes are asking for advice!
Keep on doing what you BELIEVE. AND what you learn from Charlie, Kitkat, etc. It is definitely worth the “humiliation”!!
Thanks sprint_coach, I will do!
As the GPP DVD points out, you can work on the technical aspects of speed in the later stages of the GPP but the work can still be sub max. The improved speed will ultimately come fromthe advancement of all training qualities over time, but technique and relaxation must always be referenced. Get the GPP DVD if at all possible. You can now download it.