Hello. Although I would have to re-read to find details, I remember that Speed Trap was like history of Coach Francis’s life, which includes his own athletic career, early coaching career meeting his young new athletes, and developing them into world class athletes. I think I remember such things as him believing in intuition of his athletes, like how he let Ben Johnson drop long SE. I know hills are for mimicing mechanics of acceleration at low speed, med balls are training of explosive power and elasticity as well as drills that prepare athlete for proper sprint mechanics, and tempo is for sprinter specific aerobic conditioning (thus not detrimental with fiber conversion), as well as helpful with staying warm, active recovery, etc.
Flat on ground start is shown on chart at 44:08 of GPP video, but Coach Francis doesn’t specifically address the drill itself. Is start on 32:56 the flat start and 32:20 the pushup start?
Regarding frequency, Coach Francis tend to be using three speeds (2 speed+1SE) routine the most when he talks about routines on key concepts book, so I thought that’s what’s most appropriate for most athletes. Maybe that schedule is only for world class athletes or those with such potential.
I agree that a lot can be learned from watching others that excel. I learned a lot from watching other coaches before, and made my form much better with many drills, and same thing can happen in actual sprints. I always use imagery and picture myself with that nice full hip extension on all strides and knee drives, driven by good arms, coming out at 45 degree angle with low heel recovery to higher recovery as I come up at perfect timing, and being bouncy like a spring even though it’d be difficult to achieve a lot of these things in reality. I believe such training helps get close to my potential.
My original plan for tempo was, that I’d probably do the big circuit with 65% speed, which would make it lower end of the intensity and work my way upto 75% eventually. However, if I’m not in shape to even do that, I would need a different approach, and I really appreciate your recommendation.
With judgement, a lot of that seem to be instinctual, which I lack, but I really wish apprenticeship was common in such field, as Coach Francis mentioned in CFTS book. It’s very difficult to find good master and even more difficult to convince them to want to have acceptance as an apprentice unless you’re really good already.
I hope to continue building experience, hopefully meet a few good other coaches from work/seminars and as I train, build a good network with other athletes.
Thank you for your encouragement and help, I’ll keep doing what I can.