New Taper DVD From Charlie Francis - Peaking When it Counts

I most definitely agree, members; lets stop derailing threads going forward. At least this will allow us to keep information organized.

CLJACKSON, kindly make your case or lets be done with this line of discussion and get back to the core topic which is our new DVD.

Make your case here

Thanks alot,

Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com

Na I’m just mad that nanny and tc saw the video months ago and I’m just getting to order it now. :slight_smile:

Yes, but different season for Nanny nad tc was here when we were filming it.

[b]THE NEW TAPER DVD by Derek Hansen, Rupert Young and Charlie Francis is unique in the way it addresses a crucial stage of the performance-delivery process.

It covers a complex and confusing issue in a simple and concise fashion anyone could understand because all discussion is in layman’s terms and you get to see the magic unfold before your eyes, day-by-day over the last 10 days leading into the Canadian national men’s 100m championship heats.

This film provides a fascinating fly-on-the-wall perspective as Derek brings his young adult sprinter to see what Charlie can do to help him move from around his then 10.6 form to the 10.3 shape they figured he would need to reach the national final.

What I found absolutely stunning about this CF product is that you can really see this young guy morph from an extremely well conditioned and muscular athlete into a title-contending sprinter. The subtle changes are evident, in part due to the better quality of filming.

You don’t need a stopwatch: You can actually see the improvement from “draft-horse” to “thoroughbred” as he discovers a fluid and powerful change to his running style following differences to his range of movement and the use of his arms introduced after discussion with Charlie and mobility/massage by Charlie.

There are many practical lessons to be found in this film as the athlete and his coaches work their way through a frustrating season, dogged by meets (which we see film from the grandstand) wrecked by torrential rain and strong headwinds right up to the national championships heats.

There are lessons in the calm way in which the coaches analyse their own contribution and keep their faith in the performer even despite slow times leading up to the final 10 days before the nationals.

The importance of rest and regeneration are never better illustrated than in this film as we watch this guy go through changes which convert him from a sprinter who really isn’t that good to watch, into a guy who has taken his sport to the level of an elite artist.

But you clearly don’t need to be an elite talent to deliver the sort of beautiful fluency of movement and the graceful power this athlete unlocks over the course of the film.

I like a lot of the incidental discussion Charlie has with Derek, particularly almost a throwaway line that although the athlete cannot achieve good “lift” at the top of his stride, this can be worked on over the next couple of seasons.

That could be a film all on its own I reckon. I probably would have tried to make the correction there and then during the taper, but apparently Charlie reasoned that might not be possible in such a short space of time, or perhaps it might have overloaded the athlete who was under enough pressure coming into his nationals without having someone tear his technique to shreds.

The changes we see in this sprinter are “induced” rather than constructed or coerced. It is a darn good example of the truism: Form Follows Function.

So the changes are sort of “organic” as a consequence of the right type and placing of massage (all of which we see); and the right distance and intensity of sprinting (which we see) as well as the additional stimulus of appropriate weightlifting guided by Derek (we see the actual lifts as well).

Less experienced coaches might not think the right Taper could have such a profound impact on performance. Weather and competition stimulus aside, going from a season’s best of 10.6 to a couple of 10.3 efforts in the space of 10 days is a profound change.

I sought Charlie’s advice on the taper coming into the Seoul Olympics for my 400m athletes and even though they backed off (under instruction, following taper principles) inside the last week, both of my sprinters started reeling off PBs over distances from 20m to 200m which gave them the confidence based on real performances (not bullshit talk) which set them both up for joyous Olympic experiences.

The taper video is a step-by-step guideline to delivering the best performance you have in you, whether you are a club runner or a world-beater.

This Taper DVD de-mystifies one of the most covert processes in the sprinter’s annual training program. You wouldn’t believe the beautiful changes this particular sprinter experiences simply due to a well-managed taper.

You really do need to see it to believe it.
kk.[/b]

Of course it seems biased for me as a moderator to talk about my experience but the reason I am a moderator is because I use the CFTS as the basis of my philosophy and since I started using it my athletes have been very successful. Before, I was successful but it was sporadic and I felt like I wasn’t in control of what was happening because performance would vary so much (the issue of long to short with volume dropping off too much).

In terms of my athletes, none have won olympic world medals (though some are internationals and have won medals at televised meets) but on a relative basis every single athlete since 2004 (when I started using the system) has run a PB in ever event they have competed in, in every period (indoors, outdoors, championship). This indoor season my 20 or so athletes ran over 80PBs between them. I coach a spectrum from men that can’t break 12 seconds to girls running 7.3, to guys that run 21/46 indoors and some girls that just run 25. Most importantly we had no injury any more serious than cramp and only 2 get regular therapy.

Istvan Balyi has said it before (and I wonder where he got the graph from?) but horizontally we have a scientific basis for training - we know how to improve strength, power, flexability etc in isoloation. The problem is the vertical integration of all the training compenents represents the “art” of coaching. This is what you can learn (and what almost all world class coaches already have learned) from charlie.

Thank you for the excellent review!

Ok No2, I hope you posted me this today! :slight_smile: I’ll do a review when it arrives.

Yes! I second that!

Charlie is there a ratio of SPP period to Taper period? Example Would a six week SPP lead to a 3:1 ratio or something like that?

Charlie, I read only.NTSC format…how can we europeans watch it?

Ensure your player reads NTSC format. That should do it.

Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com

The NTSC version played beautifully in Australia when Paul and I viewed it

All the dvd’s I have from the states seem to play fine on my computer.

no, the Taper period max is ten days while the SPP may run as long as 12 weeks. a ten day taper is appropriate for athletes of the level shown and faster. Beginners might find a shorter taper ok, though I’d still like to limit comp to 10 days out because that’s just about the minimum time needed to recover from an injury.

It sounds like another good one. Could not find any purchasing details (cost etc) in the Shop Online section, am I missing something. ?

Check the first post in this thread! :slight_smile:

Could you have a succession of mini tapers for say four meets that were very close together?

What is the shortest taper that could be utilised?

Wouldn’t this just be the same as doing a session at 95%? Which is what you would do anyway if you had a number of competitions in a row.

Edit: OK totally misread the question :D, that’s why my answer doesn’t make any sense!

I think you have Ben’s annual plan from 1987, (Vancouver 2004). You can see that the meets that are close together are considered as one unit of work for taper purposes (there were 5 meets every 3rd day) THEN the taper to the WCs.

i’m hoping it will ever come out as DL
100$ with shipping is alot :frowning:
I wont mind if the quality is cut down if the file would be too big. Bought/DL’ed all previous vids but I’m gonna wait some time for this one.