i agree there are a couple elite sprinters who use overspeed training in there program.
tim montgomery and co. i’ve personally seen them use it.
Why correctly prescribed overspeed should make technique worse at lesser speed?
What relationship you feel exists between the two?
Charlie,Nik,others?
What year?
Not sure what you mean by “correctly prescribed”, as from my experience as an athlete and to the extent I played with conventional overspeed methods (e.g., downhill and elastic cords), I had trouble controlling external factors (e.g., what’s the appropriate inclination for my level, how best to use the cord, how prepared one is to deal with it). Even with strong wind, which is frequently avoided by fast guys especially towards the end of a session in case something goes wrong.
If you mean there is a way available to you that has similar effects to some light back wind, as Charlie seems to support, then perhaps. But I find it hard and scary for high-level athletes. The highest the performance level, the less forgiving it is 
What do you have in mind?
Lastly, I can’t see how a negatively affected technique from overspeed training can be smoothly/effectively transferred to any lower speed.
Are we still talking about sprinters here?
It would be interesting to read your thoughts!
Didn’t Charlie work with Tim, at least for a while?
So he would know.
And I designed the training before that so that’s why I’m asking.
it was around 1998.
Montgomery looks to me from a technical standpoint almost an advert for not using overspeed then! I can see why this sounds stupid looking at his times etc…but he relied purely on cadence, and didn’t really seem to extend. Interesting to see what effect these technical alterations would have made on his performance.
Like all intermediates I’ve experimented with over-speed methods at one point or another. For the most part they didn’t work.
But one did;
Overspeed accelerations with bungee cord pulling me forwards - around 30m accel sprint from leaning over position. A few reps and then I would Switch position, and on next sprint I would Pull the cord for 25m or there-abouts.
Switching the reps like this felt like a good workout, and my times were not suffering. My times were better at that time than most of that year.
All of those bungee cord sprints were done with as much LEAN as I could manage. Straight line lean, not hunching over at hip.
This tallies with Martn76’s (M.r. T) first post on this thread, maybe cords (both assisted and resisted) can help the leaning pick up phase but not help max velocity.
Why is saying “there are a couple elite sprinters” harder than saying, “Tim Montgomery, etc. use overspeed training.” Vague commentary tells nothing when you are trying to support a training method. I know a guy who knows a guy who swears that sprinters get fast by eating jalapenos.
He was running quite well at that time but his best times were in 2001 and 2002. As I was asked to design his program in the fall of 2000, I know there was no overspeed then.
Since for the past 8 weeks I have been doing everything other than what everyone on this forum advocates (submax speed end, int. tempo, short recoveries, no short speed work, lifting on my non workout days) and just recently pr’d twice and ran my 2 fastest 200’s in 4 years I am going to do some overspeed bungee work during the outdoor season and see how that works. I think it may have helped me sophmore year of college.
I think A good overspeed method which is alot like downhill running may be doing 60-80m off the bank on a banked track. When I warmup for my meets when I am on a banked track I do most of my accels on there and it feels great. Perhaps a slight hill transitioning to flat ground would work almost as well.
Thoughts?
Running off a bank isn’t overspeed. it just helps you get going.
So you think you could run an 80 just as fast if you run it on flat ground than if you started it from the middle of the curve up in lane 6?
The highest speed you reach will be when you are on the flat ground and therefore your mechanics will be unchanged.
Pity you aren’t keeping a training log as it would be interesting to follow such heresy 
Yes, but your already at a faster speed on the straightaway due to the bank you just ran off of? Isn’t the advantage of a banked track the fact that your running downhill onto the flat ground with “more momentum” from the bank?
What am I not understanding?
There is no such thing as heresy, just experiences.
What’s heresy? All you need to do is look at the results from my last 2 meets and see that I pr’d and ran much faster than I have in the past 4 years on both end to middle and a short to long program. If you would like to see what I have done the past 8 weeks just ask. No need to publicize what I am doing so I am told how “wrong” everything is.
Now on with the thread! 