Powell and Gatlin's Training Methods

I’d like to start a thread on this topic because it seems that this information not readily available at this time. So, I will ask, what do you guys know about the training methods they use. They are obviously doing something right.

Perhaps we can start to research the methods of both Steven Francis and Trevor Graham. I love the fact that a country without large money reserves or scientific training centers can produce great athletes (Jamaica). It just goes to show that simplicity will always reign king.

So, let’s get to it, let’s see what we can dig up…

Give me a day or two and I will be able to tell you exactly what Trevor’s group does as most of them (men and women) do the same thing.

How about some live video as well? :smiley:
There was an article posted on Steve Francis’s training methods a while ago. I will try and dig it up when I get home. I was actually speaking with someone this past weekend who was coached by Steven Francis in High School. What I can tell you is that he believes in volume early in the macrocycle and from what I understand seems to be some type of long to short approach.

This was posted on another thread some time ago.

Stephen Francis

He started by mentioning that there are 2 ways to prepare a sprinter:

1: Long to Short…Get them fit with an autumn of volume/mileage/over-distance.

Proceed to more specific work…more intense. Sprinting added at the end.

2: Short to Long…Develop speed from day 1. As the winter season involves 60m competition, prepare for this in Oct and Nov

After March, introduce speed endurance.

General Preparation is 4 months. Some start in September but the pros in late October or even November. This phase will go till March and will involve

Hill sprints: Twice a week.
Weights: 4 times a week.

He mentioned that he doesn’t perform traditional lifts, apart from Bench presses and Cleans. He rarely does squats as they can be dangerous. Lots of years experience required. Instead, he prefers the 1 leg squat, which is more sprint specific. If he is gonna involve a squat, it’ll be a front squat, so the weight can be thrown forward in case of emergency. He likes jump squats and split jumps. Weights will be done before a sprint session.

Drills are performed to specifically strengthen, rather than to improve form. He will use high knees and straight leg bounds for specific strength. High knees for 100 or even 150m to develop hip flexors. He emphasised trying to understand what the body does in sprinting and then develop those muscles.

He wants attention paid to the back body: from the lumbar back to the heel, these being the most involved in sprinting. He’ll perform hamstring work 4-5 times a week as this area works 3 times more than the front. His guys hardly get injured there due to the extra effort spent on this area.
Sprinting, he mentioned, is not natural, so hams get stressed. Important to do hip extension exercises: e.g. straight leg pulley hip extension. Not much focus needed on quads

Running will be done in sneakers on grass till Feb.

8x300m with 5 min rest.
12x200m with 3 min rest.
These slow endurance style workouts will be performed twice a week. His 300’s are his staple workout and should be done every week. They develop resistance to pain.
There will also be 2 sprint sessions a week. These will include mechanics from blocks, sled work from blocks, 20’s, 30’s etc.

One day a week, there’ll be Circuit training work. He mentioned Burpees as a typical circuit station, but wasn’t too keen on demonstrating!!! Circuits will go on till Dec.
Also, he’ll never change a program to accomodate indoor season

He also won’t peak for e.g. a Commonwealths. Sherone Simpson ran 11.11 in January and 11.03 in August. As long as one keeps the specifics in the program they’ll perform well. He mentioned a need to be at best against the Americans. If it’s a less important period, don’t change preparation. Some periods will obviously get sacrificed when targeting specific times of the year.

He also performs testing on his athletes. He has a 3 week training cycle followed by 1 week of testing. Tests will go on till April, examples of which are: Vertical jump, Long jump, throw for distance, 1RM in gym. He has a repetoire of 15-18 tests and will perform 3 a day on test week.

Core work is performed 3 times a week. Large amount of abs work is done with a medicine ball.

He mentioned a disliking to sand runs as they stress the quads too much

He also doesn’t use overspeed training for fear of getting hurt. It’s easy for athlete to lose control during overspeed. The important thing is to stay healthy and not do anything stupid. Normal sprints to 60m are also largely avoided for fear of injury, 50-60m being prime stage for athlete to pull up.

Vincente, very interesting post there. I can’t wait to see what you dig up. I will be searching in my spare time also. A great point I would like to mention is that this year there seems to be an abundance of sprinters that are not the intimidating muscular individuals of the past.

If you look right down from the 100-400m every top 3 guys have average muscular builds for a sprinter. Obviously the 200 and 400 guys have exceptionally smaller development, but if you were to see either Gatlin or Powell in a T-shirt there would be no overwhelming suggestion that they were the best in the world at any particular sport!

Just something I noted this year.

http://www.iaafacademy.com/nacac/August%202005%20NACACTFCA%20Bulletin.pdf

BREAKING 13.00 SECONDS
A PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE

Stephen Francis – Jamaica
(Presented at the 2004 NACACTFCA Congress in Bonaire)

Thirteen seconds has traditionally been an important barrier in the life of the developmental female hurdler. It sits at the crossroads. It is a sign that participation at the elite level of the event is possible. It indicates that the hurdler’s dream is not far off.

By breaking 13.00 seconds, the hurdler shows potential to earn at the event in the near future. She is now a possibility for participation on the European circuit. She has achieved the “A” standard for the World Championships. She has met the “B” standard for the Olympic Games (the “A” standard was a ridiculously high 12.95 in 2004.)

What are the ingredients of a sub-13 hurdler? How does one go about transforming a 13.20 or slower hurdler to a sub-13.0 hurdler? I present to your today a guidebook for success. A set of proposals that when put together can transform a hurdler of reasonable talent to a near elite hurdler. The main chapters of the guidebook are:

  1. Technique
  2. Start and Acceleration
  3. Speed
  4. Speed Endurance

These should be the main areas of focus for the hurdler and her coach. Improvement in any of these areas will probably lead to improvement in the PB of the athlete. Improvement in all four will lead to huge gains.

SPEED DEVELOPMENT AND THE 100M HURDLES
Speed development is the most important aspect of 100 meters hurdles training. Many coaches see the women’s 100 meters hurdles as a mirror of the men’s meters meter hurdles, but in fact it is vastly different. In the men’s event, because of the higher relative height of the hurdles, technique and height become more important considerations. In the women’s hurdles the most important factor is speed. As a matter of fact, if one were to compare the techniques of the top women hurdlers against that of the top men, the women would come out very poorly. Most top women hurdlers have very poor knee drive to the hurdle on approach, an incomplete trail leg carry over the hurdle, and poor arm action during hurdling. Yet they manage to be among the very best in their event. Men do not have that luxury. The very best hurdlers are also the very best technicians in the event.

Looking at the 100 meters hurdles empirically, one will see that most top class hurdlers are almost guaranteed to be world class sprinters. To break 13.00 over 100 meters hurdles, the hurdler must be capable of running 11.75 seconds or better over 100 meters.
What is the implication of this for preparation? In general, the 100 meters hurdlers should train as if they were 100 meters sprinters for most of the training microcycle.

TECHNIQUE
Obviously, time must be spent refining the hurdling technique, but how much time?
And what specifically must the time be spent on? I propose that the focus of the coach and athlete should be in the following three areas:

  1. The speed of the lead leg
  2. The length of the trail leg
  3. The positioning of the trail arm.

Deficiencies in the above three will be corrected by the use of drills. All of this is not new, and from my observation most coaches of hurdlers who I have seen spend quite a lot of time doing a myriad amount of drills of all types. For drills to be useful, each drill should be specifically aimed at developing one or more of the above facets.

Speed of the Lead Leg
As a general rule, the slower the lead leg, the more time spent over the hurdle, the slower the overall time of the race. How does one improve the speed of the lead leg? There are many drills devised that if done properly can lead to improvements in lead leg speed. The most effective are those that are done at racing speed. One of the problems that I am sure all of you encounter when coaching hurdlers is the difficulty that most hurdlers have when asked to replicate their drill form at racing speed. All of a sudden the hurdler with perfect form at the slower paces of the drill, look amateurish when asked to pick up speed, or to hurdle at maximum intensity.

For this reason, I advocate that a large amount of drill time should be spent on technique using a 3 step rhythm at near to racing speeds. The advantage to practicing the drill at low intensity is the possibility of the athlete teaming the perfect technique at a slower pace. When the athlete is doing the drills at walking or jogging pace she will have a lot of time to do the correct thing. The same holds true when the athlete practices hurdle clearances with 5 or more strides between the hurdles. In my view, however, it is better that the athlete learns the correct thing over a longer period of time in a way that she can easily reproduce in a race. This means that she will run a number of races with relatively poor technique, but over time as the technique develops and improves she will yield superior times. As she improves in practice, she will be able to do the same thing in races over the weekend. Although the technical improvement will be difficult to achieve in practice, the athlete will be able to apply some in her races.

The high intensity drills can be facilitated by setting up the hurdles with 6.5m to 7.0m between the hurdles, thus ensuring that the athlete can do the drill using a three step rhythm even though she is not going at full speed.

With these guidelines in mind, there are three drills, which in my experience may be the most effective ones.

  1. Skipping lead leg snaps at the sides of the hurdles
  2. Running lead leg half hurdle with one stride between the hurdles
  3. Running lead leg snaps (half hurdle) with a three-step rhythm.

Only when the athlete is able to master these drills can you be confident that the athlete will be able to carry the technique into a race situation.

Trail Leg
The trail leg is probably the most important aspect of the hurdle technique. In fact for men, it is the most crucial part of the male sprint hurdle technique. It is not as important for female hurdlers because of the shorter distance between the hurdles. There is a caveat to this though. Smaller hurdlers, especially those 5’4" and less have to spend relatively more time on the functioning of the trail leg, for obvious reasons.

Why is the trail leg important? Well, it is the first of three strides between the hurdles. In fact, it is the second longest of the three strides in female hurdling. There are two distinct ways of carrying the trail leg. Smaller women have to by necessity carry the trail leg high and full - i.e. the knee of the trail leg passes close to the chest. Taller women can de- emphasize the height of the trail leg in deference to the quickness of the leg. These taller athletes tend to have longer strides between the hurdles, so they can carry the knee of the trail leg at just above waist height.

Carrying the trail leg high may be useful even for the taller woman. The high trail leg will ensure that the distance she has to cover over the next two strides will be less. She can then focus on making these two steps quicker than they would normally be when she carries the trail leg lower.

In general, the hurdler should try to avoid making ground contact with the trail leg too far from the center of the body. This is a very real possibility when the knee of the trail leg is carried at or below waist height over the hurdle. The trail leg then lands off to the side, and the hurdler is forced to over-stride to make the strides in between the hurdles. At the very least, the hurdler should improve her trail leg to the point were on landing, she can run normally between the hurdles.

The following drills can improve the trail leg.

  1. Skipping trail leg over the half hurdle
  2. Running trail leg over half hurdle with one stride between the hurdle
  3. Running trail leg over half hurdle with three strides between the hurdles

Trail Arm
The main function of the trail arm is to maintain the balance of the body on landing. Most hurdlers (whether elite or not) tend to carry the trail arm very wide and high with a resulting twist of the body on landing. This twisting of the body fractionally delays the second stride between the hurdles, as the athlete must regain her balance before making the next step. This is something that male hurdlers are forced to perfect, because of the height of the hurdles. Twisting off of any of the hurdles can lead to disaster by the next hurdle. For the women, they are not air-borne as much, so the effect of twisting will not be as pronounced as it would be for the men.

I estimate that over a series of 10 hurdles, this type of delay can contribute a total of 0.3 seconds to the total time of the race. Ideally, the trail arm should be as close to the body as possible, especially the elbow and the upper part of the arm. The arm should also be carried as low as possible in an effort to counteract the natural twisting motion of the upper body.
Drills for the trail arm are essentially the same as for the trail leg.

START AND ACCELERATION
As it is in any 100 meters sprint, the start is very important to the outcome of the race. The hurdler will take eight strides to the first hurdle, and during this time, she will have to get close to top running speed by the first hurdle. For the remainder of the race momentum is broken by the athlete having to clear the barriers, so the increase in speed later in the race is not as drastic as it is in the 100 meters.

The main issue with block clearance and starts for the 100 meters hurdles is that the block must be set so that the trail leg is in the front block. Although this seems to be basic, it does have a lot of implications for the approach to training, especially the training of acceleration. A lot of power work must be done on the trail leg. All starts must also be done using the trail leg in front. If the athlete also runs the 100 meters, then the 100 meters start must be adjusted to have the trail leg in front.

After the block clearance comes the acceleration, which begins at stride 2 and continues to the penultimate stride before the first hurdle, i.e. stride 7. Most hurdlers will begin looking at the hurdles immediately after block clearance. Others will concentrate in the first three strides on pushing against the ground without looking at the hurdles. Only after getting enough ground force will the athlete then focus on clearing the upcoming hurdle.

The athlete needs to focus on getting her hips high enough to negotiate the hurdle on takeoff. This is not as challenging as it is for the men’s 110 meters hurdles as the hurdles are relatively lower. Several women hurdlers pay too much attention to the first hurdle and not enough to initial acceleration. Their body angles are usually wrong over the first four strides with the result that they get to the first hurdle at less than ideal speed.

The following exercises will develop block clearance and acceleration.

  1. Jump, Jump, Throw with medicine ball
  2. 6-8 x 30 meters steep hill sprints
  3. 6-8 x 20 meters using bullet belt
  4. Front shot throw on toe board
  5. 6-8 x 20 meters using towel (or other types of resistance)

SPEED
As mentioned earlier, 100 meters speed is a good predictor of hurdling potential and ability. Training the speed component for the 100 meters hurdler is a little more complicated than training the speed component in the 100 meters. The coach has to take into account the presence of several barriers that have to be negotiated.

How does one develop the speed component? The athlete has to go through the same processes as the 100m speed development. All the various training regimens for developing maximum speed have to be employed including:

A. Maximum Strength Development.
This should cover at least 16-20 weeks of the training year. The focus should not be on the core bodybuilding exercises, but rather on exercises that are more specific to the running motion. As an example, it would probably be more beneficial for the athlete to do split squats and front squats instead of back squats. The front squat is more useful because the athlete can focus on the technique of squatting and not the weight she is squatting with. Split squats are even more relevant as they are done on single legs, like sprinting. Here balance and the minor muscles of the thigh come into play, just as it does in high speed sprinting. Other exercises would be:
• Cleans
• Jerks
• Hyperextensions (single and double leg)
• Jump squats
• Inverted Rows

These exercises should be eventually done in such a way as to develop maximum strength.

B. Jump Drills (plyometrics)
The aim of these categories of exercises is to develop the ability to exert more force from the ground each time the foot strikes. By improving this capability of the muscle, the athlete will be able to cover more ground with the same amount of ground contact time.

This area of training is well covered by several experts, but a few drills to include are:
• Bounding (Run)
• One Leg bounds
• Ankle Bounding
• Alternate Split Jumps
• One Leg Hopping
• Hurdles Jumps

Two very good indicators of progress are the:

  1. Standing Long Jump test
  2. Standing Vertical Jump test

Significant improvements in either of these indicators (that is not technique driven) will normally suggest an improvement in maximum running speed potential, other things being equal.

C. Medicine Ball Work
Under this category of exercises fall all the hundreds of exercises designed to improve both upper and lower body power. These exercises include overhead throws, twists, throws from behind the head, throwing then running, etc.

D. Sprinting
Maximum sprinting speed requires practice if it is to be improved. Most speed improvement programs schedule copious amounts of sprinting as their focus. It is usually believed that these sprint workouts determine the success of the individual at sprinting.

For the 100 meters hurdler, the typical sprinter exercises must be mixed with sprinting over the hurdles. It is worthwhile for the sprints over hurdles to be done at heights lower than the competition height as this allows the hurdler to focus more on the running between the hurdles and not so much on the task or negotiating the barriers.

Typical Sprint workouts
Without hurdles - 3 x 3 x 30-60m

With hurdles

  1. 2 x 3 x 3-6 hurdles from block or 3 point start
  2. Place all hurdles at 30". The athlete runs at full speed over the first two set at regular spacing. The next two hurdles are removed. The athlete will run hard in the resulting space before clearing the next three hurdles (hurdle 5, 6 and 7).

SPEED ENDURANCE
This is the final major component that needs to be trained. A lot of elite female hurdlers apparently spend very little time working on this component. Each year we see many hurdlers running between 7.85 seconds and 8.05 seconds for 60 meter hurdles, but come outdoors are unable to run equivalent times when the last five hurdles are involved.

This component is what separates in most cases the hurdler who is able to run at the very top level of the sport, from those who flirt at the edge of stardom and elitism. It is also the most under-estimated and ignored component in the training of sprint hurdlers. It is very common to ignore the effect that repeated clearances of barriers will have on the physical capacity of the 100 meters hurdles athlete. The athlete will effectively run more than 100 meters (in terms of effort) during a 100 meters hurdles race. It may be wise to train the athlete to run a distance of say 120 meters, in order to handle the speed endurance demands of the 100 meter hurdles.

How is this speed endurance built? The first step is to build general speed endurance. This develops the ability of the athlete to run distances over 60m at high speed. There are many ways to go about doing this. Personally, I like to ensure that the athlete is able to run a very fast 300 meters. How fast? Well, an athlete who wants to run 12.90 should be able to run a 300 meters time trial in at least 38.00 seconds, assuming that she has 100 meter speed of 11.70 to 12.00.

The athlete who aims for 12.4’s or 12.3’s should be able to run 300 meters in 36.0 seconds, a time which comparable to the world’s elite. My experience suggests that being able to meet these types of times over 300 meters indicates that the athlete possesses more than enough speed endurance to meet the demands of 100 meter hurdling. When enough general speed endurance is present the speed endurance problem is not yet solved. In the 100 meters hurdles race, the athlete has to cover the last 3-4 hurdles while ensuring that her technique does not breakdown enough to slow her up.

This is a demand unique to hurdling among athletic events. In no other event or group of events is the athlete required to execute a highly technical sequence under conditions of extreme exhaustion. In fact, during the last 4 hurdles of the race, poor technique caused by fatigue is the biggest contributor to the slowing of the athlete. Many things happen during this period.

  1. The athlete’s stride shortens, so she takes off too far from the hurdle and begins to hit them, usually with the trail leg.
  2. The athlete fails to continue to snap the lead leg. The result is expanded airtime over the hurdles, or “floating”.
  3. 3, Wild trail arm action leads to the athlete becoming severely unbalanced, with the resulting delays on landing on the ground.

The athlete must therefore practice hurdling at high speeds under stress. Ways of achieving this include:

  1. Runs over 12 hurdles from blocks with proper spacing. The 12th hurdle will be past
    the finish line. The athlete is timed using touchdown times.
  2. Runs over 13 hurdles using 7.5 meters between each hurdle
  3. 100 meters hurdles runs with hurdles 5, 6, 7 removed

CONCLUSION
The CAC region has under-performed in the 100 meters hurdles in comparison to a number of other regions. With 100 meters speed being so important to the outcome of the event, it is somewhat surprising to see the relative dominance of the Europeans. The Caribbean part of CAC has long been seen worldwide as one of the main speed producing regions, but there has been appallingly little success over the 100 meters hurdles. I believe that by seeing the 100 meters hurdles more as a sprint than an obstacle event, it is possible for the Caribbean to drastically improve on their historical performance in the 100 meters hurdles, and to match their success in the sprints without barriers.

Jay, Very good post. Keep Em’ coming. Im like a detective righ tnow…lol.

Here is a short Bio I found on Francis:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060409/out/out1.html

CREATING WORLD CHAMPIONS
published: Sunday | April 9, 2006

Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer

Stephen Francis

STEPHEN FRANCIS, 42-year-old coach and CEO of MVP club is savouring the taste of success. But, if you think this is about his athletes performance in Melbourne, Australia, at the recent Commonwealth Games, you could not be more wrong.

Instead, it is about the success of MVP (Maximising Velocity and Power) against all odds.

Francis is the coach of MVP athlete Asafa Powell who has been crowned the “world’s fastest man”.

An unknown in 2001, Powell has improved markedly moving from a personal best of 10.70 in 2001 to 9.77 (world record) in 2005. Francis is also the coach of Brigitte Foster-Hylton who broke the Commonwealth Games record in the 100m hurdles at the recent games.

Stephen Francis, who says he is not a vindictive man, states that he will not remind the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association that they once refused to support Asafa, unless he changed his coach.

But, he notes, “Our programme which was starved of resources is the same one that everyone now seems to be proud of.”

Stephen Francis, the son of training consultant Vincent Francis and Nurse Derman Francis, made enormous sacrifices along the way to the achievements of MVP.

He could have chosen an easier path. In the early ‘90s, after years as a high school coach at Wolmer’s Boys’ School where he also taught, Francis went to the University of Michigan to complete an MBA in accounting and management as a springboard into the corporate world. Coming back to Jamaica, he joined the international firm KPMG ­ Peat Marwick and did very well until he decided that his heart was really into athletics. He wanted to coach full-time.

In 2000, he recalls, "the issue of coaching adults to the level of success was not on the table.

HIGHER LEVEL

“Athletes came to UTech or to GC Foster College and then went to the United States. Jamaica was just an intermediate stop. Michael McDonald tried taking it to a higher level, but in one year he fell victim to problems.”

Francis had started coaching when, while completing a first degree at the University of the West Indies in 1982, he offered coaching help to his brother Paul Francis with good results. After graduation, the Wolmer’s Boys’ School alumnus made his way to Marescaux Road in Kingston, where he energetically revived the school’s track and field programme, pushing Wolmer’s Boys’ for the first time in a decade back among the contenders in the annual championships among secondary schools ­ Champs.

Stephen Francis was never an athlete himself, but he states that he loved sports and that he came by his expertise through reading. He first began at the Mico library and, as his income grew, began purchasing and bringing books into the island on the subject of coaching and improving athletic performance.

But, it was the fortuitous arrival of Brigitte Foster-Hylton in the island without a coach that changed his life.

As Foster-Hylton remembers it, "I asked Mr. Francis to coach me when I came home to Jamaica for the national championships and needed guidance. Someone recommended him and I was rather impressed with that first brief session.

“He felt the same way about me, too. He told me that he saw in me talent and that he could take me to the next level. I was very excited because I have never heard these words before. He believed I could be world class.”

Stephen Francis resigned his job at Peat Marwick to coach full time. Foster-Hylton went to the CAC Championships and later the Commonwealth Games and did better than before. She moved back to Jamaica to work with her new coach.

But, during that first year, coach Francis recalls, no one was interested in sponsoring Foster-Hylton. His work at UTech was also voluntary.

“Yes,” he reveals, " I did sell my car. I am not embarrassed to say that my credit rating was so bad that I could not get a credit card. The water, light, everything went. I had to make sure that Brigitte and the other athletes did not starve. I was eager to see what could be done with them."

In 2000, he created Caribbean Athletics, followed by MVP club with the idea of “professionalising the whole issue of coaching and to see if being in the home environment would make Jamaicans better athletes. I have always felt that Jamaican athletes were at a big disadvantage because they are not based at home. They leave (Jamaica) at 18 or 19 and become Americans who really are not interested in coming back home.”

MVP was intended to offer its athlete management services, coaching as well as investment outlets. The initial response was all that Francis desired. In 2001 he recruited Asafa Powell whom he said nobody knew then.

But, 2001 was the worst year for Francis’ MVP club. Brigitte Foster-Hylton became ill and sponsors withdrew.

By February, he was telling the female athlete that he might have to migrate. Her answer was “where are we going?” She was prepared to follow him anywhere. Overwhelmed by her loyalty, Stephen Francis decided to try again.

His analysis of their difficulties at that point, he recalls, resulted in the realisation that expectations, as well as performance, had to be managed too. The Club was saved when he was given a salaried position as coach at UTech. Since 2001, Francis has improved the times of several athletes. Between this time and 2004, he took 100m hurdler Foster from 13.26 to the national record of 12.45.

TESTIMONY

In less than a year, 100m relay gold medallist Sherone Simpson reduced her time from 11.37 to 11.01. The evidence of Asafa Powell’s world beating times is also testimony.

Other athletes whose careers he has influenced include Michael Frater, Ainsley Waugh, Winston Smith, Kenneth Sylvester, Oral Thompson, Ryan James and Germaine Mason.

The coach boasts, "We love dealing with underdogs, we love proving people wrong. We love to get athletes who people think are not good. Most of our athletes have never won a race at Champs.

"Brigitte Foster-Hylton never won a race in the Champs hurdles. Asafa only got to one final.

“Sherone Simpson never won a race. Ainsley Waugh never won either. The only stars we really had were Germane Mason (Jamaica high jump record holder ­ 2.34m) and Michael Frater who came to us through the Wolmer’s systems. We take the underdogs whom nobody else really want and turn them into world beaters.”

It is not so much about talent as it is about a system, the coach states. “When Asafa was doing 10.3 no one was saying that he was talented. Now that he is doing 9.77 they will say that, but there is much more involved.”

TECHNICAL SKILLS

He works on technical skills, physical conditioning and, if this does not bring about improvement, “we move to the mental,” Stephen Francis says. “Sometimes we need to send the athlete to a sports psychiatrist so that he or she can visualise and achieve the calm ( state of mind ) needed to win a race.”

According to Foster-Hylton who took home the gold in Commonwealth Games, her coach’s “constant grasp for knowledge” is what impresses her most.

"He is a very bright man and this makes him a cut above the rest. He never gets complacent. He is also always looking for ways to improve. He does this by researching.

“I also like his aggression which brings out the best in me. He is tough, but, based on my personality, this what I need. I don’t need to be spoon-fed. That will not get the best out of Brigitte.”

“Reading is my passion, sport is my love,” says coach Francis who today remains single. “In my 20s I was too much of a party person to marry. In my 30s I could not afford it. Now that I am in my 40s I travel too much.”

The coach is away for four months out of every 12. The summer will find him attending international meets with his athletes.

“What Melbourne means,” he says, “is that in the summer they will be doing wonderful things. It also shows you how much performing for Jamaica really means to these kids.”

Gatlin uses methods kind of similar to Charlie’s. From what I have seen before the WR he was doing stuff like block starts.

3x10m
3x20m
30m
40m
50m
60m

Running 60m in about 6.0-6.3

Also 2x Special endurance runs over 200m in about 20.4-21.5 depending on pace.

On Van’04 DVD CF talks about Trevors modified short to long progression starting out with 9x90m runs 2x a week as speed endurance with incomplete recovery.

Nothing too different from what we are used to on the forum just high intensity high quality.

[i]3x10m
3x20m
30m
40m
50m
60m

Running 60m in about 6.0-6.3

Also 2x Special endurance runs over 200m in about 20.4-21.5 depending on pace.[/i]
in the same work out?

Do you know his schedule?
for example. does he do weight before of after speed session?
how many sprint (speed and SE) session does he do in week?
how many weight sessions does he do in week (split or full)?

Its very similar to my training except i start special endurance before march i start the at january since i compete outdoors in winter and summer

i think thats because they are quite tall. Like Obikwelu also.
Maurice i.e. is 1,75m and lookes bigger, because his 76kg looking like “more”.

A person with 1,88m and 89kg wouldn look like that automatically and Asafa has 86kg i think

Francis prefers 1-leg squats. How exactly are they performed?
Is here anybody who also prefers this instead of squats?

I cant imagine to peak in strength because of handling the weight with only one leg :slight_smile:

Pj, I always wonder the percentage of use when someone says they incorporate a particular exercise into the training program. Just because SF says that he uses these exercises doesn’t meant they comprise a large majority of the days.

SInce we really don’t know how often the exercises are being used, or the exact technique of how the athletes use them, it’s hard to determine what the effect of the inclusion can have. I still believe that one-leeged exercises are effective, yet, they can’t be the sole type of leg strengthening done in the program. I think the mojority of the board agrees with that statment.

I am however impressed that a lot of people “seem” to be using the one legged modalities, whereas in the past it wasn’t taken as a widely used method.

greene at his best has been 83,never look to iaaf figures…for obikwelu there is given you the same data he had when he won (in 94…) world juniors.(as thin as one could be).and now h e is abeast (194 75 kg???have you seen him!!!..)
the same for most sprinters…consider christie, 92 kg from 90-91, I remeber him given at 77kg by media guide till 93…andsome italian sports newspaper in 96

i know that there would come sb to tell the exact datas…

i posted it by estimation :slight_smile:

I’m pretty sure by that they mean a split squat. Which is basically when you put one leg forward and the other back and I guess he deems it more sprint specific because it’s basically where your legs are when you run.

i think in genaral we just have to get infos about Asafa’s training, because Gatlin’s is already known :slight_smile:

I don’t know that I would consider Gatlins training methods already known. They are obviously including methods that are somewhat superior to the rest of the U.S. for the shorter sprints. I say this because 9.77 and 19.79 are extremely great numbers to be posted from a single training camp.

I agree that ASafa’s methods are still somewhat unknown. I might have to fly down to Jamaica:)

Travor uses many methods and rules from CF. So it definetly is quite clear(of course details are always different).

Send me a vid from jamaica

to they are both in the shadow:I have only some hints about them. to understand a program you need more lements, the progression of speed and SE, integration of plyos and weights etc…