quest for mad explosion/planning

I need some help as to where and how to start planning my sprint workouts. The problem is there are a few things going to hold this back. I have to lift 4 days a week in football offseason as things will look like Mon.upper Tues.lower Weds. off Thurs. upper Fri. lower and this is required, this is in the morning btw.

Right now I am basically just going out after school around 4 a clock and doing whatever feels right and I need some help to put me in the right direction on what to do.

The goals I have are basically is crazy 0-40 yard explosion/speed as I am more lacking in the first 10 to 20 yards than in my top speed right now. My Pb in the 40 is 4.52 but this was after a sprint camp during the summer and during football season my time suffered as now the best I can manage is a 4.62, these are handtimed so are not the most accurate timings but are with 2 coaches timing the same person and taking the average of the 2 clocked times.

On training I am not looking for speed endurance right now as we will run some in the mornings for conditioning(400’s), but just looking for a good explosion/sprint training routine. I am not asking for a full routine but just maybe a outline as to what would be acceptable to do or some pointers to help me in the right direction. Thanks

Why are you doing 400’s if u want to improve your 40?

Why is that stupid split routine required? Do you have to lift with the team? Is the coach monitoring it? If not, that would be the first thing to change.

You might want to add 20m towing with a very light weight that does not reduce speed by more than 10 %. Time to check.

You can use a weight disc, sled or tyre to do towing.
Ask your coach or track caretaker if they can provide the props or store them.

Get rid of the 400’s.

atleast 90 % of your sprints should be 20 to 40 yards.

Plyos of low box with quick high explosion can help pickup/acceleration.

400’s is no way under my control, I will not usually run anything over 40 ever when I make the decision unless I do a bit of tempo, this is coaches also and about the lifting routine I can’t help it and can’t take the chance of having to run extra for bsing in the weightroom when we have 8 coaches in there one at each station usually monitoring us.

On what I do now I do cones, I use bungees for resistance, work on just 10’s and 20’s, I do plyo’s and we have a set of plyo boxes that I used all summer but are not in the gym, and I ocassionally do some "overspeed work with the bungees. The problem is that I have no idea what day to do what/ or what excercises to do on those days and any help on setting up a basic outline to help me out would be helpful.

BTW today we started doing a more endurance type workout which will be Mon. Wens. Fri. being a total body workout more and likely each day as today was, for the next 3 weeks prob. or more. Supposively to build a good base off of? BS to me.

My stats as far as strength are not horrible as I usually followed a upper routine westside style and a lower workout only once a week, varying how I feel that day till football offseason started. Stats in strength go like: Benched 265 pretty easily, deep squatted 300+, deadlifted 425 and powercleaned 225 so I have a OK base as far as strength. Vertical was tested on a one step at 32. So basically now you know my life story lol, so is there anyway to help me out a bit even with the ignorance some coaches show in the weightroom and on the track? All help will be appreciated and thanks for the replys that I have got so far.

You are in a bad spot. Your coaches seem to have forgotten that football is about strength and speed. I think the consensus here is to nix any overspeed stuff.

Over at elitefts One of the coaches wrote a template for a 3x/week FB program. I’d look at that and see what I can adapt to your situation. Or maybe do the whole body alternating ME upper/ME lower/DE upper/De lower as your first lift and the coaches program afterward.

Or Maybe sandbag the weight workout and use it as GPP/conditioning/recovery work.

As far as what to do with speed I’m stuck b/c 400’s are tough even at lower intensities. I guess you need them for all the 90sec plays that coaches run, haha.

Good luck.

They have seemed to forget I guess, but o well, it will come back to haunt them next season.

I am not extremely worried about my football right now as much as I am with just running fast considering football is at the end of my list of funnest things to do usually.

The problem with doing something before the coaches lifting is there is no time as we get in the weight room at 7:45 with preset groups and move in a pre-written order and we switch stations we the coaches say etc. I could just lift after school, but to me even halfassing during the morning and busting it later will lead me to becoming overtrained with having to run right after I would lift in the afternoon.

Eh I’m just basically lost right now and wishing I had enough sack to quit football offseason, but then doing so would screw me for track season and baseball as they are both a main part in our offseason program. The funny part is that one of them was the track coach of a state championship 4-A 4x100 relay team a year or two ago.

How many times/week do you run 400’s and how many do you run/session?

C.N.S stimulation.
Volume versus frequancy.
Understand that if the volume is low then c.n.s work can be done as much as 5 days per weak.
This is important for any sprinter/power athlete that has to compromise their training.
If I was you I would make sure to get in two proper rest days each weak.
I would try to keep the volume low on all assistant work. But don’t
half ass the assistant work, do it with precision.
Get rid of the overspeed work but carry on with the slightly resisted sprints.

  1. Why is it that so many college and high school coaches are still living
    in the 1930’s?

400’s are done on no regular basis just whenever the feel like it and how many the feel we need to do, usually no more than 2.

So you are saying that it is fine to do sprint/power work around 4 times a week with low volume that it should be fine?

What would a good day consist of? Say I have 2 different types of days, more of a speed day and then a power day which would decide what I would do more and I would have it like this. Mon: Power Tues:Speed Weds: OFF Thurs: Power Fri: Speed. Say on power days do more explosive work such as resisted pulls, plyos etc. and on speed days do more running work consisting of 10’s,20’s, 40’s and buildups etc.? Would this be ok or am I totally on the wrong track?

You mean resistance runs , not towing, I assume.

If you want to look at a GPP plan with options for shorter speed, get the DVD. It’ll also give you some suggestions for how to work a split routine— in the early training period only!

How do we aquire this DVD? Is it a special order and is it different from the first vidoes in the shop? I am just asking because it is not in the shop.

Thank you

There’s a link to order it in the Official Notices section of the Forum (see Rupert’s post)

Alright I will check it out, but any ideas till I can get a hold of the video?

I would keep tempo distances shorter than 400m and would follow XLR8’s advise till you can balance what you’re doing against what you see on the DVD.

Is the differance that towing is puling a tyre or sled where as resistance
sprinting is with an isorbic exercises ?
Or by resistance sprinting do you mean with a weighted vest?

Usually towing is when someone or something is towing YOU, as opposed to forms of resistance.

Monday: Speed (acceleraton) and weights
Tuesday: Tempo
Wednesday: Agility and weights
Thrusday: Tempo
Friday: Speed (max velocity) and weights
Saturday: Tempo
Sunday: Rest

I pulled this from one of xlr8’s posts and think I am going to follow the running part and adjust it accordingly to however our offseason schedule goes. Btw there is a 7 hour period between the weight sessions I have to follow for offseason and the running I will be doing after school.

Yes, I mean resisted sprints then as opposed to towing.

Thanx for clearing that up for me.

I’m including pulling a tyre in a few of my sprints at the moment.