My dear Youngy and co., I hope to contribute with something I found on my hard disk…Is an article ( in italian) from Margot Wells, dated 1981…I can send the original…I’ll just translate this part, when she states that, after running 10.9 at 24, he decided to concentrate on sprinting.
The training was divided then in 4 parts:
- Gymnastic exercises phase ( 1 training a day)
This kind of work is performed at night in a small basement /garage, equipped with 3 speed balls , 3 mats, and a ladder.
The garage is extrememly cold, and that makes training very difficult;a greater effort becomes necessary to increase cardiac frequency and body temperature.However, before enering that freezy place, a warm up is needed, so a light work is perfrmed in a neighbouring park.
Warm up:no jogging is performed during any w.up phase.We substitute it with easy strides, increasing speed gently and progressively, over distances of 100m, 5-6 times, so we can concentrate on running technique.
then follows a quite long stretching and mobility exercises, working primarily knee and hip mobility.
After those, other strides follows, increasing gradually speed.
warm up is 30-40 m long, and remains the same before gym training and before track training.
After that, light session focusing on 3 moments:a) knee lift, B) hip mobility,c) lower leg extension, in order to increase total stride lenght.
The exercises choosen are:
Bounds: this exercise was performed in 2 ways… for power over a distance, and for speed.Both over 100m.previous experince as a Long Jumper was quite important, becasue he wss techinically perfect in the power bounds.Speed bounds were performed stressing a quick movement of recovery leg, lifting knee high and leaving supporting leg on the ground as long as possible.
High knees: performed in 2 ways, with or without leg extension.
During performance, back should remain flat and still, whil leg is flexed and lifted.Continuing to mantain knee lifted, then you extend lower leg, trying to grip the ground.
The exercise is performed running, with arm action.The exercise without leg extension is performed the same way, but is immediatly making contact with the gorund, so a shorter and faster drill.
These exercises were repeated 2-4 times, walking back for recovery.
Then we had a 2 miles trip to reach the garage for gym work.garage was not well equipped and cold, but fit our needs, because speed ball is very loud, especially when 3 guys are hitting it.
Speed ball is just one of the 4 exercises, but maybe the more controversial, but should be stressed that is not more important than any of the other 3.
Speed ball training had been used in Scotland for 10-15 years, by pro and amateurs as well.His role in the circuit is to strengthen the upper body, which can obviously strengthened by weights, but speed ball can give you the ability to work continuosly and in complete decontraction, the weights cannot do so.
If tightness on arm and shoulders come out, the ability to hit the ball is compromised, and this, transerred on the track, can be verified in allan’s ability to keep shoulders low and without upperbody tensions.
Hitting speedball require concentration, especially if there are many people hitting them, becuse you have to concentrate on the rumor of your own ball, because ball travels so fast to follow it with eyes.
it has been stated that speed ball trainign quickens neuro muscular pathways, sharpening reaction time.
despite not being scientifically proven, the fact that arms n and legs work at a speed higher that on the track, this could produce positive effects on stride frequency .what’s more, shoulder mobility is increased, allowing the athlete to move through a longer range with more energy.
speed ball involves also the whole body, beacuse the movement starts from fingers of the feet, and finishes with the hands.The only part not moving is the head.
In the circuit, speed ball is the first exercise;it is a 6 set x 3 minutes format, with 1 minute rest.
After its conclusion, the other 3 exercises are performed in a kind of circuit; e
ach one is divided in 6 sets.
the 3 exercises are chinnies, press ups and squats.
Chinnies.
are performed on the back, sitted with spread legs, with a knee toward the opposite shoulder, without trunk rotation.This exercise not only develops abs strength,but also helps hip mobility, stabilize trunck rotation, strengthens hip flexors.
It is performed for about 40 reps, increasing each week until reaching a single set of 300 to 1000 (???)
Press ups: are performed to strenghten upper body, and a set varies from 25 to 40 , up to 120.
Squat: 3/4 on 2 legs, performed with weighted vest, sets of 30.
This phase, Gym period, is 6 weeks long, and is not as intense as the second phase.
Then w moved on the track, where we performed different phases, each one lasting 1 week. ( more to follow…)