question about allan wells training

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
251

Yep, AT&FCA conference was terrific.

Tom Tellez was the stand out. Very good presenter of basic common sense sprinting. Incredibly fit for his age, demonstrating the technique and the nice fluid action one hopes to achieve.

The speedball presentation was in two halves. Stuart Dempster spoke of the background of it and gave a brief talk about the concept and the effects it has on the body. He said the obvious - the only reason there’s no genuine scientific evidence is because no-one has gone to the trouble of actually testing it. BUT he spoke of the anecdotal evidence including testaments from Allan Wells and Frank Dick.

The second half was basically me giving an instruction on it and discussing my own experiences both as an athlete and a coach in a question & answer format.

I think (at least hope) Stuart was happy for me to answer the questions!

252

Just a very quick query.

Would the Wells chinnies, squats and push up circuit (minus the speed ball) be a good substitute for tempo when the latter is not an option for that day (e.g. time constraints, etc) or was it a little too intense to use for this purpose?

253

If you are well conditioned and use to exercises then a maintenance type program could substitute for tempo. It gets the heart rate up and if the circuit lasts 30 to 40 mins then it should have a similar cardio response to doing a normal tempo.

Better than doing nothing at all.

Several members of my squad still do a body circuit regularly - normally the day after a solid track session, as part of their recovery.

254

Thanks Youngy

And do you find that they recover well and are able to put in a high intensity training session the following day?

255

Yep, no problems.

We’re not talking big numbers that will have them going home tired & sore.

The numbers are kept at a reasonable level so they recover well enough overnight to be ready for a high intensity speed session.

Eg:
11/11/09 Wednesday some flying 50 tempo running, followed by circuits of bodyweight exercises.

12/11/09 Thursday: 3 x 60m spint trials about 6 to 8 mins apart. It was 39 degrees celsius in Adelaide yesterday.

Incidentally, it is 40 degrees on Saturday where quite a few of our squad are heading up to a pro meet in Whyalla, the gateway to the Australian outback. (about 360kms north of Adelaide). Meet starts at 6.00pm.

256

just to comment on circuits a la wells…I have in my squad 3 18-22 yo guys…late comers as they say…but I implemented a program centered on a circuit of high rep squat, push ups, sprinters sit ups and burpees. ( only recently added chin ups)…I’m amazed at the physical changes they underwent.

257

What do you mean? In terms of strength, conditioning or speed?

258

Just physical appearance…also work capacity, overall posture during training.

259

An update on the Whyalla Gift meet - pretty good for us with three of our squad members winning races.

Dylan Hicks won the 120m Gift - first prize of $3575.

Bridgid Connolly won the women’s 120m off the backmark - first prize of $1200 (and she backed it up with a 2nd in the 300m).

Clay Watkins won the 300m off the back mark of 6m conceding up to 24m start to the frontmarkers. First prize of $635.

And CF forum member from Vancouver ‘Canspeed’ who is in SA for the duration of the Australian summer (training with my squad) was a very close 2nd off the tight mark of 4.25m in the 70m novice. The winner was a veteran off 12.0m. Canspeed won $125 for 2nd place.

Great meet up there which coincided with a food & wine festival so it was a decent crowd, creating a pretty good atmosphere.

It was Hicks’ biggest win in 10 years of pro-running.

260

well done. Would be good to hear from Canspeed about his experiences with what is probably a different way of training.

261

Canspeed opened up at the ‘amateurs’ with 7.14 (60m) & 11.14 (100m) last week (both electric times). He said it was a PB for 60m and his fastest first up 100m time. He is relishing training with the squad and enjoying both forms (pros with handicap starts on grass tracks & the conventional track running). There’s another novice race this time over 120m at Mt Gambier (460kms southeast of Adelaide) next week - Saturday 28th November. He should go well in that.

btw, He’s progressing well on the speedball (speedbag as he calls it!). He hits the ball with the lads on the low intensity track & rest days.

262

Just an update on ‘Canspeed’ who has been training in Adelaide with my squad where it is well known we use a Jim Bradley type program (with a CF influence).

At 25, Canspeed had a PB of 21.72 before he arrived in Australia.
Last night he ran 21.59 (w: -1.9) in Adelaide after an 11.12 also into a headwind.

He has won over $1000 in prize money this summer - on Saturday 23rd Jan, in Wangaratta (Victoria) won the 120m novice and was 6th in the 120m Gift.
Two days later, on 25th Jan, he won the Marion Gift in Adelaide, South Australia off the backmark.

On Wednesday he ran 11.12 and 21.59. The head wind for the 100m was definitely stronger than for the 200m. Eg: A 16 year old ran 11.16/21.66.

The 200m was won by Clay Watkins in a PB of 21.12 (Previous PB was 21.32). Watkins and Canspeed are training partners.

He is in Adelaide until March 23rd and has quite a few more races lined up.

263

I should definitely think to come with my athlete to run some gift next year …his best in training is…guess what, 120m!

264

Youngy, that’s fantastic news!!
I wish I was there but I was working at the time!
21.12 into such a fierce headwind! I look forward to seeing him rip through 46 in his 400m.
Congratulations to you and your squad.

265

While training in the mid 80’s, my coach had adapted a few Allem Well’s techniques. We did countless sessions of “chinnies” ( bicycle crunches ) and pushups ( usually 10 sets of 100 chinnies and 20 pushups ) daily, lots of stair running and accel runs. By May I had equalled a P.B. of 11.10 in the first race of the season ( very cold day, about 12 degrees celsius ). Unfortunately I opted for a 200m later in the day when it warmed up and blew out a hamstring which ended my season! I was miles ahead of the pack and felt loads of power. I would recommend this type of training to anyone, and am formulating a massters comeback with some of the ideas ( including the speedball punching work).

266

I am very curious to know if Allan Wells maintained the squats during the competition phase. (Did some body mention that he would do the circuits one day a week during the competition phase? And that the circuits were done most days in the G-P-P).

If the circuit session was done (at all - even 1 day per week) during competition phase, did it still include the squats during that time?

I can see why he would still include chinnies, push ups and speed ball during the summer, but I wondered if the bodyweight squats for high reps would interfere with fast twitch readiness during competition weeks.

I think it might still be ok to do a lot of bodyweight squats, say 1 day a week, even in comp phase. Thoughts?

And if so… was Alan still doing very high reps in comp phase?

I read in an earlier post that he would peak the circuit phase with up to 2 sets of 100 reps in bodyweight squats and other exercises.

I am doing lot of bodyweight squats this last few months, and find they are good at rehabilitating from a foot injury.

267

Youngy might know for sure but I doubt if high-rep squats were done during comp phase. Maybe some press ups and chinnies but not sure about that.

Strength endurance high rep squats might not be a good idea at any time in the training year, extended high knees a better option.

268

Ontheball… I train with Youngy, usually during the comp phase we have the week set up like this

Mon - Flying 50’s (20m accel + maintain 50m - technical focus)
Tues - Hi Intensity
Wed - Gym / Recovery
Thurs - Hi Intensity
Fri - Same as Monday
Sat/Sun - Race or Recovery

On the Wednesday, many of the athletes will hit the speedball 6-10 x 1min rounds and then complete 3-4 circuits. This session is more or less for strength maintenance and the squats would be in very low volume, probably no more than 20-40 each set. The following day is probably our most intense session and therefore we don’t want to destroy ourselves in the gym.

Hope this helps.

269

Thanks. I will have to watch the volume on the squats. It’s sort of a shame, because high rep bodyweight squats are great for rehabilitating my posterior tibialis muscle. Still, may be I might include low weight seated calf raises for this muscle. I know that cycling slightly helps the condition as-well.
Yesterday I was able to do “Running A’s” for the first time in over 6 months without pain the next day.

270

The factor which struck me about Alan Wells training, was not the speed-ball…

It was that he did the bounds allmost every day during some of the training phases. Doing plyometrics 5 days in a row is considered a ‘no-no’ in the so called ‘sports science’ world, but Alan Wells did it.

And as sprinting itself is plyometric, and often done more than one day in a row by many sprinters, then why can’t bounds or hops be done on back to back days? Last year (whilst reading this thread), I learnt that about Alan Wells.

Dan Pfaff would sometimes set up a training week as thus:

Day 1: Acceleration. (max)
Day 2: Top-end speed.
Day 3: Speed endurance.
Day 4: Accell
Day 5: Top-end
Day 6: Speed endurance.
Day 7: Rest.

And thus, an example of how sprints can be done several days in a row. So again, Alan Wells, doing plyometric bounds 5 or more days a week, is not so strange.

It also seems to me, that Alan Wells, was a bit more enthusiastic about the plyometric part of the Bradley and Margoret Wells training methods, than some of his team-mates. Wells was a fomrer long jumper, and took to the bounds like a duck to water. Were his team-mates as consistent and disciplined with that part of the training method? Alan would probably do the bounds in the frigging North Pole if that was his only option.

The irony of the speed-ball, is that whilst a practical alternative for the Wells and Bradley brigade, in the garage den, in the middle of no-where, it’s not so practical for many of us.
A speed-ball is very noisy, which is why allmost every gym (except boxing gyms) don’t have them. Also, I can’t put up a speed-ball in the house where I am living, as I fear it would disturb the whole house and all the neighbours.
They’d complain about the noise.
I’d love to put up a punch bag and a speed-ball which are fun ways to train, just not practical for me. How about any of you?

Also this: when I trained with a boxing club (many moons ago), I was slower than a few of the other boxers on the 1.5 mile ‘warm-up’ run before the circuits. Despite all the speed-ball and punch-bag and basketball, and kung-fu I had been doing. That is untill, I satarted including jogging sessions in my private spare time. After just a few jogging sessions in my local park, I quickly caught up with the other boxers in the running in the next boxing session. It seems that running, is far more spacific to running, than speed-ball. (like every one allready knows.)

So is it Alan Wells ‘out-door’ training and Jim Bradley’s outdoor training that is a little different? They still did the run-thru’s and striding allmost every day, even in the winter. And Alan did all those bounds. This is where the speed is coming from, not that much from the speed-ball.

And what about those ‘chinnies’ done for 6 sets of 100 reps? What kind of impact does that have?

Seems like this thread doesn’t know how to stop.