Speed endurance the key to *all* 11/12second sprinters?

[Charlie_Francis]

@Track007

Thanks

But Charlie are there not more objective measures of readiness for the SPP. For example in l-to-s the athlete will need a pretty strong aerobic base to be able to run 2x600 with any real quality (and recover). In the s-to-l due to the different nature of the high intensity elements the athlete will need the work capacity developed by short hill accelerations, among other things, to be able to run quality 4x4x60 reps. And this does not even include the development of suitable mobility, strength (plyos, balistic, max strength, core), etc all of which would have some measure in the eyes of the coach that would indicate readiness for the athlete to begin to embark on the specific training for the forthcoming season.

I have read translated old Eastern European literature which had tables full of necessary correlations for an athlete to run certain times (although most of the tables, particularly where it came to more general strength and non specific elements, I questioned) there was still a recognition that objective measures can be found. Or is coaching more of a ‘dark art’ than even I imagined.

There will always be tables etc but te individual trumps all in this case. Think about what happened this year with Jeter going to JS and John finding that she was missing some basic fitness componants despite very fast times already and her struggles adapting to a tougher GPP and THEN she was truly ready for improvements in the Speed and SE side. The rest you know about.