I had the pleasure of sitting in on a 2 hour q and a with Stephen Francis last Saturday and about 20 coaches from Aus for the Sydney GP. Some very interesting stuff.
Here is my report of what was asked from the floor and answered by Stephen Francis (SF)…
Q. Do your hurdlers do sprints too?
SF. Yes, in the late part of the preparation period, as well as the early part of the competition period. They will maybe do two 400’s and two 100’s then its hurdles from then on. The women’s hurdles is such a sprint influenced event that it is very important for females to be able to sprint fast, with high frequency especially as they are all doing three strides in between so who does those fastest will do well.
Q. Why do you have your athletes running the 400m early on in their competitive program?
SF. Most of the training done in Jamaica is done on a grass track in sneakers (as he called them) on a 370m track (and because the high school season goes from Jan 1 till March late and the elite athletes want to compete in these meets to keep the sport going well) it is easiest for the sprinters to start their competitive program by running a 400m. This is less shock on the body and is not a long way away from the speed they have been running in training (38s 300m for 100m sprinters, 1min 31s for 600m for 400m athletes).
Q. When do your athletes start training on the track?
Usually about March 1 on a Mondo surface. They have to be able to start racing fast then as most of them need to compete in Penn Relays to make them some $$ or keep their sponsors happy. They don’t train all the time on Mondo though; they keep training on grass too.
Q. What does your GPP look like; take us through a weekly set up?
SF. Well, firstly, it’s a 5am start. I do this to control the night time activities of my athletes. If they have to get up early for training then they don’t want to be in bed too late…anyway, we do 7 day cycles, 3 weeks hard and 1 week easy. The 4th week is no reps but we do testing here instead.
So a typical week looks like
Mon
5am
Hill sprints to 40m
Stretch
Ab work
3pm
Weights
Plyos
Tues
5am
Long speed endurance
400’s, 350’s or 300’s
(or 800’s, 600’s, 500’s for 400m athletes). No more than 6 reps done here.
Ab work
Med Ball
3pm
Technique work (mainly drills and some form runs)
Wed
5am
Long hills
250m, 200m or 150m
(300m for 400m athletes). No more than 8 reps done here.
3pm
Weights
Thur
5am
Circuit training (bodyweight exercises - burpees, press ups etc)
Drills for endurance
Med Ball
3pm
Technique work (mainly drills and some form runs)
Friday
5am
Sled work
Stretching
Ab work
3pm
Weights
Plyos
Saturday
5am
Weights
Slow speed endurance (is that possible??), anyway, 200’s
p.m Rest
Sunday
Rest
The weights done are free weights mainly with cleans etc, very little machines.
Q. Is it a long to short program?
SF. Yes it is really. High volume, short recovery leading on to low volume, long recovery. We don’t do much low intensity work either. I read in a book a while back that to run longer than 20 mins continuous will affect your speed so the longest run we do is 20 mins.
The women tend to do 20% less volume than the men.
I believe you can work hard on successive days if you are working different energy systems, e.g sprints to 30m one day and then speed endurance the next day.
The athlete needs to do a certain amount of work and this is more important than any theory about CNS and its recovery. I think you need to do 15 distinct sessions per week and so sometimes it is not what the theories agrees with but that’s just how we do it.
Q. What is done in the 4th week or the light/rest week?
SF. Testing is done. 2 tests/day with 4 exercises/day, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon). So, for example, we might do a 12 min run on Monday morning and SLJ or VJ in the afternoon. Or we will test the 1000m one day and then the next day we will test the 800m. Over time these distances get less and less, so we might be doing a 400m on one day and a 300m on the next.
We also test med ball throws - overhead backward and forward, or jump, jump throw etc. We believe over time we have built up some good correlations or measures for what is needed to be a world class sprinter.
The testing is normally won by the slow twitch aerobic guys, but that makes them feel good because when it gets to the important part of the season they are not winning anymore.
From Jan 1 the weekly set up changes a bit.
Mon becomes speed endurance
Tue becomes sled work
Thursday becomes sled work
Saturday is long hills if they are not competing
Q. Do you follow a single periodised year?
SF. Yes we do but it depends on where you live, what the weather is like and when you have to compete. We have 1 long peak for MVP from April to September. I don’t believe it is possible to peak for indoors then peak again for Jamaica trials in June.
Q. When you are competing in Europe, how much training are you doing?
SF. Not much, you can’t get access to all the things you want so you have to stop competing and get good 2 week training periods in to keep the competitive edge up.
Q. How do you measure progress?
SF. It is difficult when you have 80 (yes 80) athletes in the group. There are about 15 world class, 20 close to it and the rest are average. The training is done in groups. So, group A to E. If the training is 10x300m and the guy from group D is way out front then he can join group C who are going faster. That tells you the progress.
Also, the testing we do tells us the progress. If they can jump mover 2.90m for SLJ then they are doing well. I don’t have anyone over 3m at MVP. For females it’s about 2.50m.
Q. Tell us about your protocol for the last 10 days before a competition
SF. The athletes do 30% of the work that they have been doing. They go into a competition well rested.
Q. How do you improve the first 30m of a 100m sprinter?
SF. We do sled work for 6 months. Up to 50lbs (=22kg) for men and 25lbs (=11kg) for women. Asafa can run 2.86s for 20m in flats and 3.45s with a 50 pound sled.
Q. What is your testing protocol?
SF. We don’t do max strength testing. We learnt that in 2008 with Asafa tearing his pec so we just use what the NFL tests ideas used in the strength combine. We do as many reps as we can at a certain weight. So we see how many reps they can do at 175lbs in the bench for men and 110lbs for women.
The lowest numbers we go to in the gym are 6 sets of 4 reps.
Q. Why do you need to do 15 sessions/week in your training?
SF. I read a book by Frank Dick a while back that said you need 15 sessions/week so that is what we do.
Q. Who has influenced you?
SF. Herb McKinley is probably the biggest influence in Jamaica. We follow long to short, as most people do but it seems Glen Mills is following short to long with Usain.
Also, my ex coach Dennis Johnson, and I have seen and learnt things from John Smith and Trevor Graham.
Everyone should learn and keep learning and always ask themselves “what if I am wrong?”, or “what if there is a better way to do it?”
Q. So it seems you program is long to short with speed endurance and also short to long with speed?
SF. Yes it is in a way but the short work stay there all the time, it doesn’t get taken out to longer work. The short work to 30m is there all the time.
Q. Do you use overspeed?
SF. No, the chance of injury is too high!
Q. What age of athlete are you working with?
SF. 17 is the youngest. I don’t coach kids, they have all left school.
Q. Do you believe in a predetermined stride pattern for the 400m hurdles?
SF. No, they need to get used to space etc and judging where they are. This will happen in big races and also with winds etc.
Q. You mentioned that you think Asafa is in good shape this year, what are you basing this on?
SF. Well he had run 300m in 34 secs last year but this year he has run 32.8 secs, and this is on flats in grass so I think he is ready to run well.
Q. What exercises do you use in the gym?
SF. Most of them just no squatting. We use single leg variations like split squat, single leg squats etc. We do lots of cleans - mainly from the hang. We don’t do snatch or jerks.
Q. What support staff do you have?
SF. Well I have 4 assistant coaches and 4 people doing massage so that is a great help for me when I am away.
Q. Do you use any sports psychology?
SF. I don’t use a lot, but I am learning about this. I believe it is an area of weakness in our program and I am hoping to add mental strength to my athletes.
