i built my sled for Nothing. A bit of scrap light gauge steel, bend about 1-2inches at one end around 45Deg up. Weld a 10mm bar (even a bolt would do) to the middle (there is always somebody around who owns a welder who could do that 1min job for you) - drill two holes on the 45deg lip on each corner. Attach some chain with old small shackles (at worst you may have to buy chain and shackle) about 1m max of chain is all that is needed. Attach Rope to center of chain (somebody always has rope laying around) a good length around say 5m. Attach to a weight belt buckle or just create a loop in the rope.
Easy.
Mine has lasted yrs - looks like a sled, performs like a sled and has yet to break after maybe 8yrs. And its thin too - maybe 1.2mm Gall tin.
This is the pace where I buy my stuff from. They have this sled :http://newyorkbarbells.com/1140.html
If you know a local welder maybe they can hook you up…
Video showing good old tyre pulling :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSiMkp1CuDs
On Asafa video, i can’t see any plate on the sled. The sled is curved on the front where the cord is attached, if there are plates on the sled, from the camera angle, they are hidden by that curve. Anyway, Asafa’s is moving from side to side so no way there’s 2 plates on it (suggesting more hip rotation that the 2 training partners?)
In the videos PJ posted and those of Asafa the distance appears longer and the intensity less than I expected. What sort of distances are most people doing / suggesting?
Choice of distance is determined by on the weight of the sled, the type of ground (the sled will be easier to drag on smoother surfaces), the power of the athlete, the timing of the year (what you are looking for that workout), etc…
Closeup view of what Asafa is pulling from the youtube video. This is blown up 400%
It does now look like there is a sled, and there appears to be 1 weight plate for Asafa, perhaps just the sled for the guy next to him.
On this pictures, there’s no visible plate. The upper part of the sled on your picture is darker but this is due to pixels and bad picture quality. On the two pictures here, the stick where the plate is supposed to be plugged is moving from left to right.
Obviously, the original we have to work with in the Youtube video is bad, but the connection anchor positions on the sleds appear different between Asafa and the sprinter next to him.
Also the pace they’re pulling the sleds and the (lack of) strain in the workouts is interesting. I’m wondering if Franno really is just using the sleds as a warmup activity as opposed to something we might consider “training.”
Looks like a big plate on there to me. Jamaican training partner of mines family keep him updated have stated sleds as heavy as 60kg but how accurate that is I don’t know. From personal use I prefer heavier
There’s a collection of pictures taken in 2006 with Bolt on grass pulling sleds with several plates on it.
I’m coaching a female sprinter who used to pull sleds with up to 40kg and she thinks this is partly responsible of her upper insertion of hamstring injury history.
How far did she pull it in prior training?
Up to 30m with 30kg, up to 80m with lighter ones.
Well, the reason why I feel sprinters get hamstring injury’s is due to the intake of creatine and not enough weight room work for the posterior chain muscles.
Seriously, if you are a sprinter you need to put aside the arm curls and get with the glute ham raise, the back extensions, the reverse hypers, the dead lifts, the rack pulls; HARD!
The only time I suffered from a hamstring injury was when I was under a coach who did not pay much attention to the weights and on the track we would run at an 70-80% effort at every practice.
I suspect that the main reason for your hamstring injuries lies with your last comment and less to do with with any weight room deficiencies. Training at 80% and then expected to race at 100% is a recipe for disaster.
Once into the comp phase the training intensity needs to replicate that expected in an actual race, and competing should be like a day at the office - it’s all been done before in practice.
PJ, what’s the heaviest weight you use on the sled with your male athletes?
Also, how heavy is the heaviest medicine ball you use?
I don’t know if you can say that. Many guys train at 80% so they don’t blow up going 95%+ in practice (see MJ). Maybe it’s that the 80% guys come into meets with more fatigue and firing pattern issues.
20kg sled for 10m. This was for a fast and powerful 85kg athlete who is able to move that thing.
Heaviest MB 8kg but only for a few exercises with a 90kg guy in the fall, we use mostly 3 or 4 depending on my mood, 5kg when i’m tricky.
KitKat : can you give some sample sessions of the sled work you have done.
Could this be done after a special endurance run and then pull a sled(light load,allowing good techique) for 50-60m x3-4reps. The recovery would be incomplete after the special endurance run but long enough for the athlete to excute proper form in the sled runs.
Charlie: after developing acceration on the GPP hill work and now focusing on top speed work in the SPP, could sled be done at the end of a speed session?
volume of acc work at start of session be reduced allowing more focus on top speed work(main objective), and the sled pulls at the end could maintain the acc power gained in the gpp hill work.
A progression through the season could look like:
Hills
f/e/f sled pulls i.e 5x30m 3-4min rec
20m fly in, sled pulls
4x60m, med ball accs
race
Thoughts?
I’d keep sled work early in the speed session as a stimulus for the rest of the speed work and I kept it short generally because it was most likely to avoid hamstring tendon stress because the runner will still be in a forward acceleration position.
I wouldn’t use a sled for FEFs because of yanking on a slack line during the re-acceleration and I also wouldn’t use it for fly-ins because you’re fully upright going in- both hard on the hamstring attachments.
Sorry if i was not clear, the sled pulls would not be during the fef or fly ins they would be after if the athlete was not tired,
i.e warm up, 1x20m acc, 4x20m flyin, then sled pulls 5x30m 4min recovery
The reason i am thinking to put then at the end of the session is so the athlete will be fresh for the top speed work and the sled pulls would be maintainence of the power developed in the gpp hills.