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21

1-10-15

for some reason there was no club comp organised for this friday. as it was school holidays and she was keen for a run we organised a time trial session.

warm up/stretch

1x60m (20/40)
4.09, 6.67 = 10.76

15min

2x100 (60/40)

  • (missed the timing!)
    10.63, 6.69 = 17.32

there was a slight headwind for these times.

7-10-15
warm up/stretch
massage and shaking

3:6 knee kicks

2x 40 - 7.23 and 7.27** much faster than previous 40m best

football drills - low intensity, higher volume
slam ball throws
boxing
fetch/return - tennis ball chasing, low intensity, higher volume

9-10-15

club comp

200: 35.6** pb
400: 1:31.6** pb
70: 12.10** pb

in the 70m she beat everyone in her age group, including the fastest boy.

magic potion.

11-10-15

interclub gala day

200: 34.6** pb
60h: 11.6** pb
100: 15.9** pb

she had a huge weekend winning everything except the 400 and taking home three gold medals from the sunday competition. she was able to beat a girl who won very easily last year and improved on her 200m time of 37.7 at that meet.

at this point I was extremely happy with her progress (improvement on her previous season by 0.8 in 60h, 0.5 in 70, 1.8 in 100 and over 2sec in 200), but also slightly wary that she was blasting herself too hard too soon.
I planned for some easy going ‘back off’ sessions in the subsequent week, although as it turned out all training sessions were canceled for various reasons…

22

Looks like she’s progressing nicely. Good job! Was the 15.9 hand timed? It seems to be relatively a lot better than her 70m times, as a sub 16s 100m would correspond to a low 11s 70m.

I’m coaching my two sons who are 6 and 9 years old. The younger one is doing quite well with a recent 18.6s 100m PB in soccer boots on a horrible grass track. He naturally has perfect form, which I haven’t seen before in a child of that age. The older one ran 16.78s shortly after his 8th birthday last year. He should run sub 16 this year. He has excessive backside mechanics and a straight arm swing on one side. I’ve been trying to fix these issues for 2 years, but progress is very slow.

23

yes, those were hand timed on grass, although I actually added a bit on to the official time. I wish I had a video of that particular run, because if it was anywhere near a legitimate 15.9 then she must have nailed it.

since the 16.95 all races have been on grass. the most recent were on long, spongy grass…

24

16-10-15

cupping and massage on hamstrings

club comp
60h: 11.80
100m: 16.90
800m: 3:58.45

tonight’s 10m race saw the return of the head back technique. she won the race, but she returned to old habits. this is possibly due to having missed quite a few training sessions recently. also, I think she was over trying and going for “something special”.

18-10-15

another inter club meet. this time she was up against last year’s regional 70m champ.

60h: 12.25
100m: 17.05

she won both her races, although the times were a little bit down on recently. there are a couple of reasons for this. firstly, the grass was quite long and soft. secondly, in the first race she clipped the 4th hurdle and nearly fell over. however, she still won by over a second, which was very encouraging. a bit of a technical issue has arisen in that if she goes over the hurdle right foot first she was leaving her knee bent at 90deg. this is why she hit the hurdle.

in the 100 she had a really strong finish and ended up winning by about .20 over a girl who was 0.30 ahead of her at the end of last season.

times were electronic…

25

19-10-15

club relay training
low speed, mainly 10m run up’s
1x100

21-10-15

warm up/stretch
hamstring pnf
hip mobilisation

hurdles - step over, jump+snap, kick out

slam ball throws - btn leg fwd, chest, overhead, jump/jump/chest

sled - 2x5m, 1x20

rain

23-10-15

club comp
200m: 36.6?
70m: 11.8?
400m: ?

waiting on the full results to be published.

big day coming up tomorrow…

26

results for friday night

200: 36.05
400: 1:37.10
70: 11.80** pb
lj: 3.10

better than I thought for the 200…

27

25-10-15

interclub gala day
LJ: -
100: 16.65** electronic pb
60h: 11.95 (seemed flat - jumping from too close to the hurdles)
400: ~ 1:29ish**pb

the day started badly with M fouling out with all three jumps in the long jump. there were tears and tantrums, which was ugly, but she eventually got her act together. she went in expecting to win and ended up finishing last, so she was pretty disappointed.

she had no real competition in the sprint events and won those easily. especially pleasing to me was the enormous improvement in her 400m time, even though she finished 3rd. the weakest part of her race is currently anything from 50m onwards, so it’s pleasing to see her improving her longer game…

28

28-10-15

warm up drills holding bar overhead
extended massage and mobility work - tight left hip

slam ball throws

hurdle technique - right leg extension. 2x15m single hurdle, 5x20m double hurdle

30-10-15

club comp
60h - ?
100 - 16.60

1-11-15
gala comp (timing gates)

60h - 11.80
100 - 16.30** pb
200 - 34.85** pb

the 100m time was very encouraging, although in the video you can see that she had a lot of tension in her shoulders and upper back (resulting in her head looking upwards). plus you could see her face all bunched up with strain. this probably cost her a lot at the end of the race and she ended up finishing third by 0.03s despite leading by a metre at the halfway point. before the 200 she was told to relax and hold her speed, rather than push for more. the video showed that she had much looser shoulders and her face/neck were much more relaxed. she ended up beating the girl who had passed her earlier in the 100.

I really hope she has learned her lesson here, because tightening up and overstraining is a bit of an issue for her.

both videos also draw my attention to her inwards turning shoulders, which has started to become obvious as she races more often. I’ll try getting her to do more overhead/hands behind head work…

29

6-11-15

club comp
200 - 35.91s
disc - 12.44m** pb

it rained all week, so there was no training and the track was damp for her races. the 200m time was down a little on her recent efforts, but she was 3s ahead of second…

30

8-11-15

gala comp

60h - 11.8
70m - 11.6
LJ - 3.30
100m (u10) - 16.4
200m - 35.4

another successful gala tournament for M, this time winning her three u9 events as well as coming third in an u10 event.
the track was very wet and covered in puddles, but her times were about on par with what she has been doing.

I noticed last week that she was kicking her foot out ahead of her knee a little, and that casused her to land on her heel in front of her hips. I think she was still thinking in terms of moving her feet forward instead of her knees up and down. that wasn’t such an issue today…

31

11-11-15

fo’ drizzle

warm up drills, hands behind head - follow the leader style over 2x100m
stretch and flags
hops - forwards and backwards
discussion about relaxing the shoulders
bulgarian bag throws + catch/return
2x football drill
casual kick-to-kick

kept the session light in terms of intensity and mood. her attitude has been a bit better in recent times…

32

18-11-15

hot weather

warm up run
stretches
slam ball throws - jump/land/chest throw

sled/20/sled/20/long sled

it’s been a few weeks without such a training session and a few old habits have crept back in. she was thumping her feet a lot in the 20m accels.
relay champs are on this weekend, so after that we will have more opportunities to train during the week…

33

22-11-15

State relay championships

Success! the team took out gold with a resounding victory. M ran the first leg and completed the first handover well ahead of any other team, so she got them off to a great start. the third and fourth runners also did a really good job. I don’t have the times yet, but from what I have seen of the video they appeared to win by quite a large margin.

just checked on the video and the first change came about 15.5 seconds after the gun (allowing 0.4s for sound travel). I think the first leg of a 4x100 is usually a little short of the full 100, though…

34

24-11-15

came in limping and complaining of pain in the front of her right hip. seems she hurt it first on friday doing a backflip into a pool, then again that day doing dancing at school.

1x400m walk
stretches (still sore)
4x10 (each side) football throws
stretches (feeling better)
slam ball throws - between legs forwards + jump/land/throw (feeling fine)
drills - 8m/8m (shorter than usual)
4x slalom agility circuit
10m run/catch football drills

by the end of the session she was moving fine. need to keep her healthy in the lead up to zones in 3 weeks time…

35

27-11-15

100m 17.39
60h 11.88
HJ 0.95pb
SP 4.55pb

she’s started doing funny things with her technique. out of nowhere she has developed some kind of exaggerated forwards lean and a lumbering bent knee style, as well as excessive tension in her shoulders and face. her time tonight was well below what she should be doing.

1-12-15

drills
stretches
hip mobilisation
hurdle step overs and snap jumps
4x40m 7/8/9/10
4x40m e/f/e/f
resistance band pulls with arms and legs

a fairly good session, especially in terms of cooperation, however she has started over-striding. this seems to have started during the period where we missed several training sessions. with zones just around the corner I hope she can turn it all around. we have time for maybe two more sessions.

one recent phenomenon has been what she calls “yo yo” shoulders, where she turns her arms inwards. she is overemphasising movement around the shoulder area and perhaps that is throwing her off her balance…

36

4-12-15

club comp
200m 36.2
400m 1:28.95
70m 12.38!
LJ 2.95m

in a interesting evening, M finished first in all events except long jump, where she finished second, yet it was somewhat discouraging due to her recent slow sprint times and the continued deterioration of her technique.

on wednesday she saw a movement specialist who found a discrepancy between her leg lengths. he said that this would probably cause her to land on her heels and make her arms turn inwards and across the body. in terms of the effect on her body, he said her right hip was tight and it is causing the left hip to lock up. all the exact things I had been noticing! he also recommended that she should wear a heel lift and that we would be amazed by the results.

friday night was the first time she had worn the heel as she said that it felt really weird and affected her running. she was also “depressed” that she had run so poorly, even though she won.

despite her poor form, we signed her up to run in a pro-league youth 70m race on saturday. she was handicapped to her 11.60s 70m pb from earlier in the season, so I wasn’t confident that she would do all that well, even though the experience would be great for her.

5-12-15

pro-league
70m/7 heat - 10.45
70m/7 final - 10.10

despite being somewhat overawed by the occasion, M lifted in her heat and fought to the line, just scraping in to the final by a tiny margin. her heat time was pleasing, as it indicated a return to her personal best form. a big turnaround from the last two weeks. this did not surprise me all that much, as she is a big time player who brings her best when she has tough competition.

still, there were a few technical issues regarding her arm action. we talked it over and I took her through some movements. she listened very carefully, for once, and I felt like she was really taking it all on board. this is very encouraging for me as in the past she has often been oppositional to technical advice given. however, I think she is starting to realise I know what I’m talking about, so no arguing and eye rolling this time.

in the final she did a terrific job and ran better than I’ve ever seen. she managed to beat the boy in front of her who beat her in the heat, and the time represents a massive improvement on her best.

the timing could not be better with the zone carnival coming up next weekend…

37

What was her handicap?

38

She was off 7…

39

That’s impressive. If the 10.10 is electric timing it should equate to about 11.2 for the 70m and sub 16s for the 100m.

40

It was electronic, and that matches my estimation…