All the talk of Bolt’s dominance (and grass sprints and yams ;)) is understandable and makes for some good discussion but I’m really interested in what Richard Thompson did/does. Taking a look at his profile (http://www.ttoc.org/AthleteProfile.aspx?id=22) its apparent that he has made some serious progress: going from 10.6 SB his freshman yr (and a 10.5 PR in high school) to running 9.8 and beating everyone but Bolt in Beijing. Whats LSU training like? Does Thompson have another “private” coach he works with outside of LSU training? Anyone have any info or insight? In my mind this is as intriguing if not more intriguing than Bolt’s improvements (sub20 at such a young age).
After LSU this year, he signed on with John Smith. Not sure what role he had in his silver, but that is supposedly his coach now. Wonder if Ato played a role?
Wasnt powell also running high 10s and now runs the times he does? Same with tyson, none of these guys were usains level when they were younger, most were very good sprinters but not the very best out there and certainly not unordinary humans.
Tricky Dick Thompson is Gatlin in disguise
I’m curious about this as well. Do we know anything about the LSU sprint program? I guess I’d also like to know what Dix does.
Richard Thompson was coached by Dennis Shaver during the whole Games. John Smith was coaching Tyrone Edgar.
Really?! I thought he had a funny shaped face…
Richard Thompson is staying with Shaver. Emmanuel Hudson is the agent. Dix has being stuff with Terry Long, supposedly pretty old school stuff.
Tyrone Edgar is officially with HSI, as is Tasha Danvers (who won a medal for the UK). Thompson is represented by HSI now, but it would have been pretty dumb for him to make a coaching change that close to the Olympics. You won’t know if Thompson is really moving until winter. Not everybody represented by HSI is coached by John Smith or even lives in California.
Danvers is coached by Smiths son Darrell, who is also her husband, I think he also coaches Tyrone Edgar.
How old school are we talking? Like Bud Winter or Frank Dick old school? Whatever he is doing, it doesn’t look like Dix is skipping many of his weight training sessions.
We can learn GO TIGERS GO TIGERS.
Nephew…
There where talks earlier in the year about Boldon helping out with Thompson.
A friend of mine who was on the FSU track team with Dix and is in regular contact with him says he hardly lifts weights at all.
From the looks of it he should stay with Shave lest he pull a Wariner.
it’s his nephew.
So who wants to post the training weeks that took Richard Thompson from a high school/D3 level guy at 10.61w to under 10 in under 3 years?
I know the Shaver workouts from '06 are out there, so someone should post them. I’ll do it if everyone lost them…
Week 9 of the Fall/Winter training (formatting is messed up–day 1 is Monday, 2 Tuesday, and so on):
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Warm-Up: E
Acceleration: (25m)
2 sets
-3 x SLB->accel
-2 x hop hop
-2 x push up clap
-2 x blocks (h2)
Multi Jump: Cx2
Weights:
Day 1
Shot Throws: Bx4
Cooldown:
Warm-Up: B - BSR
General Strength:
RI=20” on / 20” off
Coach Recipe
Body Build:
Day 1
Intensive Tempo:
RI=3:00
g1 -
6x20” w/jog 1’
6x30" w/jog 1’
Cooldown: B
Warm-Up: D
Multi Jump: B x 20m
Circuit: (4 sets)
-Hurdle Mobility (10h)
-Lunge (20m)
-Bound (60m)
-Sprint drill (60m)
-Abdominals (30)
-Medicine Ball (30)
-Remedials (30)
Weights:
Day 2
Cooldown: D
Warm-Up: C - BSR
General Strength:
RI=20” on / 20” off
Coach Recipe
Body Build:
Day 2
Stadiums:
RI=2:00
-2 triple
-2 single
-2 double
-2 bleacher
Cooldown: A
Warm-Up: D
Jump Run: A
Drills x 4
g1- 30”
- 1’00"
Cooldown: B
Warm-Up: D
Intensive Tempo:
Hills
RI=2:00
x6
Weights:
Day 3
Shot Throws: Bx4
Cooldown: D
Rest
Jan 1-7
Monday: Happy New Year
Tuesday:
Warm Up: E
Acceleration: (30m)
1 sets
-4 x stick drill
-4 x blocks (3h)
Speed Endurance:
RI=1:00
g1,g2
400 hardway (8x50)
Multi Jump: Cx2
Weights:
Day 1
Shot Throws: Cx3
Cooldown: E
Wednesday:
Warm Up: D
Hurdle Mobility:
A&Bx1
Abdominals:
Odd # A&Bx50
Medicine Ball:
A,B&Cx15
Remedials: Ax10
Weights:
Day 2
Cooldown: D
Thursday:
Warm Up: B-BSR
Body Build:
Day 2
Contrast Training:
2 x 50m accelerator
2 x assistance
(g1, g1h)
2 x 30m blocks (h3)
2 x 40m blocks (h4)
Speed Development:
RI=5:00 Sprinters
2 x In & Outs
g1-2 x 15m peak
Special Endurance:
RI=Full
g1h, g1- 2 x 150
W @ 18 (12)
M @ 17 (11)
g1- 1 x 250
W @ 33 (12.5-26)
M @ 29 (11-23.5)
1 x 150
W @ 19 (13)
M @ 17 (12)
Cooldown: D
Friday:
Warm Up: D
Medicine Ball:
A, B&Cx15
Technical:
4x4 exchanges
Intensive Tempo:
Endless Relay
RI=3:00
-6x200
W @28-30
M @ 26-28
Teams of 7 people
Cooldown: D
High School Classic
Saturday:
Warm Up:
Competition
Weights:
Competition
Cooldown:
Competition
High School Classic
Quick observations (let other people comment/digest):
-
Lots of general fitness stuff in different forms. Various long warm-ups, general strength, and intensive tempo clearly play a role (these are sample weeks and these elements are apparent when you look at the greater scheme). LSU has a lot of high level people and even they are doing lots of general fitness stuff–is this because they are having athletes run more events, because they are younger, because it works better in their situation, or because it is optimal? We can see intensive tempo has a role throughout a good portion of the training year (workouts going into late indoors still have some intensive tempo elements).
-
When looking at the weights, the focus seems to not be on maximal strength much and there is a lot of remedial work and a huge number of exercises.
-
Starts/accel, max speed, and speed and special endurance are all hit within a single workout, with volumes that are quite large at times.