I remember that he’s also the coach of kim collins (9"98 & 1°@WCh. in paris).
This has fascinated me for weeks, even months when I started to reduce track workouts after experiencing tendon soreness along with my training partner/brother Joe (Dawkins-Hackensack 10.31; 1995). We started doing all work on the grass and once returning to the track had a major spike in times.
More interestingly I learned that:
David Thompson -fomer world record holder in the vertical leap 44"-played basketball during his entire childhood and early adolescence on dirt courts and swore that it had an adaptive effect on his jumping ability
Michael Jordan and his brother Larry (who can still dunk at 5’ 8" and jumped higher than Michael until late into Michaels teens) played on dirt courts all throughout childhood in NC
Houston McTear ran on dirt all throughout his childhood
I have tried working out on softer surfaces (plyos, running) and mats which has increased my vertical about 2-3 inches (along with squats and step ups of course)
There definitely seems to be something to natural surfaces or “softer” surface in terms of the stabilizers which must adapt. I’m wondering if track work should be minimized almost totally until necessary (comp, pre-comp)
re: tendon stiffening.
Has anyone concluded residuals of this phenomenon when running on stiff yet softer surfaces?
On a side not regarding being careful going from hard to soft surfaces …
I know when I was at Illinois State, when the football players would go from field turf to grass fields during pre-season camp, the players would experience increased DOMS/pain in the hip flexors/quads, shins, and achilles. When they returned to the field turf, pain subsided.
The dominant part of the training during the summer (sprints, conditioning, 7 on 7, etc) we utilized the field turf due the grass field availability on most days.
The pec injury was Asafa, not Usain. I covered the pec tear several times here. This sort of eccentric lift was not in his coach’s training plan. Obviously, there were problems in the camp and this was the result.
That said, there are 10 athletes from Asafa’s group in Beijing.
Sadly Gen Mils has only produced one 9.6 guy so I guess we can ignore him. ho hum.
Were I train most of the people (including me) has experienced the same but going from the gpp on grass to the spp on track.
About all this:
I think what he is saying that the Caribbean coaches appear to be less concerned with the scientific intracacies of everything. One of Derek Atkins’ coaches (when he first broke 10) was in my USATF education group and from what he said their training style was very general. It was certainly nothing fancy and appeared to have little rhyme or reason…“just run 'mon. do some runs then take some rest. put your work in”. I know some of the Caribbean jump coaches do a ton of high intensity jump work (full LJ) in the sand an even a good amount of “plyos” on the high jump mat (Peter Pratt). They don’t seem to be down with analyzing the latest scientific journals they just do what works for them and kick ass. I read an article that basically said that Dennis Johnson was happy that he has been able to transplant the Bud Winter system to Jamaica. See here
I would like to have a crystal clear, complete picture of what exactly is done down there year round… maybe it’s just the SurvivorMan implementation of the most advanced training theories but I’m not so sure.
What is their funding like anyway? Doesn’t appear to be anything like China or the former Russian/East German machine. Come to think of it, do they even need funding to run on dirt and lift weights from the world war II era?
I guess there’s a lot to be said for having year round nice weather and great social support for athletics. That’s something money can’t buy. thoughts?
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I know the pec injury was Asafa. My point was that you have mentioned the Caribbean athletes, including Asafa, doing grass and having “general” weights and it seems like the weights are “general” because they don’t know much about lifting–you can see it when you see the lifting technique. If you can’t teach a bench press or a squat, how can you have some intricate design accounting for rep numbers, intensities, and densities with varying sprint intensities on the track and grass?
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I’m not saying we should ignore him. I’m saying that if there is something new or special or different that is inherent to the success that everyone else is missing, the other athletes would be amazing as well.
And yes, I know MVP sent a lot of athletes to Beijing
Davan, you would be surprised by how much happens to the contrary of what you are assuming here.
Many coaches view the strength, power, etcetera training purely as a stimulus and give little care to its technical execution; yet, take great care in regulating the training load.
While I think this is a grave mistake, it is none the less a reality.
How can you regulate a training load effectively and correctly if the lift is asymmetrical, inconsistent, and in the case of many, not even observed by the coach?
How about an article that was around about how Stephen Francis fell asleep at a number of practices…
Just don’t think it’s some intricate training plan or periodization or anything else that is the reason for the great results.
The question is - if these athletes had perfect lifting technique and a well planned out lifting program, do you think they would run faster?
We have an athlete who just ran 9.69 seconds tip-toeing through the tulips over the last 20 meters. Are you saying that we should fix his lifting program? If you magically inherited this athlete what would you do, and would you be willing to face the consequences if his performances went south?
What are the critical elements of a training program and are they being addressed? What are the secondary elements of the program and how much does it matter whether they are present, done haphazardly, or planned and executed with perfect precision? These are the questions that need to be answered.
I’m just speaking towards the technical execution of the means.
As an example:
A sprint coach might account for the number of lifts, jumps, and throws, at what intensities, and so forth yet pay no mind to how those exercises are performed because he/she is only concerned with the technical execution of the competition exercise; in this case sprinting.
In regards to what goes on at the Jamaican camp(s). I haven’t got much of a clue so I can’t intelligently comment on that.
But falling asleep in the middle of a practice…
Number2,
Let me ask you this. Do you think Asafa would have liked the extra time to train instead of rehab from a pec tear?
If they are doing such magical things with special grass wild yams perhaps with the population we have in the US we would have 3 or 4 Bolts now?
So why have special charts, graphs, and vertical integration when wearing sneakers in poorly manicured grass with holes and patches, random weight training, and of course sleeping at 7 am during early morning workouts.
I have a question: Why is everyone infatuated with European coaches who can’t produce a runner these days (or speak English in many cases) but we know very little about the Caribbean/African coaches/systems that continually pump out world crushing runners (and speak English)?
Exactly! I said the Olympics would be a fucking circus…now watch what my sprinter does in the 400m.
1: Well you bloody well better if you want to support a sprinter’s progress. I’ve said it a thousand times on here. Weights follow the sprints and don’t lead it.
2:Of course, when something is done that is against the coaches wishes, it is done behind the coaches back.
3: They train before the sun comes up cause it’s so hot once the day gets going. Near the Equator, there is little dawn. The sun comes up in a hurry. So, sometimes athletes sleep through their practice session. Sometimes the coach falls asleep during.
4: Sprint programs require great flexibility. Put down your Soviet Sport Review for a minute and ask yourself if there’s anything you might learn from all this.
Clearly, you never came to Toronto to see what we dealt with! Our first medicine ball was a broken half-construction block.
That takes getting hit in the head with a medicine ball to a whole new level. 
What did you guys wear helmets. JK.
I know we weren’t the smatest kids on the block- but we only threw it and then picked it up- we didn’t catch it! (Besides we couldn’t afford the helmets)
Sounds like you guys had state-of-the-art facilities. Should have thrown them at the people in charge.
well I did once go over a boardroom table once at a meeting but I was restrained before I could “sort things out” in a more permanent fashion.