Vince Anderson still use construction blocks for mb work during the summer.
Hey! I wondered what happened to them!!
On his summer workout sheets, he list construction blocks as a training option for the athletes who dont have access to med balls.
Maybe there’s a dog-eared copy of Speed Trap on his shelf somewhere.
This is from the training plan for the defending 800m gold medalist, Yuriy Borzakovsky (original in Russian, written by his coach):
Some form of strength training is done on an almost daily basis, not in large amounts, but in different forms: throwing stones during circuit training, doing gymnastics on the ground, the weight room.
Yes, he is talking about throwing around fairly large rocks in Siberia. Charlie appears to have been under-classed in the (low-) technology department, but another indication of what you do (not) need to produce a world-class athlete.
Clearly it is obvious.
Any time someone runs fast it’s made into how it’s coaching. If it’s talent or other factors people get upset.
So if one coach does a random workout with no rhyme or reason the bros will find a way to explain why it is perfect.
I don’t deny lifting follows the sprints–I question whether that means you allow lifts with dangerous technique and don’t even monitor the lifting necessarily or don’t consider how they even interact with sprinting.
I’m not sucking off Russian Sports Science nonsense like some posters, but I don’t drink the Jamaican callaloo juice or any other sorts of juices from Jamaica either.
I hope Charlie can tell us how much of a factor speed work on grass is because if that is the key to the recent huge performance jumps, it needs to be done. Maybe some examples of how much duration must be spent on grass? 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, …??
Training on grass = higher leg frequency.
The 60m World Indoor Champ used did 4 weeks out of 13 for sprints on grass during the indoor prep, that tells you how much a factor it can be. Also 90% of the tempo work is done on grass all year through.
General Prep or specific?
it’ not just one guy though, is it? in both mens and womens competition there have been massive representations by carribean sprinters. they must be doing something that no one else is doing…
He’s saying everytime someone runs fast you guys always want to talk about there training, 99.99999% of the time its not training but pure talent…
I believe Dan Pfaff has done significant speed training on grass. I will have to look but Kebba Tolbert gave a rough figure of how many weeks.
We have been specifically talking about Bolt, but Powell as well since he has also run 9.7low. 9.89 was run by a guy who has trained in the US for years and it wouldn’t have gotten a medal in Athens, so it’s not something special about the Caribbean as a whole (except for the gene pool I suppose).
At least four of the athletes in the final, whether Caribbean or not, train in the US. Richard Thompson, Churandy Martina, the two Americans, and I’m not sure about the other Trini, so we’re specifically talking about the Jamaicans.
bolt. “how did you run that, you only ran the 100 this year” “uh i have to say my 400m background training”
Have to say that in some cases, as number2 may have been alluding to, the best some coaches can do is not mess up the talent. It’s clear the US has a big problem with that.
I don’t think there was anything exceptional in bolts preparation outside of the fact that bolt is exceptional.
But how many guys with otherworldly talent have ended up doing jack shit? TONS! In multiple sports.
No doubt they have talent otherwise they would be discussing it on the internet like the rest of us. BUT someone is doing something to NOT screw it up and cultivate it and allow the talent to be REALIZED. There is no way that you have a talented guy hop up and start blasting off world class 100m times without good coaching (even if they are coaching themselves) which involves programming of some sort whether they are using excel or not.
In almost every interview with Usain his coach is mentioned by him. He almost always says something like, “I trust my coach or I listen to my coach.” Without Glen Mills there is no Usain Bolt, without Tellez no Lewis, without Francis no BJ, without Pfaff no Bailey (look back, he starts working with Pfaff and his times drop enormously), without John Smith no Ato and no Mo. Remember Mo was watching ATL games on the bench, next year with a new COACH he is winning world champs. Did his talent change?
No one makes the Olympics without talent (barring any of the small population countries with the 11 second 100m guys) but to me it looks like talent is not realized without good coaching.
Look at the talent in GB that gets ruined by crap coaching/training everyone says.
Remember Glen Mills coached Kim Collins to a World Champs GOLD and now Bolt to his first of Two 
GOLD in Olympics. And I don’t think anyone will disagree that Kim Collins has about 1/8 of the talent of Asafa or Bolt or Dix, etc. He’s doing something right.
I think Daniel said it all:
[b]Have to say that in some cases, as number2 may have been alluding to, the best some coaches can do is not mess up the talent. It’s clear the US has a big problem with that.
I don’t think there was anything exceptional in bolts preparation outside of the fact that bolt is exceptional.[/b]
Where does Martina train?
First rule of coaching, “don’t screw them up.” This is true at all levels, unfortunately not too many get the memo. 
Great, but Bolt wasn’t just talented–he already went sub 20 at age 16. That isn’t potential or talent–he was already there.
No doubt they have talent otherwise they would be discussing it on the internet like the rest of us. BUT someone is doing something to NOT screw it up and cultivate it and allow the talent to be REALIZED. There is no way that you have a talented guy hop up and start blasting off world class 100m times without good coaching (even if they are coaching themselves) which involves programming of some sort whether they are using excel or not.
Well, if Bolt could have gone at least 9.63, which most seem to think would have been a given, he improved by .4 this season. You tell me how you do that when you’re already at that level and have been training full time for years and I’ll follow it to the T. Assuming it is just something training related.
In almost every interview with Usain his coach is mentioned by him. He almost always says something like, “I trust my coach or I listen to my coach.” Without Glen Mills there is no Usain Bolt, without Tellez no Lewis, without Francis no BJ, without Pfaff no Bailey (look back, he starts working with Pfaff and his times drop enormously), without John Smith no Ato and no Mo. Remember Mo was watching ATL games on the bench, next year with a new COACH he is winning world champs. Did his talent change?
A number of things besides training changed, too.
No one makes the Olympics without talent (barring any of the small population countries with the 11 second 100m guys) but to me it looks like talent is not realized without good coaching.
Look at the talent in GB that gets ruined by crap coaching/training everyone says.
Remember Glen Mills coached Kim Collins to a World Champs GOLD and now Bolt to his first of Two
Rewriting history is sweet. Kim Collins won in one of the slowest WC times in recent memory and he had plenty of good work done when he was at TCU. Did Glen Mills take him to the 10.0x level it took to get the gold that year when a number of players were missing or out of form?