It’s unlikely that this workout alone would have caused CNS burnout, as the speeds are just too slow. There could be a number of reasons you felt burnt out the next day, such as an accumulation of CNS fatigue from a series of tough workouts, muscular fatigue, lack of sleep etc.
I wouldn’t say that! It’s just that you have a bit more leeway to spread out the workload with the beginners- but not speed every day. Stick with speed every other day. How many days per week do they train at age 14?
For this particular question I asked, I was talking about my 8 and 9 year old daughters. Can I get away with training THEM with speed work everyday (Monday through Friday)?
My freshman sprinters are all 13-15 years old. My thinking was maybe I COULD just give them short speed work for the whole season instead of ANY kind of speed endurance work. Bsically just keep them in the 10m-40m range the entire season, and never go beyond that for any reason other than tempo. Maybe I could train them Monday through Friday and give them short speed work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with some tempo work or GS circuit on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thoughts?
Children can tolerate great amounts of work load, because their SNS is HICHLY specialised so their bodies are naturally protected from doing exercises that overburden them. Children are also classified into different enzymatic age groups because they lack some key ones associated with the
lactic system. So high volumes of work can be tolerated. They may be able to handle more work but their ability to cool down (body temperature) is also under developed.
BUT we must also remember that large amounts of low intensity work can lead to a child’s CNS becoming specialised too soon. So if you apply too much low intensity and volume and frequency of training, then expect to see less improvement. You would not fry their CNS because the SNS will stop that, but you may cause irreversible loss of specific skills (explosive strength, elastic strength).
Its probably best to develop technique, co-ordination and speed through a range of differing exercises that do not lead to repetitive movements leading to strain and traction injuries.
if a less elite sprinter can’t tax their CNS, then what/when is the threshold where you CAN eventually tax your CNS? How good/fast do you have to be? (assuming that you can gauge it by timing, ie 10.2 in 100m vs 11.2)
So what if, by having a long range goal of my daughters becoming good sprinters by the time they reach the high school level, I start now by developing coordination by putting them in dance classes and/or martial arts classes. . . . . develop technique by teaching them form/sprint drills (which my daughters absolutely LOVE to do for some reason, lol). . . . . and develop actual speed by doing 10m-40m sprints from flat start, from accel. start, from lying down on stomach, from lying down on back, etc. Thoughts?
For ages 8 and 9, I’d go 3 x per week M,W,F with the exercises you mentioned, with dance and martial arts between.
Taking a step back for a moment…
What must be considered and delineated between is the inability to fatigue vs the ability to recover.
A novice athlete is NOT able to recover faster between intense workouts. As has already been stated, they simply are UNABLE to fatigue the CNS to the same degree as elite athletes.
This is a function of INTRAmuscular coordination.
A novice athlete has not developed their respective level of intramuscular coordination anywhere near the level of an elite athlete. Hence a novice is 1. unable to recruit as many fast, and a high total number of MU’s (Recruitment), 2. unable to express a higher discharge frequency of motorneurons (Rate Coding), and 3. unable to create a situation in which MU’s work synchronously over the short period of maximal voluntary effort (Synchronization).
The above is a summation of the work of Zatisiorsky.
A novice may perform a higher and more frequent volume of work NOT because of improved recovery ability, but because of INability to fatigue due to low intramuscular coordination.
INability to fatigue must not be confused with ability to recover.
I like Charlies recomendations. The more diverse with the younger ages, the better. Dance is an excellent way to build coordination and flexibility. I train a kid who did ballet his whole life (with other sports too) and he went from cleaning the bar to clean & Jerking 95 Lbs. x5 in one month. He is only 14 years old, and weighs about 130! I can honestly say that his ability to learn things is HIGHLY above average. So, I believe by being diverse with the youth they are only set up for success in the future. After all, most sports model track highly in activities, when you throw in other things, your kids will learn any skill much faster.
Its called Multilateral Development, there is a section in Turdor Bompa’s book Periodization that discusses this.
Jman, good point, I was referring to youth novices being able to recover quicker (Dagov’s 8-9 yr. olds). Kids that young and younger have much higher recovery abilities. Also a good distinction would be between a well conditioned athlete that is novice at a skill, and an unconditioned athlete novice at a skill. The novice with general conditioning will of coarse recover faster. Just goes to show how neurologically specific the human body is regarding specific skills vs. general conditioning.
Lol, an idea used in neuroscience well before Bompa was even born.
I think I understand what you mean Charlie, but could you give me an example week of what you mean, explaining what you’d suggest to go on each day of the week?
Sorry to butt in before Charlie but just a word of warning about dance. I heard a story about a young sprinter with great potential being forced out of the game early because her feet had been ruined in ballet classes doing tip-toe walking in blocked shoes.
Having said that, I know somebody else who sprinted at the Olympics who was heavily into dance classes until her mid teens although I don’t know if ballet figured.
Well whatever type of dance I’ll have her do it won’t be ballet.
Are you making your decision on that one post?
No I am not. I had plans for them to dance for a while now. I have never liked ballet. In addition to that, I have seen first hand athletes get injured from being on their toes like that.
Ok, that sounds cool. The male athlete I train did ballet for many years and his only injuries come from other sports than ballet. What is it that they prefer to do? It may be best to let them try even if you don’t agree :rolleyes: This way they feel they still have a large amount of input into their training. One thing to consider is that a lot of dance teachers overtrain and mentally abuse their pupils/students (as in ballet is very “aesthetically oriented”).
That’s the thing. . … they do not WANT to try ballet. I AM doing EVERYTHING they ask for so as not to “run them away” from track and field.
What about breakdancing