I decided to stop asking questions until i understand charlies principals. Please give me reasons why i should look into charlie francis’ training concepts. I don’t know anything about them besides something about short to long and special endurance phases and a few things people mention. This isnt meant to doubt, i’m just asking why i should follow him? Who has gotten results with his program? I thought i read he trained ben johnson, but thats all i know. WHy?
This is not really an answer.
The way I look at coaching/training
There are 3 biomotor abilities - being speed, endurance and strength.
I then look at the main element of the event/sport you are doing.
Choose the major emphasis of the biomotor abilities.
So for the sports I am interested
Throwing - Strength and Speed
Sprinting - Speed
Field Hockey - Speed
I came about looking at what Charlie did because I could not understand why as a Hammer thrower I was doing 3 30 minutes runs a week and scaling down to 6 30 metre runs 11 months later.
I must point out being 4 inches shorter and 80 pounds lighter than my competitors I was never going to be stronger.
So my major emphasis in throwing was going to be technique and speed.
The reason initial reason why I took the opportunity to learn from this awesome resource was simply that I was interested in maximizing my potential through smart training. I didn’t know if CFTS was the ‘best’ or not but I was just generally interested in training philosophies and methodologies.
I still am and am not terribly picky on that front. I will spend the time to read up and learn from virtually anyone. This does not mean that I will incorporate their ideas or exercises into my routine! But I will at least learn enough to figure out if there is any merit in them.
If you are serious about your training, I encourage you to develop the same curiousity. Don’t stop here, learn from other coaches, read up on Westside training, take a look at DBHammer’s stuff. Be a sponge!
The only way you can know that a program is good is to compare it to others. If I tell you CFTS is the best, are you simply going to take my word on it? If I tell you CF trained multiple Olympic medalists, does that necessarily mean that the program is optimal for you? There is more than one way to skin a cat.
The reason why I personally use CFTS is because I have found that it is a logical system that is internally consistent and resonates with what I like to do. I had already (through trial, error and luck) incorporated many of the elements of CFTS into my regime prior to learning about CF. When I stumbled upon CFTS, I found an organization, progression and justification for the why’s, when’s and how’s. It provides the terminology to talk about the various training elements. I find that it makes sense on both a logical and a visceral level, I enjoy training in this system and most importantly I am getting results!
I have used principles from the CFTS and about 5 other “programs” that have the same universal concepts. I have used a short to long program before picking up speed trap and have trained all the energy systems/biomotor abilities at the same time at different loading patterns and still made huge improvements. I mainly coach swimming and track but have been involved with american ball sports and have done a lot post speed trap. My program went from very good to very effective and have been a part of 81 school records in both swimming and track. Some of those are now state records and even guys that are wc sprinters have run faster with me then their olympic years. True I stand on the shoulders of giants but who cares?
I think this system validates much of what I believed I was doing right and had picked up from other sources through the years. It also helped me weed out some things that I had picked up that were counterproductive. At first, I just used some elements of Charlie’s program, but it worked well, so I used more of it as I learned more.
In general, I think the short to long approach makes a lot of sense, and the emphasis on recovery does, too, along with the emphasis on quality work rather than quantity. No doubt, other approaches can work (ie, long to short in Charlie’s program), but apart from the science of different methods, you also have to go with what works best for you and something in which you have confidence.
Those of us that have been at this a while probably have tried many different techniques and programs through the years. Personally, I’ve attended dozens and dozens of seminars conducted by various coaches – Hart, Pfaff, Seagrave, McFarlane and many others. Much of what they say has merit, you just have to pick and choose, look for common elements that seem to work and see what fits your circumstances. Whether you agree or disagree with various approaches, I always find it interesting to see how many different ways are devised to reach the same result of getting faster.
A few valuable points Charlie emphasized that were often overlooked by others –
The fact that your ‘energy envelope’ is finite – you have only so much quality work in you.
The importance of not doing non-quality work(slogging it out).
The importance of not just muscular but what we call CNS recovery.
That to get fast you have to, at some point, um, go fast.
If these don’t seem like good ideas then I don’t know what else to say except read his posts and realize he trained numerous athletes to elite performances, not just BJ and more recently, Tim Montgomery.
Just an echo of what everyone else is saying, but continue learning and gathering information but maintain your common sense. Be that sponge. One of the best things that will happen for you will certainly be an ability to weed out bullsht from sound training principles. Like all of us here, you will no doubt continue to be directed back towards a central premis and philosophy, weeding out ideas from so called “gurus” that seem to make no sense. And again, just as it has been for us all, you will soon notice the relatively small fraternity of coaches teaching sound training while bullshters abound! So whether it’s Charlie, John Smith, Asafa’s or Gatin/Crawford’s coach you will recongize a central philosophy. But I will tell you this- On this site, you will be surrounded by people and coaches who truely care about your training and will share all the knowledge they have. There is a saying that a righteous tree will only bare good fruit. Spend some time on this site taking of it’s fruit, my man. How splendid then must be the tree that created it?
Thank you all. What is speed trap about exactly?
Because it’s the most efficient way to train.