SPRINT Training Approach

Just a few sprint training ideas today for runners who want to improve.
Think of yourself as athletes like a dragster. To be faster your engine needs more power to get an engine upgrade you need to train smartly with weights for years. This will if done properly look after your engine requirements to the best of your genetics.

At the same time as you do this you need to work on getting your engine to deliver what you want through the tyres. This requires you to give your nervous system the opportunity to practise using the improving engine as often as possible in the most effective way. Put simply, you need to sprint over short distances faster than you ever have before, you need to practise starting quicker than ever before and to jump or bound or do whatever power activity you do better than ever before. Your brain needs practise at accessing and using your newly available power & strength. This is what sprint training is. You are training to give your brain the chance to convert the new engines abilities into improvement in running speed.

Body builders & weight lifters can lift much more than most sprinters, But without sprint training it most likely has no positive effect on their sprinting speed if they dont do sprint training.

Regular small doses of the best quality sprint training is the key to seeing steady improvement in performance.

So the plan is to
1/ Upgrade your engine – by doing smartly planned weight training
2/ Convert the gains by doing Sprint Training – small amounts at 100% effort.

Do your homework by performing a variety of core (back & abdominal) exercises this helps the link between the key power muscles and the running action.

Also help your brain convert the new found strength/power by doing smart bounding exercises like explained at https://oztrack.com/blog/2011/04/bounding-training-for-runners-the-oztrack-method/

Balance all the different elements of training each week, so the different activities do not spoil the quality of the others. If done properly over the course of your development everything should steadily improve. If it isn’t do something slightly different.

Variety of quality is the KEY.

The biggest mistake for sprinters is to do too much. It is amazing how little you need to do when its done perfectly and doing slightly more than that is BAD. This is why you need a coach and to do what they tell you. Coaches be confident and its better to do less even if the athlete is frustrated at how little they are doing, be firm.

If the athlete is steadily improving you are doing the right thing. So keep it like that.

regards
Steve Bennett
www.oztrack.com

There are many great strength exercises

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=API9PfT94fw