A few months ago I sent a survey asking for your questions about training middle distance runners. I took those responses and sent them to 14 year USATF Level II Lead Instructor Scott Christensen. He created an excellent new program, running over 2 hours and 35 minutes, called ‘Preparing the Elite Junior Middle Distance…
Part 1 Is Your Sprinter a Diva or a Rock Star? By Carl Valle The purpose of this article series is to break down the 100m sprint and 200m sprint events into four testing qualities; Acceleration, Maximal Speed, Speed Endurance, and some specific work capacity. While this series is focused on the short sprints, other…
Starting Blocks By Latif Thomas The purpose of this article, ultimately, is to explain proper acceleration mechanics. Proper acceleration is crucial to the success of track and field sprinters, but can not be achieved without ideal positioning within the starting blocks. Therefore, we will cover the process from the time the official calls the athletes…
The winter months are the time of year when people, including endurance athletes, tend to have more illness such as upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). If an endurance runner engaged in heavy winter training should contract an URTI it could mean up to six or seven days of lost training. There are three reasons that…
Generally, when you imagine a summer track & field clinic, you assume it is for athletes. And the primary focus of the 2012 Complete Track & Field Summer Clinic is helping the athletes. However, we’ve designed the event for coaches (and parent coaches) as well. Here is how our clinic is different than all the…
As I often reflect on my days at the University of Houston, I can recall a number of valuable coaching lessons I learned while under the tutelage of Mike Takaha and Tom Tellez. The cue “fast relax” or floating, is a term I became all too familiar with as Takaha and Tellez shouted the phrase…
The tempo run is a valuable training unit component that should be found in the microcycles of both middle-distance and distance runners, including cross country athletes. The name is derived from a musical term that refers to a recognized “rate of speed”. The rate of speed, or tempo, used in training distance runners is the…
When you hold your track and field clinic at a school as prestigious as Harvard University, you better bring your ‘A Game’. It’s no accident the Complete Track and Field Clinic has become one of the most highly attended Clinics in the United States. We know you have other camp and clinic options in the…
General athletic skill is governed by physical maturity and individual developments in the five biomotor skills of speed, strength, endurance, flexibility, and coordination. Development of specific athletic skill is governed by a training blend of the five biomotor skills, but with a strong emphasis on the singular skill type that is characteristic of the narrow…
As sprints coaches, shin splints invariably pop up. Sometimes we get through an entire season without dealing with it, sometimes it’s a few kids and sometimes it’s an epidemic. Here is a question on the topic that Coach Mangiacotti answered from a ‘Building the Perfect 100m Sprinter From Start to Finish’ customer: Question: Good morning…
