"Since the Beijing Olympics, Oliver has changed his start phase, running seven steps to the first hurdle instead of eight. He said he's beginning to master that technique, and that's why he's faster than he was two years ago.""I was always trailing at hurdle three, four, five, and the competition may not even have been that stiff," said Oliver, 28. "Now I'm running these times from a fron [...]

What I like about the refinement of today is that many coaches are using PVC pipe hurdles to make the walk-overs lower so that the pelvis doesn't get into lumbar movements. I also like the change in hurdle heights so that spinal flexion can be decreased so it's more of a lateral squat. The key take away is to look at refining things instead of tossing the baby with the bathwater. Most that attac [...]

When people post video of an exercise or a description of a workout that is just a snapshot of a feature length movie. The snapshot has no context, Where? When? How? Who? Most importantly of all – Why? I notice when I do presentations and put a workout on the screen people will frantically scramble to write it down before I go to the next screen. The same with the video clips. Everyone wants cop [...]

Carl, I liked your icoach blog entry and wanted to know if you had any other suggestions for mac or non mac users. I am not a big computer person and need to catch up. I have a lot of things I am trying to upgrade and it would be a big help if you can guide me on how to start getting up to par on the technology end. Any more tips? You are a coach and an IT professional, what do you think I should [...]

Yesterday, Usain made easy work of a class field at the Zurich Weltklasse meet. He ran a 9.81 and if not for his own stratospheric standards the time would be amazing. This speaks to the fact that the guy has pretty much changed short sprinting as we know it. His dominance is so great in fact that both he and others are speaking of adding new events to his resume. The long jump and the 400m are th [...]

Track and field is all about numbers. The competition is certainly important (maybe more so) but most people are just as concerned with the numbers- the times, the distances, etc. With this in mind, I wanted to throw out some interesting factoids for you to chew on. Did you know:The average velocity of a top athlete running the 400 hurdles is higher than one running the 110 hurdles?The fastest rec [...]

I've been in Eugene, OR for the USATF National Champs since Thursday to coach some athletes and also do the sport science work with the shot putters that I've handled for the last 7 years. Yesterday I took the time to roam around and shoot some video that I'll be using when I teach USATF's Level 2 Biomechanics curriculum in a couple weeks. This video is shot at 210 frames per second using one [...]

I was at the Reebok Grand Prix this past Saturday on both business and pleasure. It was a nice chance to enjoy the sport a bit with nice weather and be in Gotham for some good food and entertainment. The purpose of this entry is not to review the meet and performances but focus on one of my interests, how athletes warm-up for races. With so many programs and coaches it all comes down to what they [...]

I wanted to make my first ELITETRACK blog a memorable one and it certainly was that for me. I interviewed someone who has become a good friend of mine, Kerron Clement. For those who don't know much about Kerron, he is the current 400 hurdles World Champion and Silver medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games, he is also the indoor 400m world record holder. His personal records include 10.23 (100m), [...]

"The O-lifts are efficient in their capacity to work many muscles, recruit many MU's, develop coordination, power, etc. They are not, as you know, effecient in their trainability with regards to (as you note) teaching a 100 athletes...Remember, Charlie's MU recruitment chart places sprints, throws, and jumps just as high as the O-Lifts. Consequently, considering we are developing football playe [...]