"These tests are a big psychological builder. When the athlete has control of her times, she also controls her own psychology and physiology.”-Santiago Antunez The beauty of Athletics is that you must eventually get people better. Talent matters of course, but what keeps me hungry is the fact that great coaches have humbled so many by producing such wonderful performers. I am frankly tired each [...]

I remember years ago at a major meet in Europe a few coaches talking in english over dinner, and discussing genetic testing with track and field. With so many different cultures sitting down it was funny to see the wide variety of opinions and philosophies. This was before the Quantified Self movement and it was creepy that one coached mentioned that all lines can be crossed with genetics. Henk's [...]

No clever blog title, just the man. I have been reading and following Benke for a while now and his presentation on Hurdles a few years ago was excellent. Like most coaches, sometimes we are force to reread the good materials over and over getting each drop of knowledge to problem solve things. Right now I have mixed feelings about the seven or eight step discussion because we don't have the data [...]

Andrew Flatt alerted me to a great video that was thought provoking. Andy O'Brien does have some interesting ideas about brain waves, HRV, and pressure profiles of hockey. I am no expert in hockey, but when center of pressure discussions came up and explaining that vertical lifts not creating horizontal speed could create some application of training problems with coaches. The General versus Spec [...]

I wanted to review some practical advice I learned over the years, thanks to a few German and Australian coaches. One is that power is something that is difficult to measure because development is often slow and subject to a lot of interpretation. For example one athlete I worked with this winter made big improvements in his vertical, 40, and 5-10-5 and stated he wished he worked with the performa [...]

After graduating from Fresno State I went to University of California Santa Barbara for my teaching certification. While there I was fortunate to take a class from Sherman Button on Fundamental of Conditioning. He was way ahead of his time with the material and concepts that he presented. (I appreciate that even more as look back at what he taught us) It was a great class because of his comprehens [...]

I thought it would interesting to share with you a personal approach to the evolution of strength training as I have seen it using my experiences as an athlete and coach who has been involved in strength training for 50 years. When I began weight training in 1963, it was not commonly accepted as a method of training, in fact weight training was discouraged. There were concerns that you would becom [...]

Hello friends! I wanted this to be the place where I first announce my book that will be started in the summer of 2013. My vision for this book will be the Daniel's Running Formula for sprinting. It will include different training models, periodization, philosophy, strength routines, and actual training programs for high school through elite sprinting. The Sprinter's Compendium will be a one sto [...]

Trust. Teaching. Technique. Training. My progressions are not rocket science. Come to practice on time. Bring a water bottle. If you don't have a watch learn to read the one on the wall for rest intervals. None of the information above will sell out a seminar, but the realities is the limiting factor, not the GPS powerpoints and talk on energy systems-or Bondarchuck periodization charts. Nobody w [...]

Wooden Round Two was another success. Considering the nature of the questions many answers were miniture research papers. After going through the responses a number of things became clear on the topic of planning. First the coaches who are the most successful do have detailed planning at the same time not afriad to adjust, flex, or tweak programs if needed. Another interesting theme discovered fro [...]