Athletes: Football players. All decent 100-200 sprinters in high school. None of them have run track for 2 or more years.
Scenario: The football players just finished their season and the coaching staff is allowing them to run indoor track however they won't be allowed to run outdoor track because of Spring Football. You have 1 month to the first meet during which these athletes will be on Christmas break for 3 weeks. You have 3 months until your indoor conference championship. They could potentially be scorers or medalists if trained appropriately.
Things to consider:
*What would you focus on (speed, strength, flexibility, etc)?
*Do you just throw them in with your sprinters who've been training since fall or do you start them on a different routine?
*What events would you run them in…do you dare try to train them for the long sprints?
*What modifications to the training program do you make?
*Does having them only for the indoor season have any implications for your training plan?
If the footballers just finished their season, at least one week of active recovery is probably necessary before starting hardcore track training. Since the athlete you are getting is most likely a skill position player (RB,WR,DB) then they probably have a good amount of speed endurance, at least SSE, already based on the work done during football. Assuming you can get them to workout regularly during xmas break, I would probably spend those first 2 weeks after recovery working on acceleration, and the next 2 weeks on max V (it can safely be assumed that a skill player is pretty fast already, so large amounts of max V is probably not necessary). Once the semester starts back up, focus on speed endurance for 2 weeks before spending the remaining 5 weeks on event specific run and race modeling. Early in the competition season, I would stick to the 60 with most of them, moving out to 200m about 4 weeks out from conference. I would be wary about trying to get any of them prepared for anything longer than 200, and i would be careful with even that. Only having the athlete for 3 months of an indoor season really limits the events he would be able to do, so sticking to the 60 and 200 seems the only viable option, unless you have just a stud athlete who can walk out and run 47 from day one. I know we all wish we had a guy like that, but lets be realistic.
why soo much speed end work for a fb guy, someone who may not be able to do lots of speed end work?? most fb players have pretty good acc ability so i would continue to work on acc and top speed, and refine overall running mech.
Above all else, I'd be extremely conservative and work around the strength and conditioning staff's lifting. It's been my experience that the S&C folks will require them to do the FB lifting routine and maybe even some morning workouts, even if they're fine with the guys doing track. Just don't get the star RB hurt! I think you'd have to be very flexible. E.g. you had a speed day planned but the S&C coach had them do 6 x 15 on heavy squats and run 8 all out 200s in the morning. In that case - see you tomorrow!
Above all else, I'd be extremely conservative and work around the strength and conditioning staff's lifting. It's been my experience that the S&C folks will require them to do the FB lifting routine and maybe even some morning workouts, even if they're fine with the guys doing track. Just don't get the star RB hurt! I think you'd have to be very flexible. E.g. you had a speed day planned but the S&C coach had them do 6 x 15 on heavy squats and run 8 all out 200s in the morning. In that case - see you tomorrow!
in most cases u r right,now if he runs for a top track school he will only do track for example lsu, and tenn i know for sure just let there fb guys do track, univ of Miami u have to do both.
Above all else, I'd be extremely conservative and work around the strength and conditioning staff's lifting. It's been my experience that the S&C folks will require them to do the FB lifting routine and maybe even some morning workouts, even if they're fine with the guys doing track. Just don't get the star RB hurt! I think you'd have to be very flexible. E.g. you had a speed day planned but the S&C coach had them do 6 x 15 on heavy squats and run 8 all out 200s in the morning. In that case - see you tomorrow!
in most cases u r right,now if he runs for a top track school he will only do track for example lsu, and tenn i know for sure just let there fb guys do track, univ of Miami u have to do both.
thas rite at da U of M they do both…a good mix of top-speed workout and ladders
This scenario is actually one I've got right now. I've got 4 FBers coming out. I've never seen them run and have no idea whether they are fast or not…our FB team isn't really a speed team though and they were never recruited for track.
I've given them workouts focusing on acceleration development and very short end maxV. Kind of a crash course of sorts. Unless one of them shows extraordinary potential I don't intend to run them seriously in anything longer than a 60m. This is both due to the short preparation time period and the current depth we have in the 200m.
This scenario is actually one I've got right now. I've got 4 FBers coming out. I've never seen them run and have no idea whether they are fast or not…our FB team isn't really a speed team though and they were never recruited for track.
I've given them workouts focusing on acceleration development and very short end maxV. Kind of a crash course of sorts. Unless one of them shows extraordinary potential I don't intend to run them seriously in anything longer than a 60m. This is both due to the short preparation time period and the current depth we have in the 200m.
that would be a smart idea, i know when the U had many fb players running track thats what they did 55-60 and some jumpers like santana moss. i would keep them in the acc to top speed zone and really focus on running mech bc most fb players dont know how to run.
I'll just take what I can get. It would be foolish to make major changes. Playing around too much could yield initial performance dropoffs and we don't really have enough time for that. Many times several problems are all symptoms of a single bigger issue. Hopefully this is the case as these scenarios are much easier to clean up and yield results much sooner.
I'll just take what I can get. It would be foolish to make major changes. Playing around too much could yield initial performance dropoffs and we don't really have enough time for that. Many times several problems are all symptoms of a single bigger issue. Hopefully this is the case as these scenarios are much easier to clean up and yield results much sooner.
well i hope u can make those guys faster bc it really would help the fb team, im surprise that bobby ross are letting them run track.
I wanted to update this thread…as I actually ran in to this scenario. I had 3 football guys come out for indoor track. They did all football weight training and skill work and then came to me. They ended up running 6.96, 6.97 and 7.02 for the 60m; and mid 22s for the 200m. The average improvement was 0.15 for 60m and 0.45 for 200m over the course of the season. In comparison, my regulars improved slightly more for the 60m and by about 150% more for the 200m.
While they improved over the course of the year there performances were much more erratic and far less predictable than my non-footballers. This was largely due to the often mis-matched weight training and sprint work. Most of the time I ended up cutting their workouts really short with sprint volumes of less than 240m on average. Typically we only sprinted 2x / week (3 if you include the meets). My regulars would do another day (albeit of relatively low volume). I monitored their physical readiness on a daily basis and made changes as necessary. This was done much more so than even with my regulars. We never ended up doing more…always less than prescribed for my regulars. This was largely due to them already coming to me tired, banged-up, or tight. I attribute most of their improvements to improved hip and pelvic mobility and improved mechanics. There overall training program was pretty much the same with the subtraction of a sprint day, an overall reduction in sprint volume, and no control over the weight training.
I wanted to update this thread…as I actually ran in to this scenario. I had 3 football guys come out for indoor track. They did all football weight training and skill work and then came to me. They ended up running 6.96, 6.97 and 7.02 for the 60m; and mid 22s for the 200m. The average improvement was 0.15 for 60m and 0.45 for 200m over the course of the season. In comparison, my regulars improved slightly more for the 60m and by about 150% more for the 200m.
While they improved over the course of the year there performances were much more erratic and far less predictable than my non-footballers. This was largely due to the often mis-matched weight training and sprint work. Most of the time I ended up cutting their workouts really short with sprint volumes of less than 240m on average. Typically we only sprinted 2x / week (3 if you include the meets). My regulars would do another day (albeit of relatively low volume). I monitored their physical readiness on a daily basis and made changes as necessary. This was done much more so than even with my regulars. We never ended up doing more…always less than prescribed for my regulars. This was largely due to them already coming to me tired, banged-up, or tight. I attribute most of their improvements to improved hip and pelvic mobility and improved mechanics. There overall training program was pretty much the same with the subtraction of a sprint day, an overall reduction in sprint volume, and no control over the weight training.
Mike which day did you drop? I am assuming you had the following hi intensity days.
