ELITETRACK: Sport Training & Conditioning

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Understanding dark energy and determining the universe's ultimate fate will require further observations. Hubble and future space telescopes capable of looking more than halfway across the universe will be needed to achieve the necessary precision. The determination of the properties of dark energy has become the key goal of astronomy and physics today.Central Nervous System (CNS) Fatigue is simi...

Published - Friday, 10 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Got Gait?

Gait analysis? We have gurus that claim they know but look at their youtube videos of their athletes walking around like Frankenstein and the zombies from the thriller video. Looking at gait doesn't require an extensive training background (it helps a lot) but a program that incorporates the appropriate time to do this. If you are doing Mobility warm-ups you are not walking. Walking is a daily sc...

Published - Friday, 10 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Vibration Training

Whole Body Vibration Training? Don't believe the hype. Some of my peers use it judiciously so I am not saying that it does nothing but frankly let's get real. We have some proponents that must be using the vibraflex as a pillow at night because they are saying outlandish statements. Based on the peer reviewed research vibration training is washed out of a complete program. When Jordan dunked in...

Published - Friday, 10 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Alternate Means

"This is a difficult question to answer in this format for what folks mean by intensive, extensive and low intensity work varies. I have seen very consistent results from programs that do intensive and extensive work as classically described. I do things that I consider to hit both realms albeit not purely classical in design. For example, we do a lot of 100m "up-backs" in the early training ph...

Published - Thursday, 09 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Optional Adjustments

Make sure you tailor your workout to suit your intentions. Yes pun intended. You can manipulate the following:Rest periods :30-45 seconds.Surfaces- Grass (various lengths), track surfaces, and even soft gymnastics flooring.Exercises: None between (passive rest) to a core exercise, to a lower body motions Integrate a drill - such as speed skips or other locomotive actionFootwear- various shoes and ...

Published - Wednesday, 08 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Audio interviews

Great interview on the strengthcoachpodcast site. Not perfect but he understands stiffness but didn't go over learning to relax and rapidly exchange the contractile dynamics. Stu McGill is an excellent resource but he made statements I disagreed with.Dr. Stuart McGill Professor of Spine Biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, author of Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabil...

Published - Wednesday, 08 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Optional Workouts

Since running on the grass made the Jamaicans into world record holders I will place a minor emphasis into tempo running. Following a classic protocol we will do a modified abdominal circuit fashion of the following.This workout is an add on to any athlete doing a three day split.Traditional Warm-up on the grassMain Set (week 2)2 x (10 x 50-100 yard Tempo runs (65-75% speed) at each end you do 10 ...

Published - Tuesday, 07 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Roles

We have coaches that do soft tissue therapy because management can't handle budgeting and some sports medicine staff is not skilled or trained. We have some PTs coaching stride mechanics because some distance coaches only read lactate and HR readings. We have some Coaches prescribing strength training programs because some strength and conditioning staff are not educated on certain sports. We hav...

Published - Monday, 06 October 2008 on Carl Valle

Talk is Cheap

Talk about winningTalk about innovationTalk about changeTalk about cursesThe proof is in the pudding as they say. Talk is cheap; it is about action and results, getting the job done. Everyone that I have ever been around in any endeavor that has been successful finds a way to get it done. There is no talk of we did it that before and it did not work. That just means it was a lesson learned and it ...

Published - Monday, 06 October 2008 on Vern Gambetta

Improved Article Viewing!

If you haven't noticed already I updated the way articles are viewed on the site late last night. I had personally gotten sick of the fact that any time you wanted to view an article you had to essentially view it offline plus you had to wait for your pdf viewer of choice to start up and load the given file. Now you'll find that all the articles are actually embedded in the site for immediate vi...

Published - Sunday, 05 October 2008 on Mike Young

2008 Olympics: Usain’s Insane 100m

Well, by now everyone in the world knows that Usaine Bolt is not a human being. At least not by the standards we have been using for the last couple millennium. His 100m performance of 9.69 was just mind-boggling. 9.69 beat Bolt's previous world record by 0.03 seconds and is faster than the WR of just last year by 0.05 seconds. That's like a swimmer breaking a world record by 4 seconds...never m...

Published - Monday, 18 August 2008 on Mike Young

Coaching Characteristics

Spend some time at a track meet and see if you don’t notice the samecharacteristics of these event coaches. Makes you wonder if coachesfind an event based on their personality or vice versa. Heregeneralization and stereotypes.Distance CoachesThese ones are the easiest to pin down. Roll into theoffice with a big cup of coffee. Read letsrun.com and other sitesfor an hour. Stress about recent w...

Published - Friday, 14 October 2005 on Todd

IAAF World Championships Day 7- World Record

Theweather took a turn for the better last night. No rain, sun, and mid60's for the temps. It was still breezy but not as bad as previousnights.Isinbayeva sets another WR!Quote of the Day:"There is the Americanteam........and there is the baton on the track." This quote came from the English speakingannouncer at the stadium as the exchange for the American 4 x 100 relay was replayed ...

Published - Thursday, 11 August 2005 on Todd

Rise and Shine

hey Carl what could i do to build work capacity and recovery btw my high int days besides tempo - i heard u had some great ideas.?Thanks for the first question. It's been a long time since I have posted on a blog so you will have to be patient. I will try to answer questions instead of ranting but I may vent some frustrations from time to time.Two key elements you stated you wish to improve on...

Published - Saturday, 07 October 2006 on Carl Valle

IAAF World Championships Day 9- The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The last day of a great week of track and field ended yesterday. It wassomewhat sad to have it be over, because as a track and field addict, Ineed my fix everyday.Wariner pulls away in the 4 x 400m relayI'll skip to the action, since I have packing to do and a flight to catch.The race that I came here for was the women's marathon to support my wife Turena who was running.The Events:Radcliffe spr...

Published - Saturday, 13 August 2005 on Todd

Dallas Robinson

I rarely come on ET asking for money. I want to keep the site as free as possible. In fact, the only time I can remember doing it before was for a Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief fund. At the time, I was living in Baton Rouge and I saw first hand the destruction and displacement that Katrina and the subsequent flooding caused. Thanks to a handful of ET members close to a thousand dolla...

Published - Wednesday, 05 March 2008 on Mike Young

US Health Crisis to Blame for State of American T & F?

Jeremy Wariner: Atypical AmericanI love track. I'm passionate about it. There's nothing I'd rather do than coach track and field. Watching elite level track and field doesn't rank far behind. So why I've wondered, am I and others like me so rare in this country the very same country with the most dominant track and field team in the world? While there are certainly a multitude of explanations...

Published - Friday, 16 September 2005 on Mike Young

Performance Enhancing…..uniforms?

If you’ve been watching the 2006 Torino Olympics you mayhave noticed some of the interesting sports gear used by the athletes. This isnothing new….many Winter Olympic sports lend themselves to technologicaladvancement. Whether we’re talking about clap-skates used for speed skating,aerodynamic bobsleds, or specialized helmets for your various sliding sports,the Winter Olympic spo...

Published - Monday, 20 February 2006 on Mike Young

Track and field: Top 100 times by teenagers or high school sprinters

A new sprint phenom or a flash in the pan. Read this article from the San Antonio Express News and decide for yourself:Here are the 100-meter times of top U.S. sprinters as teenagers or high schoolers (and what happened to each sprinter since): Rynell Parson, Stevens, March 3: 9.99 (Hand-timed and wind-aided at the East Central Invitational. His automatic 10.43 was the nation's fastest ...

Published - Friday, 16 March 2007 on Mike Young

Coaches Ed Follow-Up

Sorry for the delayed follow-up. Harrisonburg, VA- What abummer. The USATF Coaches Ed school sure was a waste of time. Here Iwas expecting big things and the whole thing turned out to be a dud. JUST KIDDING!!! The school in general and the Level 3 in particular lived up to all the hype. How could it not?Here are some notes I took from two of the lectures Dan gave at the Level 3 school:DAN PFAFF on...

Published - Sunday, 10 July 2005 on Mike Young

2008 Olympics: Usain’s Insane 100m

Published - Monday, 18 August 2008 on Mike Young

14 reasons why Jamaica is the Sprint Capitol of the World

At this past Olympics, Jamaica put on a show. The tiny island with a population of less than 3 million people won more Olympic medals than every other country not named USA, Russia or Kenya. And when you consider the QUALITY of their medals, things are even more astounding. Consider these points:If we use the point system I described HERE, Jamaica (24 points) is actually the 3rd best track and fie...

Published - Wednesday, 10 September 2008 on Mike Young

Tyson Gay’s 100m performance in Eugene

We've recently been spoiled by the amazing feats of Asafa Powell's 9.72 personal best in Lausanne and Usain Bolt's string of sub 9.85s. So much so that it's easy to forget that someone other than these two actually produced the fastest 100m ever. EVAR. Tyson Gay. Remember him? He's that guy who didn't make the final at the Olympics due to lack of race fitness caused by an injury at the U.S. ...

Published - Thursday, 04 September 2008 on Mike Young

American Track Demise?

Yesterday, I blogged about America's track performance in Beijing and whether it was really as bad as it seemed. I kinda steered towards an optimistic view yesterday. Today, I'm back to give the other side of the argument. The answer to whether Beijing was a complete meltdown isn't real simple but I think it's safe to say that something wasn't wright in Beijing. First off, America has histori...

Published - Thursday, 28 August 2008 on Mike Young

7 Reasons why Coffee is a Health Drink

Brain Juice. Java. Black Tea. Cup of Joe. Rocket Fuel. All of these are names for the ubiquitous beverage that is coffee. While there's a longstanding belief that coffee is bad for you (it dehydrates! makes your teeth black! disrupts sleep!) there's a growing amount of evidence to suggest that coffee may very well be one of the healthiest things you can put in your body. Here's a look at why y...

Published - Saturday, 06 September 2008 on Mike Young

Pre-Season Testing

Summer’s over. It’s Fall. On college campuses all across the country, pre-season track training has begun in earnest. And with pre-season training comes the battery of tests that most good coaches use to assess progress and program effectiveness and provide a competitive opportunity to athletes who might not otherwise compete for another 4-6 months. I personally love test week. In my setups, ...

Published - Monday, 15 September 2008 on Mike Young

Wake Up Strength Coaches

I have been thinking of writing this post for a long time. I have been hesitant because of the risk of pissing off a whole bunch of people, but so be it. I say wake up because those of you that identify yourself as strength coaches are painting yourselves into a corner. The more you chase numbers in the weight room, the more you create adapted athletes that are disconnected with what they are tryi...

Published - Saturday, 20 September 2008 on Vern Gambetta

Top 10 Myths of Sprinting Mechanics

On my way back from Sarasota today I came up with a list of the top ten myths I hear about sprinting mechanics. Check it out and let me know what I left off. The elbow angle must stay at 90 degrees. Who came up with this? What’s the rationale? What’s the benefit? Ask someone to provide answers to those questions next time you hear that ridiculous idea. Not only is it not beneficial, it...

Published - Wednesday, 25 July 2007 on Mike Young

Sprinting on Treadmills Part 2

Yesterday I started a five-part blog series on treadmills. In the first installment I looked at whether there were mechanical differences between treadmill and overground running. If you haven’t read the blog, the answer is yes there are differences, and these differences are magnified at higher velocities. Now let’s look at the second question of the series:Given that there are differ...

Published - Tuesday, 09 October 2007 on Mike Young

Sprinting on Treadmills Part 5

Some Closing Pros and Cons of Treadmill Running:Pros:Provides constant or controllable climate conditions.Can be instrumented with biomechanical analysis equipment potentially providing valuable kinetic or kinematic data.Shock dampening surface…softer surfaces should reduce the risk of injury. High speed treadmills permit an athlete to work top end speed independently of acceleration a...

Published - Wednesday, 31 October 2007 on Mike Young

Muscle Injuries: Optimising Recovery

Author: Aarimaa, Ville, Jarvinen, Markku, Jarvinen, Teppo, Jarvinen, Tero, Kaariainen, Minna, Kalimo, Hannu, Vaittinen, Samuli
Type: Research Literature
Source: Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology
Topic: Flexibility, Sports Science, Muscle Dynamics, Restoration
Level: Medium

Author: Andrews, Warren, Hori, Naruhiro, Kawamori, Naoki, McGuigan, Michael, Newton, Robert, Nosaka, Kazunori
Type: Research Literature
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Topic: Sprints, Jumps, Sports Science, Biomechanics, Strength and Conditioning
Level: Hard, Medium

Static Stretching Impairs Sprint Performance in Collegiate Track and Field Athletes

Author: Landin, Dennis, Nelson, Arnold, Schexnayder, Irving "Boo", Winchester, Jason, Young, Michael
Type: Research Literature
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
Topic: Flexibility, Sprints, Sports Science, Muscle Dynamics, Biomechanics
Level: Hard, Medium