SprinTech Training System © 2005 Simon Duberley
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Recovery from training is an important consideration for a well thought out programme for sprint athletes. Placement of weight training, speed sessions and other neurally demanding work within a training week should be such that consideration is given to the correct clearance periods to facilitate full recovery for the athletes. Lack of planning on this requirement will have dire consequences. Athletes will start to complain of tiredness and lack of energy. Both indications of neural fatigue.
Speed work and weight sessions involving the leg musculature should ideally have a clearance time of at least 48 hours.
Active recovery work can also be implemented to help athletes. This can come in the form of scheduling slow tempo track sessions to stimulate recovery. Just as in all track sessions these slow tempo recovery sessions have to be designed using the right accumulated distance and recoveries.
Regenerative massage can be used to manually massage out, waste products after speed/strength endurance sessions. Residual amounts of lactic acid can sit in an athlete’s blood stream ready to come back and haunt the athlete in the future.
In recent years there has been a change of thought as regards to the placement of stretching in the training structure. The current research indicates that too much stretching before performance damages a muscles ability to store elastic energy. This doesn’t mean that stretching should be removed from training. Stretching is a key component of INJURY PREVENTION. SprinTech advocates stretching muscle groups after training sessions, when an athletes core temperature is at its highest.
During anaerobic exercise micro adhesions appear in and around muscle fibres. This bi product of sprint training is unfortunately unavoidable but can be kept on top of by statically stretching muscles at the end of training sessions. Stretching will eliminate many of the micro adhesions as they appear. If left alone the athlete can expect micro adhesions to adhere to each other and form macro adhesions otherwise known as scar tissue. The elasticity of scar tissue is minimal and so the risk of muscle tearing is raised.
Flexibility is also reduced from micro adhesion build up and with it skeletal imbalance problems such as pelvic tilts and spinal curvature.
A small percentage of micro adhesions will escape even the best-constructed stretching programmes, and athletes are advised to have regular sessions with a good sports massage therapist to have these broken down . SprinTech recognises The London School of Massage Qualification as one the best to perform this task. If you feel you would like to contact our own massage therapist for more advice on injury prevention or treatment email us at:
During anaerobic exercise micro adhesions appear in and around muscle fibres. This bi product of sprint training is unfortunately unavoidable but can be kept on top of by statically stretching muscles at the end of training sessions. Stretching will eliminate many of the micro adhesions as they appear. If left alone the athlete can expect micro adhesions to adhere to each other and form macro adhesions otherwise known as scar tissue. The elasticity of scar tissue is minimal and so the risk of muscle tearing is raised.
Flexibility is also reduced from micro adhesion build up and with it skeletal imbalance problems such as pelvic tilts and spinal curvature.
A small percentage of micro adhesions will escape even the best-
SprinTech defines specific strength as the linking of basic strength gains in weight training, to the biomechanics of sprinting itself. This can be done by athletes sprinting under resistance. Types of resisted sprinting are: -
Hill work
Sled pulling
Weighted vest work
Repetition distance, accumulated distance for the given session and recoveries are all important considerations to be made by the coach, as is mentioned in the track section of this website. Another consideration is how much resistance i.e. hill gradient or the amount of weight in the sled or jacket. More resistance can be used for acceleration work, as the athlete can lean into the resistance and create sharper angles in the biomechanics. A lighter resistance should be used for top speed resisted work, as too much in this form of work can introduce braking effects in the biomechanics of maximum velocity. SprinTech recommends that an athlete should never be resisted by more than 10% reduction in their running speed during top speed mechanics, but more resistance can be used for acceleration work .
Hill work
Sled pulling
Weighted vest work
Repetition distance, accumulated distance for the given session and recoveries are all important considerations to be made by the coach, as is mentioned in the track section of this website. Another consideration is how much resistance i.e. hill gradient or the amount of weight in the sled or jacket. More resistance can be used for acceleration work, as the athlete can lean into the resistance and create sharper angles in the biomechanics. A lighter resistance should be used for top speed resisted work, as too much in this form of work can introduce braking effects in the biomechanics of maximum velocity. SprinTech recommends that an athlete should never be resisted by more than 10% reduction in their running speed during top speed mechanics, but more resistance can be used for acceleration work .
Designing a weight-training schedule that benefits an athlete’s need for sprinting is not as simple as selecting exercises from an Olympic style or bodybuilding-training regime.
SprinTech incorporates a schedule that flows from basic strength exercises in the beginning of the off season, through more explosive work and then onto specific strength work as the athlete progresses closer to the competition season.
Specific strength work is a key component to the SprinTech training system. It is the fashion in which the exercises mimic the correct muscular and skeletal movement of sprinting whilst still under resistance, that links the areas of basic weight training and actual sprinting together.
SprinTech incorporates a schedule that flows from basic strength exercises in the beginning of the off season, through more explosive work and then onto specific strength work as the athlete progresses closer to the competition season.
Specific strength work is a key component to the SprinTech training system. It is the fashion in which the exercises mimic the correct muscular and skeletal movement of sprinting whilst still under resistance, that links the areas of basic weight training and actual sprinting together.
Just one small change within the mechanics of a given running stride will have an effect that is amplified by the number of strides present in a performance.
Better biomechanics are one of the quickest ways to improve speed in an athlete. If an athlete can embrace the coaches attention to detail and concentrate on cleaning up the areas of their technique, that are holding back speed, then over time the athlete will see a number of things happen due to improved efficiency.
Among these are: -
Better acceleration
A higher top speed
Better speed endurance
Reduced injury risk
Better biomechanics are one of the quickest ways to improve speed in an athlete. If an athlete can embrace the coaches attention to detail and concentrate on cleaning up the areas of their technique, that are holding back speed, then over time the athlete will see a number of things happen due to improved efficiency.
Among these are: -
Better acceleration
A higher top speed
Better speed endurance
Reduced injury risk
Of course biomechanics cannot be improved by simply shouting commands at an athlete whilst they are sprinting at top speed. Changes in Hip, Ankle and knee angle etc can only be made at a slower speed first if an athlete has any chance of real improvement. SprinTech uses a series of drills to remap a new efficient style of sprinting into the athlete. These drills are reviewed on video by the coach and athlete so that a visual understanding of faults and then improvement can be made.
Early warning signs to an athletes performance tail off in track training times, can only be highlighted with exceptional record keeping.
The SprinTech training software provides this with such efficiency that athletes can be pre-warned of performance tail off, even within a given track session. At SprinTech we believe that athletes should expect their coach to give them regular target times and be warned when they are falling short of these. Only then can an athlete evaluate their commitment or the coach re-examine his or her training strategy.
Regular repeats of training sessions and the ability for the athlete to see immediate history of training times on an organised database are just some of the tools used within the SprinTech training system.
In a bid for faster times, Coaches and athletes should always have a component of speed integrated within the training schedule. This may seem obvious to some, but this stands true even during the winter off season training where many groups regress too deeply into the age old art of building a so called aerobic base. Speed should always be present in any one of the training weeks throughout the year.
It is speed work in its structure that is fundamental to the conversion of muscular structure and neural pathways, which provides success to the athlete.
If it is speed that the athlete wants, it makes no sense to give them a winter of high volume track sessions with short recoveries. It will only make them good at these types of sessions, but not speed!
The correct placement within the training week, the accumulated distance of a session and the recoveries between the runs are all crucial calculations made by the coach to ensure the quality of the work being done and the effect it has on the athlete.
Examples of SprinTech track sessions are available upon request. Although the SprinTech training system is not an online coaching service. Just email your details to coach@sprintech.co.uk
At SprinTech all training times are entered into the SprinTech’s software training database (see below).
It is speed work in its structure that is fundamental to the conversion of muscular structure and neural pathways, which provides success to the athlete.
If it is speed that the athlete wants, it makes no sense to give them a winter of high volume track sessions with short recoveries. It will only make them good at these types of sessions, but not speed!
The correct placement within the training week, the accumulated distance of a session and the recoveries between the runs are all crucial calculations made by the coach to ensure the quality of the work being done and the effect it has on the athlete.
Examples of SprinTech track sessions are available upon request. Although the SprinTech training system is not an online coaching service. Just email your details to coach@sprintech.co.uk
At SprinTech all training times are entered into the SprinTech’s software training database (see below).
