From: Latif Thomas, USATF II, USTFCCCA Event Specialist

 

oaching teenage or high school aged sprinters comes with a unique set of challenges.

On the one hand, they’re young, raw and have no idea what they’re doing.

So focusing your limited time and energy on a few specific areas will reap major rewards.

But here’s your first major hurdle:

Most of the information you’ve found online (or off) has been written by college coaches who hand pick their small group of highly talented athletes.

These coaches also have a track to train on…rain, snow or shine.

They have fully stocked weight rooms with fancy equipment.

And they can schedule multiple practices throughout the day.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t live in that world. I don’t have those resources. So there is little point in trying to copy those coaches, or those programs, with my high school sprinters.

My name is Latif Thomas and I understand the challenges you face coaching in the high school setting.

So here is the point of this article:

I’ve discovered three simple reasons your young sprinters don’t run faster times and do it more consistently. I’m going to share them with you and tell you how to make those problems go away.

So by the time you finish reading this page, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to help your sprinters set new personal bests this season. Across the board.

You might be wondering why I am doing this.

I was a fairly talented sprinter when I was in high school. Good enough to earn an athletic scholarship to the University of Connecticut.

But, during my senior year of high school, I tore my hamstring.

Not only did it ruin my senior year, it affected me all four years of college.

When I became a coach after college, I vowed to make sure none of my athletes suffered the same injuries, underwhelming results and frustrations that I felt. That many of my teammates felt. That many of your athletes feel right now.

But all is not lost.

Regardless of your situation or experience, you can develop Champion Sprinters.

Because I have over 100 athletes in my group, if I want to get anything done at practice I have to keep it simple. Because these are inexperienced high school kids.

I don’t have the luxury of trying to take a 10.04 100m runner down to 9.95.

Instead, my young sprinters need simplicity and consistency.

I focus on a handful of principles that give me the most bang for my buck, in the limited time and space that I have, and then fine tune for my top athletes once the fundamentals are in place.

So let’s get right to it:

The first reason your sprinters don’t run faster:

 

They flat out lack the basic physical strength to do what is physically required to express high levels of speed on a consistent basis.

If you want to make them faster, just get them stronger.

So you have two realistic options.

OPTION #1…

Put some (or all) of your athletes in the weight room.

You may be intimidated by the idea. But you can not continue to undervalue the fundamental significance strength training has on faster sprint performances.

Teach an Olympic Lift. A static lift (like a squat). And a supplemental exercise or two (like bench press and step ups).

But, most importantly:

Make sure you teach them how to do the exercises correctly. Otherwise the weight room has no value.

OPTION #2…

Strength train using primarily bodyweight exercises and circuits.

Young kids can get surprisingly strong using only bodyweight exercises.

That’s the strength training format I use for the majority of my team. And circuits, depending on how you structure them, are my secret weapon when it comes to developing strength, conditioning, work capacity, mobility, coordination, as well as for stimulating recovery.

All crucial abilities for any sprinter.

Just remember, when using circuits…

Always base your circuits on time, not on reps.

25 prisoner squats may be a perfect number for your 18 year old senior girls.

But…

25 prisoner squats will cripple your 14 year old freshman girls!

Instead, if you do 30 seconds of prisoner squats, each athlete can do an appropriate number of reps. Now you’ve made the workout more specific for each athlete and you’ve had to spend exactly zero extra minutes preparing the workout.

Because of my large groups and lack of space, I give my athletes a steady dose of bodyweight circuits.

I recommend you work them into your program immediately.

Now, the second reason your sprinters don’t run faster…

 

 

They simply can’t coordinate and smoothly link together the movement patterns that make up ‘acceleration’ and ‘maximum velocity’ mechanics.

For example…

Ask them to skip forward in a straight line while circling their arms in opposite directions.

They can’t do it!

So even if you know the world’s greatest cues and progressions for developing speed, they don’t yet have the physical ability to pull off even something simple like taking one step…

Now you’re starting to understand why they struggle with, for example ‘staying low’ when coming out of blocks.

Coaching Tip: Never cue your athletes to ‘stay low’ when coming out of blocks!

If you want them to run faster, everything they do from warm up to warm down must be taught and performed with proper technique that you teach and correct all practice, every practice.

Focusing on getting better at every drill and exercise they perform will improve their ability to execute speed specific skills on the track.

We don’t just ‘run fast’ at practice and expect to develop better sprinters.

We must teach the skill of sprinting and that requires constantly focusing on developing greater levels of general and specific coordination.

The skills you want to teach will dictate your choice of workouts.

The workouts, in and of themselves, don’t develop the skills. So don’t worry about whether you should run 20s or 30s or 50s in practice.

You’re focusing on the wrong questions.

Instead, what are the skills you want to teach?

That is where you will find your answers.

Now, let’s take a look at the third surprisingly simple reason your sprinters don’t run faster.

 

That might sound like a cheesy answer, but it’s true.

Before you, nobody showed them how to lift weights correctly, if at all.

So of course they’re weak and have bad form.

Before you, nobody showed them how to run correctly.

So of course it feels unnatural and they want to revert back to what feels comfortable, even though now they conceptually understand…

‘If it feels right, you’re doing it wrong’.   <- One of my favorite cues!

Before you, nobody showed them a proper dynamic warm up routine or demanded they execute the exercises properly.

So of course the warm up is a workout at the beginning of the season and kids are tripping all over themselves.

Before you, nobody showed them how to do a speed drill correctly.

…so of course they have backside mechanics and don’t pick up their knees.

Before you, nobody showed them the little things, like how to control the field at the start of a race.

…So, of course they get intimidated by the pressure at the start of races.

Before you, nobody showed them they could run really fast times in a way that was believable, but now that they can see and feel themselves improving, they’re starting to believe it.

1. Get your sprinters stronger.
2. Develop general and specific coordination.
3. Show them what you want them to do and tell them why it will make them better.

And they will all get faster.

But, if you keep doing the same things you’ve been doing, your sprinters will continue to:

• pop up out of blocks, especially in big races
• display poor recovery mechanics, spinning their wheels
• fail to run people down late in races
• get run down late in races
• struggle with groin strains, tight hamstrings and shin splints

As a high school coach, I know what you’re dealing with at practice each day.

But, if you follow the simple formula I’ve laid out, imagine the kind of times they could run…

How many injuries they could avoid…

How much more fun they could have…

How much more self confidence they could develop…

Which is why I don’t want to leave you on your own to figure out where, when and how all the pieces fit into the daily practice puzzle.

It’s why I developed a program that takes you step by step through the entire process of running your high school 55m-400m sprints program.

It’s called Complete Speed Training Volume 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters and I created it specifically to address your needs at the middle and high school levels.

This all inclusive program contains a whopping 11 DVDs and a training manual.

But don’t be overwhelmed by the size. I’d rather give you too many ideas than not enough! Or make you feel like I’m holding back, secretly hustling you into buying something else in order to get the rest of the answers.

The titles of the DVDs speak for themselves, but imagine how you could focus on any one topic for an entire season and still make universal improvements to all of your sprinters.

 

Here are just a few of the hundreds of takeaways you’ll discover in Complete Speed Training Volume 2:

If you coach teenage sprinters this is the coaching resource you’ve been looking for.

This is exciting stuff once you start to put it in place. So order your copy of Complete Speed training Volume 2 right now and let’s get cracking on your upcoming season!

Now, you might be saying to yourself,

“Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. Makes sense. I hear what you’re saying. But… You know. Who is this Latif Thomas guy? What has this guy done?”

Fair questions. I’d ask the same thing.

So let me briefly tell you a bit more about myself.

- All East Sprinter at the University of Connecticut

- 2005 MA State Coach of the Year

- USA Track and Field Level I, II (Sprints, Hurdles, Relays)

- USTFCCCA Event Specialist (Sprints, Hurdles, Relays)

- Featured speaker at major coaching conferences (Illinois State Track Coaches Clinic, the Wisconsin State Track Coaches Clinic, the New England Track Coaches Clinic, the IYCA Annual Coaching Summit)

- Coached countless league, class, state and New England Champions, including back to back MA State Championships in the both the girls 4×100 and 4×200 in ‘08 and ‘09, culminating in an MA State Record in the girls 4×100 in 2009.

- In 2011, in year 1 of a new program, athletes broke 13 school records helping both the boys and girls teams win the MA Division 3 State Championship

2008 MA State Champs – 4x100m

2009 MA State Champs 4x100m & 4x200m

2008 MA State Champs – 4x200m

You get the idea.

But maybe you don’t just want to take my word for it.

Check out this unsolicited testimonial from a fellow track coach, Lorne Singer:

 

Listen. This stuff works. It will work for you. In fact, I guarantee it.

 

I’ve given you three major takeaways that will make your sprinters faster, using clips from the CST2 DVDs.

I’ve broken down the entire program and laid out the specific benefits you’ll experience when you start to put these things in place.

I’ve proven that I’m a real coach getting real results at the high school level and that you can trust my credentials.

You’ve seen a testimonial from real customer who is making a major impact in the lives of the kids they coach.

I’ve even offered to buy Complete Speed Training back from you if you decide that it’s not for you.

And when you consider the about the amount of information you’re getting, you’ll agree it’s a pretty sweet deal.

If you want to buy any training DVD for any event, you’re going to pay somewhere between $30 – $50 for each DVD.

That’s just standard. You’ve done your research.

The DVDs in Complete Speed Training 2 aren’t 20 minute clips. They all run between 30 – 60 minutes.

So if you bought them individually, even using the lowest price, you’d pay $330.  So Complete Speed Training 2 has a Real World value of at least $330.

But I’m not going to ask you to pay that.

I want to help you become a more effective coach and I want you to help your kids.

So when you order right now, I’m going to offer you all 11 DVDs, the manual, the 12 week short sprints (55-200) program and the 12 week long sprints (200-400) program…

…not for $330.

Or even $297, which is the logical price for this much material.

You’ll get it all, risk free, for only… $197   $147

Order Now.

You want better results for your athletes. I’m providing you with all the tools to make it happen, all in one program.

Now it’s time for you to make a move. As you really think about it, Complete Speed Training 2 is the best choice for you, your athletes and your program.

So click now on the order button below, order the program and I’ll get it shipped out to you right away.

Of course, you don’t have to do anything. You can keep kicking the tires or keep telling yourself that the results you’re getting are good enough.

But, if you don’t order, how is this season going to be any better or different than last season?

When I was a kid and I’d be messing up, screwing around, or getting in trouble, my pops would grill me and say,

‘Well Latif, the world needs ditch diggers too.’

So if you’re willing to accept your present reality, no worries. The decision is up to you.

But, if you intend to close the gap on the programs beating you now, you need to take action immediately!

If you’re going to stay ahead of the programs that are on your heels, there is no time to waste.

Remember:

Your athletes are reading this.

Their parents are reading this.

Your competition is reading this.

They won’t stand pat and do nothing.

And now that you’ve read this page and watched the videos, the only thing you’ll see at practice are the weaknesses in your sprinters that only you can fix.

This is your solution.

Order Complete Speed Training Volume 2, right now, and develop Champion Sprinters this year.

To your success,

Latif Thomas
Complete Track and Field

 

 

P.S. Remember, when you order Complete Speed Training Volume 2, you can watch it and test it out for 2 months. If it isn’t everything I say it is, return it within that 60 day window, and I will give you your money back. No questions asked, no risk.

 

**Save $50 on Complete Speed Training Vol. 2 when you order by Sunday Jan. 29th**

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