How to Build Champion Sprinters
“If you want all your 55m-400m runners to set new personal bests
this season, then keep reading…”
From: Coach Latif Thomas
Back in the day, if you wanted to be a champion sprinter, you had to be born with blazing speed. If you weren’t a Natural, you were probably out of luck.
But that was then. And this is now…
Here in the 21st century, the most effective sprints coaches know the Truth:
Speed can be taught. And speed can be learned.
This means your athletes could be much faster than they are right now. And they will be, once you start applying the information I’m going to share with you. But, you must commit to maximizing the untapped ability lying dormant in each of your sprinters. Otherwise, it’s not going to work. Because there’s a big difference between running fast and sprinting. In fact, your understanding of this simple distinction is the first step in the evolution of your program.
You see, running fast is a mindless activity done by poorly coached sprinters running the same way they’ve always run – as hard as they can for as long as they’re told. With no specific regard to technique or efficiency…and that doesn’t win races anymore.
On the other hand, Sprinting is what Champions do.
Whether or not our athletes set regular personal bests depends on our ability to teach them how to sprint efficiently, explosively and with consistency. Because effective training takes more than just running speed workouts. Or doing interval work. Or even throwing in some speed drills every once in a while.
In 2010, successful coaches follow a system for developing sprinters who are faster, stronger, more coordinated and more highly skilled than their competition.
While you may be skeptical about how much room for improvement there actually is, the bottom line is that you can (and must!) teach your athletes these skills. And they will get faster. Much faster. And you’ll send me an email telling me that you wish you had known all of this years ago. (Those are my favorite!)
If you work at the developmental levels (high school and younger) like I do, your system doesn’t have to be complicated. It shouldn’t confuse you or your athletes. And it can’t be the same model used by your favorite top level collegiate and Olympic coaches. Because you can’t compare your athletes’ needs with theirs. Our seasons are shorter. Our meets are sooner. Our teams are bigger. Our facilities leave much to be desired. And, let’s face it, our kids aren’t as experienced or as fast.
We simply don’t live in the same world they do.
That’s not an excuse for maintaining the status quo. Instead, it’s a blessing. Because your job isn’t as technical or as complicated. It does, however, need an upgrade. An overhaul. Or, at the very least, a tune up.
By now, you’re probably using a dynamic warm up to start each and every practice.
But your sprinters will run faster when you start using this time to assess their strength, mobility and coordination needs…and make the necessary changes to the rest of your program.
It’s likely you have your sprinters doing speed workouts (full speed, full rest) several times per week.
But they’ll run faster when you improve your ability to teach the skill of speed using technical feedback, specific postural cues and drills proven to put your sprinters in position to run personal bests throughout the season and peak when it counts.
It is well understood that a commitment to developing strength and power (all season) must be a primary focus in any successful sprints program. But not all ‘weight training’ is created equal.
Your sprinters will run faster when using certain exercises, loads and rep schemes under the watchful eye of a coach comfortable with teaching and correcting form in the weight room.
The ‘conditioning’ workouts aiding in faster recovery and faster times consist of more than how many repeat 200s our athletes can grind through before they fall down. Or throw up. If they’re not given (and developing the ability to consistently run) specific times during every workout, they’re only reinforcing the bad habits skilled sprinters have already broken…
Until your sprinters acquire the same skills being taught in elite programs by the most knowledgeable coaches, they’ll keep watching other (sometimes less talented) athletes win the big races.
Making improvements in just one of these areas will lead to personal bests this season. Improving all of them will change the game. And I’m going to show you, step by step, topic by topic, how to update your program so you get the most out of every drill, workout and practice.
“How to Develop Champion Sprinters" Watch this video and your sprinters will set new Personal Bests The most successful coaches train their sprinters differently than you see in most programs. In this free 90+ minute video, I’ll show you everything you need to know about beating the elite programs at their own game.
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Because a good system makes good kids great. And makes great kids into Champions. Even when they have less natural ability than their competition. In 2010, talent is overrated.
I’ve turned countless decent kids into record holders. And you can too.
Now think about this for a moment:
When most of us coaches and parents were growing up, there was no Internet. No YouTube. No Complete Speed Training.
But now, as coaches, we have competition for our sprinters’ attention. Being the adult in charge is not a mandate for their loyalty and undivided attention. Your sprinters are reading this right now. They’re watching videos and reading blogs run by successful coaches running cutting edge programs and getting serious results. And they want to be in one of those programs, too.
Because they’re going to practice each day questioning what you’re making them do. And why you’re making them do it. Your sprinters want feedback, better workouts and a race plan. They might be too afraid to ask you, but I get their emails. And their (frustrated) parents’ emails. Thousands and thousands of them over the years.
In a mental sport like track and field, our programs are sunk if our athletes don’t believe in what we’re telling them to do. And in the age of the Internet, you simply can’t pull the wool over their eyes. Fake it ‘til you make it does not apply to every situation!
Because the Truth is easy to find. And it’s not complicated.
If you’re anything like me, you don’t have time for complicated. Because there are too many athletes who compete in too many events with too great a diversity in ability and commitment to turn track practice into a physics experiment.
In the best of circumstances, practice is chaos. But a more efficient system brings order to this chaos. Which means you can get more done in less time. And that leads to PRs across the board.
In truth, if it’s too complicated, I don’t want to do it. It shouldn’t require a degree to figure out how to break some school records and win some titles. And it doesn’t. And I’m going to show you exactly what to do. But first…
My name is Latif Thomas. I’m a sprints coach and I work, primarily, with developmental sprinters. I don’t claim to be anything I’m not. I don’t work with Olympians. I couldn’t tell you what their specific needs are. (OK, I could. But that’s not the point.) Because I don’t need to know them. And you don’t either.
I work with teenagers. Kids without a ton of experience and a lot of basic problems. If you want to know how to get crazy results with this population, keep reading. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’ve got quite a few…
Of course, you probably still want to know my credentials. I understand. Here are some of them:
I hold a USA Track and Field Level II Certification (Sprints, Hurdles & Relays). In 2005, I was voted MA State Track Coaches’ Association Coach of the Year. In college, I was an All East sprinter at the University of Connecticut. In just the past 5 years of coaching, I’ve developed 71 League Champions, 154 finalists at our State Class Championships and 19 All State Champions.
However, most people know me from one of the most popular speed development programs of all time: Complete Speed Training (CST). Since 2004, CST has sold nearly 10,000 copies in all 50 US States and 106 different countries throughout the world.
Why do I bother saying this?
While I’m no Olympic coach, I have helped tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of coaches, parents and trainers develop top flight sprinters by simplifying the process into a model both experienced and inexperienced coaches can quickly and easily implement with outstanding results. And because I work with the same age groups you do, I’m in tune with the specific strengths and weaknesses of teenage athletes. And I also understand the real world limitations faced by coaches and parents trying to train them with limited time and resources.
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I love coaching track and field. And working with kids is my passion. I’m betting you feel the same way. And with Complete Speed Training Volume 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters, I’m going to show you step by step how to make it a more rewarding experience for everyone.
And once you start going through it, you’ll agree this program is how sprinting should be taught to developmental athletes.
So here’s what I’m offering:
Weighing in at 9 hours of video, 11 DVDs and a 60 page Sprint Training Manual, CST2 is the new Gold Standard in sprint development. (And not only for developmental sprinters, these principles apply from Middle School to Masters).
Instead of trying to create a patchwork system from random, stand alone DVDs covering small pieces of training with no respect to everything that takes place in your practices, CST2 covers everything you need to know about coaching sprinters, from soup to nuts.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of information I’m offering. You won’t be able to apply everything you learn in just one season. Instead, begin patching the small holes in your current program and start thinking about how to attack the big ones.
Here is the program:
DVD #1: Warm Up and Mobility
Ordered from slow to fast, simple to complex, I show you how to do all the exercises, which common mistakes athletes make, how to fix them and how to keep the warm up moving during practice so your athletes aren’t standing around waiting. Too much work? I give you sample warm ups for every occasion in the manual using the exercises from the DVD. It doesn’t get any easier |
DVD #2: General Strength and Conditioning General strength, conditioning and ‘core’ work are areas often get ignored by sprints coaches. But when used properly, they’re a secret weapon for hitting multiple needs in a short period of time. Besides, your recovery work shouldn’t only consist of interval training. General Strength work improves your athletes’ strength and work capacity, keeps them from getting bored and allows them more time to do field events or other technical work. Not sure what a bodyweight circuit is, when to do it and what it should consist of? Don’t worry, examples are in the manual! |
DVD #3: Strength Training The weight room is an area of relative weakness for most sprints coaches. But it’s as important to success as anything else you do in practice. So you have to do it. To make it easier, I give you different options for how to structure your strength training based on age, experience, time constraints and facility limitations. I also show you all the exercises you need to have in your program and how to teach and correct them, without needing an exercise science degree. Still nervous? Don’t worry, I give you a full 12 week strength training program in the manual. Just take it and use it until you’re ready to break off on your own. |
DVD #4: Plyometrics When taught and structured correctly, plyos are an invaluable tool for developing specific coordination, explosive power and getting your sprinters off the ground quicker. Not surprisingly, this leads to faster times! If taught and progressed poorly (like in most programs), they’re a disaster waiting to happen. Make sure you avoid a devastating injury by following my clearly laid out progression of medicine ball throws and jumping/bounding exercises…including how to do them, common mistakes young athletes make and how to fix them. The manual contains specific guidelines for adding plyos so you’ll always know the ideal number of sets, reps and exercises. Because with plyos, less is more. |
DVD #5: Speed Drills and Technique I love speed drills. But they’re a means to an end, not a training system. When worked into the overall system of development, they teach, correct and refine your sprinters’ running technique. If your sprinter has a technical problem, there’s a drill to fix it. I didn’t reinvent the wheel with these speed drills. But over the years I’ve come up with an efficient system for breaking them down into easy movements so your athletes don’t cripple themselves when they start tripping over their own feet. And they will! Teach the drills in this order because a poorly done speed drill only reinforces the bad habits you’re trying to break. And your sprinters are one never ending series of bad habits. Besides, I’ve been to enough meets to know that most coaches are not teaching speed drills correctly, it at all… |
DVD #6: Acceleration and Maximum Velocity Acceleration and Top Speed training are the guts of your sprints program…. Here’s how you teach force application, step over drive down, speed of efficient acceleration, floating, getting ‘lift’ and all the skills possessed by successful sprinters. I give you every technical feedback cue I’ve learned, invented, modified (and stolen) over the years so you’ll have an answer to all your sprinters’ questions. From progressing a short to long program, teaching a drive phase, fighting off deceleration and the best way to use resistance work (plus why you should never do overspeed training), this is probably the DVD that will see the most action in your DVD player…and the one your friends will steal and never return… |
DVD #7: Starting Block Fundamentals A perfect example of why ‘stand alone’ DVDs have limited value. We can talk blocks all day, but if you’re not doing all the other things in practice that aid in developing an explosive and efficient start, the information in this DVD has no value. I cover everything you need to know about setting your sprinters up in blocks from the moment they get called to the line until the moment the gun goes off. There’s more to it than you’d think, but it’s not as complicated as people seem to make it. In this DVD, I cover why every athlete needs a routine (it settles their nerves) and why you should be the second slowest person in the blocks. You’ll understand which foot to lead with, an easy way to memorize settings, whether to lean forward or back in the ‘set’ position (you’ll be surprised), why you shouldn’t focus on the gun, the magic of ‘driving the lead arm’, exit angles, head position, length of the first 2 steps and why ‘staying low’ is the worst thing you can tell your sprinters. And those are just a few of the many details I cover. |
DVD #8: Starting Blocks Analysis Building on the material I cover in DVD #7, this DVD is strictly me breaking down sprinters coming out of blocks. I took all the common (and not so common) mistakes I see kids making in their starts and broke them down in slow motion. Next, you’ll see exactly why they made the mistake/s, how their performance will be affected and, of course, I give strategies you can use to fix the problem/s. Once you see these breakdowns, you’ll immediately recognize the mistakes your sprinters are making. The ones that you couldn’t figure out how to fix. Until now. Your sprinters will PR just from the corrections you discover in this section. Gone are the days of popping straight up, stumbling out of blocks, taking a tiny first step, etc. Not surprisingly, the specific drills, cues and exercises that will fix your athletes’ starts are found throughout the rest of this program… |
DVD #9: Relays One of the most exciting parts of evolving your program is the fact that all your sprinters will see huge improvements. And that means your relay teams will quickly become a force to be reckoned with. And I’m not talking about dual meets. Anyone can coach a freak to a title, but the true sign of a great sprints program comes from having strong relay teams year after year. Winning back to back All State Championships with both my girls 4x100m and 4x200m relays (2008 & 2009, using 6 different girls) followed up by a 2nd place finish with my boys 4x200m (2010, lowered the school record by 2.51 seconds) tells me we’re doing something right! From how to measure steps, the best way to order your runners, choosing between blind and sighted handoffs, how to improve reaction time in your outgoing runner and my surefire method for minimizing the likelihood of a failed handoff, the knowledge you take from this DVD will have your relays scoring big points in big meets…this season! |
DVD #10: Training Inventory & Energy Systems The first of two Workout Planning tutorials, this DVD details the process of and benefits to creating a training inventory based on the 5 biomotor skills (speed, strength, mobility, coordination, endurance) each moment of your practice is built around. Simply following this clearly laid out process will not only save you countless hours of prep time, but make figuring out your workout progressions far simpler than you ever imagined. (Especially as you realize every drill, exercise, cue and solution is contained in this program!) You’ll also discover a detailed analysis of the body’s three energy systems, how they affect training and how to come up with the volume, speed and rest ratios for each workout and training phase. Once you begin to understand how it works, your workouts practically write themselves. Don’t believe me? Then just use the full 12 week 55-200m program and/or full 12 week 400m training program I give you in the manual. That was easy! |
DVD #11: Training Phase Progressions The next big step in simplifying program design comes from using your understanding of the three training phases (General Preparation, Special Preparation, Competition) to divide your season into 3 clearly defined sections. Combining the information in DVD #10 with these Training Phase Progressions will keep you coloring between the lines when plotting your workout progressions over the course of the season. Each phase has specific objectives I clearly and simply lay out. Just follow my lead and plug in the workouts you want to run. Sound like too much effort? Want to see some examples? Again, your manual contains full 12 week programs for both short (55m-200m) and long (400m) sprinters. Start with those and add your own personal touch when you’re ready. Or just use them as a guide when creating your own plan. You have no shortage of options! |
Manual: Comprehensive Sprinter Training Manual The CST2 manual is a solid 60 pages of pure information, workouts and sample programs. And 90% of the information is completely independent from the DVDs. There are no pictures to pad the number of pages. In the manual, I go more in depth into the science behind strength training and plot out the plyo progressions. You’ll get a detailed look at topics like stride length and stride frequency and developing a speed reserve. I give you a written checklist, of sorts, of the cues for acceleration, floating and teaching ‘step over – drive down’. The manual also contains a detailed description of how to run the 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m races. Race plans are critical to an athlete’s confidence and now they’ll never go into another race without knowing exactly what they need to do! You’ll also get sample warm up plans for tempo workouts, speed workouts and meet days, as well as a full 12 week strength training (weight room) program covering both absolute strength development and power conversion. And, because I know you really want it, you’ll get a full 12 week short sprint (55m-200m) and long sprint (400m) program with every workout, set and rep for an entire 12 week season. |
Honestly, what more could you be looking for?
How much is this program worth to you?
If you were to do a search (and I invite you to do so), you’d quickly see that a single 40-45 minute DVD will cost you between $30 - $50. That’s the industry standard.
So based on that simple math, the 9 hour, 11 DVD Complete Speed Training Volume 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters program is fairly priced between $330 on the low end of the spectrum and $550 on the high end.
And this completely ignores the value of the Training Manual that contains the sample workouts and programs that cost, in the real world, far more than $30-$50 to create.
But even at the cost of one of the DVDs, the true value of Complete Speed Training 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters falls between $360 - $580. Again, these aren’t inflated numbers, it’s just what good information costs.
But I also understand how much coaching track actually pays.
And my purpose is rooted in the desire to help people, not just make as much money as I possibly can. So, even though Complete Speed Training 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters is easily worth $360 - $580, I’m going to offer you the program for far less.
So let’s get right down to it.
To celebrate the release of this breakthrough system, when you order Complete Speed Training Volume 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters you’ll get all 11 DVDs and the 60 page Training Manual for only $479.40 247 dollars.
Do the math and you’ll quickly realize you’re investing a mere $22.45 per DVD. And that doesn’t even factor in the value of the manual. If you’re looking for a comprehensive program aimed directly at developing faster sprinters, then ordering Complete Speed Training 2 is simply a no-brainer.
And you can own all 9 hours of video for only 247 dollars. But remember, we ship on a first come, first serve basis. And with a deal this unheard of, the longer you wait to order, the longer you may have to wait to receive your program. And you don’t want to wait any longer than you have to.
If paying $247 all at once is tough to swallow right now, I am going to make it even easier for you to get your hands on Complete Speed Training Vol. 2. If you order by Friday at midnight, you can get the 3 payment option. 3 easy payments, spread 30 days apart for only $89! Click here for the installment plan
But, I can promise you this: At the stroke of midnight on Friday, the price will skyrocket back to a more traditional cost.
Complete Speed Training 2
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Here’s what you get… DVD 1: Warm up and mobility Sprinter Training Manual - sample warmups
- sample conditioning circuits
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Special Launch Offer of only
$479.40$247
OR
NEW! EASY PAYMENT OPTION |
** To order by check, money order or purchase order. Click here to print out an order form and send your payment by mail to (or fax to 508-699-2986):
Athletes’ Acceleration, Inc.
PO Box 3178
North Attleboro, MA 02760
Latif Thomas
USATF Level II (Sprints, Hurdles & Relays)
Athletes Acceleration Inc.
2005 MA State Track Coaches Association Coach of the Year
It’s possible you may decide Complete Speed Training 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters is not what you’re looking for. Maybe you’ll decide the sheer amount of information is overwhelming. Or perhaps you coach Olympians and the information isn’t technical enough. I don’t think either of these scenarios will happen, but I want you to be satisfied the same way I want my athletes and clients to be satisfied. So I’m offering you a very fair ‘return policy’. If you don’t think Complete Speed Training 2: How to Build Champion Sprinters is worth every penny you paid for it, simply return it within 60 days of your purchase and I’ll give you a full refund. No questions asked. Now you don’t have to worry about the cost issue because I’m taking on all the risk. If you don’t like it, don’t want it or can’t use it, just send it back. You’d agree that’s a fair offer, wouldn’t you? |
