Complete Speed Training Volume 2:

DVD #1: Warm Up and Mobility

Your warm up isn’t complicated, but it sets the tone for your practice. Here’s where, when and how to structure and progress your warm up depending on the specific demands of that day’s practice.

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.