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Sprinting Resources
Are there any good resources available for programming/general info on sprinting? I've been getting a bit too fat and would like to be better at football. Sprinting seems to be the answer to both those problems. Any pointing in the right direction would be appreciated.
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Hi The_Goat,
I thought I might chime in being a sprint coach and all.
Like any athletic endeavour, the way you go about sprint training will depend on your ultimate goal. Your adaptation/progression knowledge will apply to sprint training.
Assuming that you are doing it for fat loss and to increase speed for football, then you are most likely looking at a more interval based training protocol with incomplete recoveries. The other thing to remember is that sprinting is enormously taxing on the body and I can tell you from personal experience that it will definitely interfere with your strength training progress. It needs to be programmed in almost as a heavy squat day as the intensity is such that recovery will be an issue. This can be alleviated to some degree if you were to use a Prowler which will give you a similar conditioning outcome but without the trauma to your body.
Be careful of much of the internet expert sprint programming – clearly written by people who have never sprinted. I regularly see sessions such as “sprint flat out for 200m, rest for 30 seconds and repeat 10 times”. Anyone who has ever sprinted flat out for 200m knows that this session is not physical possible even for an elite sprinter let alone a beginner.
Without knowing your age, level of conditioning and previous sprinting experience I would recommend that you start off with short intervals (say 20m), run it at 85-90%, recover to the point that you can run another interval at 85-90% and repeat for 2 sets of 6 repetitions.
Over time, you would progress by increasing the distance, increasing the speed towards 100% effort and reducing your recovery time. Timing each repetition and recovery time will be of great benefit to help you program your progression. Pure speed is built by 100% efforts with complete recoveries but you need to get “sprint hardened” before this becomes effective.
Hope this helps, happy to provide more info if required.
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Some reliable internet references would be good. I've being reading a bit about this, and a bunch of the info is obviously written by "enthusiasts" who are not experts, for want of a better term. The SS web site has spoilt me for reliable accurate info, so looking for a similar type of thing. IE: do this, and expect this.Originally Posted by downunder4
Running forums are not held to the same standard as this tome of information.
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This is the problem - finding reliable internet references. Good authors include Dan Pfaff, Charlie Francis, Loren Seagraves, Yuri Verkhoshanksky, James Smith, Tudor Bompa, Derek Hansen etc - they train or have trained elite sprinters and as such are very theoretical, the application of which to a recreational sprinter is not always helpful. I run at an international level in Masters Sprints and have built my own training programs based on theory and what I find works best for me given my own circumstances at any given stage of a season. When I coach sprints, I keep it very simple as those who I coach are usually youth who have discovered some raw talent and just need some guidance.
Sprint training is not different to strength training. You follow a fairly simple progression (as I outlined in previous post) and work on getting faster for further with less recovery until you have deemed yourself at your goal, whatever that might be. If just training for body re-composition and sports speed such as asked for by THE_GOAT originally, simple progressive sprint training sessions will serve you very well. Of course at the same time you are getting stronger through strength training so your sprint technique become more efficient, the risk of injury decreases and you can apply more force into the ground and thus get faster without trying any harder. I have got quicker by training less on the track and devoting more time to getting stronger in the squat. I was fast but weak.
To be honest, if I was contemplating sprinting for body recomp and/or basic sports speed improvement, and I already knew how to run reasonably fast, I would concentrate on barbell training and using a Prowler - assuming that you are also practicing the sport. If you want to be a competitive sprinter, you need to sprint but it does beat you up and interferes with strength adaptation due to recovery issues. I guess it boils down to your priorities.
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