16 of My Favorite Sprint/Hurdle/Relay Workouts
Bryan E. Hoddle-River Ridge High School
The most popular question asked in any clinic I’ve ever spoke at is, "What are your favorite workouts?" While speaking in Milwaukee and Atlanta this year, a couple coaches encouraged me to put something in writing that other coaches could access, regarding some of my favorite workouts for my sprinters and hurdlers. I’ve been fortunate to have some great mentors and coaches that I can bounce workouts off of, and athletes who are tuned in enough to give me continual feedback, both positive and negative. There are no guarantees, but a well thought out plan and great workouts really do help. See my web site and sprint plan to know where and when to plug these workouts in. www.hoddlespeak.homestead.com Click on coaching tips!
First and foremost, it doesn’t really matter what workouts you line up for the kids, if you don’t have three important factors in place. Workouts are useless if the kids haven’t bought into your plan, the parents aren’t supporting you and the athlete, and each athlete is not completely focused during practice. Above all, the athlete must do all right things to stay healthy. It’s your job to provide the guidance, it’s the athletes job to do it!! They must eat right, get quality sleep, post-stretch after workouts and take care of the job in the classroom. Kids who are focused in the classroom, have no problem focusing on the track.
In many programs, getting the athletes aerobically in shape is the major emphasis. In our program, improving their maximum velocity is the major emphasis. The kids will get in shape as the season progresses. The system must be trained to run faster. We run fast from Day 1. We lay-off a lot of the short, fast stuff leading up to the state meet, in order to rest up the central nervous system. All too often in this country, it’s been the complete opposite. Run slow, then fast at the end. I can’t promise you these workouts will help your athletes. What I will promise you is if you wait and run a lot of velocity(fast) stuff near the state meet, your athletes are in trouble at state. Their CNS will be torched and their legs will be dead. Run speed endurance workouts at the end, and supplement with block starts and relay exchanges. Both of these are always done on Monday. (blocks and relays) Remember more is not better.
Here is a list of some of my favorite workouts with brief explanations:
*fly=a 15 meter run in
1. 400 THE HARD WAY-The athletes will do 10 x 40 meter flys. Time them and add them up. This is a great workout to motivate the athlete. The intensity of the workout is awesome. They’ll produce some great 400 times, doing the 400 in segments of 10, 40 meter flys. It will trash their legs and you’ll need to reduce your training intensity and load after this workout for a couple days.
2. 1 x 43 seconds at 100% off a fly, with a 90 second rest followed by a 200 meter sprint. If your athletes don’t understand lactic acid levels and their affect on the human body, they will after this workout. This workout doesn’t seem like much, but it’s monstrous. Tony Veney at Oregon suggested the workout to me and it’s been a great workout.
3. 6 x 30 meter flys, followed by either 5 x standing long and triple jumps or multi-throws. These performances are very compatible. This workout, like 400 The Hard Way is extremely hard on the central nervous system.
4. 6 x 30 meter flys off of high jump pit bounds. The athlete will bounce/bound 15 times in the middle of the high jump pit, then move off the pit and do a 30 meter fly. Repeat 6 times. Their legs will be dead after this workout.
5. 2 x 300 meter flys at 95-100% with a 20-30 minute recovery. This is a great workout for modeling a meet. Like workout #2, the kids won’t like you during or after the workout!
6. 9 x 90 meters at 90% with a 90 second recovery. The kids don’t like it, but the feedback I get from them is very positive as far as results in meets. The workout really helps the finish of the race.
7. Contrast 30's. 4 x 30 meter flys, I tow them, they tow me, they fly a 30. We repeat the sequence 4 times. This is a great contrast training workout. Again, it’ll toast the CNS. We use the ultra-speed pacer to tow with. When towing the athlete, tow no more than 10% of an increase from their maximum velocity. When they tow you, tow no more than a 10% decrease of their maximum velocity.
8. 4 block 30 and 4 fly 30's. You should have a 1 second differential in the block 30's and the fly 30's. Again, it doesn’t seem like much but the workout is extremely hard on their nervous system.
9. 6 x 60 out of blocks. Time these. I use 60 meters, because I want them to complete the acceleration phase and transition into the next phase of their race. Your 60 meter block time should equal a 30 meter block + a 30 meter fly.
10. 6 x 30 meter corner to straight away transitions. The athlete will run off the corner to the straight away. The athlete will hug the corner and then move to the middle of the lane as the corner meets the straight. The athletes will feel like they been sling-shot off the corner. They’ll know when they do it correctly, because they’ll feel that sling shot feeling.
11. 6 relay attacks. Kids have a tendency to be very non-aggressive in the relay zone area. Have the athlete set up and tape the zones as if they were going to practice passing the baton. Place a cone 10 meters past the end of the passing zone. When the incoming runner comes in and hits the take-off mark, it’s a race to the cone, between the outgoing and incoming runner. No baton is used. You want to see your incoming and outgoing runner be aggressive, just stand back and watch. This drill has had a huge impact on our relay passing.
12. 60 second pool workout. (Pool workout from a non-heavenly place) You want to inspire kids to love running, put them through a few of 60 second pool workouts. The athlete swims in a 25 meter pool to one end. If they make it in 25 seconds, they get 35 seconds to rest. If they make it in 20 seconds, they get 40 to rest. Their total swim and rest time is 60 seconds. On completion of doing 30 minutes total, we exit the pool and work on dynamic mobility work. They will really increase their dynamic mobility big time after a pool workout. You’ll see immediate hip flexor mobility improvement.
13. Vince Anderson 300 hurdle touchdowns. (Named after a good friend and sprint coach at University of Tennessee) Move your first hurdle in 3 of your feet, the second one in 6 of your feet and so on. This will give you accurate touchdown times that they’ll need for the meet. Meet adrenaline will make up for moving the hurdles in closer in practice.
14. 300 hurdle rhythm drills. Your athletes needs hurdle work, so what do you do? Set the hurdles up at 12.5m and have them 5 step them. It’s the same rhythm they have when the run the 300 hurdles in a meet. You can get in more hurdle reps and accomplish the goal of teaching rhythm to your 300 hurdlers.
15. 6-15 hurdles set up somewhere between 6.0 to 8.2 x 4 to 6 times. The hurdles are moved in and lowered one rung. I’ve seen too many coaches set up the hurdles at normal hurdle distance and height and develop a season long habit of bad hurdle technique. We begin at 6.0 meters in practice and move out toward 8.2 meters in May. The hurdles in practice are always down one rung.
16. Water polo. This creates a fun, yet competitive way for the kids to workout hard in the pool. It’s a great spring break activity.
Variety is very important. Kids will want to know why they are doing the workouts. Like I always say, "They don’t want to know what, they want to know why!"
Any workout under 60 meters at maximum velocity, will be followed with another maximum velocity no sooner than 48 to 72 hours. I’d rest on the side of 72 hours with high school kids. Doing your relay work the day before the meet will deaden the legs of your athletes on meet days. Move your relay, block and fly 30 work to Mondays. By Thursday, the legs will be recovered.
Best wishes for a great season and all the best to your athletes!