Monday, April 11, 2005
He Aint Heavy, He's My Brother
So it goes that if you train to win you will have a chance, but if you sit on your ass and/or train incorrectly you will be doomed to failure, ha ha ha! How many times have you seen super athletes seemingly working like a dog to improve only to see them fail by a hair. Winners at the top levels usually win by an inch or foot, and what makes that possible is usually the first step quickness superiority of the winner.
What is up with that? Very simple, so sayeth the speed merchant. If you train to be in shape rather than to develop first step explosion or top end speed then you won't have those necessary elements to successfully compete at the very top levels and thusly win by an inch.
Of course, if you train to run a marathon and that is your goal, then it is ok to train to be in shape. It isn't that you will be a world class marathoner, since that is only possible if you train like a mad man and you are from an economically deprived nation. Kind of like a light weight prize fighter; I have observed that you always bet on the fighter or marathoner from the most economically decimated country. Those people have the most motivation to win so it improves your odds!
Train To Beat The Band
Now that I have lain the ground work for why some people are speedier and that some people are anamolous in that they beat the odds, now I will discuss the way to improve your speed to your potential. No kidding, you actually have a chance to get faster, develop quicker first step explosiveness and generate more top end speed if you will just listen to the next few missives from the speed merchant. These insights are based on 45 years of personal experience and countless hours of other folks' input.
Recognize first, that we all have an innate and predetermined top end speed and first step explosion rate. Now, how do we get the most out of these two genetically determined characteristics? Simple, yet not so simple unless you know what the merchant knows!
Your workouts must be specifically designed to create a more explosive first step and to improve and maximize your high gears. To put this in terms of distance, explosion would correlate with the first 50 yards of a race while the top end would be reached after the first 50 yards and heretofore by the 80th to 120th yard of a race. Before the 50 yard mark you are normally accelerating and exploding in the run. While in the attainment of top end speed you are usually maxed out by the 120th yard as to your top speed. For example, Houston Mctear, one of the fastest people I ever saw run 60 yards, appeared to be accelerating through out the 60, where he usually petered out and was caught by the other sprinters by the 100 yard mark.
On the other hand, Michael Johnson seemed to gather momentum until he reached a peak speed around the 120 to 160 yard mark, where he would maintain that speed for as long as 400 meters!
Mctear's Explosion
His innate ability came through at a very young age. He was recognized for his explosiveness while still in high school. If you watched him run you would notice his deep lean, short, almost choppy steps and his wanton desire to bust out of the pack in nearly every race he ran indoors.
DeepLean- The first fifteen steps of a sprint are characterized as a fight against gravity. The runner must use gravity to propel himself forward while maintaining balance enough to get into the next phase of the run. I am sure track afficianadoes can break a sprint into various other segments, however for the merchant's purposes of explaining how to get faster, just hold your horses you afficiandoes.
As the Ubersprinter comes out of the blocks or off the line or off a base or charges to ball or scrambles to get an advantage he always comes out low and keeps his center of gravity down near the earth. If he stands too quickly he loses a step. Its like trying to race a car while starting in 2nd or 3rd gear. You will lose the race if you start at the low speed unless the race is over several hundred miles like Indy. But in my view of the running world, life is a drag, race that is. Vroom, Vroom!
Choppy Steps- Pick em up, put em down as fast as you can at the beginning of the race. In this phase of a run you are using only fast twitch muscle to propel your body forward or sidewards or upwards or whatever. Important point! To carry any other type of muscle at this point of a run is plain stupid! It is excess baggage and simply defies logic to carry it along and expect to run faster.
It really kills me to see people who are trying to improve their speed by working on speed training then going out for a 5 mile run. The choppy steps work best when you are using every scintilla of your energy to pick em up and put em down as fast as you can. The extra weight of slow twitch muscle fibre only adds ballast to the ass. I will talk more about the effects of improper training for speed later.
Wanton Abandon-Eyes watering, air exploding from lungs, and arms pumping like a mofo; That is wanton abandon! There is no appearance of control only a desire to be out of the blocks first. To be a world class sprinter you have to let the animal inside OUT! Modern sprint coaches have refined almost every element of the sprint including the arm movement, leg movements, and body and head leans. While all those elements are critical to being a successful sprinter, the baseline elements necessary for a successful runner/athlete are what you would have seen had you seen Houston run.
Next will be, what makes Michael run and how to train for the development of fast twitch muscle fibre, since thats all you need anyway. Later!
What is up with that? Very simple, so sayeth the speed merchant. If you train to be in shape rather than to develop first step explosion or top end speed then you won't have those necessary elements to successfully compete at the very top levels and thusly win by an inch.
Of course, if you train to run a marathon and that is your goal, then it is ok to train to be in shape. It isn't that you will be a world class marathoner, since that is only possible if you train like a mad man and you are from an economically deprived nation. Kind of like a light weight prize fighter; I have observed that you always bet on the fighter or marathoner from the most economically decimated country. Those people have the most motivation to win so it improves your odds!
Train To Beat The Band
Now that I have lain the ground work for why some people are speedier and that some people are anamolous in that they beat the odds, now I will discuss the way to improve your speed to your potential. No kidding, you actually have a chance to get faster, develop quicker first step explosiveness and generate more top end speed if you will just listen to the next few missives from the speed merchant. These insights are based on 45 years of personal experience and countless hours of other folks' input.
Recognize first, that we all have an innate and predetermined top end speed and first step explosion rate. Now, how do we get the most out of these two genetically determined characteristics? Simple, yet not so simple unless you know what the merchant knows!
Your workouts must be specifically designed to create a more explosive first step and to improve and maximize your high gears. To put this in terms of distance, explosion would correlate with the first 50 yards of a race while the top end would be reached after the first 50 yards and heretofore by the 80th to 120th yard of a race. Before the 50 yard mark you are normally accelerating and exploding in the run. While in the attainment of top end speed you are usually maxed out by the 120th yard as to your top speed. For example, Houston Mctear, one of the fastest people I ever saw run 60 yards, appeared to be accelerating through out the 60, where he usually petered out and was caught by the other sprinters by the 100 yard mark.
On the other hand, Michael Johnson seemed to gather momentum until he reached a peak speed around the 120 to 160 yard mark, where he would maintain that speed for as long as 400 meters!
Mctear's Explosion
His innate ability came through at a very young age. He was recognized for his explosiveness while still in high school. If you watched him run you would notice his deep lean, short, almost choppy steps and his wanton desire to bust out of the pack in nearly every race he ran indoors.
DeepLean- The first fifteen steps of a sprint are characterized as a fight against gravity. The runner must use gravity to propel himself forward while maintaining balance enough to get into the next phase of the run. I am sure track afficianadoes can break a sprint into various other segments, however for the merchant's purposes of explaining how to get faster, just hold your horses you afficiandoes.
As the Ubersprinter comes out of the blocks or off the line or off a base or charges to ball or scrambles to get an advantage he always comes out low and keeps his center of gravity down near the earth. If he stands too quickly he loses a step. Its like trying to race a car while starting in 2nd or 3rd gear. You will lose the race if you start at the low speed unless the race is over several hundred miles like Indy. But in my view of the running world, life is a drag, race that is. Vroom, Vroom!
Choppy Steps- Pick em up, put em down as fast as you can at the beginning of the race. In this phase of a run you are using only fast twitch muscle to propel your body forward or sidewards or upwards or whatever. Important point! To carry any other type of muscle at this point of a run is plain stupid! It is excess baggage and simply defies logic to carry it along and expect to run faster.
It really kills me to see people who are trying to improve their speed by working on speed training then going out for a 5 mile run. The choppy steps work best when you are using every scintilla of your energy to pick em up and put em down as fast as you can. The extra weight of slow twitch muscle fibre only adds ballast to the ass. I will talk more about the effects of improper training for speed later.
Wanton Abandon-Eyes watering, air exploding from lungs, and arms pumping like a mofo; That is wanton abandon! There is no appearance of control only a desire to be out of the blocks first. To be a world class sprinter you have to let the animal inside OUT! Modern sprint coaches have refined almost every element of the sprint including the arm movement, leg movements, and body and head leans. While all those elements are critical to being a successful sprinter, the baseline elements necessary for a successful runner/athlete are what you would have seen had you seen Houston run.
Next will be, what makes Michael run and how to train for the development of fast twitch muscle fibre, since thats all you need anyway. Later!
# posted by Art @ 10:05 PM 
