Sprinting With Sticks

Todays episode is an update on training for the sprints squad coached by Stew during the lockdown 2.0 in the UK and discussions around competition opportunities that may occur. We take a look at why Hills have been re-introduced into the training programme after Stew had previously mentioned they weren't going to be used until transitioning to outdoor competitions after the phase state of periodisation up to indoor. And what exactly are the group doing on the hills? Once again we apologise for the use of profanity used during this episode, it is not something we are proud of and we promise to do better!

Good title, you think? Hard to really think of a better one... But it does what it says on the tin!! In todays episode we discuss the use of Sticks when sprinting, not to be confused with acceleration sticks/wickets, we are talking about the use of them across the shoulders in order to restrict elements and to engage certain muscles and actions and also a screening tool for movement.

In this edition Stew and Aid simply rant! As we enter a second Covid lockdown the uk government have allowed "Elite" sport to continue, unfortunately the definition of what is elite across different sports is so massively disproportionate there is an element of money talks. And of course we comment on the recent announcement that sprinter Christian Coleman has been handed a 2 years suspension for whereabouts failures, and our expectations of this result. We apologise that during this episode an accident explicit word is used.

In todays episode we go into the role of Hip Internal Rotation and running/sprinting and some compensatory cues you can spot and how you can work to rectify. We momentarily discuss a recent paper highlighting the development of glutes and sprint speed. And of course we discuss the breaking news that Nasser the Womens 400m world champion will not serve any suspension following 4 whereabouts failures. In our experience, runners and coaches often have a decent appreciation for the important role that hip mobility plays in the sagittal plane (hip extension in particular).  However, all too frequently the runner’s ability to internally rotate the hip (transverse plane) during late stance phase of running gait is unfortunately overlooked. Without adequate hip internal rotation, we see a limit in the runner’s ability to extend the hip, but more importantly we also see a series of “bail-out” compensations, which can contribute to some of the common running imbalances, dysfunctions and injuries we see. Now, back to the possibilities when the pelvis cannot rotate on the femoral head (ie. internal hip rotation). A few things can happen as the limitation is reached: the left foot (swing limb) can drop to the ground prematurely rendering a short step length the pelvis rotation on the hip will hit capsular close packing and compression and come to a halt but the forward momentum of the body-pelvis swing will cause an external rotation pivot of the foot and this extra spin from the foot will achieve the last needed pelvic motion (we call this “cigarette foot”, like putting out a cigarette under the ball of your shoe). Interesting note for those of you who run on crushed gravel or other forgiving surfaces, pay attention to this subtle spin on these surfaces, this could be the spin that you feel at toe off. This is sort of like the Abductory twist of the foot phenomenon, however that is a typically reserved term more for an excessively pronated foot. the individual will simply limit their stride length to avoid the above problem range however they will also be limiting hip extension, weakening the gluteus maximus.  Premature heel rise will go with this issue (seen beautifully in this video above). Since internal rotation is a precursory range before hip extension, if you limit internal rotation you will limit hip extension. When hip extension is limited quite often you will ask for more saggital extension from the joint complex above or below the hip, so looking above the hip we can see increased lumbar extension or below we can see knee hyperextension, both compensation can make up for the loss of hip extension. As the internal limitation is met, pelvic obliquity can be adopted to normalise linear saggital gait progression. Eventually the core will become asymmetrical and create a pelvic obliquity distortion pattern which can be seen on static standing, typically a clockwise pattern (if we are talking about the right hip limitation) to enable more of the internal rotation at the hip (re-read #1 to understand this).

Todays episode, we take a little deeper look into GPP considerations for athletes with this time a bit more emphasis on the gym, but of course unless your sport is gym based its should always take into consideration the sport itself. We take a look around the process of understanding where the athlete is coming from and where are the going as the whole concept fo what GPP should be based around.

In this episode Stewart takes a look at the GPP, a traditional time for coaches and athletes to layer fitness into their athletes, but is this really being done correctly and what the athletes need? A GPP should really be part of a long term plan that is improving the athlete year on year and not some generic period to simply do long reps after long reps, as a coach you should be considering the elements and qualities your athlete already has and what is missing/lacking and really what do you want to get out of your athlete in the time to come in their build up to the following season. This isn't saying fitness from long reps isn't required or cant work but to be more aware of really what you want from your athletes and where they already may be.

In our last episode Stew and Aid made some bets on the speed power events at the british athletics championships, so who won on the track and off?

Stew and Aiden go face to face in their gambling predictions for this weekends British athletics championships being held in Manchester. A bet of £1 on each of the speed power events... who will win the money? only one way to find out!

Todays episode we discuss the role of track side therapy in keeping athletes moving during sessions and even those playing games. What quick interventions can a therapist or coach do help the athletes.  And also how to recognise how sever the issue is and of they should stop or continue. Aiden takes us through his protocol that anyone can use.

Today we take a quick shallow look at how to develop speed. Speed development is simple right? getting faster is as simple as just sprinting often and at maximum intensity. Well, actually there are 3 main elements to getting faster: Neurological Physiological Sensorimotor These can be broken down fairly simply if you consider training elements as way to identify each area. So the Neurological part is developed through absolute maximum efforts, this is similar to the Feed the Cats philosophy through maximum intent flies over 10 to 30m as an example or even max weights in the gym with minimal repetition for maximum motor unit recruitment (through nerve impulse). Physiological, seen as traditional running sessions or work in the realm of Special,specific and tempo running. similar to what we discussed with Coach Banta about the Critical mass method. and of course remaining elements trained in the gym. About building up the athletes "capacity" Sensorimotor development covers the elements that you would classify as improving our proprioception, pretension and co-contraction abilities. technical work such as drills and exercises that challenge your stability and movement patterns.