I’m a high school sprint coach looking ahead to the upcoming season. I’m thinking of using Tabata thrusters as a part of our GPP for sprinters. In addition to the conditioning aspects, I think there would be real benefits in physical and mental toughness.
I’m looking for some feedback vis a vis the advisability of this idea and any recommendations regarding volumes and frequency. Many thanks in advance.
[quote]44 wrote:
I’m a high school sprint coach looking ahead to the upcoming season. I’m thinking of using Tabata thrusters as a part of our GPP for sprinters. In addition to the conditioning aspects, I think there would be real benefits in physical and mental toughness.
I’m looking for some feedback vis a vis the advisability of this idea and any recommendations regarding volumes and frequency. Many thanks in advance.[/quote]
I’m a 60/100M sprinter and I’ve tried Tabata thrusters in my training before. Personally, I see them like intensive tempo: too slow/light for strength gains, fast/heavy enough to cause muscle damage and fiber conversion.
If I were you, I’d look elsewhere for conditioning. Then again, I really don’t believe too strongly in conditioning to begin with. I think your sprinters would be fine doing some daily bodyweight circuits for like 10-15 minutes. This should be enough to help them stay lean, but should not hamper recovery.
Outside of this, build speed endurance and special endurance during actual training sessions. That should work best.
In my personal experience, it’s amazing for mental toughness but isn’t really what you’d be looking for as far as conditioning for runners.
[quote]44 wrote:
I’m a high school sprint coach looking ahead to the upcoming season. I’m thinking of using Tabata thrusters as a part of our GPP for sprinters. In addition to the conditioning aspects, I think there would be real benefits in physical and mental toughness.
I’m looking for some feedback vis a vis the advisability of this idea and any recommendations regarding volumes and frequency. Many thanks in advance.[/quote]
I have an Athletic Development program that I have developed and I use the Thrusters and variations of them for conditioning.
I also use, and you may find this interesting, a lunge thruster (lunge and shoulder press) as well as a lunge and front shoulder raise. You need to emphasize speed and form as your athletes will probably go too slow. Speed is relative to the drill but not so slow as not to max out the cardio.
Tyler
Thanks, guys — just the sort of feedback is was hoping to get.