Vert/Speed Training Thread

wangster · July 2, 2007, 11:30pm

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
wangster wrote:
…

Alright… not sure where to start but you really need to get the basics down first. You are trying to do like 8000 things at once and you are going to wind up going nowhere.[/quote]

…what makes you think I’m doing 8000 things at once. to make the long story short, before 8/1/07, I’ll be doing speed training and was asking for the opinions on the things I’m gonna do monday,tues,thurs. THEN AFTER…I’ll stop doing speed training, and I’ll lift weights…and I’ve specified which ones I am gonna do and in which order. I was asking for peoples opinions on what they should do differently if they were me.

thank you.

[quote]
That will give you the basics to start from. Of course, you will probably ignore this advice in favor of some gimmicks, but I feel like I should still offer it.[/quote]

of what gimmicks?
is sprinting at maximum speed a gimmick?
are all the articles i’ve picked out from T-Nation a gimmick?

I’ve been told air alert 3 does make you improve your vertical jump. I will try the product that increases high twitch muscle fibers using resistance bands to see if it works or not.

wangster · July 2, 2007, 11:40pm

[quote]xb100 wrote:
Wangster I’m going to assume you’ll be running sprints for your school?

Main thing you should focus on is your form. Athletes can easily become faster if they work on their technique.

I would consider doing westside for skinny bastards II. You can find it on Joe DeFranco’s website, it has more running, speed, and technique work in it as opposed to the first installment.

If you can get a drag sled, do so, use it on your off days or as a form of GPP.

Best of luck.[/quote]

yes I will be doing sprints for my school. I will actually be doing the 110m high hurdles but I feel that I can benefit greatly from strength training. i lack strength. were you saying to replace all those strength workouts with WS4SB II? or did you mean just replace the original WS4SB with the 2nd version? I’m guessing the latter but I’m just making sure.

xb_C · July 3, 2007, 12:05am

[quote]wangster wrote:
xb100 wrote:
Wangster I’m going to assume you’ll be running sprints for your school?

Main thing you should focus on is your form. Athletes can easily become faster if they work on their technique.

I would consider doing westside for skinny bastards II. You can find it on Joe DeFranco’s website, it has more running, speed, and technique work in it as opposed to the first installment.

If you can get a drag sled, do so, use it on your off days or as a form of GPP.

Best of luck.

yes I will be doing sprints for my school. I will actually be doing the 110m high hurdles but I feel that I can benefit greatly from strength training. i lack strength. were you saying to replace all those strength workouts with WS4SB II? or did you mean just replace the original WS4SB with the 2nd version? I’m guessing the latter but I’m just making sure. [/quote]

I would do the original WS4SB right now, during your off season. You can work on your technique and getting the hurdle form down as well.

One thing I would change is the lower body exercises. Switch em up every 2 -3 weeks. Squats, cleans, deadlifts, GM’s, ect.

Once your season starts I would do the 2nd installment. This way you will already have a decent base of strength to start at, and not only will you be lifting weights, you will also be working on sprinting and all that stuff to get you ready for competeing

Just lifting weights and not practicing speed skills and coordination makes no sense to me while you’re in season.

In my experience you should be able to carry-over the strength gains into your technique work.

It would be a good investment to get a hurdle coach to help critique your form also.

jtrinsey · July 3, 2007, 1:50am

[quote]wangster wrote:
of what gimmicks?
is sprinting at maximum speed a gimmick?
are all the articles i’ve picked out from T-Nation a gimmick?

I’ve been told air alert 3 does make you improve your vertical jump. I will try the product that increases high twitch muscle fibers using resistance bands to see if it works or not.
[/quote]

To some extent, yes they are. That is why they are programs posted to give you an idea and not exactly what those coaches are doing with their athletes. Air alert is a joke and so is that isometric bend stuff but knock yourself out.

What I mean is that by cycling through all of these different things, you are never really going to learn what works.

If you want to become a better sprinter, sit down with somebody knowledgeable and create a good sprint program from GPP to SPP to the competition phase. Then tweak it as you go. Don’t just randomly cycle through stuff hoping it works out.

There is definitely merit to figuring stuff out on your own, but a high school athlete with a limited window does not always have that luxury.

wangster · July 3, 2007, 1:59am

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
To some extent, yes they are. That is why they are programs posted to give you an idea and not exactly what those coaches are doing with their athletes. Air alert is a joke and so is that isometric bend stuff but knock yourself out.

What I mean is that by cycling through all of these different things, you are never really going to learn what works.

If you want to become a better sprinter, sit down with somebody knowledgeable and create a good sprint program from GPP to SPP to the competition phase. Then tweak it as you go. Don’t just randomly cycle through stuff hoping it works out.

There is definitely merit to figuring stuff out on your own, but a high school athlete with a limited window does not always have that luxury.[/quote]

yeah true, makes a lot of sense. thanks.

zylog · July 3, 2007, 3:46am

What you need is to figure out what your goals are, and then figure out how the different exercises you do contribute to you attaining your goals.

The exercises you do can:
A. improve your performance directly
B. improve your potential for performance
C. improve your potential for potential for performance
D. etc…

Typically, A would be technique/tactics, B explosive/reactiveness, C strength, D work capacity, E health

The problem with choosing and matching various programs is that they might not fit together right for your needs. For example, a lot of them are strength programs which have built in variety - switching from one to the other won’t really make that much of a difference.

Generally, with the lower letters (C, D, E) training tends to be a bit more general in terms of the movements, and more of that work is done during the offseason. The higher letters (A,B) tend to be more specific movements, and more of that work is done in the preseason and competition season.

Of course, there are many different setups to accomplishing all this, but the point is to make sure you’re aware of these things so you don’t leave any major holes out of whateve program you end up with.

Peter1984 · July 5, 2007, 4:53am

I like this thread. I hope you guys surpass your goals. My goals are to run really fucking fast. I’m pretty heavy though. I weigh about 235 wich is pretty heavy for sprinting. I get shin splints off and on which sucks but I take care of them with toe raises.

I’ve done a lot of different things to try and become faster. I filled a school bag with weights duck taped it up and jumped with it until I could only leave the ground about 3 inches. Did ten sets. Worked out once a day for 8 days stright. Than took a day off than worked out every other day for another week than stopped.

I never tested my speed but I felt fast for what it’s worth. My legs felt like fucking springs. I only weighed 205 at the time. I was 17 when I did that.I’m 22 now. Stopped lifting and moved up north after that and Justed rode my bike and did pull-ups and things because I lost interest in it and was on my own so no time except work and riding the bike to work and wherever I needed to go.

I moved back to florida and was able to lift again and got bit by the exercise bug. Just squatted for 5 sets with a 5 rep weight and did the same for power clean and pressing. I only really sprinted once in a blue moon after my workout. I ran pretty fast.

Than I just squatted but could never stick to it. always changed it up. Not very affective for me if I do it to often. Than I went back to power clean and pressing. I decided to do it different than before. Just did twenty to thirty singles for each workout every other day. I did 225 for 20-30 singles.

After a couple workouts I’d add 10 lbs. I’d stick with that for a week than I’d add another 10. I made it to 255 for 25 singles for a couple workouts but my left shoulder takes to much of a beating on that workout. I never timed my run after that but it felt really fucking fast for 40m than it would drop like a bitch.

After that Went back into squatting
and did half a smolov routine and quit working out because I met a girl.

After that didn’t work I went back to exercising. I thought to just sprint until I became pretty overtrained but shin fucking splints came before I got where I needed to be.
Than I decided to squat with heavy weight for low reps and many sets twice a day for two weeks and one day off in between weeks one and two.

I squat rock bottom with long pauses. I felt pretty overtrained after the two weeks. I didn’t get any weeker though. My strength actually went up. But My hip flexors got way to fucking sore. There still sore and it’s the 7th day of complete rest which sucks.

I cant run because I cant raise my legs high or fast. I’ll give it some time but I think this won’t have a great effect on my sprinting.
I was also thinkin when I get back to squatting that I should squat with a 10-12inch foot spacing. When people run they start wide but after that there feet aren’t far apart just a thought.

Just wanted to share what I havedone if something really works out well I’ll post it.
Peter

xb_C · July 5, 2007, 6:36am

[quote]Peter1984 wrote:
I like this thread. I hope you guys surpass your goals. My goals are to run really fucking fast. I’m pretty heavy though. I weigh about 235 wich is pretty heavy for sprinting. I get shin splints off and on which sucks but I take care of them with toe raises.