There is assistance with fees from the Cornwall Sports Partnership if you are a registered coach

Coaching Assistant Plymouth 18^th/19^th June

Running & Fitness Plymouth 23^rd/24^th July

Athletic Coach Tavistock College 10^th/11^th Sept.

NEW COURSES

MCO328 Leadership in Running and Fitness. Truro prep school £90 17th September

MCO329 Coaching Assistant 1^st/2^nd Oct. Truro Prep School £130 with England Athletics subsidy

More of these are being organised by Rob Cocking in different venues for Network coaches. See the DAN website for further information.

Roger Black. 1984 Olympic 400m Silver medallist. Too many athletes only give 80% because they knowhow much 100% will hurt. Learn to run through the so called ‘pain barrier’ in training and racing – the sweet smell of success is on the other side.

Fatima Whitbread Javelin World Champion 2007. Believe in yourself without being conceited. If you don’t, who will? You meet the same people on the way up as on the way down, so treat them as you would like them to treat you. You are only as good as your next competitor.

David Smith 1986 Commonwealth Hammer Champion. ‘While accelerating naturally in the circle, shoulders in line with the hips and feet, a common problem at this stage is to allow the head and left shoulder to pull away from the beginning of each turn, causing the thrower to land heavily on the right foot throughout the throw.

David Moorcroft former 5000m world record holder. Over rotation of the hip is inefficient; slight rotation is fairly natural. The coach should emphasise the straight line action as much as possible. A good running acton has within it, a range of movement that enables to change pace at different stages in the race.’

Roger Hackney 1986 Commonwealth steeplechase silver medallist.’ When out on a normal training run, look for a mark some 15-20m ahead and put your foot on it, just as if it was the point you would jump from to clear the barrier. Try to do this with as little stride alteration as possible.’

Mark Holtom former UK record holder 110hurdles. Athletes need to spend a proportion of their training in the gym…beginners would be better advised to start with circuit training. One of the best ways for a sprint hurdler to develop the right kind of strength is hill running with the emphasis on running on the toes, high knee lift and no lowering of the hips.

This last remark, (lowering of the hips) was highlighted in a recent Coaching for Speed Day and recorded on film as the athletes accelerates. The effect is to reduce the stride length and efficiency of the leg as a lever, consequently not getting the full benefit of the anticipate speed increase. Consciously keeping your posture, lifting the knees and imagining a sky hook inv the middle of the back helps to cure this problem.

Also from the Coaching for Speed workshop came the question of stretching when one athlete commented that the warm up was ‘full on’ and did not involve any stretching. I have put together a Q & A type of brief on the subject, based upon my answer to him.

FOR. The argument for this that it prepares the muscles ready for action.

AGAINST; The general action of a muscle is to contract in order to do work, so how can stretching it possibly prepare it for action?

FOR: But plyometrics exercises done in a warm up are surely stretching the muscles:

AGAINST. Yes, this is true. The difference being that a stretch is held for a period of time whereas the stretch-shortening plyometrics action is repetitive and much faster. In a warm up situation plyometrics type exercises should be built up from low intensity to prevent any shock action whilst at the same time, being dynamic, they will increase blood flow, stretch tendons and build up elastic strength.

FOR: But if an athlete has been inactive for most of the day their muscles will be ‘tight’ and need stretching.

AGAINST: This is almost certainly a mobility issue, and if done in the warm up it will automatically stretch the tendons that will in turn bring them to normality and the dynamic warm up drills should reduce any soreness. It is also worth considering if the soreness issue is the result of an injury, in which case remedial stretching would be necessary.

FOR: What about recovery from sore muscles?

AGAINST: Firstly you should look at why the muscles are sore, and if, as is likely, it comes from a hard session the previous day, then this is why we have recovery periods, not to relax and do nothing but to do some active recovery, working the muscles at a much lower demand than normal, and if this means changing your intended session, so be it. Active recovery is the quickest cure, providing g the diagnosis was correct.

FOR: Stretching is definitely beneficial for athletes with injuries.

AGREED: But that is specific to an injury and not a general stretch routine.

FOR: But surely, if stretching is used for recovery from injuries then it must be equally good to prevent them?

AGAINST: This is unlikely, in fact the opposite may be true. The Power Lifting Association did some research taking muscle biopsies before and after stretching and found that there could (I emphasise could) be up to 70% loss of strength that would take about 45 minutes to recover from. So if you must stretch during warm up, allow long enough for the recovery to take place, otherwise you could be calling upon muscles to do work they are not prepared for, and that could lead to a genuine injury.

Q. So what is your final word on stretching?

A. If you want to do it in the warm up, then do it.

If you want my advice, do it at the end of training rather than the beginning.

Doing it to solve mobility problems is another issue specific to an individual.

Q. How long should you hold a stretch for?

A. 7-10 seconds is sufficient, since any improvement beyond that is so infinitesimal it is not worthwhile. You can stretch to the point where the beginning of pain is just discernable and hold for about 7-10 seconds, then relax before going on to the next stretch, or you can allow recovery for a similar period before stretching again, when it would be expected that the ROM would have improved slightly. Repeat this for a third and possibly fourth time before leaving it for total recovery, or you can use the more progressive PNF (Propriorceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) system where the stretch is held for 7-10 seconds but during this period the athlete contracts the muscle statically prior to going into the relax phase. Some athletes find this gives a more rapid recovery rate.

Eg In this calf stretch the athlete keeps both feet flat on the floor and bends the knees whilst at the same time keeping the body upright. When it is felt a full stretch is being achieved, the athlete applies tension within the muscle, not to cause movement but to increase blood flow. Remember to switch legs for ther next stretch.

But now, don’t you need to know the likely causes of the calf soreness to prevent it happening again?

Possible causes.

• Change of training surface was not progressive enough.
• Training on a hard surface
• Badly warn shoes
• Poor foot plant, possibly with a heavy heel strike
• Dehydration

• Returning to full training after a break.
• Running hard without sufficient warm up demanding too much of a cold muscle.
• Playing some other sport

I shall try to do more on stretching for injury recovery/prevention over the next few months

Other topics from the Speed Training Day

Speed is the base of ALL athletic events, not just sprinters, so something could be taken away for anyone.

To encourage more members to the club, why not have an "invite a friend" day.

Due to the high level of coaching skills in the county, the flying coach service provided by England Athletics is of very little benefit, so we should try to pursue bringing in a higher level of coach, with CAC in advanced negotiations to bring in a three man team of top class coaches including John Anderson (coach to Dave Morecroft and Liz Mcolgan), Tom McNab (coach to many sprinters and multi event internationals( and Allan Lounder the pole vault coach who put so many of the county athletes into the Power of 10 rankings.

This will be the greatest gathering of three of the world’s best coaches and is provisionally scheduled for the weekend 11^th/12^th August

You would pay £100 for this kind of workshop upcountry, so make a note of the date and try to be there. Yes, even the distance runners could benefit

Tony Lett