Preparing for next season

At this time of year, many athletes and coaches already have the 2016 track and field season in mind. In fact, those involved with US high school and collegiate systems likely passed this point a couple of months ago. I thought it may be helpful to offer my insight into what I believe are the important considerations when planning how to prepare an athlete for their upcoming season.


1. Individualisation

What may work for one athlete may not work for another. In a conversation with Great Britain sprints coach, Dan Cossins, he discussed the theory that two thirds of a programme should focus on the athlete's strengths, with the remaining one third focussing on their weaknesses. By the same token, Charlie Francis suggested that generally, taller, lankier sprinters may do better on a long to short periodisation, whilst shorter, stockier sprinters may do better on a short to long periodisation. Perhaps this is a big generalisation, but the take away point is to figure out what benefits a particular athlete, and be aware that it may be different across the athletes you coach.

Carl Lewis on the left, Andre Cason in the centre and Linford Christie, on the right, all had very different body types, which could serve as a clue that they may respond differently to differing quantities of training elements within their programme.

Recently, companies such as DNAfit have allowed athletes to undergo an assessment of their genotype in genes that have been shown to be linked to sports performance and training response. This now allows coaches and athletes to make more informed decisions when planning training.


If you are an athlete with a coach who has one programme for the whole group, then I am sorry to say it is very likely that not all the athletes will be optimally prepared for the upcoming season. Gone are the days of the cookie cutter and the 'this is what you're going to do, because this is what I did when I was an athlete' approaches to coaching. Unfortunately, logistics in some cases make it very difficult to individualise training. There are also situations whereby the value of having athletes complete a session together offset that of individualisation, however, I would suggest this the exception rather than the norm.


2. Year round 'speed work'

When I first began athletics some twenty years ago, I often heard athletes say that they had not began speed work yet. Even as a beginner I found this an interesting concept. Speed is a highly desirable quality in a sprinter, so why wouldn't you train it all year long? Nowadays, it is more conventional for some aspect of speed work to be incorporated into a sprinter's training from day one. This takes place largely in the form of accelerations, as per the Charlie Francis school of thought.

Referring to my previous point, some athletes may require more or less speed earlier in the year, but I would argue that any sprinter needs to work on speed at all times, because being able to run fast is always of benefit in a sprint race!! If an athlete has a higher training response to endurance activities they may spend more time addressing those qualities than an athlete with a higher training response to power activities. However, completely neglecting speed for a training block will lead to to regression in a vital element of performance for a sprinter.


3. Technical proficiency

I wrote an article and recently re-shared it on social media addressing the fact that sprinting is a skill. Performance will be determined by how well rehearsed that skill is, as well as other aspects of physical preparation. I cannot stress enough that technical proficiency should be rehearsed at all times. I look for three key technical objectives with my athletes. Posture, dorsiflexion (keeping the toe pulled 'up') and high heel recovery (in maximum velocity mechanics-which is assisted by correct ankle positioning). I have seen coaches let their athletes perform walking drills with none of these issues addressed, and I have seen coaches demonstrate walking high knee drills with the same arm and leg coming forward together!! This obviously will not assist the athlete in optimally developing their technical proficiency, which will limit their performance come the season. Likewise, running an athlete into the ground in the winter to the point fatigue does not allow them to perform the skill properly could negatively impact their movement rehearsal. This is difficult to balance however, as an athlete will have to run under some level of fatigue to develop their energy systems appropriately. Perhaps this is an example where 'the art of coaching' comes into play.


4. Necessity

Are you setting your athletes work for the sake of setting them work? Can you justify everything that is on your programme? I have written a previous article on 'chasing the holy grail', and every successful coach I have spoken to agrees, no holy grail exists. If anyone tells you they have the secret exercise to help you sprint faster, they either do not know what they are talking about, are trying to sell you something, or most likely, both. In an age where anyone (including myself) can publish their ideas online and reach lots people through social media, it is easy to find a gimmick on YouTube or Instagram that in your desire for improvement, you may be tempted to use in training. Objectively assess this latest fad, and the vast, vast majority of the time, it will not make it into your practise.

Dan Pfaff, in a recent interview, talked of limiting the variables, so you as a coach have a better understanding of what does and does not work for an athlete. If there are too many things going on in a programme at once, it becomes more difficult to know what effect each element of training is having. Have your athletes master the basics and work on only what will make them better.


5. Recovery

It is widely regarded that the improvements from training are actually made in the subsequent recoveries, therefore recovery is something that requires serious consideration when preparing an athlete. Different physiological systems recover at different rates. For example, the central nervous system generally requires longer to recover than the cardiovascular system. Therefore different elements of training can be targeted more or less often as required within a programme. Stu McMillan discussed this idea in his blog on the minimum effective dose, and gave suggestions on how often some elements can be trained based upon his experience.

Recovery is again is a highly individual concept, with some athletes able to recover more quickly between sessions than others. In fact, this is another example where genetic testing can help the coach and athlete, as there are genes related to the ability of an individual to recover. It is fairly well documented that heading into the Olympics in 2012, long jumper Greg Rutherford, who went on to win the gold medal, was training hard only three times a week. As a sprinter, specific training is high intensity by nature, therefore in order to train appropriately, the athlete must be recovered to the point whereby they can train at high intensity. If they are not able to do so, the quality of the training is compromised, and as a result so is the performance in the upcoming season, and in addition, the injury risk is increased. There are different tools that can be used to assess recovery from the more advanced methods such as heart rate variability monitoring, to simpler and cheaper methods such as a questionnaire, which a strength and conditioning coach here in Dubai, Hamish Munro, introduced me to.

6. Don't be too structured

I used to be a coach/athlete who had to stick to exactly what was written down on a piece of paper, sometimes from months before (possibly my autistic nature leading me to such behaviour). In a recent interview, John Kiely talked about the process being more important than the plan. Dan Pfaff also talks about having contingency plans for unexpected circumstances. Unpredictable events will occur, and as a coach, you have to be able to account for them, and adjust your training as necessary. Don't be afraid to adjust and adapt as you go along. As a bonus, it can be a great learning experience.


The early part of the off season is a great time to address any prehab, muscle imbalance and body composition issues. Jimison Lee wrote on his blog at speedendurance, that it is better spend longer now addressing these types of issues, as opposed to having them linger and cause problems when you are well into your winter training.

I wish all the readers a successful winter, hopefully leading to plenty of PBs (or PRs depending on where you're from) in 2016. I hope that in a year's time, somebody can look back at this article and say that some of the advice has helped them to have a successful 2016.