Sprinting E-Book

Chris Husbands

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 327

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

A huge amount of time, planning and preparation goes into creating a world-class sprinter. Sprinting - Training, Techniques and Improving Performance is an essential guide for all athletes at the beginning or development stages of their sprint careers who are committed to running faster. The book covers all sprint events from 60metres to 400 metres, as well as the hurdles and relay; principles of biomechanics, limiting factors and potential areas of capability; training and planning; prehab and avoiding injuries; practical nutritional advice and strength and conditioning. Whatever your level, this book provides valuable advice that will help you achieve your goal. Foreword by Daley Thompson CBE. Fully illustrated with 150 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

SPRINTING

TRAINING, TECHNIQUES AND IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

Chris Husbands

Foreword by Daley Thompson CBE

First published in 2013 by The Crowood Press Ltd Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© Chris Husbands 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 645 1

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Daley Thompson CBE

Introduction

1 A Brief History of Sprinting

2 Tools of the Trade and Getting Started

3 Biomechanics, Limiting Factors and Areas of Potential

4 Rules and Regulations

5 The 60 and 100 Metres

6 The 200 Metres

7 The 400 Metres

8 The Hurdles and Relay

9 Training and Planning

10 Prehab and Injuries

11 Nutrition

12 Strength and Conditioning

13 The Race

14 The Benefits of Sprint Training for Fitness and Other Sports

References

Further Reading

Useful Contacts

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to all the coaching family at Belgrave Harriers, Team Bob and the junior squad; including fellow coaches and athletes at the Millennium Arena and Bob, Andrea, Daley and John; also to the Belgrave gym team. Thanks too to Jodie and Tracy for your variety of support and contributions. Also to Mike and Haylene of Causer Conditioning. Special thanks to Bob Bridges, coach, friend and mentor. Thank you Luke of M. Ryan Studios and Alex of Precision Lighting for support and use of equipment and facilities. To Andrew of LPH Holdings for your contacts and support; to Sam and the JLP PinS coach mentoring team. To Chris Jelley Photography, for great photos and advice. Finally, to my long-suffering wife Gina and our daughters, Lauren and Ashleigh, for your patience. Thank you for believing in me.

In the process of writing this book I have had the amazing opportunity to have spoken to sprint athletes at all levels: Sally Gunnell OBE (400m hurdles, gold, Barcelona ’92); Don Quarrie CD (Order of Distinction, Jamaica) (200m, gold, Montreal ’76); Judy Vernon (100m and 100m hurdles, Munich, ’72); Shani Anderson (100m, Sydney 2000 and Commonwealth bronze medallist); Andrea Lynch MBE (100m, triple Olympian from Munich ’72, Montreal ’76 and Moscow ’80); Colin Jackson CBE (110m hurdles, silver, Seoul ’88 and former world record holder); and John Regis MBE (200m silver and bronze, ’88, ’92 and world indoors silver medallist).

Daley Thompson CBE, Olympic decathlete and one-time British, European, Commonwealth, world, and double Olympic gold medallist through 1980–8, has been a huge influence on me and is the person who ignited my passion for athletics.

FOREWORD

I first met ‘Coach Chris’ a few years ago down at the track in Battersea, where he was putting a group of kids through their paces. I go down to the track two or three times a week, Chris three or four times, so we tend to bump into each other and see each other at work fairly often.

I’ve been impressed by the way he deals with his charges; they are worked hard and enthused. His technical knowledge is very sound but is not used to bamboozle the students.

Having seen the improvements made by all of his students over the years, it’s very easy to say that Coach Chris is a very good coach because, in my opinion, it’s a lot easier to help people who are already talented, proficient or highly motivated. Kids are the hardest nut to crack but Chris seems to manage them all, regardless of age, shape or ability. They all get faster and all look so much better doing it.

I’m sure his book will be a very good introduction to sprinting, showing a lot of what’s involved, and will be a really useful resource for the novice and any would-be sprinters who are serious about stepping up their sprint performance.

Daley Thompson CBE

Daley Thompson CBE. (Image courtesy Chris Jelley Photography)

INTRODUCTION

Sprinting is just running as fast as you can from A to B – or is it? This book will benefit all levels of readers, but is primarily aimed at the athlete in the ‘foundation’ and ‘development’ stage of their involvement with and understanding of sprinting. You may already be competing in club athletics or thinking about joining a club, for example, or just aiming to get quicker for another sport or event. In addition to revealing much about sprinting this book will also make you aware of the benefits of sprint training or high intensity exercise that aid peak fitness in the arena of everyday life. Whatever your level, my aim is to take you through the various components that you will find helpful to make a significant improvement to your performance. I hope you will find it an interesting and informative read.

Unfortunately we can’t all be Usain Bolt. But even he had to start somewhere. You may not be anywhere near his quality but you could make massive improvements to your performance in your chosen sprint discipline. The fact that you are reading this tells me that your performance matters to you considerably. Bolt may have sprinted into the record books but many top sprint experts believe he has not yet reached his full potential. A view that is almost certainly true if you study his form and ask any top sprint biomechanics expert.

The 100m sprint may appear a simple event – run as fast as you can in a straight line from the start to the finish line – but a massive amount of time, planning and preparation goes into creating a world-class sprinter.

Some would say speed is an inborn natural talent and it is only this that makes you a successful athlete. This view, as we now know, is not totally correct, and can be misleading and demotivating for many. True, inborn talent is probably the main factor, but it is not the only one. The idea that only natural talent can make the difference is probably one of the reasons why our sport has suffered for so long, to the benefit of other sports. This view, which can prevent many of us from pushing ourselves to succeed in sport, in business and in life, needs changing – fast. Some of us aren’t even aware we have talent.

Think of Jesse Owens, who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Such was his performance that many believed he possessed a genetic blueprint of superior sprint genes. This belief was further reinforced by the Nazis who claimed that, as Owens was black and according to them therefore closer to animals than humans, he held an unfair advantage over European sprinters. Those outrageous beliefs are thankfully behind us, but they did influence much subsequent thinking.

Sports science as we know it today was not widely available in those days, many athletes performed on talent alone. Things have moved on, however, and we have witnessed great sportsmen and women refuse to accept invisible boundaries and not listen to those who like to say ‘we can’t’, ‘you shouldn’t’ or ‘it’s impossible’.

Just imagine if Bolt had listened to such advice and had chosen a different sport because he was ‘too tall and gangly’ to run fast. Instead, someone somewhere in his family and a coach with foresight believed in him and encouraged him. Frighteningly, he could still go faster, and possibly also tackle other speed events such as the longer 400m sprint. His speed over the ground could also make him a colossal long or triple jumper. He does however have a slight spinal condition called scoliosis (curvature of the spine), so the impact from jumps may not be the best for his body biomechanically, but then you could say the same about impact of sprinting. Athletes such as Bolt do not see barriers; they only see a hurdle to get over.

There are wider influences that can also make a difference. It seems now that Jamaica is the place to be to get elite sprinter development. There are some who say the secret to Bolt’s success lay in his environment. In addition to the training methods used, the social and community influence plays a big role in nurturing sprint talent. You will see thousands of spectators at school championships in Jamaica. The winners of these events are looked on as mini stars. Encouragement and support plays a big role in addition to popularity, desire and motivation to compete.

Somehow it is difficult to see anything close to that popularity for the sport here in the UK. Athletics is such a poor relation to football, cricket and rugby, and the latter two are seen as poor relations to football. They love football in Jamaica too, but maybe they realized very early on that athletics, and sprinting in particular, is a key foundation to many sports and not just football. We need a new approach to the spectator side of athletics in the UK, as well as lots more TV coverage on major networks.

Building the foundation for enhanced performance starts in our schools, parks, streets and communities. US sprint legend and BBC pundit Michael Johnson, in his book Gold Rush (Harper Sport, 2011), recalled competing in community blocks sprint races, which shaped his desire and hunger to improve his performance.

Speed is such a crucial element in almost every athletic sport. As you will hardly have failed to notice, those athletes that move quickest generally win. So this book discusses the importance of speed and looks at why and how sprint training can make such a difference to other sports, general fitness and weight management.

Yes, good sprinters are born with a gift of some natural speed, but the best sprinters are the ones who take that natural speed and develop it into fully fledged competitive talent. It all begins with improving your own ‘PB’ (Personal Best).

As many athletes will have experienced, the demands to improve on speed over shorter distances are just as challenging as the need to manage speed well over longer distances. Sebastian (now Lord) Coe used to raise a few eyebrows when during his formative years at Loughborough University he started to use weights to help in his middle-distance events, but this is now copied widely due to his successes. Paula Radcliffe and Mo Farah use various strategic methods to boost their performance, including strength and speed training. Having the ‘power’ to use speed as a weapon in the last kick to the tape is now a well-known technique – just watch how fast elite middle-and long-distance athletes finish the last 400 or 200 metres of their races.

The specialist sprinter will of course deal in smaller but just as important margins, down to tenths or hundredths of a second for the high-class performer. In the sprints everything happens so fast, so a mistake at the start blocks will impact dramatically on any sprint race. This is just as true for the novice as it is for the elite performer; we all have a PB to target. These small improvements can be called ‘marginal gains’, which is a buzz phrase in performance centres now, used to great success within the GB track cycling set-up with Dave Brailsford, and transferable to many sports.

Whether you are a young athlete not yet matured, an adult athlete young or old, or a master’s athlete, improvements can be made. At the younger end of the scale, for the young sprint athlete, say, under thirteen years old, most improvements are neuromuscular, where the body improves through neural pathways being heightened and enhanced through repetition as well as some intramuscular adaptation. Technique, skill, coordination, balance and agility all are equally beneficial components in your tool box. Therefore it is very important that participation in many different types of activity and sport is encouraged to build the foundation for future performance enhancement.

For junior and adult alike, sprinting will add even more to inter-muscular and intramuscular adaptation. In addition to muscle growth, this will be an aid to power and strength. As the junior athlete develops in chronological and training age, power and strength will begin to be a more dominant component as well as technique and skill. It’s never too early to start developing good technique and skills.

Intramuscular means muscle activity such as contractions deep within the fibres of a muscle (as with a fast twitch). Inter-muscular relates to activity spreading from muscle to muscle via connections and joints, such as calf muscle and hamstring muscle movement through flexion of the knee.

For the master’s sprint athlete (classified in the sport as thirty-five years and over), the neural pathways need constant activity. Muscle power and load, in addition to recovery also have to be managed more skilfully. It becomes a question of quality more than quantity of work. Injury prevention (prehab) as well as injury treatment (rehab) becomes a key component. Increased use of biomechanical screening is playing a big part in identifying potential problems in every age group.

Maybe this is why many top sprint coaches believe that working at grassroots level with children is vital, not only for the child’s development but for the development of the sport as a whole. Loren Seagrave, a top coach and lecturer who has coached Canadian and Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, Gwen Torrence (US) and Joyce Maduaka (GB) amongst many, also has the view that the best coaches should spend time working with children so that the children can get started on a good foundation to enable them to progress more efficiently. Young people and children not only need this for sprint athletics, but for all sports. I share this view, which is why I make time to work with grassroots athletes at my club.

Fig. 1 The Wheel of High Performance (adapted from Building High Performance Teams, Hays, 2004)

Don’t worry if you have not had the opportunity to be coached well at a young age. The fact that you haven’t may well be the reason you have chosen to read this book now. It is never too late to make improvements. It just means you will have more factors to consider in the progress of your quest to train well and improve your performance.

The elements of the Wheel of High Performance shown in Figure 1 are well represented by the chapters of this book and will all have an impact on improving your performance, from 60m to 400m and hurdles events. Feel free to jump to different chapters as areas of interest, but consider that at some point they will all be relevant to build an overall picture to support your needs and demands. You will learn about what to know, as well as how to perform and learn the best way for you. This will enable you to recognize your own development potential.

This book will be dealing with methods that are current, safe and relevant; some may seem complicated but repetition of training will lead to better understanding. Some of these depend on genetic make-up and some on learnt behaviour. The above mentioned key attributes have always, and always will have an impact on performance. We just need to identify which ones you can tweak to make the difference for you, whichever sprint event you choose.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Take what advice and tips you need from it and enjoy improvements to your PBs and ultimately your own performances.

CHAPTER 1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SPRINTING

There are records that point to evidence of Olympic events as far back as 776bc. Historically there were three central events: the stade, a 200yd (192m) sprint; the diaulos, an out-and-back style race at twice the stade distance; and a distance run called the dolichos, which would have been about 5,500yd (5,300m).

Since the first modern Olympic Games (Athens, 1896) there have been three main sprint distances: 100m, 200m and 400m. These were initially imperial distances: the 100m was originally 100yd; the 200m was the furlong or 1/8 of a mile; and the 400m was 440yd. The first ever event of the first modern Olympics was the first heat of the 100m (not run by women until 1928), and since then its aura has remained. Olympic 100m champions are known as the fastest people on earth and the 100m is the Blue Ribbon sprint event, if not the overall highlight of any major athletics championship. Just look at any racing competition from schools to club level and it’s always the 100m sprint that attracts the most entrants or competitors. Although many sprinters also run the 60m (mostly run indoors now), and also the 150m, 200m, 300m and 400m, it is the 100m that is the best known sprint discipline.

Valeriy Borzov, Russian athlete and top sprinter of the 1970s, had an almost machine-like approach to his training and was one of the first athletes to look at his event in a more scientific way. Borzov won the 100m and 200m titles at the ’72 Munich Olympics despite not being the obvious favourite. This could have been attributed to how he created an aura of invincibility, which put rivals at a psychological disadvantage from the start, but, more importantly, he was able to take advantage of a more scientific approach. At fourteen years old Borzov ran the 100m in 13.0 seconds. This was good but nothing special when compared to thousands of others at the same age.

Fig. 2 Modern Olympics: The 2012 Olympic 100m champion, Usain Bolt.

After eight years of diligent and intensive training with attention to detail and technique, he improved that time by three seconds. He was one of a new generation of sprinters who looked at the need for constant improvement and development of technique to progress. Until then it had been only in middle- and long-distance running that strategy and science were analyzed. Since Borzov’s time, the same intensity of study has been adapted and adopted for all sprint events by many top coaches.

The 200m, 400m and hurdles have their superstars too. Michael Johnson (USA) comes to mind. Until Usain Bolt came along and took his 200m world record, Michael held both of these longer sprint world records; when he won both events in Atlanta 1996 he became the first man to do the long sprint double at the same Olympics (and still is the only man to have done so). If Daley Thompson was the athlete of the decade for the ’80s, Michael is arguably the one of the ’90s (although a certain Carl Lewis would challenge this). Until Michael Johnson came along the sprint techniques had never really been questioned. His unique upright style made people sit up and take note, eventually causing the science of sprinting to be more closely examined.

Notable 200m specialists include Caribbean sprinters Don Quarrie (JAM) and Hasley Crawford (TRI) with their constant rivalries in the ’70s and Frankie Fredericks (NAM) in the ’90s. We must also not forget 400m hurdler Edwin Moses (USA), who won Olympic gold at the 1976 and 1984 games (the USA did not send a team to the 1980 Moscow games due to the boycott). For ten years from 1977 to 1987 he won 107 consecutive finals and set world records on four occasions.

In the UK, past champion Sally Gunnell achieved the remarkable feat of holding the 400m hurdles world record and the European, Commonwealth and Olympic Champion titles at the same time. That perfectly timed run down the home straight to hold off Sandra Farmer Patrick (USA) in Barcelona at the ’92 Olympics was incredible. In fact, that whole Olympics went very well for Team GB sprinters, with Linford Christie (the UK’s most successful 100m sprinter) achieving gold in 9.96 seconds.

In competition the athletes use starting blocks to help with the efficiency of their starts. Starting blocks in the early days before the widespread use of synthetic Tartan[TM] tracks were a hole in the ground on a cinder track which the athletes had to dig themselves with a trowel. Now the sophisticated electronic sensors on starting blocks sense athletes reaction times to determine false starts.

These days the timing of the reaction (which for Linford Christie was on ‘the B of the Bang’), acceleration, maximum velocity, speed maintenance and deceleration are all broken down in various training methods, scientific and otherwise. This attention to detail now means we have athletes moving at speeds whereby world records we used to think almost impossible to attain are now being broken with some frequency, stretching the bounds of human ability.

Sprint Champions through the Years

There are many ways to list successful sprinters through the years – by fastest times and world records, or Olympic or world titles. As we are talking about successful champions we will concentrate on Olympic titles. If a world record was achieved in that championship, then truly they would be the best in the world (it is much harder to achieve a world record in that environment; performances would have had to be managed throughout heats and finals rather than as a ‘one off’). World records are undoubtedly a huge achievement but one day someone will come along and break that record. Once you are an Olympic champion, you are always an Olympic champion and have a medal to prove it.

Both Olympic titles and world records are about exceptional performances. The women’s 100m world record is getting closer to being beaten: the 10.75 time of Shelly-Ann Fraser would only need a similar improvement of time to that Usain Bolt achieved of around 200 to 270 hundredths of a second. As I cannot fail to give proper mention to the world records I will also list the top five fastest times for all the sprints for both men and women, so that you can see how long some records have lasted.

Table 1 100m Olympic Champions through the Years

* In 1960 Rome the German team was a United Germany team.

** DQ = Disqualified. There is some controversy still about the validity of Griffith-Joyner’s world record as to whether the wind resistance was actually at zero, amongst other controversial claims which are not in the realms of discussion for this book.

Table 2 The All-Time Top Five for the 60m Sprint

* Set at altitude

Table 3 The All-Time Top Five for the 100m Sprint

Table 4 The All-Time Top Five for the 200m Sprint

Table 5 The All-Time Top Five for the 400m Sprint

Table 6 The All-Time Top Five for the 100/110m Hurdles

As can been seen from these results, the rest of the world has long been striving to break the dominance of the USA. This wasn’t always the case, though. An athlete worthy of mention who had many great performances is Cuban Alberto Juantorena (nicknamed El Caballo – The Horse). An amazing runner with a long, loping casual style, it looked like he was hardly trying. In the 1976 Munich Olympics he ran a remarkable double, winning gold in the 400m sprint with a time of 44.26, holding off two USA athletes Fred Newhouse (44.40) and Herman Frazier (44.95). ‘El Caballo’ then went on to win the 800m in a then world record of 1.43.50 – no wonder they called him The Horse! He repeated that double success a year later at the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) world cup in Dusseldorf.

One of the best 110m hurdles races I saw was the 1988 Olympic final, which, although won by Roger Kingdom in an Olympic record at the time of 12.98, shows how much things have moved on (if not for the dodgy outfits worn by the USA team, but for times and progression). I may be wrong, but I am sure this was the first time three GB athletes were in the final: John Ridgeon (5th in 13.52), Tony Jarrett (6th in 13.54) and silver medallist Colin Jackson (2nd in 13.28). Although I have listed the top five times here, special mention must go to Colin Jackson who held the world record for almost thirteen years in arguably the best and most ‘loaded’ races in that era, from 1993 to 2006. Aries Merrit is firmly in control these days; in 2012 he lowered the world record to 12.80.

The Women’s 100m hurdles will be an interesting event to observe in the coming years, particularly with heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill on the scene. She is not yet a specialist but holds the fastest GB time at 12.54, running this event as part of the heptathlon at the 2012 games in London.

Table 7 The All-Time Top Five for the 400m Hurdles

Hurdler Ed Moses was unbeaten in 122 races over nine years, nine months and nine days, finally losing his world record after a period of nearly fifteen years. Sally Gunnell’s world record in Stuttgart 1993 was a race of true focus; she came off the last hurdle to win in 52.74, leaving Farmer-Patrick (USA) in a heap. Stuttgart in that year proved to be a great place for GB sprinters, with Colin Jackson claiming the men’s 110m hurdles world record there as well.

The Fastest Woman on the Planet: London 2012

At the 30th modern Olympiad, the 100m final in London 2012 saw two of the top three places go to Jamaican athletes; more evidence of the rise of the Caribbean influence. The final positions were:

• Gold: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price (JAM), 10.75.

• Silver: Carmelita Jeter (USA), 10.78.

• Bronze: Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM), 10.81.

• 4th: Tianna Madison (USA), 10.85.

• 5th: Allyson Felix (USA), 10.89.

• 6th: Kelly-Ann Baptiste (TRI), 10.94.

• 7th: Murielle Ahoure (CIV), 11.00.

• 8th: Blessing Okagbare (NIG), 11.01.

The Fastest Man on the Planet: London 2012

The men’s 100m final at the London 2012 Olympics was a phenomenal race that I was privileged to see; every man but one finished in a time of less than 10 seconds. This also saw Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt complete the first title of a double treble of sprint gold medals, winning the 100m, 200m and 4 × 100m relay at consecutive Olympics (Beijing 2008 and London 2012). The race returned a Jamaican first and second, reinforcing the current dominance of Jamaican athletes, displaying the shift of power from the USA to Jamaica and arguably fuelling the debate on the influence of genetics in athletes of Afro-Caribbean descent. The final positions for 2012 Men’s 100m were:

• Gold: Usain Bolt (JAM), 9.63.

• Silver: Yohan Blake (JAM), 9.75.

• Bronze: Justin Gatlin (USA), 9.79.

• 4th: Tyson Gay (USA), 9.80.

• 5th: Ryan Bailey (USA), 9.88.

• 6th: Churandy Martina (NED), 9.94.

• 7th: Richard Thompson (TRI), 9.98.

• 8th: Asafa Powell (JAM), 11.99 (however, Asafa effectively stopped running after about 60m!)

The results presented here will give you a feel of how difficult it is to improve at the elite level, which enables us to see how remarkable the achievements of these athletes are. It is interesting to look at the progression of times over the sprint events through the years. For example, it has been some time since the 400m hurdles world record has been bettered. As sports science knowledge and coaching techniques continue to improve through the years you will see more athletes improving in consistency and also longevity in their chosen events. Work hard and make plans to record your own achievements and create your own history.

Notable GB athletes and Their Contribution to the Sprints and Hurdles

Linford Christie (100m) One of only two GB Olympic gold medallists (Barcelona ’92), he is also the only GB sprinter to have won world titles in all four major championships (Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European). He still holds the British record of 9.87 seconds. He still coaches elite sprinters, based in Brunel university, West London, and runs Street Athletics, a grassroots initiative to get children who would not normally have access to athletic clubs into sprinting.

Darren Campbell (100m and 200m) An Olympic gold and silver medallist (Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000), he was part of European record-holding sprint relay team running a 37.73. Nowadays he is a sprint coach at premier football club Cardiff FC. He is to be commended for his forthright views on performance-enhancing substances; due to a former team member posting positive substance results, had to hand back his relay medals.

Fig. 3 Before the start of the men’s 100m final, London 2012.

John Regis (200m) A ‘Belgravian’ (from the Belgrave Harriers), affectionately known as Johnny ‘two chests’ Regis. He is a double Olympian (Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992), a silver and bronze relay medallist. He is also a world indoor silver medallist and world indoor individual gold medallist; in this meet he picked up four medals (200m gold, 100m bronze, 4 × 400m relay gold and 4 × 100m relay silver). He was also part of the world gold medal team of 4 × 400m in Tokyo 1991.

Kathy (Smallwood) Cook (200/400m) She has PBs of 11.10 (100m), 22.10 (200m), and 49.43 (400m). She achieved three Olympic bronze medals from 1980 and 1984, also being a European silver and Commonwealth champion. She held the joint 200m and 400m British record until 2013 and also held the UK 100m title for almost twenty-seven years, until 2011.

Roger Black (400m) Roger has a PB of 44.37, was a double Olympian (’92 and ’96), winning two Olympic silver and bronze medals, in individual and relay events, along with Commonwealth and world medals. He was part of the historic 4 × 400m relay team at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships. He was one of the few junior internationals who also took success into world senior level.

Derek Redmond (400m) With a PB of 44.50, he is one of the best European 400m sprinters of the ’80s and ’90s. He is best remembered for his gallant run in the Barcelona Olympics, when injury caused him to pull up and his dad helped him over the finish line. His dad quoted, ‘We started this together and we’re going to finish this together’, a representation of the true Olympic spirit. He was also part of the historic 4 × 400m relay team in 1991. He went on to play basketball and rugby sevens – an example of how sprint talent transfers across many other sports.

Colin Jackson (110m hurdles) Mentioned earlier in book, he is still the best technician of the sprint hurdles I have ever seen.

Sally Gunnell (100m hurdles/400m hurdles) In addition to what was mentioned earlier, many may not be aware of Sally’s achievements in the 100m hurdles before moving up to the longer event. She was the only GB women sprinter (at the time of print) to be listed in an IAAF all-time top ten position for her 400m hurdle time of 52.74 in Stuttgart 1993.

Kriss Akabusi (400m hurdles) A domestically successful 400m sprinter, who had more individual success after he moved up to the long hurdles. A triple Olympian, where he was a finalist at the ’88 Seoul Olympics, and winning bronze in ’92 in addition to joint European and Commonwealth titles. He ran the famous anchor leg at the 1991 Tokyo world championships 4 × 400m relay when, along with John Regis, Derek Redmond and Roger Black, he took the world title, putting the previously unbeaten USA team into second place.

That 4 × 400m world championship title in Tokyo ’91 was one of the most satisfying relay successes in GB history and is still talked about today. The race was a brilliant display of, in Kriss’s words, ‘confident but not complacent’ tactics and determination. It showed that if you ‘dare to win and do something different, like take a risk’, as quoted by Roger, you can achieve success.

Jessica Ennis-Hill (heptathlon) The face of London 2012, she stepped up to the plate and delivered in her first Olympics, under immense pressure of expectation. Her PB and GB record gives her total points just shy of the magic 7000 points, which only four other heptathletes have achieved. She has a PB and GB record of 12.54 in the 100m hurdles, making her good enough to challenge the 110m world elite specialists (this would, in fact, have won her the individual gold in the Beijing Olympics). Her PB in the 200m was 22.83, which would have placed her 7th in the individual 200m final. She then sprinted down the home straight on the very last event, the 800m, to make sure she finished as a winner.

In a post Olympics interview, Daley Thompson had this to say about his fellow multi-eventer: ‘She wanted to finish off as she started – even though she didn’t have to win it, she just refused to be beaten. It’s one of reasons why I believe she can go on and do even better: she has that fierce competitive spirit that all top athletes require.’

Daley Thompson (decathlon) A four times world record holder, double Olympic champion and quadruple Olympian of ’76, ’80, ’84 and ’88. It was fitting that at London 2012 Daley passed on a torch to a one of seven young hopefuls who lit the cauldron, Desiree Henry, 16 at the time, and I’m sure a future Olympian (this is a name to watch in the future; she gained a world youth 200m title in 2011).

Daley, Jessica and Desiree represent the past, current and future of GB athletics. The two multi-eventers mentioned represent the importance of hard work and dedication. That is not to say that the specialist sprint athletes are not hard working – far from it. I believe that as a sprint specialist you should aim to work as hard on your ‘multiple elements’ of a sprint as multi-eventers work on their multiple disciplines.

Daley’s and Jessica’s achievements show the importance of planning for multiple goals and putting a plan together to produce the goods over and over. If after reading this you commit to working a fraction as hard, you will no doubt achieve success in sprinting and therefore make great improvements to your performance.

CHAPTER 2

TOOLS OF THE TRADE AND GETTING STARTED

Whether training or competing, it pays to have the right equipment or kit. Running can in itself be a relatively inexpensive activity, in that you don’t really need a lot of gear. However, to allow for different training conditions for sprinting, it would be wise to invest in the right kit for the right occasion. When sprinting on the track you will want to be secure in the knowledge that you have given yourself adequate protection, support and comfort.

You will need the right footwear, and comfortable and supportive clothing and underwear. You will need a light and breathable kit for warm weather, with sweat tops and bottoms to warm up or cool down in. You will also need waterproof kit when weather dictates; sprint training is conducted all year round, so be prepared. A stop watch for timing reps is useful, although if working on your own a wrist-worn option is easiest.

Footwear

Ideally you will need to have trainers as well as spiked sprinting shoes.

Trainers You will need a decent pair of trainers, sometimes called flats, to allow for training in various conditions. For example, you may need to train in different locations apart from the track, such as the gym or park, and you may be indoors or outdoors. Sometimes referred to as flats, trainers should be light (not too heavy) but supportive. You will need to warm up in trainers rather than spikes and then put on spikes for your sessions, or even more lightweight trainers instead of spikes. Some trainers, such as a multi terrain shoe, offer more traction, which can be useful in park or country. There is also a lot of interest in the development of barefoot technology, where you are encouraged to use the natural properties of your feet to cushion and control. As a sprinter, your style of running will mean you are halfway there already. Do take care though; there is a skill to be learnt when wearing these types of footwear and it will take time to adapt.

Fig. 4 Having the right footwear is essential.

Trainers are important because it is not necessary to train in spikes all the time. The heel needs to stretch as well as to make contact with the ground from time to time. Training always in spikes would not give the important calf muscles and tendons time to relax and recover from tough sessions. Trainers will allow you to have variety in training, and perhaps help to lessen the chances of injury.

Spikes The spiked shoes of a 60m or 100m sprinter, especially a ‘competition’ pair, will have no heel cushion at all. In the shorter sprints, your heel barely touches the ground if correct technique is performed. With the 400m sprint distance some heel cushioning may be helpful, however, as your heel would have more contact with the ground when sprinting a whole lap, depending on individual style, skill and control.

You may only wear some pairs of spikes for competition, rather than for everyday training. Many 400m hurdlers use the longer cross-country spikes when training and a shorter spike set when competing or working on pure speed. The spikes should normally be 6–9mm in depth for synthetic surfaces such as Tartan tracks. The example at the beginning of the chapter shows a pair of spikes with a short heel, ideal for 200–400m as well as for the novice in any distance.

If you are serious, then, consider having a couple of pairs, one for competition and one for training, in addition to your flats (trainers). Make sure when shopping for trainers and spikes you visit a specialist store that caters for the athlete, not high street fashion. Stores such as this are also more likely to have well-informed and trained specialists.

Clothing

When it comes to clothing your essential kit will include vest tops or t-shirts, tights or shorts, and spikes. When competing you would wear your club colours. In training you wear what the elements dictate. In all cases, once the main session or event is over you would put on an outer layer in order to keep the muscles warm.

You may accumulate various items of footwear and clothing as time goes by, but to get you going in the first instance just a good quality lightweight pair of trainers will do. It is then a good idea to invest in a good quality pair of sprint spikes as soon as you start training on a regular basis.

Starting Blocks

Having your own starting blocks may seem like a luxury, but if you cannot get access to any at your regular track then investing in a set may be useful. In most cases, it’s not vital, however.