Some athletes are responders, others not it seems...

[syrus2001]

So you took a short to long program that Charlie has laid out for a very advanced sprinter and apply it to a developing girl?

To give you an example, I go up to 1400m of speed and it is very difficult for me, and thats after having built up from lower volumes over a few years. I couldn't imagine giving a girl upwards of 2100m of speed in a single week and expect them not to be completely over trained. You've got to be careful when applying other people's programs and using their volumes exactly as listed.

[gofast]

syrus, I'm not that naive, I used Charlie's model as a framework as to how to graduate the distances over time viz short to long. She didnt do 2100m of speed per week only about 1500m. Also, she is 20 years old, has been doing the sport since she was 13, but hasnt followed a formal training program as intensely as mine but has been training 4 days per week before we started.

Anyway, we are missing the point talking about her, she is not the problem. There are other athletes who I work with, a variety of ages and experiences you just show very little sign of improvement no matter what we try with them.

[syrus2001]

ok well you told me to look at that plan for volumes so why would I think that the volumes were any lower?

In any case I see your point.

As for why certain athletes progress and some others don't, I've noticed that throughout my own training group. I believe it might be genetic in origin.

I think some people are built for speed, some people function for speed and when someone has both, then you've got the real talent. Not sure if that makes much sense to anyone.

[fogelson]

Going from doing minimal training to lots of training in a short-time span frequently ends of in failure for even talented athletes. Even if it is well intentioned, some athletes just are not able to recover well from the work. I think Syrus has some good points here.

[mortac8]

I have a girl like that. Good technician but slow as dirt and speed improvements are hard to come by. The word gentle comes to mind in our case too. Some people just aren't wired for explosive events. They may good levers and tendons but poor neural drive. Genetics are a b**ch. If you figure out the answer let me know. Most of my girls improve by feet. This girl improves by...uh...nothing.

[sady]

We all like to think our athletes will get better with training and most do but some seem not to! They just stay the same, how is that possible! I mean I have this kid and she has done long to short with little improvement so then we tried short to long and she hasn't improved much at all. She is 5'10" but is a little too gentle. She has gone from never dead lifting to now 130kg at 66kg b/w. Power cleans about 65kg, so solid numbers without anything amazing. Anyway, the point is she hasnt improved anything on the track, as is the case with others, yet other athletes improve and keep on improving. Why is this?? Am interested to see what others think...

spend a bit more time with movements at speed, do the set reps as per Charlies programming, 300m or 170 movements. do as a drill for 170 movements/distance/time. why not isolate, one joint/two joints etc