Coach Ange's Blog
Power Speed Drills in Track and Field
There may be some confusion about who should do drills for speed training and why performing power speed drills will help you sprint faster.
I guess the debate of how and why Power Speed Drills are good for sprinting will go on and on.
I was taught that there is not one magic bullet answer for sprinting well.
The pursuit to acquire the skill to improve your sprinting will be a worth while one in my opinion.
My advice would be to learn as much as you are able about all the complex and simple aspects of this specific skill.
Take a look below and see what you think.
Angela
Question about Power/Speed Drills. I notice many times that in discussing power/speed many people leave out the “C” drill. I guess I have a twofold question:
- Can you clarify what the C drill is? I have seen two very different video variations as to what the drill is. I guess what I am looking for is how Mach intended this drill to be performed.
- Why is the drill not used more? I figure that maybe the answer to 1 may answer this, or I could be way off base and maybe it is used more often that I thought.
Thank You
Hello Jason,
Thank you for your questions.
For as long as I have been in track and field I don’t recall ever doing or hearing about what a ‘C’ drill is. I started running track before 1980 and I have been competing, training and working in track ever since.
While living, training and working with Charlie from 1988 to 2010 I do not ever remember doing or hearing him talk about a ‘C’ drill.
I have reviewed Gerard Mach’s “Sprints and Hurdles” manual which is no longer in print. There is no mention what so ever to any drill called the C drill in Gerard’s 58 page book.
I did a search online based on your question to my blog. I found a few people who added a ‘C’ drill into Gerard’s Power speed drills despite Gerard not illustrating or discussing this drill in the manual.
The one diagram I found showing a ‘C’ drill resembles a drill I learned and performed extensively with Coach Charlie Francis called bum or butt kicks. We did bum kicks as part of our power speed drills which usually done daily on both tempo and speed days as part of our warm up.
To perform a bum kick you are essentially kicking your butt over and over again. We would usually do bum kicks over a 10 , 20 or 30 meter distance. ( or more depending on the purpose) in sets of 3 , 6 or 8 depending on the time of year. Larger volumes of drills in the spring and fall and smaller distances and volumes overall during pre comp and comp phases of our annual plan.
I hope I have answered your questions.
Best,
Angela Coon
Weight lifting exercises for speed training
Strength and power are essential for the 100m. Which are the best weight lifting exercises to use to improving your speed? Coach Charlie Francis and Coach Ange Coon share what they did to achieve repeatable and consistent results for speed training.Overspeed? Are you sprinting into trouble?
Overspeed. Decide for yourself.
Does overspeed make sense? ( refer to "Running into the trouble", above).
Is there a need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to safe, proven methods that can be repeated with grand successes?
Is the risk worth an alleged return?
Why didn't Charlie use overspeed to develop some of the most most repeatable methods for speed training to date?
( because he didn't need to..., an idea the may be too simple for most?)
Keep in mind this. If you get injured, you may never be capable of returning to the same abilities as before. You would not be the first to have this happen or the last. ( this idea was a main idea we used to navigate daily training for more 2 decades)
My mission after losing Charlie to a 5 year fight with Stage 4 NHL was to maintain the content he spent his life creating and experimenting with in order to achieve significant and repeatable results in sprinting.
In the face of many political sport hurdles, Charlie and I made it our primary goal to share our content with sprinters, coaches, athletes and students who were passionate about speed training.
I encourage you to study some or all of the massive archive of content at charliefrancis.com. The forum review of 2002 as well as 2009 offers some of the best content from the website’s world class forum to which Charlie contributed over 10,000 posts himself from 2000 to 2010.
Take a look at our Weights for Speed bundle here to learn why lifting weights and building strength are critical but study why Coach Francis and Coach Ange Coon prioritized speed training followed by lifting weights.
This is a list of lifts Francis and Coon used and Coon continues to use while coaching sprinting at the highest developmental levels.
Lastly, the best context for a full understanding of why Francis became a world class sprint coach is inside his book "Speed Trap". The story revolves around the events of 1988, but for me the most interesting part is how Francis discusses many of his ideas and how he came to them and why. For passionate athletes looking for more in their training this book might help you find it.
Sprinting your own race requires a recipe only you the reader can decide and experiment with. I trust this information will become content you find useful and enjoyable for your speed, sprinting and power sport pursuits.
"Sprint your own life"
Angé