If you are a coach or an athlete I think you will find this interesting. Jccc110m joined the forums 3 years ago ( March 2013) when he was 16 years old. Initially he had no coach and used information available from a variety of places to coach himself. Presently he is competing in his second year of university in Ontario Canada and working with a coach there. He has made tremendous improvements and it has been both fun and exciting watching his results.
The following are some of his recent comments below with my comments
Click here to view his first post in March 2013Forum Member "Jccc110m" Comment:
Current SB sits at 8.24 (PB from 2015: 8.16). That came from essentially 2 and half weeks of no specific hurdle work because of Holidays Break. One week out I remembered that season opener was in one week's time so I mastered my sleeping, nutrition, recovery, and training. 8.24 was the result. This weekend I ran 8.32/8.31 at York. Good stuff coming considering that we haven't done too too much out of blocks (ie. hurdle acceleration).
Coach Ange’s Comment:
Congratulations on a hugely successful season for your first year at University. There are always a great number of adjustments for your first year as a student at university and you managed consistent improvements right up until the very last meet where you finished the season with your best time of 8.16 for men's 60-meter hurdles.
Forum Member "Jccc110m" Comment:
One month out from Championship season. This is how I plan to be competitively ready in 4 weeks:
(1)Master my sleeping routine. Get as close to 10 hours a day as possible. Make sure I sleep around 11-1130, which I feel is optimal for me.
Coach Ange’s Comment:
Consistency of quality sleep are both important. Here are two articles you might find interesting.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/07420528.2015.1118384
Forum Member "Jccc110m" Comment:
(2) Nutrition. Have been weak on this but strapping down to a few special things will make things flow. No sugar, no 'bad foods'. Don't put myself in a situation where I deviate from nutrition. Essentially to creating a bodily environment where low-grade inflammation is as low as possible.
Coach Ange’s Comment:
Routinely fortifying your diet with super foods through meals or supplementation or both is a strategy you will be able to improve over time. My experience has been that regulating high quality protein through food or supplements accelerates recovery and the building of muscle for speed and strength. It’s also important to include super foods that provide essential minerals and vitamins and add yogurt and or kefir to boost absorption of all the good you are consuming as well as improving digestion and waste removal. Best times for daily nutritional insurance is first thing in the morning, before training and or immediately after and just before bed . How you eat, when you eat and what you eat will ensure quality sleep that boosts the process of healing.
Here are some examples of super foods you might add to your smoothies: flaxseed, chia seeds, whole almonds, kefir, kale, blueberries, cocoa, cinnamon, spinach, fresh ginger.
Take a look at this article to gain some insight about the role nutrition can play in performance in sport and in life.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8303140
Forum Member "Jccc110m" Comment:
(3) Therapy. Plain and simple. Massage + CHIRO. Have a minor(?) hip strain - around ab region on right side//more adductor on left side - anyone have any suggestions on what I can proactively ask therapist team for? Getting consistent therapy along with getting optimal amounts of sleep will solve most things.
Coach Ange’s Comment:
My main suggestion here based on my own personal experience is to include water therapy of some kind. Contrast baths or Epson salt baths can be done at home and that means you are able to do them more frequently for your best results.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/
Forum Member "Jccc110m" Comment:
I'm fast in the hurdles because I try to get from one barrier to the next as fast as I can. On the flat I think: run over the other knee, arms to face, be relaxed... Here's a simple cue for someone like me: JUST. RUN. FASTER.
Coach Ange’s Comment:
I think it's not a bad idea to think about JUST. RUN. FASTER. Good Luck and more continued success Jccc110m.
Click here to view the original post by Jccc110m which includes a video of a race in January 2016.
The big picture of track and field on and off the field is the most interesting to me. As coaches we need to teach this to our athletes. As athletes taking control of what we hope to accomplish is not only cool, it will be a big asset once you hang up your spikes.
Thanks for reading.
All the best,
Ange