Jaybird,

I promised more lately…it’s later.   The goal is to teach your guys to overcome the Cro-Magnon syndrome (CMS) of Lactic Acid burns so lets quit and slow down. This read kind of explains it… http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/sports/johnson_6-24.html  and this to understand the importance of STAR in this training watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTxzaKLCXsc and this (the last section is in slow mo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj9RnxtKrPc&NR=1 Note the hat CG(center of gravity of the chest) is slightly in front of the hip while the traction foot is (ball of the foot) under the hat CG.

Presently if you don’t have a dual you won’t be able to train the bilateral scapular movement observable in the last part of that u tube…but you can train scapular mobility to and through fatigue which will help the running gait and defeat CMS.

There are two exercises that you should do in addition to the stabilization program and some slight changes to the stabilization program for the sprinter.

Do the entire stabilization program with the knees at 10-5 degrees (bent just enough to know there really bent) and 90-0 to 95-5 ratio weight distribution on the feet. 90% being on the balls of the feet.   Best to do this in socks or bare foot. 

The other two exercises… I’ll make a hokey video of… and send email.   They are exclusively to train the scaps to retract and protract while working with the balls of the feet in traction and kick.  Protract and retract for the right scap and then the left.  Each exercise for 5 minutes…a total of 20 minutes exercise with about 2 minute rests between exercises.  When doing the scap specific exercises the knees will be bent past 15 degrees but not more than 30 degrees with 100%weight on the balls of the feet.

Keep 7.5 pounds on the sled for both exercise programs …however after the athlete can accommodate 5 minutes of the scap exercises at 7.5 pounds move to 2.5 pounds and pick up the pace.

The hour workout it will be around 900 to 1000 calories and all fast twitch… so a good protein rich diet mixed with greens high in all the good metals would be good.   Water for hydration at the break between stabilization and sports specific exercise. As stated the stabilization program first.

Work with good STAR… keep up the pace…suck up the CMS feelings and go.   The control of the feelings is where it’s at…and, to me that means fuel.  Fuel is energy.   

There are 2 ways to get anaerobic fuel. Metabolize it at the cellular level and digestive processes and metabolize it at the cellular level and digestive processes.  Ops.   Let me put it another way…eat properly and have the right stuff to metabolize or rest longer between sets and still not perform well.  Ops. Ok, just eat right…metabolizable protein calories not carbs and dark dark green veggies.

Some exercises for helping stride length should be designed for the future...

Impulse Training as it Relates to Sprinting. 

First off, the Impulse Stabilization program will do worlds of good in increasing sprint speed.  This is because of the balance, coordination, and holistic neural training accomplished by the exercise.  What follows here is an explanation of some of the aspects and forces which must be overcome to run at world record speeds and sprint specific exercises that accommodate that environment.

Two things govern speed in running; strike rate – the number of propelling strikes to the ground per second (strikes per second SPS) and the SL length (SL).  One can have a SPS of 6 with a SL of 1.75M and move at 10.5 Meters/ second…compared to a SPS of 4.5 with a SL of 2.5M and move at 11 Meters/ second…which on average would break the current world 100 M record.  I won’t get into splitting hairs about the numbers because of the different phases of sprinting …ie…out of the block, transition to vertical, SL in the turn and SL on the straight. So lets just look and the principles.

Obviously a 2.5 meter SL at 11+ meters per second would require considerable flight time between foot falls.  And strike contact time would need to be very short considering each SL consumes less than .2 seconds with the vast amount of time in flight.  Just how short is that strike time?  How is the speed maintained?

Let’s analyze the physics of the drill.   During the sprint you really want the hip and chest to stay relatively still in the up and down plane which means the sprinter is limited to from 15 to no more than 20 degrees of  hip extension during the sprint…any more and the hip will move downward towards the ground and energy will be lost to gravity.  Foot fall should occur just ahead of or almost directly below the vertical CG line with traction engaging in about 6ms.  This keeps the CG relatively ahead of planted foot and kind of falling forward during ground contact and allows the sprinter to use a little gravity to help in the acceleration process converting vertical forces to horizontal.   Done wrong this technique will slow you down done right…well.   If the athlete was say 1.85 meters tall his hip ball running height would need to be around .95 meters above the ground….it all means his foot contact on the ground cannot exceed 30 ms to sustain 11+ meters per second…since the neurological traction engagement takes 6ms the power for acceleration propulsion must be expended in less than 24ms…did I say acceleration?   The aerodynamic drag on this sprinter moving at 11mps will be a minimum of 156 Newton’s (35 pounds of drag) and will require over 1600 watts of power to overcome at sea level. Don’t get real running watts confused with treadmill…the treadmill has no aerodynamic  drag. These forces get exponentially greater as the average velocity increases…like 2200 watts to go 11.4 mps with 195 Newton’s drag (44 pounds of drag).

The human surface area of a 1.85m tall athlete weighing 79 kg is 2.02m².  Drag = Cd X ((Air Density X Velocity² ) divided by 2) X Reference Area.  Cd is the drag coefficient of different shaped bodies…the average human is 1.15.  And, Power to overcome Drag = Drag force X velocity

With each flight SL the air will slow the body down.   So to average 11+ meters per second the sprinter must accelerate faster than that speed with each SL.  At 11+ mps air time between strikes is about 190ms.   That means the body is going to fall toward the earth approximately 15 mm (5/8^th inch) unless something helps the body maintain altitude in an antigravity manner.  Because the vast majority of sprint time is in flight balance can play a key role in putting the strike of the next step just where it ought to be while maintaining rhythm and flow.

So the mission is 3 fold:

A. Accelerate with each footfall to overcome drag

B. Impulse antigravity forces to maintain level CG flight

C. Develop balance at high rpm during flight to maximize leg motion for the next Strike.

Sports specific Exercises for Sprinting

Addressing footfall….this is what makes it all happen…if you don’t start the strike right it won’t end productively. Go to this youtube presentation to see sprint exercises with Impulse Training designed specifically to address the three needs.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LjvH0kGMvE

With a ratio greater than 7:1 of flight to ground contact, what is done during flight is critical.   Maintaining a relatively level CG mass will greatly contribute to conserving velocity while preparing for the next accelerating strike.  Enter the inertia of the arms and their vector able capacities.  Train the body to translate rotational forces of the arms to vertical forces at just the right time. The timing and snap of which will be a vertical impulse providing lift …or in this case …preventing gravity from pulling the hip down.  This also sets up the balance for the next strike.  One thing to keep in mind…always do these exercises just barely leaning forward.