E-book Category: Parenting, Sports E-book Title: Training Kids For Speed Book Description: This E-book aims to integrate Modern Sprint Training Ideas into the methods used for the improvement of speed in any developing athlete of any age. The aim is for this book to help all coaches/parents/teachers of Young sprinters and also those involved in sports which value fast running. It introduces a large range of ways following recent research to be more effective in shaping running technique and improving speed.
A passion for me as a coach has always been in developing Middle Distance runners. It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to work patiently and persistently toward improving running form and speed. Good Middle Distance performance is very reliant on the athletes ability to run with and maintain good form so that they can run at the speeds required for the duration of their event. Because of this the principles explained in this book are important to any Distance Runner. All young athletes need to learn and practise running properly so that they can run faster easier and avoid injury.
To Coaches, Following the principles displayed in Training Kids for Speed will almost certainly see clear improvement in the running performances of the athletes or players in your care. Many ideas contained in Training Kids for Speed should also help decrease the athletes chances of injury.
To Parents, Reading Training Kids for Speed will prepare you to understand the importance of your children being shaped technically as they mature. It also explains the way that a large variety of areas of training impact on running performance and technique. It discusses what is good practice and what is not. If your children have programs that embrace the principles contained in this book they will have an increased chance of reaching their speed potential and will also have plenty of fun doing it.
Index of Contents
Chapter 1 The New Biomechanics of Sprinting A detailed description of the latest technique of Sprinting that is displayed by Athletes like Marion Jones and Maurice Greene. Also discussion of how a knowledge of this can be applied to any developing athlete.
Chapter 2 Sprinting & the Nervous system The Nervous system is quite limited in its capacity to recover from certain types of stresses. This is a very important area to understand when aiming to produce and train for high speeds.
Chapter 3 Strength Development How can strength best be developed in Kids?
Chapter 4 Power Development Any athlete that wants to accelerate fast and have a higher maximium speed will need to be able to develop more power. What can be done to improve power?
Chapter 5 Endurance Development How can athletes develop endurance without decreasing speed. What is good long-term? What is bad practise?
Chapter 6 Improvement of Technique Important guidelines in the development of improved technique. Making sure there is technical improvement is the prime indicator of what is good coaching and what is not.
Chapter 7 Training Session Ideas - Over 10 A4 pages of ideas for training sessions. The section also contains guidelines for designing appropriate sessions to be more effective at improving technique and performance both long term and short term. There are many special sessions that should be done with young kids eg a 15s 100m runner could do a maximum speed session like 2 sets of 3 runs over standing start 30 or 40m resting between about 3-4minutes, and doing something different like Med Ball activities between sets. This section aims to explain how to design sessions that are appropriate - it is not just a collection of standardized sessions. Creativity is a big part of the fun of coaching and athletes love variety. The key to fun and effectiveness is a coach delivering a variety of effective training activities within certain guidelines.
References & Recommended Resources - Includes about 30 links to special articles on the web and other resources.
The information in the book has been gathered over many years. It is a combination of shared knowledge of a number of Australia's best Sprint Coaches and also information gathered directly and indirectly from some of the coaches of the Worlds Elite Sprinters.
