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Sorry this one is a little later than usual. This past weekend was extremely busy.
Day 16 was a recovery day for the athletes that were set to compete on Saturday and a lactic acid day for everyone that wasn't.
I started the day working with a very small number of athletes at the jump pit (on triple jump). I have started changing my tune a little bit on "kicking back" during the hop phase as of late and I wanted to try some new coaching cues with a small group first to see how they'd handle it. The group did GREAT at understanding how to use their back leg properly to set up for the step phase so I was very encouraged. The new direction was that if they were to kick back they needed to do it at a specific angle, and to aim for the banana hurdle we use for our hop drills.
Another thing I realized is that I need to start having them do triple jump drills that focus on the entirety of the jump and not phase-by-phase. This was the first time this year I have put a large (over foot tall) banana hurdle out for phase 2, and they did great connecting everything. I have been so focused on breaking the phases up as a progression that I don't know if I've done a good enough job teaching the fluidity of the jump to some. From now on, we'll be doing at least two phases at once every time we work (hop to step or step to jump).
After my work with the triplers was complete, I went inside to help lead an RPR session with our athletes competing at Ripon on Saturday. The other athletes that weren't set to compete went outside and put together an incredibly hard sessions with Coach Maughan the head coach.
After RPR there was a split between either the weight room with Coach Kaminski (picture above) or our mental preparation work with Coach Frank.
For the first time this year I went to the weight room. Coach Kaminski has started a new program this year, and has been extremely excited at the possibilities it could provide our track team. I have been waiting to see what the excitement was all about, and it was GREAT. He has added a great deal more flexibility and mobility work into his weight room routines and I loved it. It should greatly help our jumpers!!!
Saturday's meet was a great success - read all about that in the "Meet #2" blog post.
MONDAY:
Is a speed day so we'll continue our approach work.