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Today was a speed day and meet preparation day at practice.
To start off the practice I spent some time with one of the sprint coaches (Coach Boberg) watching/coaching the wicket drill. For guys we had spacings of 5 feet (in one line) and six feet (in two lines). For the girls we had spacings of only five feet as many of them were not able to hold proper sprint form while going through the six foot spacing line.
There were two stations (wickets and blocks) but I only helped out at the wickets station.
I generally don't watch sprint practices. I'm normally working with athletes on approaches at the pit or I'm preparing for the jumper specific practice time by setting up or raking. Watching the sprinters yesterday was FUN! A lot of them are getting so much better in the mechanics and form! It was very impressive to see how they have transformed so far this season!
After that was completed I had jumpers do approaches to make sure everyone is/was prepared for Tuesday's meets (Ripon and Janesville). Once each athlete had gotten 2-3 approaches in, I had a "meet preparation" discussion with them. I covered proper clothing, competitiveness, warming up and staying warm, approaching with purpose, helping one another out, etc. This is something I like to do often, and I highly recommend ALL coaches do the night before a meet (all season long).
I have even made videos for meet preparation in the past. It was for only for the regional, sectional, and state competitions last year but the kids really seemed to respond to them! Here is an example:
I am thinking about doing a video like this for every upcoming meet so that kids are prepared and ready to compete at their highest levels. I haven't made my mind up either way yet, but today will speak volumes on whether I need to or not.
TOMORROW:
Meets in Janesville and Ripon. Kids that don't compete at either meet are hurt and will have a recovery/rehab day back at practice with our long sprints coach (Coach Jackson).