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Week 1 is officially in the books; and what a week it was! We have roughly 270 total athletes on our team, and our experiences this past week have been absolutely phenomenal. You'd think that with so many kids we'd experience some kind of behavioral issue(s), but when reflecting on the week's events our coaching staff couldn't be more impressed with our athletes!
On to practice plans.
Today we started with our dynamic warm up, which was followed by another explosion/conditioning day with the sprint coaches. We set up a large number of stations for our athletes. I was in charge of the "wickets" drill. This is one of my personal favorite drills in teaching athletes the proper running mechanics (check out the video). The athletes learn how to drive their knees while pushing forward with the proper speed. It's a GREAT drill!
Once the explosion time finished up I got to spend time working with my jumpers. We repeated Day 3's workout but added another step to help our athletes understand the proper takeoff. We again focused on the "flat, flat" motion but this time added skipping for height to help our athletes understand the proper knee and arm drives.
This week was all about acclimating their legs to the pounding the season will undoubtedly give them. The large number of takeoffs, plyometrics, explosion work, etc. will only make them better as the season progresses. If you are looking for one focus to start your season, a large number of explosive plyo movements is the way to go! If you don't, you won't properly condition your athletes legs in preparation for what they'll experience when the competition block starts.
NEXT WEEK
We'll continue the hard explosive movements, but will add more starts and approach work to start getting numbers recorded for upcoming meets.