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Spring break has arrived!
We as a team treat this week very differently than most other teams/sports. We encourage our kids to go on vacation and spend time with their families. We don't hold it against them because we see this week as a great way to recovery and build everlasting memories (which are incredibly important). There's more to life than track and field (as well as sports in general) and conveying this to the athletes always sets a positive and caring tone that the kids really appreciate and respond to.
In years past I've given athletes workouts that can be done on beaches, pools, etc. but I stopped doing that in recent years. A week away will not significantly diminish the hard work and gains they experienced over the past three weeks. Our bodies (generally) hold on to physical gains for two weeks before any loss occurs. Knowing that, and realizing how important my vacations are with my wife and kids, I decided to simply stop offering vacation workouts unless kids insist on one.
As for the kids that are staying back and attending track practice, my workouts are very short and to the point. Generally speaking I am at practice during spring break, but this year I won't be; and I want my workouts to be clearly understood by all jumpers (new and veteran). Here's what my plans look like:
Monday (sprint day)
- Approaches x6 with record keeping (how many boards did they hit?). I want to be able to look at the information when I return and see consistency.
Tuesday (explosion day)
- Find a 30m area and perform the following: skipping for height, skipping for distance, bounding, and jogging takeoffs. One rep is down and back to the location you started. If there is time afterwards, they can do some takeoff work into the sand pit if desired.
Wednesday (sprint day)
- Approaches x6 with record keeping (how many boards did they hit?). This is done twice this week because we have our first outdoor meet on the Tuesday after break and I want the kids to be as prepared as possible for those boards.
Thursday (meet)
- No pracitce
Friday (Good Friday)
- No practice
Even if athletes don't go somewhere on vacation I still want this week to be as refreshing/easy as possible due to needing a proper recovery before our season really starts to pick up. Having no practice Friday means that they can have a nice 3-day weekend before coming back to school and competing on that Tuesday.