Strength training for fast track and field runs

Brief introduction to fast running training

The training of fast runs, as for many other disciplines, cannot ignore the development of the general abilities of the athlete (especially in the initial phase of starting the sport), even if at a later time it is equally essential to introduce specific training. speed in running.
NB. The predisposition to sprint is a skill that emerges very quickly in the young athlete, who will immediately understand his tendency to speed disciplines.

Means for training fast runs

The means to be used for training fast runs are of 3 types:

General means (support of basic skills)
Special Means (dissimilar from the technical gesture but highly correlated to the "increase in performance)
Specific means (partial or total reproduction of the technical gesture).

Technical prerequisites for training in fast running

The key feature of the fast runner is the ability to accelerate the body from a standstill and maintain the acquired speed until the end of the performance; it can be deduced that it is first of all indispensable to DEVELOP a certain muscular STRENGTH and, not least, a certain RAPIDITY "in expressing it". Moreover, strange but true, in young athletes some incorrect technical expressions directly depend on the muscular efficiency of one or more districts, placing the search for strength at the basis of the athletic-performance evolution.
Ultimately, the search for strength represents a milestone in the training of the young athlete BUT it must be adjusted on the basis of overall progress and (for young people) on the level of physical growth of each individual athlete.

Ability to train for fast running

Ability to express the different types of force (maximum dynamic, explosive-elastic, explosive-elastic-reflected)
Ability to take rapid running steps
Ability to take large running steps
Ability to interpret the best compromise of the above
Ability to perform the most effective running technique
Ability to relax in the development of high speeds
Low degree of muscle viscosity that strength work tends to compromise and which must therefore be recovered with appropriate exercises (which is why the development of strength has always been correlated with the decrease in agility, general dexterity and speed or rapidity of movement ; in reality, this can ONLY happen in the absence of transformation of the general force into special and specific).

Strength training objectives for fast races in the different youth categories

12-13 years - Boys category: harmonious development of dynamic and fast strength with particular attention to the flexion-extensors of the lower limbs. Exercises:

Gaits with bends in advance (in advance)
Subsequent folds apart with leap (in place, one limb at a time)
Bends apart alternating with jump (in place, alternation in the aerial phase)

In addition to the above, it would be good practice to outline the learning of the fundamental exercises that will be used in the next category: horizontal jumps (alternating and successive), breaststroke and leap run.
These executions must be maintained throughout the annual preparation cycle, appropriately inserted after the warm-up or after the technique and / or speed exercises but before the resistance.

14-15 years - Cadet category: similar to the previous one with the adoption of light overloads such as weighted belts and beginning of the adoption of the barbell (execution of the classic weight lifting exercises (push and pull). The technique is acquired through PARTIAL or incomplete passages:

Back pull (arching the trunk and no arms)
Back pull and chest pull (rapid arm flexion surgery)
Turn to the chest and push up of the arms (starting from the turn to the chest with simultaneous bending of the legs or in a spread)

These executions must be maintained throughout the annual preparation cycle, appropriately inserted after the warm-up or after the technique and / or speed exercises but before the strength, therefore also the resistance.

16-17 years - Cadet category: increase of the load both in the pre-athletic exercises (without compromising the dynamic expression of the gesture), and in the lifting exercises, with the aim of adapting everything to the subjective capacities; it is essential that the athlete also acquires the gestures of squat and ½ squat.
In this category the strength is developed only in the preparatory and non-competitive period, while in the latter it is essential to maintain the executions of the jumps in alternating form.

18-19 years - Junior category: the work takes on greater specificity; strength is strongly developed from the dynamic maximal point of view, with the aim of recruiting and training as many fibers as possible and with ever greater effectiveness. At the same time, it is essential to seek the development of speed, thus expressing EXPLOSIVE strength; for this purpose, the work will focus particularly on the reflex stimulus of the muscle in the eccentric contraction phase, resulting in the development of the explosive-elastic-reflex force.
The exercises with overload are:

Squat (maximum strength)
½ fast squat (fast expression of strength)
½ squat jump or standing start (explosive expression of strength)
½ continuous squat jump with counter-movement (to strengthen the eccentric "recessive" moment).

These general exercises are ESSENTIAL for increasing strength in its various forms, which always correlates with an increase in running speed; however, these are protocols that require extensive and meticulous application. which necessarily subordinates to the articulation of special and specific means of training (technical-applicative) specific for the speed race.
In light of this, executions of sprint uphill and i leaps, but only later (by replacing the latter) the sprint with tow and of leaps over obstacles; lastly (by eliminating towing and reducing jumps) the sprinted run. Ultimately, the TRANSIT is carried out from exercises with "concentric" muscle contraction (squats) to other more rapid ones (climbs and towing), to others that act mainly on the "eccentric" contraction (vertical leaps on obstacles and sprints with belt).

The strength in the double periodization for training in fast running of athletics

In young athletes in athletics it is essential to develop a certain cultural background in the management of competitions; it is therefore a good idea to choose to face different events a year (at least 2 important), which makes it necessary to modify the periodization of training (in two blocks) and the recombination of strength sessions in the various micro-macro-meso cycles and perids.
As anticipated, it is necessary to work on strength in a general, special and specific way; it is therefore possible to affirm that, in the double periodization, the first block is characterized by sessions mainly of a general and special nature by means of overloads, sprints and jumps. In the second block, on the other hand, if a significant stimulus of strength were still necessary, it would be centered on the first cycle, using light loads and in dynamic form, while in the following cycles there would remain mule-leaps and vertical leaps on obstacles and sprints with weighted belt.

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