sport

Strength training for fast athletics races

Short introduction to fast running training

The training of fast races, as for many other disciplines, cannot ignore the development of the athlete's general abilities (especially in the initial phase of starting sport), even if at a later time it is equally essential to introduce specific training of speed in the race.

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 rides

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

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

Technical requirements for fast running training

The fundamental characteristic of the fast rider is the ability to accelerate the body from a standstill and keep the speed acquired until the end of the performance; it can be deduced that it is first of all essential to DEVELOP a certain muscular STRENGTH and, not least, a certain RAPIDITY in expressing it. Furthermore, strange but true, in young athletes some incorrect technical expressions depend directly on the muscular efficiency of one or more districts, placing the search for strength at the base of athletic-performance evolution.

Ultimately, the search for strength represents a milestone in the training of the young athlete. MA must be adjusted on the basis of overall progress and (for young people) on the level of physical growth of each individual athlete.

Capacity to train for the fast run

  • Ability to express the different types of force (maximum dynamic, explosive-elastic, explosive-elastic-reflected)
  • Ability to take quick steps
  • Ability to take large strides
  • Ability to interpret the best compromise of the aforementioned
  • Ability to achieve the most effective running technique
  • Decontraction capacity in the development of high speeds
  • Low degree of muscular viscosity that strength work tends to compromise and which must therefore be recovered with appropriate exercises (which is why the development of force has always been related to the decrease in agility, general dexterity and speed or rapidity of movement in reality, this can happen ONLY in the absence of transformation of the general force into a special and specific one).

Strength training goals for fast races in the different youth categories

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

  • Gaits with forward bends (forward)
  • Fold later with a jump (on the spot, one limb at a time)
  • Bend apart, alternate with leap (on the spot, alternation in the air phase)

In addition to the aforementioned, it would be a good idea to outline the learning of the fundamental exercises that will be used in the next category: horizontal leaps (alternating and subsequent), frog leaps and sprung stroke.

These executions must be maintained for the entire annual preparation cycle, properly inserted after the heating or after the technical 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 ballasted belts and beginning of the adoption of the barbell (execution of the classic weight lifting exercises (momentum and tearing). The technique is acquired through PARTIAL passages or incomplete:

  • Back pull (arching the trunk and without arms)
  • Back pull and chest pull (rapid arm flexion intervention)
  • Turned to the chest and pushed upwards in the arms (starting from the turn to the chest with simultaneous bending of the legs or in divaricata)

These executions must be maintained throughout the annual preparation cycle, suitably inserted after the heating or subsequently to the technical and / or speed exercises but before the strength, therefore also of the resistance.

16-17 years - Cadet category : increased load both in pre-athletic exercises (without compromising the dynamic expression of the gesture), and in raising exercises, with the aim of adapting everything to subjective abilities; it is essential that the athlete also acquires squat and ½ squat gestures.

In this category, strength is developed only in the preparatory and non-competitive period, while in the latter it is essential to maintain the leaps in alternate form.

18-19 years - Junior category : work takes on greater specificity; strength is developed strongly from a maximal dynamic point of view, with the aim of recruiting and training as many fibers as possible and with increasing effectiveness. In parallel, it is essential to seek the development of speed, thus expressing an EXPLOSIVE force; to this end, the work will focus particularly on the reflex stimulus of the muscle in the eccentric contraction phase. The result is the development of the explosive-elastic-reflected force.

The exercises with overload are:

  • Squat (maximum strength)
  • ½ quick squat (quick expression of strength)
  • ½ squat jump or starting from a standstill (explosive expression of force)
  • ½ continuous squat jump with counter-movement (for strengthening the eccentric "recessive" moment).

These general exercises are ESSENTIAL due to the increase in strength in its various forms, which is always correlated to an increase in speed in the race; however, these are protocols that need a wide and meticulous application. which necessarily subordinates to the articulation of the special and specific training means (technical-applications) specific for the speed race.

In the light of this, sprint uphill runs and leaps will be introduced as soon as possible, but only later (replacing the latter) will the sprints with towing and the jumps on the obstacles ; finally (by eliminating the towing and reducing jumps) the sprung stroke is used. Ultimately, the TRANSIT is accomplished from exercises in "concentric" muscle contraction (squats) to faster ones (ascents and towing), to others that mainly act on the "eccentric" contraction (vertical leaps on obstacles and sprint with belt).

The strength in the double periodization for training in fast athletics races

In young athletics athletes 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 training periodization (in two blocks) and the recombination of strength sessions in the various micro-macro-meso cycles and peridi.

As anticipated, it is necessary to work on the force in a general, special and specific manner; it is therefore possible to state that, in the double periodization, the first block is characterized by sessions which are mainly of a general and special nature through overloads, sprints and leaps. In the second block instead, if it were still necessary a significant stimulus of the force would be centered in the first cycle, using light loads and in dynamic form, while in the following cycles they would remain mules-leaps and vertical leaps on obstacles and sprints with weighted belt.

Bibliography:

  • The track and field coach's manual - Part one: general information, races and march - Studies and Research Center - pag. 21:38.