How do sprinters train in winter? Some pictures of young club members training in the early 2000’. First is Natalie Quinn hurdle stepping at Scotstoun.
Just a simple mobility exercise that is capable of many variations. eg do every hurdle with straight front leg, do two forward and one back all the way along, You really need to work on range of movement over the winter – otherwise you end up with a stride length shorter than the opposition who have been doing the drills. Natalie was a member of the Bank of Scotland international development squad.
Below: Agility ladders are great things and can be used in many ways. In this one Natalie is doing a kind of hop scotch and and then there are all the fast ones up along the outside with a fot in each space in a variety of progressions. They can be used of course on grass, we even did them on the balcony in Kelvin Hall as well as in the gym and on the track. In the next one down it’s high knees at speed stepping in every space.
THey all did the above drills and many more besides – the ladders are cheap enough to buy, easy to use and have a variety of uses. Jonathan below was also a member of the Bank of Scotland squad and he managed to fit in a speed ball session. Not easy to fit in because you need the premises – he used the gym at Marinecraft in Dumbarton with Bob Burness, an ex-professional runner. It was used as part of a short circuit of five exercises but for more information on it, have a look at Allan Wells’s book on sprint training. There are also videos on Youtube. The ball can be fixed up in a cupboard in the gym and locked there until used if accommodation is a problem. There was one like that in Meadowbank for a particular coach to use with his athletes.
