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Alex,

During the wall squat, it's normal to slowly slip down the wall correct? I tried them out and found that I'm pulling my hips away from the wall. I think this happens when my glutes disengage, but I'm not sure. Have you had this happen with any of your athletes?

6% DO = 2-3 reps?? I dont follow that math at all. One rep is already 9% DO if 11 reps was the initial.

Some would say that there is a core issue there or some imbalance as it looks like Gay has a slight hitch sometimes. But who cares. If it aint broke...

I would have to agree that for conditioining, the 8 min rule is very effective when you have more than 2 exercises. 

This brings up another issue. If we look to optimize CNS recovery and the potentiation affects of depth drops, say in conjuction with a top speed workout, then we are looking at potentially 16mins before hitting depth jumps for a second time. Optimal for potentiation, maybe, but I dont think it's all that practical from a time standpoint; especially in a team environment. I think a 16 min setup may work very well just prior to a championship competition.

That being said, depth jumps also serve as a tool to learn how to manipulate force. If force manipulation and movement efficiency are the goal, then waiting for the full potentiation effects of the depth jumps may not be neccasary. I'm not up on the details, but I would think that the full potentiation effects could be manipulated by changing the variables, like drop height or as in with AMT, the acceleration. If the height of the drop is sub optimal in order to ingrain the movement patterns, then I think you gain some potentiation with also the learning aspect.

And now I forgot where I was going with this.....more to come later, I hope.

Recently I've take a very large interest in energy systems and their role in the setup of my workouts. I've found that I sometimes add too many elements into a work that tap into one or more energy systems, but using the 8min rule(I use 8-10mins depending) I feel that I'm not using my limited amounts of ATP optimally.
An example would be as follows:
1. Single leg RFI hops x 25s          Duration: 25s                                           Alactic bordering lactic
2. Single leg RFI hops x 25s          Duration: 25s                                           Alactic bordering lacticAlactic bordering lactic
3. Drops x5                                Duration: 2-5s (actuall absorb time)            ATP possible into Creatine Phospate by end of set
4. Straight leg bounds 20m           Duration: 3-4s                                         Creatine Phospate
5. flying 20m (20m lead)               Duration: 5s                                           Creatine Phospate

Now If I'm using the 8 min rule I have roughly 96 seconds between exercises (not including work time). Knowing that it takes roughly 15-20s at high intensity to fully deplete creatine stores, then after the bounds and sprints creatine stores are 25-33% depleted. Now take into account that it takes around 8 mins to fully replete creatine stores. So at minimum to start fresh on another rep I need 120-159s to be fully recovered (from an energy standpoint) to perform maximally between the bounds and sprints.

Im barely getting any recovery btw sprints, and if that is my goal then Im shortchanging myself. Add in the fact that for my RFI hops I will be depleting creatine stores before tapping into glucose as an ATP source. So now I have 4 elements in my 8 min cycle that are not being trained optimally.

My thoughts are that this setup has too much crammed into one session. I think that if using the 8 min rule is to be effective, energy demands need to be leveraged against each exercise. So a revamped schedule may look like this:
Workout #1
1. Single leg RFI hops x 25s          Duration: 25s                                           Alactic bordering lactic
2. Single leg RFI hops x 25s          Duration: 25s                                           Alactic bordering lacticAlactic bordering lactic
3. Drops x5                                Duration: 2-5s (actuall absorb time)            ATP possible into Creatine Phospate by end of set
Workout #2
1. Straight leg bounds 20m           Duration: 3-4s                                         Creatine Phospate
2. flying 20m (20m lead)               Duration: 5s                                           Creatine Phospate
3. Drops x5                                Duration: 2-5s (actuall absorb time)            ATP possible into Creatine Phospate by end of set


And within the workouts, it would make sense to alter the rests to optimize ATP replenishment. Longer rests btw two elements with high energy demands and a shorter rest after the drops.

This is obviously only taken from an energy standpoint. I'm not as educated on the rate of CNS fatigue, but I'd imagine it follows closely.

Thoughts?

Thanks! Im very proud of those kids.

As for my college career, I walked onto the team as a 41' triple jumper. Nothing special by any means. I progressively got worse until I tore my hamstring mid freshman year. My first meet back after taking two months off, I PRed to 43'. That's how overtrained I was. Spent the next two years never reaching that mark again. In that time I was plagued with injuries including shin splints, pulled hop flexor, and torn cartilage in both knees. Going into Sr year I was restriced from the traditonal preseason of running stairs for an hour. We also got a jumps coach who focused on quality over quantity. I improved to 45' after spending 2 years not cracking 43' again. Unofficially I jumped 46' in practice. I was strong, had great technique but was slow as sin.

The coach had no idea how to manage the needs of specific events. Preseason was spent running/bounding stairs from 30-60mins nonstop. That was 8 weeks of aerobic development. I can't remember one workout that included more than 45s recovery, most had a jog as recovery.

Secondly, volume was WAY too high. He was proudest of a workout that was 16x200m on an indoor track. Goal time was 32-35s with 1-1:30 rest. A midseason workout once was 3x8x80m all out sprints with a walk back and 5 mins recovery.

Nothing was ever timed or measured so there was no concept of a drop off. We ran till we dropped.

Finally there was no real speed work up until the week of league championships. At that point we would do a workout along the lines of a flying 30 with a 200m walk recovery. So speed was never developed..it was only introduced at the end. That was their idea of peaking.

In that time I saw a lot of good athletes get worse while a very small handfull improved. And the only ones that really improved were the multi-event athletes who were predisposed to have a higher work capacity. Most other people didnt even beat their HS marks until Sr year. Some never even came close.

Joel C.
Soon to be 29. Im a former D1 track athlete. I walked onto a team and worked my ass off for 4 years under a moron. Since then I've been doing what most of us have...expanding our knowledge. Im a full time engineer and a part-time coach. I coached the jumps for a HS indoors. My top boy held the best long jump in North New Jersey for a while and my top girl was top 20 in the state. I'm glad to be here where I know a lot of the noise will be drowned out by science.