No Conditioning or Tempo Running | A Sprint-Based Approach 

I’m adopting a lot of feed the cats in my track team here. We have a British exchange student whose club team back home does 5x400 spiked up at 80%. Why on earth would slow 400 repeats ever help someone PR in the 400?

It doesn’t surprise me. Our athletics/track training is so mired in ‘tradition’ that it’s very to break this cycle, especially as clubs over here have coaching set-ups that are very suspicious of anything new. It kind of reminds me of football/soccer in how inflexible we are in our approach. Where are you based, if you don’t mind me asking?

@@tchai91 Tradition is a tribe.

@@nationradical because sprint coaches don't really know what they are doing or they suffer from complexity bias. Endurance has already been solved, just run as much miles as you can with an 80/20 intensity distribution. All elites do this, rowing cycling running skating swimming etc. No one traines different. mileage and 80/20. But sprinting hasn't been solved yet. That's why you still see so many exercises. But my hunch is that just two 100m all out sprints a week will give you 90% of the results of any other program. Just like doing 1 set of squats to failure two times a week gives you 90% of the results of any other program (this is actually confirmed by research). Getting 100% of the results is only for masochists with exceptional talent. If you are not, just go 90%

HIIT seeks fatigue. We seek speed.

@@coachtonyholler my apologies, I’m not sure that I made my point well enough… For those who look to maintain fast twitch capabilities as we age ( it should be all of us) a couple of four to five second sprints a la your Atomic workout, or a few focussed max effort single rep box jumps, would be far better options than some of the stuff that is put out there in the fitness world and sold as speed orientated fitness work, which is really nothing of the sort. For folks of my age I would much rather prescribe an Atomic workout and a brisk walk than the 20 or 30 second puke inducing reps of a Sprint Interval workout, where the potential for injury is far higher. The point I’m trying to make is that, in reality your Feed the Cats approach should be more universally adopted and not just seen as a sprint program for high school kids. For what it’s worth as a species we were probably more suited to walking with the occasional short sprint thrown in, rather than endless long distance running or convoluted intervals which are seen today as a prescription for fitness.

@@stuartgilbert8619 Couldn’t agree more!

@@stuartgilbert8619 if someone is "sprinting" for 30sec it's not a sprint, bioenergetics wouldn't allow someone to sprint max effort that long, which is why you're correct. But sprinting is sprinting. Can NOT be done for a sustained duration such as your SIT example. HIIT is not sprinting either. It's work at 95% or greater than an established VO2max. It's also working a different energy system. Good argument and point....bad examples.

trackfootballconsortium.com/how-to-train-the-400-800-group/

Speed is the priority, so times should guide your training.

I'm not Tony Holler but sessions like this won't hurt at all as long as you aren't sacrificing your technique. They're actually really good preparation for when you end up doing longer sprints like some of the lactate workouts in FTC. Just make sure you progress into more race specific workouts.

@@elijahebbert6884 ya when I do coach "tempo" sessions I always say get into the right positions and focus on turnover. Slightly less force for sure but indoor it was a good chance to get reps around the curve and practice relaxing on the straights. Short sprints still king for sure though;)

That workout isn’t terrible. But, I HATE percentages. Give kids tangible marks. 23-second drill and my 4x4 predictors are AWESOME.

@@coachtonyholler best reply ever. "That isn't terrible" that'll keep me going for a while thanks Tony :) But honestly I watched a clip of our 300m rep of that workout(I was on the front of the train) and I was shocked on how slow it looked lol we did it in 45 so doesn't seem that slow but in a sprinting context not too fast when we would ideally like to race that in 37 seconds or so.

@@ericklein435 23 seconds is better!

Warm ups need to mirror intensity of performance, MICRODOSED. And, must sprint before you sprint. No miles for sprinters.

Never seen a cheetah warm up. But if you run faster than a cheetah (60mph), then maybe you should warm up.

@@jackcarpenters3759 thanks brother love your comment i will try

Nah.

Why is that

@@certified-l4391 Traditional conditioning detrains speed and explosiveness. In addition, it dampens the love of the sport. Feed the Cats teams have found better 4th quarter performance resulting from proudly eliminating the traditional soul-crushing crap done at the end of practice.

That’s for adding your expertise.