By Frank W. Dick, BAAB Director of Coaching, Great Britain
The 15th Annual Congress of the European Athletics Coaches Association (held in East Germany last January) focused on sprints and hurdles. We are fortunate to have this contribution firom EACA president and British director of coaching Frank Dick. Dick analyzes the Seoul 100m results and points out the important differences in sprint technique and training between men and women. REPRINTED FROM TRACK TECHNIQUE #109
THE DISCIPLINE To the winner of the Olympic 100m goes the accolade “The world’s fastest man/woman.” It is a discipline where the focus of achievement in terms of improved performance and/or in terms of defeating opponents is measured in tiny time increments: increments of personal performance improvement may be as small as 1/100th second; while the difference between a gold and silver medal may require examination of photo finish detail to 1/100th second. In preparing an athlete to challenge performance standards and opposition in pursuit of eventual Olympic success, the coach must reject the old adage that “sprinters are born not made.” Instead, he should consider the needs of the athlete against the demands of the discipline; evaluate potential contribution of all relevant resources; and then prepare custom built programs designed to meet short-, medium- and long-term objectives. THE DISCIPLINE SECTIONS a) Reaction and Response Speed b) Starting Acceleration c) Pickup Acceleration = Reaction time and 10m time = 30m time = Distance required to achieve maximum speed d) Maintaining Maximum = Distance maximum Speed speed held e) Reducing the rate of = Distance over which loss of maximum near-maximum is held speed after maximum speed peak is passed
10M BREAKDOWN IN SEOUL FINALS To illustrate these, we should look at the data made available by the IAAF Biornechanical Analysis program from the Seoul Olympic 100 finals. 100m MEN’S FINAL JOHNSON 10 1.83 20