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Competing in the 400m track and field race presents a multitude of challenges. This is why excelling in the 400m race requires having a comprehensive and specific 400m training program. 

There are some basic drills and tips that most track and field coaches know to teach to their 400m runners. But because these strategies are well-known, they aren’t going to give you any competitive advantages.

Ernie Clark is in his second year as an Assistant Coach in charge of sprints, hurdles, and jumps after joining the NAU Track & Field coaching staff in the fall of 2023.

In the 2024 outdoor season, Coach Clark sent six athletes in eight events to the NCAA West Regional, with the women’s 4x400-meter relay team earning a spot at the national meet. Clark joins the team from San José State, where he coached 11 Mountain West Conference Champions. 

Coach Clark’s ‘Maximizing Potential in the 400m’ clinic provides race strategies and keys to maximizing an athlete’s potential in the 400m. We’ve pulled 3 keys to give you a taste of why he's one of the best.

Best Way to Increase Speed

Best Way to Increase Speed

Coach Clark stresses that no time should be wasted when there’s an opportunity to engage and teach your athletes. This starts during warmups, which is a great opportunity to make people faster. 

If a coach is engaged with a track team’s warmup, it will not only help ensure that their team isn’t slacking off and getting their bodies prepared properly, but it will also help so that they’re facilitating good habits rather than bad ones. 

“You can help all those things get better in warm-up,” Coach Clark says. “Just doing that, if you end the day with that, and then you go to races, [athletes] will actually be faster.” 

400m Training Keys Part 1 

400m Training Keys Part 1

Coach Clark also notes that all of his speed workouts will be between 30m to 150m in length, with the occasional 200m run. Of course, he also employs training sessions with runs that are longer for his 400m runners, but the focus for those won’t be on speed. 

“It’s not how fast you run, it’s how you run fast,” is a quote that Coach Clark lives by early on in the season. What he means by this is that he isn’t worrying too much about his athletes’ times, but instead about how their habits and running mechanics are developing. 

Finally, coaches should not try to coach their runners on a meet day. Any coaching should have already taken place before that point, and the meet day should just be encouraging athletes to not overthink. 

400m Racing Strategies

Coach Clark stresses that 400m race strategy won’t change depending on whether the race is indoors or outdoors. The reason for that is the runner has got to get to a breaking point indoors to make sure that they don’t get stuck behind somebody. 

He also suggests that runner should be taking control through their speed immediately in the race; ideally within the first four seconds. He also explains how 95% of 400m races are won within the first 200 meters, so there’s no reason a runner should be pacing themselves in the first half of the race. 

Thank you Coach Clark for sharing this insight with us. To dive deeper into 400m excellence you can check out his Maximizing Potential in the 400m course.

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