Coach ,

A lot goes into being a successful sprinter.

And even if a sprinter has all of the natural speed in the world, their performance can crumble if they don’t have a training regimen. This is why all sprinters must have a strict, thoughtful, and effective training regimen. 

And it’s up to their coaches to curate one for them.

Luckily, Kebba Tolbert is willing to help you build the perfect one for your athletes. 

Kebba Tolbert is entering his 14th season as the women’s sprints/hurdles and horizontal jumps coach for Harvard, and tenth as associate head coach of the squad.

Being a coach at Harvard, Coach Tolbert knows that a lot of thought must go into an ideal training routine. Thankfully, he has shared his results in his ‘Building A Sprint Inventory: What Should Be On Your Menu’ course. We’ve taken his best insights and included them for your use below. 

Warm Up

Warm Up

Coach Tolbert believes warm-ups should be much more in-depth than merely jogging. At Harvard, his warm-ups are divided into two different segments: static flexibility and dynamic flexibility. 

Static flexibility means stretching while remaining in the same plate, while dynamic flexibility involves using active movement. 

Some of the static flexibility exercises that Coach Tolbert suggests focus on activating the back and core muscles. For example, stretches like the back arch and the spinal roll are valuable for engaging the back muscles. 

Coach Tolbert recommends drills such as mountain climbers, bicycles, and clockwise hip circles for dynamic flexibility. The goal for static and dynamic warm-up exercises is that the athlete’s entire body is activated and engaged. 

Acceleration

Acceleration

One of the most important physical components for a sprinter’s success is acceleration. 

An acceleration development exercise that Coach Tolbert suggests is using resistance runs, having your athlete pull a tire or a sled behind them, to generate resistance. 

It’s important to exercise caution and safety when doing these sorts of exercises, because they can be dangerous to your athletes if done incorrectly, or too often. Coach Tolbert suggests strapping some harness to your athlete’s waist and ensuring that the sled is eight to ten yards away from the athlete when they begin their sprint. 

To start, you can have your athletes do 12 resistance sprints of 30 meters. After a few weeks of that, your athletes can progress to 10 sprints at 40 meters. From there, they can go to 9 sprints at 50 meters, then 8 sprints at 60 meters when they’re at their peak.

Rethinking

Rethinking

Coach Tolbert emphasizes that it’s the total volume that a runner is doing that amounts to their total work capacity. In other words, coaches must account for the running that a sprinter is doing during their meet as part of their training. 

That’s why Coach stresses that interval training should only take place twice a week during the season at most. 

These are just a few tidbits that could serve as building blocks for you when you begin recrafting a training program for your sprinters that Coach Tolbert imparts during his clinic.

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