Track & Field News Presents: Technique & Drills for Sprints

This excellent instructional Track & Field DVD covers speed, sprint mechanics, warm-up and drills, starts, acceleration mechanics, training and seasonal planning. Speed is defined as the product of stride length and stride frequency; Brian Fitzgerald works to improve both variables in his program.

Coach Fitzgerald's presentation begins with a lesson on how to generate more speed by increasing stride length and stride frequency. He includes a quick and easy to follow bounding routine and a body weight core strengthening routine. Fitzgerald then offers a breakdown of the necessary ingredients for attaining and maintaining exceptional sprint form.

Also included are over 20 warm-up and sprint drills. These drills follow a three-phase routine broken down into: rhythm drills, power drills, and speed drills.

Moving to the start, Fitzgerald presents the components of an effective start, including block and foot placement and alignment, hand position, desired body angles and how to get out of the blocks for an effective start. He also shows how to efficiently teach the start to an entire team in less than 5 minutes. In the acceleration phase, Fitzgerald presents drills and techniques to assist an athlete to achieve maximum velocity quickly and efficiently.

The training phase includes a breakdown of energy systems, how the systems are applicable to training high school athletes and specific workout examples for when and how to best train each system. Fitzgerald teaches how to breakdown the four phases of a season, and specifically shares how to design a season calendar with specific examples of the types of training that is essential for each of these phases. He includes a breakdown of an entire training week with workout suggestions.

This incredible presentation is sure to assist you and your athletes to achieve a higher level of sprint success.

58 minutes. 2007.