There may be some confusion about who should do drills for speed training and why performing power speed drills will help you sprint faster.
I guess the debate of how and why Power Speed Drills are good for sprinting will go on and on.
I was taught that there is not one magic bullet answer for sprinting well.
The pursuit to acquire the skill to improve your sprinting will be a worth while one in my opinion.
My advice would be to learn as much as you are able about all the complex and simple aspects of this specific skill.
Take a look below and see what you think.
Angela
Question about Power/Speed Drills. I notice many times that in discussing power/speed many people leave out the “C” drill. I guess I have a twofold question:
- Can you clarify what the C drill is? I have seen two very different video variations as to what the drill is. I guess what I am looking for is how Mach intended this drill to be performed.
- Why is the drill not used more? I figure that maybe the answer to 1 may answer this, or I could be way off base and maybe it is used more often that I thought.
Thank You
Hello Jason,
Thank you for your questions.
For as long as I have been in track and field I don’t recall ever doing or hearing about what a ‘C’ drill is. I started running track before 1980 and I have been competing, training and working in track ever since.
While living, training and working with Charlie from 1988 to 2010 I do not ever remember doing or hearing him talk about a ‘C’ drill.
I have reviewed Gerard Mach’s “Sprints and Hurdles” manual which is no longer in print. There is no mention what so ever to any drill called the C drill in Gerard’s 58 page book.
I did a search online based on your question to my blog. I found a few people who added a ‘C’ drill into Gerard’s Power speed drills despite Gerard not illustrating or discussing this drill in the manual.
The one diagram I found showing a ‘C’ drill resembles a drill I learned and performed extensively with Coach Charlie Francis called bum or butt kicks. We did bum kicks as part of our power speed drills which usually done daily on both tempo and speed days as part of our warm up.
To perform a bum kick you are essentially kicking your butt over and over again. We would usually do bum kicks over a 10 , 20 or 30 meter distance. ( or more depending on the purpose) in sets of 3 , 6 or 8 depending on the time of year. Larger volumes of drills in the spring and fall and smaller distances and volumes overall during pre comp and comp phases of our annual plan.
I hope I have answered your questions.
Best,
Angela Coon