Lesson plan for sprinting

Intention: To understand & practice the cues for sprinting and utilise these in
relevant activities suitable for a school situation. To put the theory from
last week into practice and attempt some of the various aspects that
sprinters must train for improvement: acceleration, speed, strength,
technique, varied pace.

To understand how the push pass is used for relays and to practice
basic passing for a 4 x 100 relay.

Equipment: 30 markers, ladder, small yellow hurdles, starting blocks.

White board/s for different stations.

Warm up 1: Turn over the hats from Great ideas for group games. 20 or more hats
in an area. Half turned over, half upright. Two teams. One team tries to
turn the hats over, other turns them upright. Count at the end for
winning team.

Stretch Calves, Hammies

Warm up 2: Plus Command game like shipwreck in marked out area. Commands
instead
Front straight: run to front straight
Back straight: run to back straight
Start line: run to start line
Finish line: run to finish line
On your marks: in on your marks position
Warm up: stretch exercise
Personal best: jump up and down and yell

Stretching: Quads, back, arms

Reminder of sprinting cues as station exercises are demonstrated:

Slight lean, body forward of driving leg (leg behind body)
Vigorous but relaxed arms 90 degrees
Head in alignment with body
High knee lift
Hips high
On balls of feet
Toes up slightly but no strain on shins
Hands up to shoulders and past pocket
Shoulders relaxed

Activity: Divide into groups of 2-3. Four different stations:

1. FLEXIBILITY & STRENGTH: 2 sets of Squats x 10, pushups x 10,
hurdle bounces x 5, stretch hip flexors and ITBs, bracing: prone and
side for 20-30sec each
2. STARTS FROM BLOCKS: 3 x practice starts on your own and get
blocks set up. 3-4 x race starts against another partner or 2.
 3. RUN THRUS & VARIED PACE RUNS: 4 x run thrus with good
technique, 4 x varied pace runs eg: 20 fast, 20 relax, 20 fast. One
person to coach and give feedback and then swap.
4. DRILLS FOR TECHNIQUE: Ladder, fast arms, fast feet x 3, jumps
2 feet, x 3, hops, x 3, walking drill x 3, Knee highs x 3, Butt kicks x 3
5. HOMEWORK DRILLS: Teach the other students your 2 homework
drills.

Discussion: This is where you would do the main focus of the session if training for
interschool carnival eg: pyramid, 20, 30, 40, 60, with 3-6 min bw or 3 x
200 @ 400 pacew with 5min bw for 400m runners or 3 x 120 or 3 x
150 for 200m runners, plenty of rest bw. OR if in a PE class you could
do some handicapped races over 60m working on acceleration (from
the previous game) in the first 30m and technique in the second 30m or
some relay races.

RELAYS

Discussion: Relays: Up pass, down pass, push pass. Push pass, more natural and
used by National relay team.

Cues for the push pass:

outgoing runner
in 3pt start position or standing start
take off fast
hand out at shoulder height when hand called
thumb down
fingers together and pointing away from the body
palm of hand vertical
soft hand, grasp baton
Receiver grabs at top of baton (becomes bottom when brought
forward)

Incoming runner:
Maintain speed
extend arm straight forward.
Eyes focused on runner and push.

Team: Alternate hand change, 1 right hand carry, 2 stands outside of

lane receives left hand, 3 inside, right hand, 4 outside, left hand

Activity 1: Demo pass. In teams, stand in line, practice passing to each other in
staggered changeover. Start with first runner through all to end as fast
as possible. Non visual only, call hand. First team wins. Turn around
and try from other end.

Activity 2: As above but spread out further still arm apart. A runner stands ten
metres back behind the team and must sprint to the front to receive the
baton before the baton gets there.
Discussion: Reminder of cues for transfer of baton. Discuss start for outgoing
runner. 2,3,4 point crouch start, look under arm pit to incoming runner.
Place mark (or tape) at approx 10-30 shoe steps.
Outcomer runner after approx 7 strides, extends arm backwards. OR
incoming runner yells out hand.
Incoming runner: stay in lane until all runners clear track.

Activity 3: Set out markers. Demo pass. Ten metres acceleration zone, 20m
takeover zone. Plus 20m behind acceleration zone (starting point for
race). In pairs work out start for outgoing runner and place a marker.
Suggest 20-30 steps to start with. Take 7 strides and or call hand. Races
to end of takeover zone.

Activity 4: Option: race relay if class would like to and if time.

Final discussion: Check understanding of cues for relays and direct to further info for
sprints and relays if needed.

Readings:
ATFCA coaching manual. pp 40-53, 54-64, 150-176
Great Ideas for group games. pp 38-43, 54-58, 74-89
Speed to win pp 12-40

References
Australian Track and Field Coaches Association, (2006), Coaching Manual.
AT&FCA, Brisbane Australia
Stewart, G., & de Bes, J. (2001) Speed to Win. Cambridge Publishing, West
Leederville, WA
Wensor, D. (2001), Great Ideas for Group Games. A collection of games for
conducting warm up activities and event skill training. Little Athletics, NSW.
 Training progression for 100-200m for carnival
preparation for secondary level.
Note: 400m training is similar but include longer distances
eg: more 200s, 300s and 500s.

Include warmup, drills, cool down, games etc. Time reps, record and aim to improve
following weeks. Plan for time trials over race distance every 3 weeks to check on
improvement. Main content:

Week 1 Day 1
3 x 20m starts as races fast with 2-3min bw
40m, 60m, 80m, 60m, 40m (or modified) with 2-5 minutes bw
Week 1 Day 2
3 x 20m starts as races fast with 1-3min bw
mark 60m with a marker every 20m
4-6 x sprint to first marker, relax to second, sprint to third
with 2-6 minutes bw reps

Week 2 Day 1
4 x 20m starts as above from 200m start as variety
3 x 40m fast, 3 x 60m fast with 3-5min rest bw
Week 2 Day 2
3-4 x 120m with markers spaced every 40m. Run fast to first marker, relax to
second and fast to final marker. 4-6minutes bw

Week 3 Day 1
4 x 40m starts as above
40m, 60m, 80m, 100m, 120m with 5-6min rest bw
Week 3 Day 2
120m, 250m, 120m rest 6-10min bw

Week 4 Day 1
3 x 60m starts as above on 100 or 200 start
20m, 40m, 60m, 80m, 100m with 5-6min bw
Week 4 Day 2
2-3 x 150m plus 1 x 300m with 6-10min bw