Not only did this year’s Olympic Games mark the high point of the year for pole vaulters, it also presented a new era in the sport. Two first-time Olympians won gold, showing adversity of against the tough conditions, as well as two seasons training and competing under a pandemic. Below I take an in depth look at both the men’s and women’s competition, as well as some thoughts on what sets apart the sport’s biggest star: Mondo Duplantis.
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What is keeping us from going faster? Ironically, a lot of times it is what we are doing rather than what we aren’t doing. What we other think is helping our speed can be counterproductive. On this week’s GAINcast we discuss some concepts that might be limiting your speed training, as well as methods and planning tips for getting faster.
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Every coach make mistakes, and some mistakes we all make over and over again. On this week’s GAINcast, we talk about eight common traps coaches fall into and how coaches can avoid them.
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The site theme in March was speed. This isn’t the first time we looked in depth on speed, with site themes from 2019 and 2018 also focusing on the topic. This time we tried to learn more from the world of sprinting with 6 new articles, 3 podcasts, and 2 new videos that looked at topics ranging from sprint mechanics to technical progressions to training methodology. Below we have links to all our new and archived content on speed.
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We’ve been exploring speed training this month on both the GAIN Master Class and HMMR Media site. On this week’s GAINcast we share our own thoughts on sprinting, including some recurring themes that have come up this month around mechanics, resisted sprint training, planning, and more.
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If you want to know about something, the best place to find answers is from those that coach the best. So when it comes to speed, there is a lot we can learn from those that coach the world’s fastest individuals: sprint coaches.
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Look back at history and there are a lot of debates about strategies from sprint planning. PJ Vazel has meticulously researched centuries of training journals and joins this week’s podcast to look at one historic debate in particular: should sprinters train long-to-short or short-to-long? Learn about what the nuances of history tell us, as well as some parallels in throws planning.
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Speed has many different components. While they are all related in some way, they also have their unique properties. Perhaps one of the most unique is acceleration. You can’t even think about top speed unless you can get there in the first place. How athletes overcome inertia and perform over those first few steps is critical in nearly every sport.
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If running is a natural movement, then how come so many adults have poor running mechanics? Children can only develop skills in activities that they do, and therefore coaches and parents have to help them find the right activities that will nudge them in the right direction. On this week’s GAINcast, James Marshall joins us to share his approach to coaching speed for children, as well as the role of testing in PE and youth athletics, ground-based agility, and details on his upcoming GAIN PE courses.
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Most people assume genetics are the factor that determines sprinting. As the cliche goes: sprinters are born while marathoners are made. That may be accurate if your goal is to become a world-class sprinter. However, if you are an average human being and your goal is to run faster, then environment and coaching become important factors too. This is especially important with children.
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