Great interview by Glenn Mills, Usain Bolt's coach who was greatly influenced by the great American sprint coach Bud Winter who had a resounding influence on myself as an athlete and coach. My whole speed and mechanics business grew from Bud Winter as also stated by Glenn Mills that the sprint explosion in Jamaica happened after he was so influenced also by the great American coach
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Usain Bolt has added another medal to his list. Deemed the fastest man alive, Bolt dashed his way to first place during the 200m race at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China.
Usain Bolt reached the finish line in 19.55 seconds, defeating America’s Justin Gatlin who crossed the end in 19.74 seconds. In an interview with BBC Sport, the 29-year-old decorated athlete said, “It’s great, a fourth [world title] win over 200m and it means a lot to me. I’m happy to be a 10-time World Championships gold medalist, especially when people have been saying I would lose.” Usain Bolt: I want to be the best, that's my motivation. Speed is a skill Sprinting is a science Relax and win! Quotes from Bud Winter in 1981 ( Bud Winter trained athletes who set 37 World Records and produced 27 Olympians, as well as influencing many coaches around the globe including Glen Mills, Usain Bolt’s coach.) You must learn to relax under pressure, which demands repetition day in day out. Eat, drink and sleep it my friends. You must maintain maximum speed in a relaxed mode. What makes the difference to your speed is good technique, especially under pressure. Running relaxed under pressure is difficult and requires you to learn your running mechanics slowly at first with lots of repetitions. Running mechanics should be a big part of your warm ups to put you in the right frame of mind to perform your sporting task. If you run poorly then be content not to reach your full potential – the choice is yours. A good analogy – run with poor form and your car runs rough, run with good technique your car runs smooth.  Maddi Kidd (Papamoa) Great buzz to race the cream of "World Sprinting" back in 1977 at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland. From left to right Hasley Crawford (Trinidad-Tobago) 1976 Olympic 100m Champion Don Quarrie (Jamaica) 1976 Olympic 200m Champion Alan Wells (Scotland) became Olympic 100m Champion 1980 Steve Erkkila (New Zealand) - NZ 100m Champion and Record Holder (10.4s)  The four-time Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson begins our lesson in how to run faster with an unexpected discussion about cars and cowboys. “If you want your car to go faster, you push the accelerator,” says Johnson. At 47, he is still lean and athletic in a tracksuit. “When you sprint, think of your arms as your accelerators. Your arms drive your legs, not the other way round.” As i have preached to my athletes time and time again, the speed of your arms dictate the speed of your legs. People who say the legs are the main attribute for speed are way off the finish line.  Fantastic results for my surf athletes Maddi Kidd ( Papamoa ) and Ryan Gilmour ( Piha ) at the regional yearly awards nights. Maddie won female athlete for the year under 19 for the Eastern region, while Ryan won male athlete of the year under 16 for the Northern region. Also of high praise goes to Stefan Powney (Orewa ) who was a finalist in the under 16 male class along with Ryan. Great to see Steven Ferguson taking out coach of the year for the Northern region to whom I have great pleasure working along side in our speed and mechanics training for the Piha surf club Well done to you all a truely brilliant effort by everyone
 Your self esteem – your attitude towards yourself – factors strongly on your success and happiness in every area of your life. That definitely is including your sporting endeavours!
The better your self esteem the bigger the goals you can set for yourself. Good self esteem makes you feel happier, increases your energy levels and raises your optimism to attack your personal goals. If you TRUELY believe it in your heart, then and only then you can TRUELY move confidently towards your goals  Fading before the final hooter of your competition? Can’t pick yourself up with 15 to 20 minutes of the game to go? Are you making poor calls at the back end of the game? Do yourself a favour and improve your running form/technique – that could increase your performance by up to 20%.
Poor running form or technique – for example your arms not swinging correctly – is a total WASTE of PRECIOUS ENERGY! The energy you need to run faster, the energy you need to stop fatigue setting in with 15 minutes to play or the energy you need to still be making competent decisions near the end of a game. Getting the picture? Good technique isn’t only there to help improve your speed as it has many other benefits. Running correctly also puts you in an active and alert mindset so you are tuned in to the task ahead of you. For contact sports, think of a car crash and the damage that increases as the speed increases – the same applies on the footy field. Now i am not implying that we want to cause injury to the opposition but i am implying that we want to tackle the opposition in the hardest but fairest tackle we can make – that’s part of the game, isn’t it? Speed will make that happen and the same applies when you are attacking. I have always maintained if you can’t run on to the ball at pace then get out of the way and let someone else do the job as you only create gaps by pace.The All Black backline are showing this perfectly and the forwards can carve up the middle because they are pumping the speed. Now this is the last five inches so to speak; first you’ve got to do the hard yards to build a solid platform to launch the speed from. Don’t build your house on sand or failure will strike. Put in the hours of preparation, get fit, run on the grass rather than pound the roads which knock your legs around. The great Joe Fraser once stated you must do your home work – he hated running but never missed a workout. If you cut corners it will catch up to you sooner or later – no doubt about it my friends, be warned! In conclusion: learn the correct form and technique, stop wasting your precious energy for the many benefits it brings, do the hard yards so you have a solid platform to launch from. BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE FOR YOURSELF AND FOR YOUR FELLOW TEAM MEMBERS, MANAGEMENT AND VERY IMPORTANTLY YOUR LOYAL SUPPORTERS.  You can make huge gains by doing simple things well. Remember when you were learning to ride a bike or drive a car – you had to do it slowly until you mastered the task you were trying to learn?
The same applies for running mechanics / technique. Many sportsmen, yes and I mean men don’t take the time to learn the basics well. They just plough straight into things at full pace, oblivious that if they only slowed down and learnt the tasks correctly they could improve at least 10% to 15% on their performance. Maybe some of our sportsmen need to take time out from the “macho” image, slow down and get things totally correct so they have a good chance of reaching 100% of their ability. Speed – Speed training is high intensity bursts over a short duration, with good rest recovery periods – you must rest the nervous system so it recharges. When the nervous system becomes tired you can’t generate power and co-ordinate your movements. Speed is all about total power – the more fluent you run the more power you can generate. Fast arms produce fast legs, but first the arms must be performing in such a way to propel the body forward efficiently. Most people, whether sportsmen/women of any code as well as casual runners do not perform this well. It takes patience and the ability to slow down the pace and learn it slowly and correctly if you truly want to reach your true running potential. Remember it takes 4 to 6 weeks to reverse an old habit!
Our daughter 8 years old training with Steve. Dyllan has improved out of sight - she found it tough to run in a straight line beforehand. With an excess of boundless energy, Steve has finely tuned her to run efficiently and she's fearless like her big sister Sophie and will eat all the hard work you can give her. Just love the banter between Coach/Athlete - and the high five Dyllan gave Steve recently holding a stone in the palm of her hand! Pay back! We love being back into Athletics after a few years off, and look forward to what the future holds for Dyllan and our son Ashton and what they aspire to in Athletics. They are lucky to have Steve as their Coach and so are we!
Posted by Katherine Davies on Monday, August 10, 2015 |
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