By Tom Kaberna

Lake Park HS Jumps Coach

This post will be dedicated to the framework of my training philosophy. This is a philosophy that has been shaped mostly by the work of Boo Schexnayder. He was so willing to help me at the beginning and I wish everyone was as willing to help others new to track as he was. He has been a mentor and friend to me the last few years and is the biggest reason my athletes have had the success they have had. Most of what I do I have stolen from him and what he does and how he does it. Others who have helped are Dan Pfaff who was very patient and gracious with my questions and Mike Young at Elitetrack.com.

In my head I have one of two days. I either have a high day which is very intensive to their (CNS) central nervous system or a low day which is more technical and requires less from their CNS. I really try to never cross paths with these two days. I like to keep them separate so as to not confuse the body with mixed signals. This will lead to better adaptations later on. My high days consist of my sprinting, plyometrics, heavy lower body lifting and throwing. This day also has its own warmup routine. The warmup routine is more ballistic in nature and wakes up their CNS by doing more explosive movements. This warmup begins with a jog then leg swings then dynamic exercises then hurdle mobility exercises that are fast and bouncy.

The other day is when I do my technical work and my upper body lifting, circuits, tempo and training that is not very fast in nature. This day has a different warmup routine than the high day warmup. It is more subdued in nature and works more on flexibility and slow movements. This warmup begins with a jog then groundwork then a dynamic warmup and ends with hurdle mobility that is more about hip flexibility.

I am really a big believer in having at least two warmups to increase demand on an athletes coordination. This is really a nice time to include so many different exercises to put the athlete in safe but challenging positions that increase their body awareness and athleticism.

I used to do every other day as a high and low day. Now if I get two high days in a week I am happy. I was frying my kids out and not getting nearly enough technical work in. One of my mentors (Bob Nihells) is extremely good as a throws and sprints coach and has always told me what separates him from others is his technical work and how much he does of it. He is a big believer in making sure the athlete is in the right positions and puts the training on the back burner compared to the technical piece. I changed a couple years ago to doing technical work 3-4 times per week and it has really paid off. Also, a problem we run into is facility space. Some weeks we may get in the field house twice and some we may get into the field house as much as 4 days.

Core work is included every day of the week during the warmup. You have to just be careful about this and hip flexor strains. If you are planning a lower ab circuit day then I would suggest doing it after you sprint that day because those kind of days fatigue those little muscles. I learned this the hard way.

Next post I will get more specific on how I train my jumpers and what a couple days would look like in each phase of training.