Winter Break Training

Coach Bubb’s contact info:

Cell: 303-547-7462

Email: coachbubb@driftmotionac.com (?)

Stack Team App: Drift Motion AC

Instagram: @driftmotion.ac

For Sprinters:

  • Solo Block Start Practice: I encourage you to practice block starts at the warehouse when available, but you can practice even without a track. You can focus on your initial explosive movement, form cues we’ve worked on, and the first few steps on a clear track lane from a 3-point start.

  • Short Sprints: You can perform short sprints of 30-60 meters to work on acceleration and top speed. These can be done in a park or any flat, straight path.

  • Hill Sprints: Find a hill. Hill sprints are excellent for building power and strength in the legs and allow you to attack at the same angles and contacts you are aiming for from the blocks.

  • Plyometric Drills: Exercises like jump squats, bounding, and single-leg hops help develop explosive power. I can give you access to the lists of options to choose from along with some videos.

  • Bodyweight Strength Training: If you don’t have access to a gym for whatever reason, include exercises like lunges, squats, push-ups, and core exercises that can be done without any equipment, or with bands, kettlebells, or med balls for some added resistance. 

  • Banded Work: Use a cheap resistance band to work your isometric hip contractions. You can buy one for a few dollars at places like Walmart. You can perform these at home every day while watching TV so there’s no excuse not to.

  • Dynamic Warmup Routine: You should be doing your warmups at least three times per week as a proper way to dynamically stretch and warmup your system for workouts, but also to reinforce the technical habits you’ve formed over the last several weeks/months.

For Jumpers:

  • Short Approach Jumps: You can practice short approach jumps for both long jump and triple jump, focusing on your take-off mechanics and landing technique (if possible). Now is a good time to take those measurements from practice, lay them out on a running surface, and practice your approach consistency with your spikes. I have your marks, you just need to message me.

  • Plyometrics: Exercises like box jumps, skipping for height, and bounding drills are great for developing explosive power and technique. I can provide you with the jump circuits and videos.

  • Standing Jumps: Standing long jump/triple jump are great in improving your horizontal explosiveness and can be done anywhere with enough space. You can do this with a landing into a pit, or with no landings (be careful not to slip or drive your heels too hard into the ground).

  • Ankle and Leg Strength: Exercises like heel drops, single-leg deadlifts with dumbbells, and stability exercises to strengthen the ankles and legs will help to reinforce some of the specific strength needed in jumping. I still enjoy some barefoot balance work on foam pads or bosu balls.

  • Core Stability Workouts: Core strength is crucial for jumpers, specifically dynamic core work. These can include walking planks, walking Russian twists, banded flutters, hanging runs from a pullup bar, etc.

  • Rhythm Work: Your approach is rhythmic, your penultimate step is rhythmic. Take the time to develop this rhythm and at progressively faster speeds. Start slow and build. You need to learn to develop the feel of these things to further your progress.

General Tips:

  • Write Your Goals: Write down 1-2 goals for the next two weeks. Those are the only two things you are allowed to focus on and everything you put into these two weeks should center around attaining mastery of those 1-2 things. Focus on one, then move to the second so that you can drive your success quicker.

  • Video Analysis: If possible, I also encourage you to record your form during sprints and jumps to analyze later. DO NOT analyze anything other than what you have been working on. Inevitably, there will be things that look like crap, ignore it unless it’s what you’re currently trying to work on. It’s a bad habit to look at the whole picture during a video session as it will take away from your goal and only confuse or inhibit your progress.

  • Progress Tracking: I encourage you to record your workouts and progress. This can include distances, times, and how you felt during each session.

  • Check-ins Welcome: Individual calls/text/GroupMe/Instagram DM, or group virtual calls are free during this time and encouraged.

  • Technique Feedback: Send me videos to give you feedback on if you can record them or can get someone else to.

  • Training Log: Create a simple training log. All you need to do is write down what you plan to do/what you did, and then review it with me when I get back. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable and think about what makes sense for you. Also, when I go over them with you, we can discuss if something needs to be addressed, changed, ideas, etc.

  • Read Up For Knowledge: Check out AthletesForge.com or CoachXPro.com/blog for interesting things related to sports performance to read.

  • Weightlifting: Do it 2-3x per week for now unless you’re more advanced and it fits your scheduling to do 4x. For those of you who haven’t gone over weightlifting with me, or need clarification, we should hop on a call and go over specifics and how to read our structured lifting sheets.

  • Peer Coaching: If at all possible and as frequently as possible, make your life easier and partner with one of the other team members over break. Call or text (GroupMe the team) and see if anyone wants to train together at the track, warehouse, or gym. This will hold you accountable to workout, but make training way more fun and profitable. If I come back from break and we have to backtrack, we’re going to have a problem. Don’t lose all the hard work you guys are putting into your skills acquisition.

  • Nutrition considerations on break: The holidays are the worst time of the year for healthy choices and getting off your ass to train. It’s also the most difficult to try and maintain decent eating habits. I want you to enjoy the festive season, try your best to enjoy spending time with family and friends away from the stressors of homework and projects, etc, but do so while remembering you have athletic goals you want to achieve, and all your competitors are out there trying to outwork and outperform you every day. Including Christmas. Your competition knows what it takes to be a champion, so follow their lead.

    • As best you can here are the 4 most important things to do over the break:

  1. Minimize gorging on dessert, in particular (consider going for a nice walk after a big meal)

  2. Stay hydrated (water)

  3. Get good sleep (7-8 hours is fine,not 4 or 12)

  4. Train with purpose (on the track and in the weight room)

  • Rest and recovery ideas:

    • Pool, bike, body circuit, med ball circuit, etc

    • To make your lives easier while still maintaining or increasing your fitness levels and skill-building, I encourage you to take a recovery type of day between each intense day. This might look like a short sprint day on Monday, followed by a pool day Tuesday, a plyometric or jumps day Wednesday, a body circuit Thursday, another sprint day Friday, hop on a bike Saturday, and complete rest on Sunday. Lifting would be on your Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to match the intensity of those days possibly.

    • For those of you still working pole vault, those days can replace one of the jumping or a sprint day.

    • There’s a difference between recovery workouts and just taking the day off.

  • Strengthen those hamstrings!