The Long Sticks
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Article
By: Tony Veney
Head Track Coach, Portland State University,
Portland, Oregon
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The
300/400 sticks represent a sprint discipline that places the sprinter
right in the midst of several areas where they can contribute
to their teams. The long sticker can:
a. Run both stick races
b. Run on both relays
c. High/long/triple jump
This can be either a Godsend or a curse for the
coach and the sticker, depending on how you look at it. The tighter
rhythm of the 100/110 sticks can make getting the long sticks
downpat a futile exercise at best. But in high school you can
win in both the stick races as long as your sticker has either
great speed or technique, or is just better than everyone else.
Now you may think either of those scenarios is okay by you, but
not if you are a stick coach and want your sticker to reach the
"top of the mountain."
There are several areas of development the long
stick coach must attend to in order to see to it that their athlete
is ready to go. One area of concern is the rhythm between the
sticks. Running the sticks at practice with regular, irregular
and increasing stick spacings is the best way to teach the ability
to deal with whatever step problem might arise. The following
is a method you can use at practice to get varied stick spacings
to work for you (run 4-5 sticks in this drill).
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Exercise
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# Steps
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Stick Spacing
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Approach
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17 step pattern
16 step pattern
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7
7
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16.00 m
17.00 m
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15 m
15 m
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17 step pattern
16 step pattern
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8
8
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17.95 m
19.00 m
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30 m
30 m
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17 step pattern
16 step pattern
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9
9
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19.80 m
21.00 m
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30 m
30 m
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17 step pattern
16 step pattern
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10
10
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21.65 m
23.00 m
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30 m
30 m
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17 step pattern
16 step pattern
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11
11
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23.50 m
25.00 m
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30 m
30 m
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You can set up 5 different lanes of sticks with
irregular spacings to give them lots of experience having to deal
with a different leg coming up on the sticks. You can set up a
flight of sticks set for 7-9-11 and 13 steps to force them to
deal with the "feel" of the rhythm. This way the sticker can be
prepared to handle windy days, slow tracks, rainy days, days when
you're just trying to qualify in a slow heat and you are prepared
to deal with less than top end race pace.
Pattern the race so that you have created the best
possible method to run over the long sticks. This is for the 50-second
kid as well as the 36-second one. If you can get the slow one
to go fast, just think of what you can do with a fast one (scary).
Do repeats over sections of the race to give your sticker the
"feel" of a good and a bad race.
Remember to run your stick race at times and distances
that compliment their skills and abilities. Do not run them over
3 x 500, or 600-400-200-400-600 after they have already run over
the sticks. Distance runs are not going to help them get faster,
so don't run them long and slow thinking it will make them stronger
to run fast. They will be stronger to run slow (they'll be an
enduring motor scooter--but at a slow tempo).
Using young women as an example, a 300 girl who
can run 47 seconds and has a goal of 45.0 needs to run her workouts
over and under the time frame for success. Workouts for the hurdles
and the flat should be geared to go up to 60 seconds and down
to all out top end (2-5 seconds). You may think that's not enough
work, but if you run at the level for success, the intensity will
speak for itself.
| EX: 2x starts over the 1st 4 sticks |
walk back to 1st stick |
| 1x over 2-3-4-5 |
walk back to 2nd stick |
| 1x over 3-4-5-6 |
walk back to 3rd stick |
| 1x over 4-5-6-7 |
walk back to 4th stick |
| 2x over 5-6-7-8-finish |
done (this is a lot of work!) |
| |
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EX: Run the turn sticks (3-4-5)
and jog across back to the start
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| Hit the splits for the race and keep doing the
runs until the desired splits drop off. Start 15 m before
the 1st stick and sprint 15 m after the last stick. |
They must hit the splits and the fatigue that will
develop will mimic the increasing tiredness that they will feel
in the race. Change the spacing during this workout to make them
think on their feet and "feel" the race as it unfolds.
Do not overlook their speed development as you go
through the season. Remember, speed development runs are not just
runs less than race distance. Speed means 20-30-40s, hill sprints,
short jumps and power jumps, fly in runs at the same distances.
Coordinate and organize your technique, power/strength (critical
for the sticker), speed development, speed "work", and speed endurance.
And of course, REST is a four-letter word that even your pastor
can use without getting his mouth washed out with soap.
The last point I would like to hit on is that the
long stick rhythm needs a less aggressive takeoff and touchdown
than the sprint sticks. The snap down of the lead/trail action
in the sprint sticks must be lessened so that the flight over
the sticks lasts a bit longer. Then, just before touchdown the
lead/trail action kicks in and an "active" landing takes place.
This also eats up a little of the running distance between the
sticks (having 32.5 meters to run to each stick rather than 33.5
which can be huge as the race nears the 7th and 8th sticks and
they start to look like they are 42" high).
The importance of rhythm
in the stick races cannot be expressed strongly enough. It is
the rhythm that gives you the "feeling" of the approach and takeoff
when negotiating the sticks. Stick sprinters acquire a certain
sense of where the sticks are in relation to whatever position
they're in during the event. In the same way that a long jumper
senses that they will be over, on or behind the board, a stick
sprinter develops that "feeling" through repeated runs over the
sticks set at different heights and spacings. This rhythm work
covers the short sticks (in the form of low and close over 3-6
sticks) as well as the long sticks (in the form of low and close
over as many as 15 sticks or sticks set 12.5 m apart around the
track out to 200 meters).
I'd like to thank Gary Winkler, Head Women's Coach
at the University of Illinois, for the sticks chart listed and
Tony Wells (Colorado Flyers), for his patience and tutelage.
