Every track season cannot be the best of your career as a coach, but last season was just that for me. As coaches, we want to set lofty goals for our athletes while also setting realistic expectations for their success and achievement. But there were moments as this last season progressed that made me wonder if our goals were high enough.
For example, we used the Freelap timing system last season to time our workouts. I ensured the batteries were fresh in the chips the athletes wore and the towers that would pick up the athletes’ signals and record their times. We had a speed day, and the workout was three 40-yard dashes out of blocks—we’d been working up to this distance, and the kids were looking forward to seeing their 40 times. I took my time measuring 40 yards, had my athletes write their names on the recording sheet in the order they were going to run as usual, and went to the end line to record all their times.
Last season was the best track season in my career as a coach, but there were moments as it progressed that I wondered if our goals were high enough, says @DillonMartinez. Share on XThe first athlete to go was our fastest sprinter. Already a state champion in the 100 and 200 the previous year (2022), we knew he was going to have a fantastic senior season. We had worked tirelessly on his block starts, general technique, and mechanics, as well as a yearlong lifting plan that he religiously adhered to. We were all excited to see what he would put down in a 40-yard dash.
He got set, exploded out of the blocks, and accelerated through the finish line, looking as smooth as ever. It was a great-looking rep! But when I looked at my phone for his time, I was upset—I had clearly mis-measured the distance. It had to be too short. The Freelap registered a time of 4.29.
I stood up, looked at the other coach, and said, “Shoot—I was sure I measured it correctly, but it says he just ran a 4.29! I’ll re-measure.” He just looked at me and said, “I don’t know, that looked fast.”
I apologized to the athletes and told them I messed up and had to re-measure. As I pulled the tape closer to the line, I realized I wasn’t going to be short. It was 40 yards, right on the button. I was in disbelief.
His next two reps—using different chips, I might add—were 4.30 and 4.38. But it wasn’t just him—all the athletes were putting down times that both they and I were beyond happy with. It was a day I won’t soon forget and a moment that told me the season was going to be special.
The 2023 season saw school records broken in the 100 (10.58), 200 (21.39), 400 (49.08), and 4×100 (43.00); it also resulted in a 100- and 200-meter state championship to top it off, as well as our 4×100 relay taking third in the Wisconsin Division 2 finals. 2023 will be challenging to top—not just this year but in all the years to follow.
Before the 2023 season, I published an article outlining my entire season practice plan and my thoughts behind it. Due to the weather and other facility issues we all face in Wisconsin, we had to make on-the-fly adjustments. But the plan as laid out was almost perfectly followed. Here are five takeaways from 2023 and how those impact my plans for the 2024 high school track season in Wisconsin.
1. Prioritize Speed Early and Often
Most of my sprinters are three-sport athletes coming off either a basketball or wrestling season. These sports are inherently more demanding on the cardiovascular side than what we do as sprinters, so they had a good work capacity base built already. This allowed me to focus on speed work (which will also build endurance).
Conversely, these sports don’t touch the velocities I want their bodies to be able to endure come track season. Because of this, I got them sprinting right away to start the acclimation process, with a HUGE focus on proper mechanics. Sprinting at top speed, in my opinion, is asking for trouble if it is not done using proper mechanics. This leads me to my second point.
2. You Can Only Run as Fast as Your Technique Allows
I despise the term “warm-up,” and you won’t hear me say it at my practices. Instead of a warm-up, we do TECH. This is always the first thing we do. It focuses on preparing the central nervous system to sprint at maximum velocity while engraining proper sprinting patterns and technique into the athletes. This is the most focused portion of practice. TECH serves as technique work, core strength workout, plyometric workout, and isometric workout, and helps my athletes learn how to coach up one another.
TECH serves as technique work, core strength workout, plyometric workout, and isometric workout, and helps my athletes learn how to coach up one another, says @DillonMartinez. Share on XDuring this time, we will do many common drills you might see at any track practice: A-series drills, bounding, rolling starts, and the like. But you will also see our athletes coach each other like you haven’t seen before. My goal is to teach myself out of a coaching job. This means that I have thoroughly taught my athletes what proper sprinting technique looks like to the point I am confident that if I missed a day of practice, they could coach each other and still come out of the session better.
Secondly, we do a vast array of isometric work. Isometrics strengthen without impact. Many athletes fall victim to shin splints early in the season because the volume of stress on the body—specifically the lower leg—dramatically increases suddenly. Isometrics allow me to specifically target the ankle complex and strengthen it without having to pound my athlete’s legs into the ground.
We do what I call “A iso holds,” where athletes hold the perfect max velocity position, on one foot, then I have them elevate their heel so they are only on their forefoot and hold for 30 seconds at a time. We do ankle iso squats, where we hold a squat a bit above parallel but they have their heels as high off the ground as possible, and a plethora of other isometric movements that help strengthen the positions I want my athletes strong in.
Personally, I think all athletes, regardless of their sport, should do TECH at the start of practice every day, but I digress. Taking the time to truly teach my athletes the proper mechanics early in the season, and then intently working on them every day in new ways that the athletes couldn’t predict, allowed for maximum neural coding to take place between the brain and the body. This resulted in flawless technique by my sprinters without them having to think about it. It was a habit, and it was a difference-maker.
3. Planning Using Time Under Tension
The only thing I care about is how my athletes perform at the state meet. I want my athletes to be the freshest sprinters with the least mileage when they walk into the Wisconsin state meet held at Roger Harring Stadium on the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse Campus. To ensure this, I plan out my season using a time under tension (TUT) method. This has been the biggest game-changer for me in my planning strategy.
I plan out my season using a time under tension (TUT) method. This has been the biggest game-changer for me in my planning strategy, says @DillonMartinez. Share on XI estimate how many seconds my athletes will be at max velocity in a workout, then add up the total time in the week to get weekly TUT. Then, I use that number to create a base, load, peak, de-load, and cycle. In 2023, during the three-month season, my athletes recorded a total of 20 minutes of time under tension, with the heaviest load being 4.25 minutes in one week coming at week 7 of the season. Note: I counted meets as time under tension for the week; I will not be doing that for the 2024 season.
For the 2024 season, we’re cutting the load even more. As of this writing, we are planning for a total of 338.5 seconds of TUT for the season. Here is an example of base, load, peak, and taper weeks for this coming season. Mind you, this is 338 seconds at max velocity, with as close to perfect form as possible.
I provide all the coaches on staff with my “workout plan rationale” each year—the coaches, athletes, and parents all know I have a reason for everything we do. This mitigates coaching conflicts, as well as parental conflicts. Here is my rationale for the 2024 season:
- This training schedule has three cycles, with a focus on coming into the last two weeks of the season as fresh and as fast as possible. The first three weeks of the season will focus on teaching our system of sprint development to the athletes and introducing their bodies to the stimuli we want them to get acclimated to for the rest of the season. We will practice three days a week to ensure no shin splints develop due to a rapid increase in usage that will lead to nagging issues into the late season. The first three weeks will act as the base for the rest of the season.
- Week 4 will see a jump in volume (75 seconds of time under tension) and act as a loading week for the peak volume week we will see in week 5 (80 seconds of time under tension). Eighty seconds, with the bulk of the volume coming on one day (60 seconds), will be the most volume the athletes will experience in practice all week. Following this, the focus will switch from building a base of stimulus to increasing max velocity and power output.
- Weeks 6–9 will act as a taper from the peak of week 5 and will primarily focus on extending the drive phase of athletes and helping them reach max velocity further down the track while also emphasizing staying relaxed late in the race. Weeks 6–9 will see huge tapers ranging from 56%–93% from the peak in week 5. This will help the athletes recover while also eliciting a hormonal response that will hopefully make the next reload phase (weeks 10 and 11) more effective.
- During the reload week, the athletes will only reach 21% of the volume accumulated during the peak week (week 5) of the season. Following the reload week, we enter into tournament time. During these two weeks, we will focus on keeping the athletes fresh while intentionally not letting speed become detrained. We will do this by programming five seconds under tension during week 12 and only 3.5 seconds in the week of the state meet. We want healthy, fresh, and fast athletes going into state.
4. Lift
Our school is beyond blessed to have our strength and conditioning handled and implemented by Three Rivers Performance. Since they took over, football has won three straight state titles (21, 22, and 23), and the playoff depth for every team in the school has increased.
For track, we lift three days a week before practice. Now, ideally, lifting is done after speed work. But because we don’t have a track on our school’s campus, we have to bus our athletes to a track, and they go home from there. Regardless of that, Eddie Hodges (owner of Three Rivers Performance) plans the lifts in a way that will support the speed work we will be doing that day. Lifts take 30 minutes, and they are efficient. Everyone on the track team lifts: sprinters, throwers, distance.
5. Field Events
Field event work will come second to speed work. Even if an athlete is only a jumper, they will always participate in the speed workout that day before working on their field event. The best way to jump farther or higher is to be able to sprint faster. Sprinting is the best plyometric known to man! They will benefit far more from speed work than from event-specific drills in the long run. With that said, on days when no speed work is planned, they can spend all practice after TECH working on their event.
I will also take this time to argue that your throwers should also participate in speed work weekly, says @DillonMartinez. Share on XNow, I will also take this time to argue that your throwers should also participate in speed work weekly. I outlined my experience working with a Division 1 discus thrower this winter on X. The overall takeaway was that by increasing his max velocity, we were able to increase his maximum power output.
On day one, his max power output was 886N. This number comes from his 10-meter fly time of 1.31. There are some great articles about “truck stick”—check them out. After 10 sessions of speed work, we got his flying 10 meter down to 1.21, which equates to a 964N output. This increase in power output alone theoretically translates to being able to throw a discus 8.8% farther. Increasing velocity increases power, which increases the implement distance thrown. With that said, I will be advocating for our throwers to do speed work with us at least once a week. Speed truly is the tide that raises all ships.
Onward and Forward
With my 2024 practice plan completed, I can only hope that when it’s done, I’ll be able to reflect on the season with as much enthusiasm as the previous year. Putting the time in to meticulously plan will allow you to monitor progress within your program in a detailed manner year to year.
After many seasons, you will clearly be able to see what works and what needs to be added or subtracted for your practice plan based on the data collected over time.
Good luck to all the coaches and athletes this year! May 2024 be your best season yet!
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