Speed First: Driving Intensity Through Consistency With Christopher Dale

Christopher Dale is an Australian sprint coach, osteopath, and exercise physiologist. He personally coaches a mix of elite and international-level U20 athletes in the 100m, 400m, and 400m hurdles. He recently had two athletes in Australia’s Olympic team, one running the #2 all-time Australian performance in the men’s 400m.

Additionally, Christopher has coached several athletes to the world U20 and Commonwealth Youth Championships. He has a master’s degree of osteopathic medicine as well as a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology.

Freelap USA: You have had a successful season with regards to Reece Holder and particularly his Olympic campaign. What were some of the key factors that allowed for the progress he made between 2023 and 2024?

Christopher Dale: Reece ran 46.4 as an 18-year-old, so it’s always been clear he has a lot of talent, but the consistency had not been there. In 2021, he qualified for the World Under 20 Championships in Nairobi, but Australia didn’t send a team. I think that was tough for him to manage psychologically, as the reward at the end of the training wasn’t there for him. In 2022, he struggled with multiple injuries, but he did run fast in 2023. We headed into that season really focusing on shorter work, with a view to keeping him healthy, and he raced over 100 meters and 200 meters.

As an osteopath, I believe I have a strong understanding of how the body should move and what the biomechanical traits are that we should be looking for in sprinters, says @notcdale. Share on X

In November or December 2022, he did one of his fastest ever 250-meter runs in training, so we decided to enter him in a 400 to see what he’d do, and he ran 46.9. So, we kept the speed work in, and he kept racing, but unfortunately picked up a fairly minor hamstring injury that kept him out of our national championships. However, three weeks after that he won our national university championships by a lot with a 46.0 in awful conditions. He then ventured across to Europe as part of an Athletics Australia development initiative and he broke 46 seconds for the first time, before finishing second at the World University Games in China in 44.79 seconds, automatically qualifying him for Paris.

This made our job easier as it took the pressure off Reece having to run fast throughout the Australian domestic season in 2024 and we could just focus on ensuring he was in the best possible shape in July and August.

Video 1. Resisted sprint with 1080 Sprint for Reece Holder to prime his subsequent 250s.

The fact that Olympic qualification was taken care of in 2023 helped us to ensure greater consistency in training from 2023 to 2024, and we could minimize the training gaps. This consistency allowed more intensity in training, so a greater proportion of the work was completed closer to race velocities, so he was able to adapt more closely to the demands of the event—something we had struggled with more in previous seasons. This year, Reece ran high 45s in February and March and had largely only been doing shorter speed to really work on getting him moving at around 11 meters per second in training. There were small doses of speed endurance and special endurance work, but nothing over 300 meters—and the plan was to use competitions later in the season to work the last part of his race, and I’m pretty happy with the results, culminating in a 44.53 personal best in the Olympic Games.

Video 2. Race model 280m run, was followed by a 120m.

Historically, Reece has had back some back issues, and related to this, this year he has probably done a lower volume of high intensity sprints compared to previous seasons—but, the velocities of this year’s high intensity sprints have been higher. Additionally, he has become more confident in the gym in terms of his intent and accelerating the bar in his lifts. I think his previous injury issues made him a little hesitant in this regard, but as he’s overcome this, his VBT (velocity-based training) numbers have improved and he’s now better able to compliment the work being done on the track when he is in the gym. To mitigate a recurrence of previous injuries, Reece receives weekly soft tissue therapy and weekly osteopathic treatment, and I think that the track work, strength work, and therapy has been more integrated this season than it has in the past.

There’s plenty of training programmes online, but I think the ability to analyse information is really helpful when refining and adjusting them so they are suitable for the athletes you are coaching , says @notcdale. Share on X

Freelap USA: As an osteopath, you have taken a very academic route into the coaching profession. How necessary do you think that background is, and how do you feel this now benefits your practice?

Christopher Dale: I have a degree in exercise physiology, and I think combining this with my healthcare background provides me a deepened understanding of anatomy, physiology, neurology, and the metabolism, as well as a general understanding of how the body works with practical experience in this domain. As an osteopath, I believe I have a strong understanding of how the body should move and what the biomechanical traits are that we should be looking for in sprinters. I can then assess the athlete in front of me and conduct a needs analysis to help move them towards that optimal model. The interventions within this process may consist of hands-on treatment, strength and conditioning, or drills, or some combination of these, to help drive performance.

I also think an academic background helps you learn how to solve problems and apply critical thinking strategies. For example, there’s plenty of training programmes available online—many of which have brought athletes considerable success—but I think the ability to analyse information is really helpful when refining these programmes and adjusting them so they are suitable for the athletes you are coaching.

Perhaps paradoxically, I think my academic background has encouraged me to lean less on published research when making decisions. Osteopathy is quite holistic, drawing on lots of factors, and some of the literature regarding osteopathic treatment is far from conclusive! However, there is quite a lot of compelling anecdotal evidence behind many of the practices—and whilst I am ethical and open with any patients regarding this, I like to use some of these methods because I am confident it will help them to feel better. And, in the case of the athlete, this can, again, help drive performance. I was taught there are three pillars to evidence-based practice:

1. Empirical evidence
2. Patient/individual experience
3. Practitioner experience

The modern trend is that empirical evidence is by far the most important, but I think osteopathy leans on all three pillars with a more even distribution, and this can provide us with more opportunities to obtain a positive outcome. I think it’s prudent to note that just having credentials can’t make up for real world experience and that I don’t think it’s possible to shortcut time in the trenches.

I would like to point out that whilst I can, and do, treat my athletes, I have no issue having other therapists working with my athletes. Having other professionals involved is valuable, because if I do everything, I think the risk is there’s no alternative perspectives. Other opinions and insights can broaden the approaches taken to solve any problems and to enhance performance. For example, I am currently mentored by Rolf Ohman, while Vas Krishnan, Andrew Murphy, and Gav Manoharan all worked with Reece whilst he was in Europe and at the Olympics because I needed to remain in Australia to run my business and be with my family.

Freelap USA: I hope it’s fair to say that you operate from a speed first approach. You coach Zara Hagan and now work with Ebony Lane in the short sprints. How do you sequence the annual calendar with your short sprinters, and how does this compare with what you do with a longer sprinter such as Reece? 

Christopher Dale: I would describe my approach as always having high intensity sprinting present through an extreme short-to-long progression, and the gym work mirrors the qualities we are developing on the track. For example, in our first specific cycle, a lot of the gym work will be force dominant to compliment the longer ground contact times performed in early acceleration.

I would describe my approach as always having high intensity sprinting present through an extreme short-to-long progression, and the gym work mirrors the qualities we are developing on the track, says @notcdale. Share on X

My cycles are three weeks long, and after 1-2 cycles spent on a general preparation phase, where the athletes get moving again, getting ready to train and recover from the previous season, my short sprinters and my long sprinters all start with accelerations over 5, 10 and 15 meters. I like to have my speed qualities in place ahead of my endurance qualities, and what initiated this approach was a principle Charlie Francis advocated—that endurance is specific to the speed at which you’re executing a sprint. Over the years, my anecdotal experience has reinforced this and definitely found it to be the case. Therefore, it’s worth noting that whilst the distances of the runs in a session early in the annual calendar may be the same as the distances of runs in a session later in the calendar, the focus may be different.

For example, early on, 40-meter reps may be classified as “longer speed,” whilst later in the year, they may fall under the category of acceleration. If acceleration has not been optimally developed, then maximum velocity will be impacted; and if maximum velocity has not been developed in terms of mechanics, then it will have a negative impact on efficiency, causing a steeper subsequent deceleration. There is a saying that speed creates endurance, and what I take this to mean is that the non-metabolic qualities that underpin maximum velocity, such as elasticity, mechanics, and postures, all contribute to allow that maximum velocity to be maintained for longer and to degrade more slowly.

I would categorise my approach as building a technical model and then adding load to it, much in the same way Randy Huntington and Rolf Ohman do. I coach a young athlete, Zara Hagan, who is just turning seventeen—last season, she ran around her PB something like six times, finishing with a windy 11.48 and a wind legal 11.51. In her preparation she did next to no endurance work other than the occasional session involving eight or nine runs over 60 meters with incomplete recovery (and it’s worth noting that I implemented this session with the intent of developing her capacity to handle high-intensity acceleration work as opposed to the goal being specific endurance).

As well as speed creating endurance, I did not think Zara’s mechanics were sound enough to withstand much exposure to specific endurance work, so I felt it more productive, and safer, to focus our training time elsewhere. Additionally, I don’t want to exhaust all avenues in her development yet. I want some left on the shelf, so when she is in her twenties, she can continue to improve.

For the longer sprinters, there are more qualities to optimize, therefore more training needs to be progressed through to prepare for competition, so the cycles evolve a little bit more rapidly. I believe there are more ways in which you can target the 400 meters depending on the type of athlete you are working with, and I like to play to their strengths. So, for someone like Reece, who is an explosive and muscular athlete, I tend to keep him pretty close to the short sprinters’ plan. After the first couple of cycles, and runs over 50 to 60 meters have been completed, the athletes move on to more specific endurance work completed more frequently throughout the microcycle (which I’ll go into more detail about in your last question).

I find I have to be quite careful about how I plan my microcycles for my longer sprinters, because both speed and specific endurance are key qualities, yet they both compete for the same adaptive resources, says @notcdale. Share on X

I find I have to be quite careful about how I plan my microcycles for my longer sprinters, because both speed and specific endurance are key qualities, yet they both compete for the same adaptive resources. Therefore, too much emphasis on one can cause a drop in the other. However, the flip side of this is that raising the ceiling of speed or specific endurance, can also raise the capacity for the other to be developed. Therefore, whilst it is a delicate balance, I tend to prescribe training that oscillates the focus between both, so that both qualities can progress throughout the preparation.

Freelap USA: Through following you on social media, it is clear that your methods are very data driven—including data that takes place in the gym and away from the track. Can you tell us what some of the key metrics are that you look for in a sprinter, both on the track and in the gym? You also employ resisted and assisted sprints—how do you decide on the prescription of these types of work?

Christopher Dale: On the track, the metrics I am most interested in are stride length, stride frequency, peak velocity, 250m time for the 400m runners, and time and distance to peak velocity. We know that faster sprinters tend to accelerate for longer and hit their peak velocity later in a race, such as Tebogo hitting his top speed at around 80 meters in the Olympic 100-meter final in Paris a few weeks ago. This information gives some insight as to how an athlete obtains their maximum velocity, and therefore what the potent strategies are that we can use to improve this, as well as how a race model can be developed.

It would be a lengthy discussion to go into a lot of detail regarding the metrics I am looking at in the gym, but I have been very influenced by Rolf Ohman and am a keen user of velocity-based training methods. The specific metrics I am interested in will depend upon the exercise, but generally I am focused on maximizing the acceleration of the movement; and, as I mentioned before, we use the gym to compliment the qualities we are focused on in the track work currently being done. Acceleration work on the track aligns with more force-dominant work in the gym, whereas maximum velocity work on the track aligns with more elastic and dynamic work done in the gym. I would love to have access to Keiser equipment, and whilst we do not, I do think that so far, simply using mass has been pretty effective for the athletes.

The athletes also complete jump testing, including squat jumps and counter movement jumps. There should be a difference between the two and we keep track of that difference. They also perform drop jumps, and I will track how the difference in drop height will impact the jump height and the ground contact time. Ultimately, the metrics from the track, gym, and jumps all combine to produce a comprehensive profile of the athlete so we can best plan how to go about improving performance.

I think resisted and assisted sprints are very important, because as global sprint performance develops, it’s less and less common to see an athlete finish on top despite having a weakness. Therefore, athletes need to be “complete” in order to really compete at the highest level.

I think resisted and assisted sprints are very important, because as global sprint performance develops, it’s less and less common to see an athlete finish on top despite having a weakness, says @notcdale. Share on X

Video 3. Resisted acceleration by Ebony Lane.

I think resisted sprints can be subcategorized depending on the point of the acceleration curve that you are targeting with an athlete. I use the MuscleLab DynaSpeed, and this has been revolutionary because the loading is so precise, it allows us to hone in on a specific part of the acceleration curve and spend our time doing reps which will develop that. There are other variations of resisted sprinting that can be used with this equipment, such as gradually decreasing the load throughout a run to match the athlete’s acceleration strategy as they transition to becoming less force dominant and more velocity dominant, but this is not something I’ve used too much. I tried it and didn’t really like it in my own setting, so I just keep the load consistent for my athletes. One of the things I use resisted sprinting for is to prime the athlete between the warm up and the main part of the session with a handful of resisted accelerations.

Assisted sprints can also be subcategorized, and I have never gone as far as using overspeed. What I mean by that is that I’ve only ever taken an athlete to velocities they have run at unassisted based on data I’ve been able to collect from competitions. I think the real advantage with assisted sprinting is that it allows more time to be spent running at race, or near race, velocities, and therefore mechanics can be refined at those speeds.

Video 4. Assisted 50m sprint by Zara Hagan.

Without assisted sprinting, the athlete will only ever see their true maximum velocity in races, and that’s a very limited exposure at which they can practice the skill of sprinting at that intensity. I like to use assisted sprinting as part of a complex to rehearse technical changes, so it may be used with a wicket a run or with a regular unassisted run to help stabilize the technical aspect upon which we are working. There is the option to have the assistance only to help the athlete accelerate to the desired top speed before releasing the device, and this is something I’ve used under recommendation; but, before I make this a more integral aspect of my programming, I’d like to see more data.

Freelap USA: What does a typical training week look like for both your short sprinters and your long sprinters?

Christopher Dale: I think it’s interesting to look at the middle of the specific preparation phase, as this is perhaps where the bulk of the key work is being done to get the athlete ready for the upcoming season. We currently have three high intensity days each week, and I would love to get to the point where some of my athletes move to the Dan Pfaff microcycle of four high intensity days each week, but we’re not ready for that yet.

Short sprinters:

Monday – Shorter speed work.

Acceleration ladder 2 sets of (resisted runs over 20m, 30m, 40m, then 2x30m block starts).

5-6 minutes recovery between reps, and 15 minutes recovery between sets.

Lift – Force dominant day featuring longer acceleration numbers, and a longer time to peak velocity to mimic first 3 steps.

Tuesday – Aerobic extensive tempo.

Run 50m, walk 50m repeated for a total of 15-20 minutes.

This session would be done at around 60% of maximum heart rate and an athlete may cover a total of 2km in the running segments.

Hurdle mobility and calisthenics based on the circuits by Dan Pfaff.

This session is to enhance recovery ahead of Thursday.

Wednesday – Regenerative day.

Isometric circuits and treatment, or a day off.

Thursday – Longer speed.

Wicket or technical runs to prime, depending on what needs to be addressed. We usually target weaknesses earlier in the preparation, and strengths later on.

6 runs over 50-70m, usually done as a complex in sets of 3.

2 sets of (wickets – individualized spacings, assisted run, free run)

Due to our climate and how hot and humid it can be when we’re doing this kind of work, the recoveries may be 10 minutes between runs.

Lift – Power or elastic day to compliment the maximum velocity focus that’s been addressed on the track. Depending on how much the track work has taken out of the athletes, this lift may get pushed back to Friday.

Friday – If missed lifting will do that, if not, repeat Wednesday.

Saturday – Endurance.

Resisted runs, 3-4 runs over 20-40m depending on what needs addressing for the individual athlete.

I have several options for this day depending upon the qualities that are in place for the athlete:

If I’m happy that maximum velocity is in place, then a 3 run ladder is usually what we’d do in this session.

180m, 150m, 120m

Or

150m, 120m, 90m

Or

120m, 90m, 70m

Recovery would typically be somewhere between 15 and 18 minutes between runs.

If maximum velocity is not quite in place, we may do something a little slower, such as:

2 sets of 150m plus 150 or 120m with 4-6 minutes between the reps and 15-18 minutes between sets.

If the athlete is overly taxed, today could also become similar to Tuesday’s session and we focus on aerobic work by doing up to 15 minutes of continuous diagonal runs across the grass in the middle of the track.

400 sprinters:

Monday – Race model runs or ‘Longer endurance’ ladder

2 sets of 2 runs and I generally stretch out the distance of the first run of the pair as the athlete’s capacity improves.

250m+150m

Or

300m+100m

Or

280m+120m

Or

320m+100m

The recoveries are generally 30 seconds to 1 minute between the reps, and then 40 minutes or more after the completion of the first set, before repeating the process. As mentioned, the climate really does impact the set recovery.

Longer endurance could be 4 x resisted runs over 20-30m to prime, then 3 x 250m with 15-18 minutes rest.

Lift – Power (after about 40 minutes rest).

Tuesday – Aerobic

Same as short sprinters but maybe a second set.

Or 10-12 x 30 second runs with 2 minutes recovery between runs.

Wednesday – Same as short sprinters.

Thursday – Same as short sprinters, but perhaps with less of a technical focus, and really trying to drive intensity instead. I tend to find the longer sprinters can handle less of this type of work, so they’d typically do 4 reps over 70-80m.

Lift – Force dominant.

Friday – Same as Wednesday.

Saturday – Shorter endurance.

Similar to short sprinters.

2 resisted runs over 20m, and 2 resisted runs over 30m.

180m, 150m, 120m

Or

150m, 120m, 90m

The recoveries maybe slightly longer than the short sprinters take, simply because the intensity is so high on these runs. If we need a deload, I’ll drop the intensity by 2-3%, reduce the rest to 6-8 minutes and add a fourth rep.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF