Training Video – Atacama Sand Routine

Posted on February 3, 2009 by CoachJay

The idea that you would do plyometrics in the sand was foreign to me before Mike had athletes demonstrate these sand routines for our second DVD.  The idea is simply that plyometrics, in the most simple terms, are any activity that has a quick coupling of eccentric and concentric contraction…which makes sprinting arguable the most intense plyometric activity a distance runner would ever undertake. Take a look at the Atacama routine.

We’re giving away 4 DVDs each week to people who write in questions on Runerspace’s Tuesday Tips so feel free to write in with a question if you want a DVD (you also have to sign up as a fan RunningDVDs)

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  • Frank

    Hi Coach Jay, I recently purchased the Running DVDs and I really enjoyed sharing the warm up off of the second DVD (the high velocity warm up) with my young athletes, it's similar to ours in ways, but a little more ballistic at the end. Question is: would you or coach Smith use the same warm up prior to racing or is it sliced and diced a little?

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    Thanks for writing Frank.

    Three things. First, I'm bugging Mike to send me some competition warm-ups for his athletes; you'll want to see what he has milers and 3k/5k kids doing as the WU that Chrsitian does is specific to a “wired” 800m collegian and too intense neuromuscularly for most HS kids…though much of it would work for your 400/800 kids.

    Second, today the good people at RunnerSpace are going to film Sara Vaughn's compoetition WU at the UW meet. Sara is under the weather so I don't know how the performance in the mile will go, but no doubt she'll feel well in in the WU. Again, specific to a miler who comes to the race distance from the speed/athleticism side of things, but still very doable for good HS athletes. Below is a link to a Google Document with her warm-up (you DO NOT have to have a Gmail account to view it)

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pP4jiX9w…

    Finally, this is a project that I'd love to work on later this spring – why don't you send me what you think your athletes should do, based on the even their running, and then I'll help you tweak it.

    Thanks for the comment and in the coming days we'll post some resources.

  • Frank58

    Hi Jay,

    Thanks for the spreadsheet of Sara's warm up, (I was one of many track junkies at the Dempsey-UW, and she looked great, that was one hot race). I haven't been to runnerspace to see if her WU is posted yet but I'll take a look soon. I coach ages 10 through 18+ through a PNW age group track club and assist at a local high school. Some drills are just too difficult for the younger kids but I have some youngsters that love the new challenge. The “G” drill is probably the toughest and I haven't mastered it either.
    Technique is key, as you've noted in your “posture” comments, and I want to make sure that I'm teaching age, ability, and event appropriate. Let me know where I should send the information you'd like me to share. Thank you!