Indoor track & field training update: LSU Tigers

by Tom Borish
Answers by LSU head coach Dennis Shaver

Trindon Holliday will return to full-time indoor training after the LSU football bowl game (Errol Anderson)

When do the sprinters and hurdlers start their fall training and is everyone healthy coming off the summer break?

The returning sprinters and hurdlers begin preparation training for the upcoming season on the Monday following the Fourth of July holiday. It consists of two four-week training cycles to prepare them for the start of our team strength and conditioning on the Tuesday following the Labor Day holiday. Everyone was healthy leading into the summer and returned in very good condition for the beginning of our team training sessions.

At what stage are the sprinters and hurdlers in their training right now?

We have our annual calendar set up to best meet the NCAA training restrictions (156-day limitation) and the academic calendar set by LSU. Generally speaking, the training consists of an annual plan broken into numerous four-week training cycles. The calendar usually requires eight weeks of team strength and conditioning before we begin our “20-hour week” training routine as allowed by NCAA rules. The ninth week is when we begin progressing towards the more technical aspects of moving from general to more specific preparation.

How much speed work and how much endurance work are they going through right now? Do you take the athletes away from the track during the fall by running on trails and anything else that will help their endurance development?

That’s a question very difficult to quantify. Generally speaking, we are a very low-volume and high-intensity training program. Speed work and endurance is relative to the fitness of an athlete. Both of these components are very important and are implemented into every microcycle of our training throughout the entire annual plan. During the fall portion of the training sessions – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday – a segment of the training session takes place off the track. The segment of the training session off the track consists of a combination of running, jumping, drills, hills, stadium stairs and bleachers in Tiger Stadium, the 92,000-seat stadium which is the venue for our football team. FUN, FUN, FUN!

What role does maximum strength training in the weight room play a role in their development in the fall?

Maximum strength is an important part of training, but not any more important than other components of the training program. We are focusing on power development; therefore it plays a partial role in the overall training program. We will spend a portion of our workout time everyday we train on multiple strength development activities, such as general strength circuits, medicine ball, remedial exercises, jumping exercises, etc.

Perhaps the most talented athlete you have on your team coming back this season is Trindon Holliday. How will you handle his transition from the football season to the indoor season? Does he have a different schedule to adopt to considering he'll be joining the team at a later time in training?

Trindon’s training will be determined after the football bowl selection has taken place. Generally speaking, I give him the option of taking one week off after the bowl game is completed, no matter when the bowl game takes place. Upon his arrival to training sessions, he does the same training the Group 1 sprinters are doing, but at a reduced volume and intensity level for the first four weeks. He normally experiences a high level of muscle soreness from the weight training and sprint training. I always have to remind myself and Trindon that he just finished a training program with football where the volume of training is extremely low and is joining a program where our intensity and volume is high by our standards in the month of January and February.

How are the field event athletes looking right now? Generally speaking, at what stage are they in for their fall training?

Everyone looks good at this point in the jumps. We are three or four weeks into more event-specific technical training. The first 6-8 weeks of technical training is very general commonality training. The vaulters at this point are running from 4-5 lefts and have begun to put into place full approach runs on the track. Long jump practice is at 8-10 steps and triple at 6-8 steps and full approach runs are performed also. High jumpers are doing lots of approach run activities and jumping from 6-8 steps. We continue to move these short run jump distances back. The vault and high jump groups will have 1-3 sessions off of full approach runs before the winter holidays. The horizontal jumpers will go off of 12 steps jumps before break. As a whole, the throwing events are much improved from last year. The throwers are entering a more event-specific training phase, meaning much of our time has moved from general conditioning to more technically oriented practice.

Will you conduct any fall testing? If so, what will each athlete have to test for?

We have tested and kept detailed results of the testing for more than 20 years. During the fall, we test every fourth week, which is a low-volume recovery microcycle. Over a three-day period during the week, we administer the following tests: standing long jump, standing triple jump, 30m + 10m fly one day, the overhead back shot throw, between leg forward shot throw, and finally, the last day one rep max in the power clean and bench press.

The addition of transfer Walter Henning will provide plenty of points in the throws (Kirby Lee)

The 12th week of our training, which is always the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving, we have the team pentathlon competition. The pentathlon puts the groups in a competition against one another as scores of the top three in each event group represents the group team total as their final point totals are added together to give a final score. The indoor pentathlon consists of SLJ, STJ, 30m, OHB, BLF tests conducted in a two-hour period with five groups rotating with our officials association administering the tests in our indoor facility. Records and Top 10 all-time performances are updated annually. This puts the throwers vs. the jumps and multis vs. the sprints and hurdles groups. It is very competitive and is treated as our first competition of the year.

The other test for the sprints and hurdles group is during week 8 and 13, which is the week after Thanksgiving. Group 1 (100,200, 100h, 110h) runs a 35-second effort, and the number of meters they run is recorded with times for each 50-meter interval. Group 2 (400, 200, 400h) runs a 45-second effort, and the number of meters they run is recorded with times for each 50-meter interval.

Obviously, these tests help us to evaluate and access many physical and psychological characteristics for each individual athlete and formulate a plan to enhance their ability to improve.

What is your general philosophy of when to have the athletes lace up their spikes and even get into the blocks? When are you comfortable having them train in this situation?

We incorporate blocks into our training program after the first six weeks of fall training. Things like acceleration mechanics remains in the training every microcycle of the year. As previously mentioned, the fourth week of training includes a test to access their 30-meter and 10-meter fly time, in spikes, with the start position a four-point stance WITHOUT blocks. A touchpad and sensors give us accurate measurements of the performance. Blocks for testing are first used for the indoor pentathlon test during week 12.

Early February seems to be a good starting point for all sprinters to open up their first race. With that in mind, how do you plan to use the months of December and January for their base training so they're prepared for a solid opener for the indoor season?

The training program, as previously mentioned, consists of a three-week (microcycles) increase in training volume and intensity, followed by a one-week “rest and test” week. This four-week period I refer to as a mesocycle. Every mesocycle builds on the previous mesocycle, and the months of December and January are no different. I really do not use “base training” as a term to describe any portion of our sprint/hurdle training. The entire annual plan incorporates all of the many training components throughout the entire year, like power, speed, endurance and technique as an example. The advantage, in my opinion, is by incorporating these components throughout the entire annual plan, the athlete becomes better in all areas, and therefore, improvement should occur every year in their performance. While at different times of the year one component may have more emphasis than at another time of the year, we incorporate all components throughout the entire year. I feel this is a requirement to control multiple peak performances throughout the annual plan, such as setting personal bests at the NCAA Indoors in March, and again at the NCAA Outdoor meet in June, and still again at the World Championships or Olympic Games.

Who are some of the newcomers on the team who have looked good so far during their training? What's the most challenging aspect of coaching any newcomer to the team?

In the men’s sprints, Ryan Penn, Jerel Hill, Ade Alleyne-Forte, Robert Simmons and Barrett Nugent have looked good this fall. We feel like they’re going to come in and help us out right away. And on the women’s side, I’ve been very impressed with Cassandra Tate as a hurdler. I believe she has a very bright future here in our program. I would also mention that in the field events, the throws group has added both experience and depth with the addition of Walter Henning. He will be a legitimate threat in the hammer and weight throws and in the shot put. Ryan Roubion in the javelin and Max Lauro in the hammer have also made tremendous progress. Rachel Laurent has been a big addition for our women’s team. She’s an excellent athlete, and her testing numbers have been better than what I would have expected. It also looks as though freshman Brieanna Kennedy will be a bonafide contributor in all of the throwing events, with discus and javelin being her primary focus. Allison Horner, who was a high school hammer national champion, is also showing great form.

The most challenging aspect of coaching a newcomer is identifying which teaching and motivation method is most effective for each new athlete. Communicating and teaching the techniques and feeling as though the athlete truly understands the importance of performing activity exactly like I would like to see it done.

Take us through a typical training session for this week. What are some of the ideal workouts that you'll have your sprinters and hurdlers go through?

- View a PDF of the LSU training cycle from the last week in November

wow

10:41, 1 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

wow that pdf at the end was awesome. You guys should to try to get those more often! Great Work!

I agree

01:25, 2 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

That's good stuff...That allow one to get a general ideal of what to incorporate in their workouts.

RI and G1

09:04, 2 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

what does the RI mean and the G1 and G2 mean.?

Run intervals maybe.?

distance

12:52, 2 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

can we get some distance stuff in here? hopefully from the powerhouses too (Colorado, Wisco, esp Oregon, etc.)

distance stuff

12:55, 2 December 2008 .. Posted by Tom Borish

Yes, we certainly plan on adding some distance updates. However, with the bulk of our coverage dedicated to the cross country season the past 3-4 months and the indoor season about to start, we wanted to provide updates to those teams who have been training the past several months for the indoor season. Thank you for the comment and suggestion.

Untitled Comment

04:22, 2 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I believe RI is the rest they will get between reps and SI is the set rest.
G1 and G2 are Group 1 and Group 2. To me it looks like they are split between G1 (100,200 runners) and G2 (200,400 runners).

Distance Stuff

06:47, 3 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

There are plenty of websites which include distance running training, blogs, and theories; this is great information and like the idea of learning what 'track coaches' are doing during the fall while the rest of the world is focusing on cross-country

wow

11:39, 5 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I'm almost not believing these workouts are real...they seeem to easy....it says week 11 but this must be the workouts before the pre-season...like in august or something

not surprised

10:33, 8 December 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

you got to remember they get the best athletes in the world - its about training smart not hard