STEVE SCOTT PRESENTATION I found Steve Scott to be very personable and willing to share his ideas. His presentation covered everything from recruiting young runners to working with elite runners. He believes that athletes should not put limitations on themselves. Establish goals that are high but reachable. Steve covered what he called six coaching responsibilities. Below is a quick summary: I. Actively recruit young runners into your program. You can't expect runners to just show on your first day of practice without a little coaxing. He suggested talking to PE teachers into running students in a mile and then recognize the top finishers. Somehow you must go out into the schools and make your program known. Also, don't just go after the faster kids. Many kids will blossom into good runners with a little practice. II. Develop speed early. Work on basic raw speed from day one. Runners should work on strength, sprinting, and good running form. He is not an advocate of weight training for young athletes but there are strength drills you can do that don't involve pushing weights. All runners should work on good running form. He has observed that young runners, especially girls run with low knee lift. This is not desirable for milers or cross country runners. Before doing the main part of your workout warm up with dynamic stretching. Emphasize good running form as your runners do these drills 1. A March 2. A Skip 3. A Skip for height and distance 4. B Skip and kick or extend your leg out straight in front 5. High Knees quickly 6. Carioca Walking 7. Carioca with knee sweep (do this running and walking) 8. Butt Kickers 9. Toe up and heel up-walking 10. Bounding 11. Single leg hops (1-2 days a week) 12. Double leg hops (1-2 days a week) III. Develop efficient running form 1. Head should remain level 2. Relax! Face and shoulders on down 3. Don't roll your shoulders 4. Keep your pelvis pointed forward 5. Move eyes not head 6. Foot strike should be to the outside and roll inward and then to the heel. Don't be a heel striker. Place thumb tacks in your shoe heel which should remind you not to land on your heels. Run light on your feet. Your foot strike should be quite. Some people suggest "run light as a feather" 7. Keep your hands open and relaxed 8. Don't swing your arms across your body in an excessive manner. Keep your elbows in and cocked at a 90 degree angle. Carry something in your hands to remind you of proper arm swing. It takes 24 days to change somebodies running form even with a concentrated effort. IV. Develop flexibility through dynamic stretching and static stretching Only do static stretching at the conclusion of your main workout Lecture athletes before beginning the workout. Once you start the workout keep the runners moving. Below are some dynamic stretching drills: 1. Forward leg swings 2. Side to side leg swings 3. Swing your knee to your chest, grab and pull. Go the next leg as you walk along 4. Lungs 5. 3 steps reach over and touch the ground keep one leg out behind you 6. High knees walking but swing lower leg inward 7. Walk outs (Caterpillar) up and down There are many static stretching drills that would be appropriate. Stretch all parts of the body, including the back. V. Physically challenge runners Kids will adapt as long as you use proper progression. He encourages young runners to do more. Experienced high school runners can handle 50-70 miles a week. VI. Help your runners deal with anxiety and pressure Be happy with your performance as long as you know you did your best. Don't make success a life or death situation. Talk to your runners about setting goals for each race. Have them concentrate on goals instead of winning or losing. Steve Scott believes in using the Lydiard system of training. The year is divided into periods with each period having a different emphasis. Many developing countries have an advantage over American runners because they don't automobile transportation. Many kids are running or walking wherever they go from a very early age. He emphasized that to reach your full potential in the 5K you would have to accumulate 24000 miles of running. The shorter races would take less. Young Kenyans accumulate an the average 11000 miles by the time they reach high school age. Americans may accumulate only about 5000 miles. Most people consider a person's running age not by year or grade but by how many years they have been active in running and racing. Steve is a strong advocate of the heart rate monitor. The runner can be very precise in training within the proper zone. The monitor can tell you if you are overworking or under working. You need to find your maximum heart rate and your resting heart rate. Each type of workout will be a certain percentage of your calculated heart rate (Condition). Example: maximum heart rate would be determined by running very hard 400's and taking your heart rate immediately after the last 400. Resting heart rate should be taken before getting out of bed in the morning. Multiply your goal heart rate percentage X maximum heart rate and add resting heart rate to that value. Six types of workouts with goal heart rate Aerobic recovery-65% General conditioning-65-80% Lactate Threshold-80-87% or 87%-92% Maximum V02-92-97% Anaerobic 95-100% Speed 100% Periods I. June-September Base Building-Majority of what you should be doing during this time period Lactate Threshold once a week Sprinting-Maybe once a week Hill Running-Begin in August II. September-October or November General conditioning but reduce mileage V02 Max-Repeats Lactate Threshold (More so than I) Drop hill repeats but incorporate hills during your long runs III.November-March Much like Period I if you don't do indoor track, which we don't IV. March-April Pre Competition Introduce MV02 with longer intervals (Vary speed of repeat and vary length of rest period) Continue with general conditioning V. April-May Track competition Reduce mileage Incorporate shorter repeats Control rest period. Longer repeats(Slower) with short recovery Shorter faster repeats with longer recovery Training Markers Run repeats that total your race distance. For example 4X400 in sets Speed of the repeat may be at race pace or faster. A good Tuesday workout Steve was amazed at the number of meets we have in a week. Sometimes 3 in 7 days. Run some of your meets as an interval workout. Run races that aren't your normal race distance. Your Saturday meet would consist of your main distance race. Think about running the long relay at the end of the meet.