Track/Football Training

Being a throws coach I have experienced coaching big lineman that do not understand how to be explosive and flexible at the same time (which you have to be to get maximum explosion).

I believe it allows them to use their bodies differently than ever before and learn that explosion and speed can be built through perfect repetition, which is much like weightlifting but I believe the competition/motivation is more external than internal.

Are you kidding me?
Track's benefits to flexibility, explosiveness, mental toughness, and more importantly COMPETIVENESS!!!
I looked out on the track after school today while we were finishing up track workouts. There were well over 200 kids 7th through 12th grade going through workouts (handoffs, starts, hurdle drills, field events).
You can say we push track to our football players.
Every skill person runs track.
You see, we run our sprint work out during off season athletic period 3x a week with the skills, lift 2x a week.
So after school workout is working on those things mentioned above.

You may say that they are not getting stronger, however when their sprint workout includes pulling truck tires 400 meters 4x, you're not going to loose any lower body strength.

Back in 05/06 our HC went out and purchased around 50 pair of track spikes..

EVERY football player in the off season program conditioned for track.. ran 50 second runs.. the 200's.. the 300's.. the 150's..

If you played football.. you did a track workout..

results? 13-1 that football season with a loss in the state semi's.. in 2003.. same team was 0-10..

Could be completely coincidence.. but I dont think so..

tigercoach,

To answer your question: If you have a great strength and speed program in place, track is not that beneficial. Most of my players who do track come back no faster and some slower.

The first reason is that we do a great job in spreed training in football.

The second is there is only one event for speed training in all of track: the 100m. No other event is anything I care about as far as football is concerned. And most of your improvement there will be centered around getting out of the blocks and the finish. We all complain that the 40 is not that great a measure of football speed, then what is a 109 yard dash (100m)?

Plus, there seems to be a lot of pulled mucles with track.

All of this is just my experience.

Now, if you don't have a great speed program already, then track is the way to go.

Lastly, I don't mind them running track. In fact, I encourage it. Why? The same reason I encourage them to play any sport they want to play. Because they want to play it and you are only in high school once. That and competetion is good for you.

A lot of the track programs where I live are social events. Many athletes around here run track so they won't have to do much work and so they can socialize and meet girls. I coached track for several years in the area and the kids and parents expect it to be a leasure sport...come and go, miss practice, run what they want...it is just a casual thing...that is why I don't coach track anymore. Now, a well run track program would be great for many of the reasons listed above...however, anyone who studied the science of speed and agility training would know that max velocity linear speed is way overated for all sports except track. There was a great research article done a few years back. I have a review and the article if anyone wants me to email it to them. Basically they had a control group that did not train, a linear speed group that did track style workouts, and an agility group that did change of direction and acceleration workouts. All athletes were tested in the 40 and in a variety of agility drills. After several weeks of training they were retested. The linear speed group (track style) improved on the 40 but showed no statistically significant improvement in the agility tests. The agility group improved on all agility tests but showed minimal gains in the 40. The implication is that sprint/speed training is specific to the needs of the sport. Football is a zig/zag sport. A great off-season program will show more improvement of the needed athletic skills than a great track program will. However, as mentioned above there are other intangibles...a great track program will be competitive (although a great off-season program will too). They are in high school so why not let them enjoy it. Sometimes they need a break from seeing our face and hearing our voice. So, either way they are better off than sitting on the couch. I have consistently seen my athletes who trained show more improvement than those who ran track...but as I said, track is poorly run and not taken seriously in my area. It is seen by the athletes themselves as the easy way out.

I'll second that, the 400 takes some stones.

Personally, I love hurdlers. I think just sprinting is good training for the game, but hurdling offers a bit more of a challenge to things.

Our track program is definately not a leisure activity -- the kids that are not tough enough to run track do baseball or with the girls softball. Most baseball players in our school couldn't make it through our track workouts.

Many benefits to track - competition, achieving personal bests, getting in shape, learning how to run, learning how to run when tired.. those kids that run hurdles can carry over their balance, flexiblity and speed skills to the football field. Same with triple jumpers -- takes a lot of skill to do those correctly. Agree with the thrower coaches - teaches how to explode. The track team still does weightlifting.

did I mention competition... how about representing the school -- we talk about reperesenting good old city high every friday - well, its ok to represent city high in the spring too...

I ran track in highschool specifically to get faster for football. I went from a 4.5 40 to a 4.3. So, I'm a believer based on MY personal experience.

The point you are missing is this. Why are the 2 seperate? Just because your kids are runniong track doesn't mean they can't do any agility/weight training as well.

This of course depends on what area you coach in. We had weightlifting in highschool so in the offseason we lifted Mon Weds, and Fri, and we did agility/speed training Tues and Thurs. And i had track practice after school.

every one of our RB's and WR's is doing track. They come back every year faster so i cant complain, and this year it has been raining a lot so they are lifting more which is good. Only problem i have is that the track coach, the few rare times they do squats has them only go half way and explode up. He tells the kids going all the way down makes you slower... i wont even comment on the reasons why that is wrong

My best returning lineman is throwing shot and discus. I dont mind because one of my good friends is coaching it this year and although he is lifting with him for track instead of me i dont care because we lift at same time so i can keep my eye on him, and i know he is doing same lifts and everything we are.

Pro scouts love to find that interior linemen have backgrounds in field events.

There are several track varieties here. One school(my old HS) has a very soft track, porous, almost clay like. Very low impact for running on, a different type of resistance. It creates very little strain for distance running. The other school track, next to the house here, has a hard surface. When it was new poured it was the best in the state, surpassing some colleges. In time the surface(sprayed over another surface, both over concrete) has worn in parts. Pieces of it are coming off the track now, especially where other sports had coaches park trucks in doing our league games there.

Hard surface is great for pure sprints as well, but needs to be redone. Records were set upon it for a time....

Take into consideration such factors for people who were a strain or injury threat.

As for other sports, wrestling does wonders for quickness but players will sweat down a lot of weight. It is the ultimate in competition IMO but overlaps portions of football should your team be competitive into post season.


Speed and quickness are better measures of power than is strength. Control of speed and quickness are better measures of those traits(balance, etc.) than is straight line speed as well.

Track is extremely competitive here, teams who would go to great lengths in not meeting but once a year in football or basketball will usually find ways of being at the same track meets. It might be the one time you can really hone the competitive edge for the annual rivalry week matchups.

Deion?