My high school and college sports participation was exclusively in the field events. I threw only the shot put in high school and graduated to throwing the discus and hammer in college.

In 1967, prior to my senior year of high school, I was privileged to work out with two world-class throwers, Dave Davis and George Woods. Woods would be the silver medalist in the 1968 Olympic shot put.

 

My only connection to sprinters at that time was my brother, Steve, who was a Division II All-American sprinter at what was then called San Fernando Valley State College. It was in his senior year that he improved his performance most dramatically. His sprint coach had not changed his workout over the previous three years, but in my brother’s senior year I introduced him to the weight room. Truly I cannot recall which lifts he was doing, but certainly nothing I showed him would have been designed specifically for sprinters, especially since I didn't know the difference between what a shot putter required to improve performance versus the sprinter.

 

Skipping ahead a few decades, I was enjoying coaching shot put at Los Angeles Baptist high school, located in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

 

Track season had just finished. I was looking forward to a summer without any coaching responsibilities, when a young female sprinter on our team approached me with a request, "I want to work with you in the weight room." There were three other teammates of hers nodding their heads as a sign of their desire to participate in the training as well.

 

I asked the sprinter, Allyson Felix, why she wanted to strength train since many, if not most, high school females would rather not take the chance of looking like a male bodybuilder.

Wes Smith, the head coach of the track team, filled in the blanks as to why Felix wanted to lift weights.

 

Felix was invited to participate in an elite athlete performance assessment because of her finish in the USA National Junior Championship.

She was tested by Tony Wells, an excellent coach himself, representing USA Track and Field. Coach Wells tested all of the sprint athletes on behalf of USATF. Wells told Felix that she had the ability to achieve world record performances from 60 meters to 800 meters if, and only if, her strength improved dramatically.

 

A battery of tests on Felix showed that while her running performances were nothing less than phenomenal for a freshman competitor, her performance was subpar in virtually every method used to test a sprinter’s strength as it pertains to running fast.

 

From both Allyson and Coach Smith, it was clear that I had been given the job of making this talented young lady significantly stronger.

 

The narrative I've just given should make it clear to anybody that I did not have any knowledge of the specifics of strength training for sprinters. The reason I didn't know it was because I didn't care.

 

All of my attention over the previous four years have been focused on another athlete, who I had begun to work with in her freshman year and had just completed her senior year as the number three shot-putter in the nation.

 

I do recall watching Allyson run in her freshman year, because she was beating athletes that were as much as three years older than her and with a lot more experience behind them. I had no knowledge of the importance of stride length or stride rate. I had no idea of what sprinters did for practice. I had no idea what form drills they may have been using.

 

One thing that did stick out in my mind was that Allyson seemed to be able to carry her speed over a much longer distance than those whom she raced. In other words, she did not have any explosive power out of the blocks but she would run at a pace that seemed to bring the other racers back to her as they began to fatigue.

She had a relatively small build and no muscle mass to speak of. It seemed to me that it would be to her advantage if we could make her stronger without increasing bodyweight. I did not think that increasing strength would make her run at a faster pace but that it would allow her to carry her speed longer.

It turns out of course that I was only partially right.

She did not show a consistent reaction to the starting signal. Once clear of the blocks, Felix’s acceleration exceeded that of her competition, allowing her to move into contention early.

 

It was Tony Wells, a highly respected and knowledgeable track coach that recognized the need for strength and not Barry Ross. The protocol that we use today is significantly shorter than what we did that first year with Allyson Felix because we recognize that the basic need of the sprinter is improvement in mass-specific force. The same training needed for improving mass-specific force also decreases rate of speed decrement. It was not Barry Ross that recognized the need for improvement in mass specific force and decreases in rate of speed decrement; rather, it was Barry Ross reacting to the findings of various scientists researching the mechanics of high speed running. Their research is available to anyone truly interested in improving performance. This goes for both coach and athlete.

 

Certainly there are many coaches who have their own "secret sauce" for enhancing speed training. Just as certainly they feel that their methods are as viable and valuable as any other method. Following them may result in improved performances similar to what we see.

The difference is, most likely, how much less time and effort we can get to the same (or better) result.

Barry Ross