Spring Training & other thoughts

We continued our spring training this past Monday with a bigger group and a few new faces.  After practicing some juggling skills with the soccer balls, we worked our way through a dryland technique progression then went for an easy run (the kids actually asked if they could dribble the soccer balls around the Range).

Double-pole armswing

I took a page out of Dragan Danevski's playbook and we did 8 x 30" running "intervals" at approximately 1 mile pace (pictured at the top of the blog). These are too short to be intervals, so they are more like a long speed than anything. Just enough to keep the legs fresh and remember that the point of training is to go faster. After that, we went through a handful of plyos and finished with a group stretch.

Since we only train together approximatley 1-4 sessions/wk, depending on the time of year, I want to expose the athletes to a variety of activities during our organized training. Then they can take what they have learned, and incorporate it into the training on their own. One of my biggest fears is "spoon feeding" training to the kids. I want them to learn how to do it, and to have excellent opportunities to excel, however I don't want to force it on them. If they are required to train on their own a few days/week, then the motivation will have to come from within.

I am encouraged to hear about the new USSA CMO, hopefully he will give the nordic sports our fair share of attention and market them in creative ways. He seems to have some awareness of how easy it should be, when he alludes to the fact that everybody and their mother is nowadays concerned with health and fitness. If only we can get the big execs to believe in new marketing opportunities in non-mainstream sports.

I don't have any interest in paying for cable TV, but I would gladly pay for 1 channel that gives me the big bike races, track & field / running events, and the nordic sports. Another option is to do what the Amgen Tour of California did with their live online video: full HD quality with almost no commercials! It put sportlemon to shame.

The Key Bank Vermont City Marathon is this week! I am participating as a part of the NENSA relay team. I'm sure lots of MNC coaches and athletes will be out there in some way. Until next week...