Train as much as necessary, not as much as possible

The 2014 Edition of The Seminar brought Henk’s return to The Seminar. In his second stint in RVA Henk breaks down what many coaches know him for, improving speed. Henk starts out discussing why sprinting is the toughest competition in the world, and why sprinting is so important to us as humans. This leads Henk to break down the 5 factors that have the greatest impact on sprinting speed, and the basic principles of sprinting. When it comes to breaking down these aspects, and what effects training had on them, Henk is second to none when it comes to understanding the knowledge because (as he shows) he did the studies, and the biopsy’s, to see what they’re adapting too or not. The first lesson of the talk is that training is a very individual process. This process is broken down into how Henk develops sprinters in each of the divisions of the race:

1)Reaction Time
2)Start Action
3)Acceleration
4)Maximum Speed
5)Speed Loss
6)Finish
7)The Curve in the 200M

This part of the presentation is full of video examples of exercises that he has used and had success with athlete’s who have won world championships and set world records. He also includes lists of different methods you can use as a coach for each aspect of the race. He, as only Henk can do, provides his uncensored feedback to each method as well (both good and bad). This includes a fantastic look into different strength qualities to help improve speed, how to improve those qualities, and where he has seen them show carry over to them. These methods include those included from his work with Bosco, and the 10% rule.

The second lesson is that monitoring is important for control and guidance of the training process, especially when it comes to neuro-muscular factors. This monitoring is not just limited to readiness and physiological system monitoring but also looking at things like the force velocity curve, and biopsies to analyze muscle fiber types.

The third, and final lesion, is that not getting injured is half of the job in explosive events. This leads straight into Henk discussing speed work in a team setting. He discusses the why’s and how’s it can be difficult, and where this process has come from and is developing too.