The Track and Field Performance Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Dan Pfaff is widely regarded as one of the most influential track and field coaches of all-time with over 50 years of experience. 

His thought provoking insights on sports performance concepts always come with a lot of dept and in this episode, He spoke about the rationale for having a holistic knowledge base and how coaches can develop that. From there, we dove into debriefing throughout the season so that coaches can make the athlete aware of the overall objectives to facilitate 'smoother' sailing throughout the year.

The horizontal jumps is an area where Dan has had a lot of success coaching athletes like Greg Rutherford, Fabrice Lapierre, and Kareem Streete-Thompson to name a few. He described how he navigates complex issues like approach accuracy and take off mechanics. The final big theme of the discussion was the necessity for mental resilience so that athletes can perform under pressure. 

Thanks to Dan for coming and sharing his lifetime worth of wisdom

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Coaches Jeremy Lyons, Gerard O'Donnell, and Aideen Synott have created a high performing environment for sprinters in Ireland to thrive both collegiately and post-collegiately. Through years of hard work and collaboration, they've enabled the likes of Sophie Becker, Cillian Greene, and Jack Raftery to become Olympians, European medalists, and household names in Irish Athletics.

In this episode, Jeremy and Gerard began by discussing how the club came to be and the characteristics they look for in prospective athletes before diving deep into the details of their annual training plan and how they manage volume, intensity, and density throughout the year, but perhaps what is most impressive and noteworthy, is how they adapt when met with constraints and opportunities in season.

If you like learning from passionate coaches who think outside the box to get the most out of their athletes, look no further than this conversation -- thank you Jeremy and Gerard.

Instagram: Dublin_Sprint
Gerard's website: https://www.godspeed.ie/

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Boo is one of the worlds leading track and field coaches, educators, and rehab consultants. He's coached world champions, he's delivered coaching education  workshops around the world, and now he primarily helps world class athletes return to their best.

Boo coached 17 NCAA champions in his initial 11 year stint at Louisiana State University. During that time he led Walter Davis to becoming a world indoor and outdoor champion in the triple jump. In 2018, he returned to assist the program as a Strength and Conditioning coach; shortly after both Rayvon Grey and Juvaughn Harrison won individual NCAA titles in the long jump followed by an NCAA team title in 2021.

Topics of discussion:

-Improving pelvic oscillation and undulation in sprinting and the vertical component of each stride in the approach

-Accessing and coordinating necessary rotation at the long jump

-Key Performance Inhibitors: 'driving' knee during the long jump takeoff, high heel recovery in the hop phase, improper yielding mechanics

-Rotation of the shin during the triple jump takeoff

-Heuristics for phase distribution in the triple jump
-Task complexity and its impact on intensity: selection of technical work, weightroom exercises, plyometrics

-Athlete readiness: Methods monitoring recovery/readiness (particularly with developed athletes) e.g. standing triple jump

-Common traits among successful coaches and educators

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Texas Techs Jumps and Multi's Coach, Keith Herston, is quickly becoming one of the worlds top jumps coaches having had success with various national and international athletes across different event disciplines. 

Keith has coached , 3 Olympians, 4 World Championship Finalists, 1 NCAA Champion, 63 NCAA All Americans , and 6 Top-10 NCAA All-Time Performers (WTJ, WLJ, MLJ).

Affiliated w/Output Sport - get 10% off by using the promocode, 'COLMBOURKE10'

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Head Coach, History Teacher, and Author of the Sprinters Compendium (among many other things), Coach Ryan Banta has been at Parkway High School for 20 years. During that time, he has successfully coached everything from cross country to the short sprints. In 2022, Coach Banta was named the Missouri TFCCCA girls coach of the year. 

In this episode, we talked about how he uses his background in Positive Psychology with his athletes, the Critical Mass Training Philosophy, the Development of his coaching and the Sprinters Compendium. This one is loaded. 

Thank you to Coach Banta for sharing so much wisdom for the audience to enjoy.

Affiliated w/Output Sports - Promocode: COLMBOURKE10

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Coach Carrie Lane works with Under Armours Elite group of distance runners based in Baltimore Maryland. Prior to that, she spent several years as the Throws coach at the University of Wyoming and regularly lectures at the USTFCCCA coaches convention and other seminars on this particular topic. 

This episode provides insights into her current role as well as some of the key principles she uses to guide her training philosophy. 

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From former collegiate triple jumper at Cornell University turned Olympic-level coach; Aaron Gadson shows his passion and knowledge for the event across a multitude of subjects. His breakdowns of training and coaching are detailed and thoughtful making for a rich episode that both athletes and coaches can enjoy. 

Be sure to follow Aarons's Instagram page for much more content: @youngjumps

Affiliated with Output Sports - use Promo code: COLMBOURKE10 for 10% off. 

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Coach of 2x World Champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, Mike Barber (her husband), has a diverse coaching and sports performance background. Before becoming a Javelin coach he was a Decathlete turned Biomechanist working for the Australian Institute of Sport.

Exploration captures many points of this discussion because Mike's coaching journey and the one with Kelsey-Lee comprised many moments of exploration, from technical sessions to liaising with experts in sports performance; this process continues year after year to create the synthesis they need to throw far and be successful at the major competitions - both of which they are very good at. 

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Sprints and Throws Coach, Statistician, Researcher, and so much more; PJ Vazel has made some major contributions to the sport of Track and Field and in this episode, PJ provided a little glimpse into the internal workings of his great mind. 

Topics:
-Journey to becoming a Hammer Coach
-Coaching Philosophy & Influences
-Learning from Failure
-The Unpredictability of Sports Performance 
-Coaching the Hammer Throw

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In this episode, Sprint Hurdles coach at Altis, Andreas Behm provides an overview of the physical and technical characteristics he looks for in elite sprint hurdling. 

Andreas talks about the nuances of in-practice coaching; cueing, session modifications, technical refinements and, complete revamps. Moreover, Andreas highlighted how he's remained inspired through the years -- even after guiding Aries Merritt to a world record in 2012. 

Thanks for your time and wisdom Andreas.

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