Coaches Corner: Spike use

[26mi235]

At what age and after how long training/competing do you start having kids wear spikes?

[high knees]

Spikes all day, every day we're on the track, from September to June.......Hurdles, Sprints, Jumps, Mid Distance............everything

[Marlow]

More in HJ, but not right now - just started it this week - basic drill stuff and low height jumps at this point.

oooo - there's the difference - we are 2/3 of the way through the season! We MUST work full speed approaches and in the HJ and TJ that means spikes. There's no way we could work on the major elements of technique unless we go full speed. Technical errors are accentuated at speed and that's what we must fix now.

[polevaultpower]

My vaulters wear their spikes when they are doing their long runs, but that is generally it.

[mojo]

At what age and after how long training/competing do you start having kids wear spikes?

I have coached all age groups and still have no set rule on the topic. Of course the young kids want to wear spikes from day one and we don't let them. They do wear them in meets and we try and make them wait until then.

I have even had kids (10-11 years old) show up with the spikes on ready to warm up in them! Kinda funny really.
So in general I think NO spikes or kids under 13 in practice.

high knees-you are the first coach I have ever heard of who uses spikes every day, all the time. :shock:

[lonewolf]

I am not a coach but I have been coac;hed. I realize the coaching I received may not be fashionable today but my college coach fifty + years ago was a very successful multi-sport athlete himself and an Olympic team coach.
Our track and facilities were primitive by modern standards. I don't remember any apprehension about sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers wearing spikes in practice every day.. We warmed up in "flats" but wore spikes for full effort and technique.
Which reminds me.; he made us wear competition spikes a half size smaller.
I dunno, maybe the idea was if they were uncomfortable we would get the race over sooner.. anybody else ever subjected to or hear of this practice?

[Kurt Francis]

I think a bigger concern than wearing spikes in practice should be the practice by all too many unknowing coaches of doing plyo work on hard surfaces! I can't tell you how many times my shins got killed during my hs & college years because coaches didn't fully appreciate just what hard surfaces do to kids shins during plyos. I've always had my athletes do plyos on grass or mats...PERIOD!

[gh]

Back in my dark ages, both HS and college, our jumpers/sprinters/hurdlers never worked out in anything but spikes.

Of course, at the former, if you didn't have about 6-inch spikes you couldn't get any traction on our cinder track that had long since had all its binding agent wash away!

[Marlow]

I also only practiced in spikes on our cinder track and runways. Flats would not have worked.

Speaking of cinders, anyone else here have dark spots on the front of your knees from skinning them on a cinder track and having the cinders permanently embedded under your sKin?

[Guest]

I wear my comp shoes 1/2 size too small so my feet don't slosh around at all. The tight feeling makes me feel like I 'grip' the ground better.

Too uncomfortable for training

[mojo]

I.

Speaking of cinders, anyone else here have dark spots on the front of your knees from skinning them on a cinder track and having the cinders permanently embedded under your sKin?

No though i did at way back then.

I love cinder for training and if there was here we would definitey use it.

Do you remember having to pound the spikes into your blocks to secure them? We would usually only have one hammer available so someone would find a big boulder and we would all use that.

Happy days!

Oh and definitely no plyos on hard surfaces.

[high knees]

At what age and after how long training/competing do you start having kids wear spikes?

I have coached all age groups and still have no set rule on the topic. Of course the young kids want to wear spikes from day one and we don't let them. They do wear them in meets and we try and make them wait until then.

I have even had kids (10-11 years old) show up with the spikes on ready to warm up in them! Kinda funny really.
So in general I think NO spikes or kids under 13 in practice.

high knees-you are the first coach I have ever heard of who uses spikes every day, all the time. :shock:

Specficity of training.................for sprinters mainly, but everyone is affected, the transition from running in flats to using spikes can be and is a primary element of injury, especially if that includes (and it usually does) a significant increase in speed (intensity). Do it early and often and the body adapts to it instead of being shocked by it........

[lonewolf]

[
Do you remember having to pound the spikes into your blocks to secure them? .

First old-timer doesn't have a chance, mojo..
Anyone else here date back to when we dug holes for our foot plant?
Then we invented starting blocks by driving large spikes through a short piece of 2" x 6" and nailing two layers of 2 x 6s on top of the spiked piece, tapering the front edge at an angle.
We had neither hammer nor boulders. You could just step on them to drive them into the dirt track.

[Marlow]

Anyone else here date back to when we dug holes for our foot plant? Then we invented starting blocks by driving large spikes through a short piece of 2" x 6" and nailing two layers of 2 x 6s on top of the spiked piece, tapering the front edge at an angle.We had neither hammer nor boulders. You could just step on them to drive them into the dirt track.

Oh, we're playing THAT game, are we? OK, *I* remember back in the old Olympia stadion, when we had to chisel starting holes out of the rock! No, no, no, it was that we had to gouge holes into the rock with our fingernails - yeah, that's the ticket!

[SQUACKEE]

I know as a distance runner who trained barefoot or in flats that the first couple meets in spikes, especially on cinder, my calfs would tighten up because the spikes would cause me to use them more or differantly.

Then theres the blister problem. If you never wear them except in meets it may take a few races to get your feet ready for a vastly differant shoe.

If i was coaching distance runners i would have one spike workout a week.