Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #122: Gill1918 presents Erik Jenkins "Coaching the Relays Part 2" from Tampa Bay/USF Clinic

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#122: Gill1918 presents Erik Jenkins "Coaching the Relays Part 2" from Tampa Bay/USF Clinic · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  What questions can I ask for you folks?
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  Shoot, I'll give you everything I have.
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  You take and do it as you may. Yes, Sir, for four.
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  On one exchanges, do you do a vocal cue or do you?
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  Prefer more? Touches out, so we do a couple
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  different type of exchanges. One of them I'll do early on
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  because I'm just trying to teach the skill pattern and it's just
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  an easy exchange and that is a verbal when we're going live,
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  you see the mark, you're going to put your hand up when you're
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  ready and it's all on. It's you got to understand the
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  concept of it. There are a lot of people who
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  are screaming a lot of things at me time.
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  So I'm trying to eliminate all the noise.
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  I want us focusing on our lane and what we do because if you
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  hearing stick, stick, stick, it's a lot of people doing that.
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  So we try to minimize the noise and so we do have a practice cue
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  that we use when we're doing more of the lighter exercises.
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  But when we're going live it's it's quiet.
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  Yes Sir, in the gauntlet between conference.
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  And regionals. And NCAA.
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  Obviously the weather is different that you encounter
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  because obviously you go into conference with your exchange
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  points. Did you have any weather
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  conditions or any kind of things that you had to adjust through
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  that sequence or meet to meet? Well, it's a good question,
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  Coach, because I'll give you an example.
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  So conference last year, we were at Texas and it was windy,
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  especially at 3:00 and 4:00, so you can bring them in.
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  We went to Kentucky in the four by one.
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  It was raining that morning. Track was a little slick, but we
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  opted just to stay pen relays. It is what it is.
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  I think we brought a man tight because we want to make sure we
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  got it around. And then for nationals this
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  year, we just stuck with what we had.
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  It was very hot out in Oregon, so at some point you just got to
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  trust the marks. If it's raining hard, we even
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  have another way. We'll run relays if we if, if
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  it's raining really hard and I got to go to no tape marks, no
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  nothing. I've got a system that will run
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  that too. So 8 to 12 hill toe steps is
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  what you normally. That's general.
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  I will tell you, I'll put whatever you need to do.
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  We get up to you have sometimes we'll go 28 or 26 to 30 and it
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  depends on how you do it and. Then you just mentioned you used
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  to take. I've been to Pepsi a couple
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  times. You.
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  Weren't seeing people you've been at where, sorry.
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  We've been to oh mentioned they used tape.
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  Do you still use tape or do you use those long strips?
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  That I've seen called. It depends with the I target or
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  whatever I have the the long strips but we also use tape so
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  it just depends. I would rather use the long
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  strips because of one it's easier for them to put down and
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  not struggling with the tape. But it's whichever 1 you want to
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  use. I make mine OK.
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  What do you think? Of mine because I've tried to
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  look online. I'm like, I don't right the
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  kitten office playing tape, just two sided tape and just keep
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  folding until you get it to the consistency you need.
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  Yeah. Oh, OK.
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  For that 150 simulation, I'm assuming I'll get you stopped at
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  150 from 2nd to 4th. But from first.
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  To second, are you still hanging up the same 4 by 4 exchanges?
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  On or you don't have it after. So the 150 is we're just working
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  the the back exchanges. So we'll start the 1:50 they run
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  in the person taking the run 50 meters carry 50 and then they
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  walk back across and do it again.
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  Yeah, and. You.
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  Can do that with 100 meters, 50 meters, whatever you desire.
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  It's I build them into my workouts.
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  Yes, Sir, the same. You do.
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  This so I. Got to ask and this is great.
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  For high school coach, how often do you run your.
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  Relays. How often?
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  Do you? Give them a break and say it's
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  not as. Important.
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  How often do I run the relays? I run them every weekend if I
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  can and I'll run a bunch of them because it, what I'm trying to
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  find out is who's going to pay attention and where we need to
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  set up those marks because any coach in here, no, you might
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  think you have your 4:00 to 5:00, somebody gets sick, this
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  and this and that. So I try to run as many as I can
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  every time I can for that particular reason.
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  And I also think I might practice one way and run in a
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  different way just so I've got the reps at me time, but I need
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  to see a different execution. I mean, I've got the reps at
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  practice, but I want to see a different execution at me time
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  because I don't ever want to be in a situation I know I've run
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  39 seconds with a 400 hurdler that could not break.
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  If he ran 10/8. I would be I would eat a hat
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  right now. But because we try and do a lot
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  of different things and it was cold and Bowling Green, KY, we
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  ran 3993 with that gentleman and another hurdler.
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  But it was all about I needed to see what my first and third were
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  going to do. So I put my two of my better
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  guys and 1:00 and 3:00 and I had my long hurdles on the
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  straightaway just to see what they can do they.
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  Practice. It everybody practices the relay
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  and. Your outgoing runners, are they
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  reaching? Straight.
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  Back out to the side out to the side so I again me, I'm trying
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  to simplify all of this and so I teach I want to reach out and
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  catch the baton and come back A lot of times you see when people
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  do this motion, they're getting here and they're bending and
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  they're reaching for it. I don't want you reaching.
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  I want you to just catch the baton and go.
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  Yes, Sir, that's. 38. O5.
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  Quartet last year. How many are you returning?
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  33 but everybody has opportunity to run on one that can run 38 or
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  37. Yeah, there's no guarantees.
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  Everybody has to earn their spot.
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  With your. Second leg of your 4 by 4 as
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  they're outgoing, how do you how do you keep them from I guess
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  looking back to the receiver baton at a decent rate not
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  stepping out of the their lane? Second leg of four by 4/4.
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  How do I have a look back? Correct.
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  Well, one, we work on actual position.
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  Most people, again, that's why I say you got to practice this.
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  You have people just stand up in the middle of the lane.
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  Where's the incoming running going to go if you're in the
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  middle of the lane? So we work on actually making
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  sure you understand the spacing. So I have the outgoing runner on
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  the outside and they have to stay on the outside until
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  there's contact through the push.
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  So again, I'm yelling, see the hand, push the hand and they're
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  pushing the incoming runner. Push the person through the zone
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  and they both should be able to run through that zone without
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  any issues. The person shouldn't be cutting
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  down on the incoming runner. It should be clean going out.
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  That in and of itself is a lot of practice because again, you
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  see a lot of people crash and burn trying to get to that zone
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  because they don't pay attention.
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  It's not that they can't do it, but they don't pay attention.
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  They get excited and they just want to go the hands here, then
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  it drops to here and they in the middle of the lane and they're
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  turning around and doing all this stuff.
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  You just got to stay focused on the task at hand, which is big
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  target. You have to be able to measure
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  the incoming person's speed and you got to mimic that going out.
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  Just that simple. All quality questions.
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  Anybody else? Go ahead.
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  Which one? Oh, well, I thought I had some
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  help with my stuff here, but all right, so I'll be able to show
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  that. Any other questions I can answer
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  about the relays? Yeah, I think there's a yes,
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  Sir. Touched on it and I I see this
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  it's not uncommon with coaches of all levels.
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  By the way, you talked about relays are a practice, an
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  acceleration practice or a math ski practice You also probably
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  have or have had. Long jumpers.
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  You mentioned heard there or? Something can.
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  You talk us a little bit about the I've seen people do 4 by 1
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  practice on Monday, acceleration practice on Tuesday.
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  And and you know that's not. The right way, right?
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  Can you talk a little bit about how, but how do you use relay
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  practice as? A long jump.
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  Practice as a strict practice, etcetera.
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  Well. One, you try to go out and
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  recruit kids who can actually do it.
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  So I have two examples and specifically talking about
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  jumpers, I had a young man couple years ago, Ventavia Sears
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  in our conference championship. He ran 20.545, five long jump,
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  25 plus feet, 52 plus feet, anchored our four by one in 45 O
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  3, but he could have easily run it out four by one.
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  Our 4x4 this year actually had a high jumper on it that split 44
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  eight. So it's about finding people who
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  are available to be able to do it and also put them in
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  situations. So one of the big things we had
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  to work on this year because he was young man came in in
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  January. He was a high jumper, was being
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  able to work with our jumps coach and say hey, I need them
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  for this amount of time to work on these things and he was a
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  work in progress. But you can see it early.
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  Same thing you can see with the old man Ventavia Sears.
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  You knew very quickly he was a guy that needed to be on the run
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  relay. He ran on our relay that ran
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  3860. They finished fourth in the
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  NCAA's, but he also jumped 26 too.
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  And that same me and he ran second leg on our 4x4.
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  I believe so. But it's also a lot of
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  communication between other coaches because, again, they do
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  other events and it's how you work together to be able to do
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  that. And then you also have to have
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  the kid buy in to say, all right, I can do it.
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  And I'm actually looking forward to it And out again for the
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  young man here, this year's name is Corey.
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  Corey also had the benefit of coming in and getting drugged
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  through practice by Gabe, who was a guy that can run Force 8,
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  all this other type of stuff. So he had the mentorship of
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  having somebody who could do that with him.
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  So again, it comes back to personnel.
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  It's just personnel. Anybody else?
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  All right, I'll give you this video here briefly.
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  Anybody else? All right, Yes, Sir.
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  Early in the. Season look like.
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  In your practice for outdoors so depends on where we travel
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  trying to think of what's what's a good week coach I give you a
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  tight week 22 examples a tight week early season week you will
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  go to Florida relay. So we're coming off of we'll do
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  our home meet week off then we do Florida relay.
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  So Mondays those guys that do a lot of acceleration work with
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  Coach Dean. Coach Dean, coaches are short
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  sprinters, so I send all the quarter miles to him except for
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  the guys who are truly quarter miles that can move up.
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  But even then they do a lot of that short end stuff as well.
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  Tuesdays we're going to come out, we're going to start with
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  some shorter work to develop to get ready for the four by one
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  work. And so we'll actually go short
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  work. Then we'll do 4 by 4 exchanges.
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  Then we'll come back to the four by one and we'll do some longer
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  work in 4 by 1 and then we'll fire it up and go fast.
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  We'll take a recovery and then we'll come back and do some type
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  of flat running. Wednesdays is either off day or
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  a recovery. I mean some type of recovery
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  day. Thursdays we're going to go
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  fast. And then, well, I say that
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  again, depends if we're going to Florida Relays it, it can, it's
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  measurable. And then we'll run Friday and
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  Saturday and we use those as real time workouts.
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  And then we'll recover on Sunday and and Monday.
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  If it's a tight week, like we're going from Mount SAC Relays to
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  Pen Relays, well we're leaving on Wednesdays for both of those
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  meets. So by the time we get back on
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  Sunday, we really only have a Tuesday to get the work done.
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  So that's pretty much it. And then we're traveling on
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  Wednesdays and have a light shake out on Thursdays, and then
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  we'll hit it on Friday and Saturday.
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  Definitely we'll. Focus on relays.
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  We focus on relays on Tuesdays and Tuesday one, because I want
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  to have enough time to be able to get their legs back on the
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  room because not only are we going to do relays, but we're
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  going to run hard flat too. So we do quite a bit of volume
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  on on Tuesdays with relays, but it's all leading to that point
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  because that type of high intensity work with volume, it
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  it gets scary at the end of the year.
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  It does, but you got to do it. All right.
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  Anybody else have any questions besides Coach Dean?
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  I want to watch this video. OK, All right, This is our
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  football 4 from last year. Bear with me, but it's I think
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  it's worth it. The what?
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  Oh, sorry. There we.
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  Go. No sound coach, so we talk about
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  the first leg again, being steady.
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  We're down in Lane 3. Again, we want to be steady.
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  Our guys just not giving up on us.
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  He's keeping us there. Our guy should be on the outside
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  a little more in three, but again, your second leg has to be
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  a guy that's willing to run that turn.
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  Qualifying just two days ago, teams in contention got to be
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  really aware of the lines on that track.
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  Now they're past all of those problems.
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  Now you got to know what's going on out in front of you.
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  Sam's out for A&M. We're going for space at this
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  point outside. I have no idea what that is.
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  This is YouTube because I couldn't download coach's video.
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  Imagine what USC. Now in dead last and this is Max
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  Thomas trying to make up some ground.
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  They have got some work to do. Keep an eye on South Florida as
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  well. Pushing him through the zone.
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  Get it and go now. This is third leg is our high
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  jumper. He was an anchor leg in the
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  prelims. Remember that third leg wants to
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  be a guy that can keep you in space.
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  You don't have to win in that third, but you need to be there.
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  I believe that's Jalen Knox. For the USC Trojans there city
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  in. Seventh position now got tight,
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  didn't it? Feet Hill on third leg for
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  Arkansas A&M in South Florida. Going to exchange together.
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  Who has the better exchange? A&M.
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  Bond on lines. Robinson, but now Florida into
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  the mixed again. You want to have a measured
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  approach for the Gators, but Ahmad Robinson, we know what
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  kind of relay duty he could do. He ran 4320 on his leg last year
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  when they set the collegiate record.
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  SC is way back in the. 4th or. Better to win the title.
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  But it it races Florida and ATM and look at the Bon Robinson.
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  He didn't get it done in the over for me because this is when
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  it's racism hockey. He's going to do everything.
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  Kevin, here comes South Florida, South Florida.
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  Give it up for the Bulls. All right, so that was a four by
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  four and I know coach again want to see one more video.
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  This would be our I can get to it here.
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  This will be our 4 by 1 and they this is the 38 O 5 effort.
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  Sorry, give me circle. Now again, I talk about the
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  third leg, if you can, if you could be clean through the third
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  leg, you got a chance and that's 38 O 5.
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  So a couple things we learned in in those relays, we took a a lot
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  of lumps early to figure out where we needed to be.
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  We that relay for the most part. Second, when no, I take that
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  back, I actually our anchor leg for the beginning of the year.
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  I led him off because again, like you asked me earlier, it's
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  about trying to figure out where people can be at any given time.
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  You can find anchors if you have tough kids, but to be able to
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  find a one in three and especially 3.
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  That's what you make in my opinion you can make the most
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  damage so I appreciate y'all. Give it up for Eric Jenkins.
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  There you go. What a great lesson in.
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  Coaching matters. I think you would agree.
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  You line up those four guys against some of these other four
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  guys. They don't have the, they don't
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  have the best PRS, but putting them together and coaching them,
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  that's how you you produce champions.
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  And so that should, that should give you heart for what you're
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  doing out there. It's nice to have the four
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  fastest, but rarely do we have it.
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  So you've got to actually, you got to coach, and that's what
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  you guys and gals do very well. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
• 20:52
  Project series. It's really my mission, my
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  passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
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  one hit the mark. The Gill 1918 Project is really
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