overspeed training

If uphill sprinting provides such a great speed-enhancing opportunity, what about turning round and sprinting downhill? This activity will result in what is known as ‘overspeed’ running. Greene is aptly nicknamed the Kansas Cannonball, and during his training it’s more than likely that he will have used overspeed downhill running and other overspeed methods to reach speeds he would not normally be able to attain.

Other overspeed devices include towing methods, running ‘with the wind’ and elasticised harnesses. These devices are essentially giant rubber bands that are attached around the waist. Tension is built up by pulling them out (you need a coach or another athlete to do this); when the harness is released, the athlete is pulled down the track beyond his or her normal sprint speed.

All overspeed methods push or pull athletes to speeds they would not be able to achieve using their bodies alone. Whatever method is employed, it is crucial for athletes to ‘fire’ their muscles in order to achieve the super-fast sprinting speed rather than being dragged to fast speeds. It’s the same difference as falling or running down a hill. If you fall down, you may get to the bottom more quickly, but you’ll probably not remember how you did it. If you run down, on the other hand, you’ll be conscious of all your steps. For all overspeed work you need to be conscious of your sprinting movements in order to maximise neuromuscular patterning.

Having tried most overspeed methods myself, I have found that downhill running using a slight decline (10% or less) seemed to offer the greatest transference to my sprinting capability. Elasticised harnesses (read catapults), although great fun, were rather like roller-coaster rides: very exhilarating and scary at the time but easily forgotten, with only marginal consequent improvement to my sprinting speeds. Downhill sprinting, however, enabled me to fire my own muscles, and because of this there was greater transferability to my on-the-flat sprinting.

The old Eastern Bloc countries were quick to realise the benefits of sprinting on various gradients. A trip to their former training facilities – such as Potsdam in East Germany, where they had constructed incline/decline sprint tracks – makes this perfectly clear. To achieve optimum speed transference, Eastern Bloc trainers would get their athletes to sprint uphill one week, on the flat the next and downhill the next.