APRIL 2014

4X100 RELAY CHALLENGE

There was an under-spend on last year’s IFM Sprint Challenge, therefore I propose to allocate £100 to the first CLUB team to break a County 4x100M relay record at any one of three meetings. This does not apply to Under 11’s or Under 13’s

County AA Championships

Duchy Open

Par Relay Open (end of the season).

Athletes may move up an age group if required

CURRENT RECORDSFemaleMale

U/1552.3 CAC47.6 CAC

U/1751.5 Duchy AC45.9 CAC

U/2050.9 Truro Col.46.2 CAC

Senior50.3 N & P44.2 N & P

COUNTY TRACK and FIELD TRAINING DAY

Twenty athletes and eleven coaches attended the workshop at Carn Brea on 30th March, which started with an alternating mix of strength and plyometrics exercises along with explanations of their purpose. Out on the track the majority of the athletes completed a series of drills using hurdles to aid mobility, being an abbreviation of a session demonstrated at last year’s national conference. There followed a divers of activities that included starting on bends, high jump, shot put and discus throwing, and middle distance running. Finally, everybody gathered in the Hub Club where the coaches had a Q & A session and the athletes completed a self assessment graph.

There was a desire from all sides for more of these and on reflection two or three during the winter/spring could be done with greater depth.

Incidentally, a survey recently showed that the most popular time for workshops is Sunday morning and for a 3-4 hour duration

Q & A – stretching

A number of coaches do very little stretching after training or racing.

Some coaches have specific stretching sessions.

Most do dynamic stretching prior to training but not static, yet ballet dancers do lots of static stretching and still perform fast movements.

The length of hold at the end of a stretch varied between zero and twenty seconds In the Flexibility Factor written by Malcolm Brown (UK Athletics) and June Adamson, a lecturer in PE at Edinburgh University, they advocate 6 seconds for PNF stretches and 12-18 seconds for static stretching. Two researches showed that 10-15 seconds was most beneficial and the Danish one mentioned last month suggested no HOLD period.

A very abbreviated analysis and some stretches follows.

There are two basic methods of stretching; - dynamic and static, both of which have sub divisions

Dynamic

This is really a method of increasing or maintaining a range of movement (ROM) of the limbs which does tend to degenerate with age, using exercises that exceed the normal ROM of the event so that when operating normally (running for example) the joints and muscles attached are not put under stress.

A sub division of this is ballistic stretching, when a bounce is applied at the end of a movement.

The drawback of this can be soreness, sometimes pain and a risk of injury due to rapid lengthening, which means the muscles should be well warmed up first but not to be put off by this as I use it regularly without detriment.

Some fifteen years ago, dynamic stretching was heavily promoted by UKA and often practiced to the detriment of static stretching, which has its own validity and afterall, ballet dancers do a lot of static stretching but they still move swiftly.

There are a number of interpretations of each type of stretch, so to avoid any confusion, I shall deal with only one of each type.

STATIC STRETCHING

Being a slower application of the stretch it reduces the risk of soreness and injury, and because it involves a hold in the stretched position it gives time for the muscles to lengthen.

  • Stretch –hold. The muscle is stretched to the point of tightness, held for 12-18 seconds during which time it lengthens and there is a feeling of stress reduction and relaxed for 30-60 seconds x 2
  • PNF (Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) The muscle is stretched to the point of tightness, held for 6 seconds, relaxed for 10, then stretched again, at which point the movement is generally greater.x2-3
  • CRAC (Contract-relax-agonist-relax) Starts like the stretch-hold technique but after a 6 second hold the opposing agonist muscles contract to work against the hold position (I normally allow a slow controlled resisting movement) before relaxing. x 2-3

PNF and CRAC are best performed with a partner, although it is possible to do them solo. Stretching a cold muscle creates a risk of injury, therefore they are best done near the end of a warm up. Conversely, stretching a tired muscle may show a greater ROM but runs the risk of injury.

FLEXIBILITY (ROM) exercises that are not recommended.

  • Hyper-extension of the neck (backwards) can lead to disc compression with a danger of trapping a nerve but neck rotation or lateral moves without hyperextension are OK
  • The plough- involving laying prone and bringing the feet over and behind the head places a lot of strain on the neck. Leave it to the yoga experts.
  • Arched backs are great for children under six but avoid it like the plague.
  • Laying on your back and only lifting straight legs puts the abdominal muscles at cross purposes. It is far better to raise the upper body either alone or in conjunction with the legs.

MARATHON COOL DOWN

Some time ago the IAAF carried out some research on muscle recovery following a marathon.. They took two groups of athletes competing in the same race. Group 1 began light running on the second day following the race, while group 2 waited a week before starting training. It was found that group 1 had better muscle recovery without any soreness, and if I recall correctly, group 2 proved to be stronger in a set exercise but their muscles had not fully returned to normal., therefore full recovery took longer.