Sprinting-Gymnastics

Hi all,

Just a very quick and general question: Does anyone here train sprinting and if so have you implemented it with gymnastics with success (paricularly gynastics conditioning)? I understand both sports place a heavy load on the body particularly the CNS and so management of this would have to be carefully planned for. I would love to hear opinions because it may be the case that both cannot be trained together at a high level or any level for that matter. I know coach implements sprints but I am also wondering about the additional aspects such as the strength training, speed endurance, tempo runs etc. Either way sprinting obviously has its place in gymnastics events....just watch the vault for instance.

I am considering getting into sprinting and have been reading material from Charlie Francis, a world renowned sprint coach although contreversial with the whole Ben Johnson situation. Has anyone else read any of his books at all? Coach I remember you saying you have read track and field books so maybe his material is part of your literature?

Just looking to hear some experiences/ ideas with such matters .

Thanks!

I don't train for sprinting as a sport but I do focus my cardio sessions on sprint interval work. I tend to spend 15 - 20 minutes working sprint intervals in the days between my strength training with 1 day off per week.

Sprint work does stress your body more than steady state cardio but I haven't noticed any negative affects on myself since starting the Gymnastic Strength Training™. However it's fairly early days yet! I guess it's a case of see how you go and if you're feeling worn out or weak then back off a little on either time or intesity.

You know I like to sprint on my own, but it's a bit difficult to implement in a gym where our longest sprint could be 25m. I calculated how many times we'd have to go around the floor ( roughly 40-50m ) but I'm a bit wary of it because I'm concerned of the degree of turn as to the ankle. You either have to curb the speed or watch for catastrophic spills ( which on 2 corners are walls, a third into the vault runway and the 4th into a BB ).

Maybe we could do 2x to equal 50's but it would only fit one gymnast at a time or maybe 2 if we could take part of floor. Cycling it somehow in a circuit sounds good though. Sounds like Friday.

This sounds like a great way to build their skinny stick legs. Most of my boys tested poorly as to sprint times and vertical leap ability. One boy did decently, but the rest might as well been the girls. We do single leg squats or box jumps but it sprinting trumps it all.

So, do SLS's and other strength exercises for the legs help in sprinting at all?

Sprinting is fun btw, I like to do it when I have a lot of excess energy randomly.

Helps with the bolld flow.

http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106

I've found they are also much better for fitness, training high intensity intervals has improved my steady state fitness so much better than long, slow cardio ever did.