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This week’s guest is UK senior athletics coach, Steve Fudge.  Steve had initial training and experiences in strength and conditioning before he began training track and field sprinters in the UK.  It is this combination that has helped him create a unique and incredibly effective way of seeing the development of the sprint athlete, according to each athlete’s own biochemistry and physical abilities.  Steve has worked with two sub-10 sprinters (James Dasaolu, Adam Gemili) in addition to other great athletes. Taken from an article on mcmillanspeed.com, “Steve is the epitome of the ‘lateral thinker’.  With expanding interests in therapy, nutrition, philosophy, and neuro-science, as well as a background in strength a conditioning and massage, Steve has been able to successfully apply his studies to the science of his sport.” I really enjoy speaking with coaches who have had a variety of backgrounds, as each sport or discipline we work with adds to our view and understanding of singular disciplines.  In my own path, my experience as a strength coach has benefitted my knowledge of track and field coaching tremendously, and my work with swimmers and exactly what does transfer from the weight room to the water has globally enhanced my coaching abilities. Listening to Steve, is it awesome to hear his multi-disciplinary background filtered down into simple, practical, and effective answers that have big ramifications for us as coaches working with athletes interested in running faster, jumping higher and moving better.  This was a particularly enjoyable episode to record and edit on my own end, and the information is practical to virtually any type of coach or athlete out there. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. Key Points: Steve’s background in coaching How Steve’s background in strength and conditioning has influenced his work as a track coach Steve’s view on the role of the weight room in building speed The role of weight room 1-rep maxes in speed performance Measuring and monitoring bar speeds in the weight room Steve’s take on some of the more specific exercises in the weight room Single vs. double leg movements in the weight room How long intensive weight room work can be carried on before it becomes a problem Keeping strength training in a program to a greater degree than males later into the season Hormonal adaptations in strength training and performance Ideas on hamstring injury prevention The role of potentiation from the weightroom to the track Quotes: “The weightroom is part of a broader jigsaw puzzle, it is an important part, but what’s more important is how that part of the weightroom works into the bigger program.  It doesn’t matter how good that strength program is, the overall program has to be good” “I never want an athlete to go into the weightroom unmotivated, so yeah of course we definitely give them ideas of weights we want them to hit and targets we want them to hit and we want them to keep progressing in the weightroom, but we don’t necessarily want the whole program to become about how strong they are.  We want them to progress and move forward in the weightroom in such a way that it compliments their running program” “If we want someone to run at 12 meters per second, the most specific primary stimulus we can give them is fast running sessions” “We can definitely use things in the weightroom to move forward the physical potentials of the athlete” “Hip flexion done properly is quite a hard skill to do, so we’ve found that is a limiting factor in how the athlete and the crossed extensor reflex can come together.  We’ve done a lot of exercises which are working on that end range hip flexion, that above 90 degrees hip flexion and making sure that the pel...