Ken Jakalski, in a recent comment to a blog post, wrongly attributed the following quote to Mike Young:
"I think there still is a place for drill work, however I believe it should be focused on force application and not the swing phase. The main focus should not be "technique" but aiding the athlete to recruit more motor neurons."
Mike Young responded with the following clarification:
“This was written by someone by the username of cdt1 not me. I'm not sure how you could possibly have attributed it to me but it is not my opinion and because it undermines all my arguments to the contrary and makes me appear inconsistent I'd ask that it is corrected. I hope that this is an honest mistake and not an intentional attempt to decieve the bearpowered readership.”
Ken recognized his error and apologized (he had indeed posted a comment from another individual) to Mike Young on the same blog.
This was an honest mistake on Ken’s part and there was no attempt to deceive anyone let alone our readership.
In the spirit of providing accurate quotes and to ensure that Mike Young’s thoughts on the subject of technique training and drills are presented clearly, fairly and accurately, the following are quotes from him on his forum and FAQ sections of his website, elitetrack.com :
In direct response to cdt1’s quote above:
“I largely agree. I really use drill work more as a dynamic warmup activity that prepares the muscles in a similar manner that they will be used in sprinting. I've written an FAQ on this subject for a more in-depth summary of my thoughts on the subject.”
In other sections of his website:
“I think technical development is fair game in almost all instances. Don't take this to mean I over-coach sprint mechanics. In fact, most of my athletes will complete a sprint workout and never hear a word about mechanics. Others might be able to go the entire year without hearing anything. Those that are running lazy or those who have come to me with what I perceive to be poor mechanics however, might get 2-3 feedback comments in a workout.”
“Sprint drills do not in and of themselves develop proper sprint mechanics and may in fact be detrimental. Sprint drills can however provide an opportunity to teach cues that can be used in full speed sprinting, or create desired sensations which may carry over to full speed sprinting. These benefits however are contingent on the manner in which the sprint drills are performed.
Sprint drills may also be used to develop certain physical capacities or warmup the athlete.”
“I believe these two things are somewhat mutually exclusive....especially as you approach upper limits. For example, mechanical efficiency would be a movement pattern that is able to produce the greatest impulse, power output, whatever we want to use as the defining characteristic. Metabolic efficiency would likely need a compromised mechanical efficiency. Or perhaps we add the classifier on and say that something is mechanically most efficient for a highly specialized task (like the 100m OR the 10k) instead of a generalized activity (running).”
Barry Ross