I’ve been lucky enough to work with a few state track & field champions in the great state of Ohio.  A lot of the theories behind our speed development program for all athletes is what we have done with these state track champions.

Think about it.  If we put a track athlete through a program, you definitely can tell right away of their changes because they are always being laser timed.  If we know the improvements track athletes are making in their speed because we can see the results at every race, chances are the other sport athletes are making their improvements as well.

A few years back, I wrote several blog posts on what we did to help Aziza Ayoub win her state championships in the 800M.  The program we did for her was a groundbreaker for us on how to improve speed in athletes.

After Aziza graduated, my daughter Anna became a freshman at Bishop Watterson.  I took the program we did with Aziza and applied it to Anna.  The next four years I was constantly modifying that program and making it better to the point where Anna won her own state title this past spring.

The next few weeks, I’ll be talking about my 4 year research project with my daughter.  Truly, the one person I could experiment with where if I screwed this up, the people yelling at me would be her and my wife.

What really helped with my program was that I became her high school track coach her freshman year.  So I really had control over her speed development from running workouts to the strength program.

In regards to my daughter, I wrote a three part blog series on her trip to the state meet her sophomore year in high school.  I re-read it just to familiarize myself again with what I wrote.  But, so you can take a look at it, click the links below to read:

There is a lot of info to go into these last couple years.  Especially how we dealt with the pandemic and losing a season.  Losing a year to develop speed, be noticed, accolades, etc.

Before I get into all of that, which will be next week, I want to discuss what the makeup is of a champion.  I’ve been the strength coach for several state champion teams.  We’ve had state champions at our facility and I’ve personally coached a few.  

Here are some of the components you must have to be a state champion:

  • You have to have talent.  I can’t just take anybody with any type of talent and make a state champion out of them.  They have to have athletic potential to be successful.  I can’t take some slow kids and claim this workout will get them to the top.  They have to have some fast twitch fibers and a propensity to be fast.

  • They have to have a desire to be successful.  I meet a lot of athletes.  I have a lot of athletes that train at our facility throughout the years who promise me no one wants it like them.  Or that they want to see if they can play in college.  I map out a plan that you have to follow pretty much all of the time.  Most start off following it, but then something comes up this week.  Then before you know it, they’ve missed a whole week of training.  Actions truly speak louder than words.  You telling me how bad you want it means nothing to me.  Show me.  The champions I work with don’t make excuses.  They figure out how to get things done when the normal way is roadblocked.

  • What training will you be doing that isn’t required of you?  Meaning, the practices you do for your sport are the bare minimum.  What else will you do to make yourself better?  Are you lifting in the off-season?  Are you doing speed work that will help you be better at your sport?  Once again, this plays a role in your desire to be successful.  You may say you want to do this training, but if you start missing trainings here and there, it won’t happen.

  • What is your intensity like not during a competition?  Meaning, are you lazy with your practices, workouts, or lifts.  If I have a hard time getting you to work hard doing a strength training session, what makes me think you are going to run hard consistently when it matters.  All it says is I really can’t trust you 100% when it matters.   

  • Eliminate the excuses not to train/workout.  I’ve mentioned this before, but champions only miss a workout if they are sick, a death in the immediate family, and that is about it. THEY FIND A WAY TO MAKE ALL THEIR WORKOUTS.  It is as simple as that.  When the excuses and absences start trickling in, I know we aren’t heading down the CHAMPION road.

I’m not saying doing all these things will automatically make you a champion in your sport.  What I am saying if you do these things, you will put you down a path towards success.  If you want to be a champion though, these have to be done.

Anna did all of these things.  You have to commend her especially since I’m her father telling her what to do.  Next week, we will get into more of the training and what we changed from sophomore year.