GlenMills

Glen Mills has over-seen athletes to 33 Olympic medals and 71 world championships in his 22-year career as an Olympic athletes coach.

He uses a well-structured training programme, that, focuses on pure speed and speed endurance simultaneously. He believes, that, the two should be practiced concurrently and coaches should attain a balance.

He advocates, to keep the athlete fresh and active: with the load reduced as the velocity increases. A good amount of recovery rest is also needed with an ideal duration being 36 hours or more. Explosive training should be reduced to once or twice per week.

Additionally, he is focused on introducing small changes in the sprint technique to get bigger results.

There is a risk of injuries and poor performance due to improper body alignment, so Mills believes, that,

developing the hip flexor region is important for a strong upper body and core.

Developing strength is, also, a good way to over-come fatigue.

This is why he focuses on strength-training for power and speed to reduce risks of injuries and improve performance.

Sprint-drills develop balance, co-ordination and timing in addition to advanced skills like stride length, frequency, ground contact time and recovery mechanics.

Some of the primary techniques used to develop sprint mechanics include maximum velocity training, dynamic warm-up drills and acceleration training: with a focus on mechanics maintained during all the workouts. The programme concentrates on speed, endurance and technique. He believes, the programme should be designed around abilities and energy systems needed to run at speed.

His coaching technique is rare as he coaches a person and not a machine.

He believes, that, a coach should be involved in every aspect of the athlete’s life.

Mills often talks about the importance of training the mind. One of the interesting philosophies of Mills is ‘learn to lose to learn to win’. He believes, that, doing so gives the mental strength to the athlete by eliminating the fear of losing.

It's hard to argue with his methods when he has such success, which why at Vorsprung we advocate this method with everyone we work with, what ever sports they play. Huge benefits are being seen using this method through-out distance runners, team sports, swimming, tennis, basketball, rugby, cricket and many more…

References:
Glenn Mills: extracts taken from a Sports Coaching article (September 2020)