Athlete Development and Jamaican Sprinters
by Brian McCormick
October 20, 2008
Last month, I wrote about different Olympic successes, including Jamaica’s sprinters. This week’s Sports Illustrated features an article about Jamaica’s sprinters, particularly gold medal winners Shelly-Ann Fraser and Usain Bolt.
Since Jamaica dominated the sprints at the 2008 Olympics, despite a population of only 2.8 million, many have suggested that Jamaicans’
genes make them great sprinters. While genes certainly play a part in athletic success, the article illustrates the importance of environment and nurture, even though Bolt, among others, believes in the power of nature.
Fraser’s high school coach said:
“Everybody wants to run the 100…The 400 is a sprint, but kids here see it as a long distance.”
When I first played sports, we always ran longer distances as a sub- maximal speed. There’s no way I was going to battle a Jamaican sprint champion, but the early development plays a role. My first organized sport was soccer, which I started at seven-years-old. At almost every soccer practice through my teens, we started with a static stretch and a couple laps around the soccer field. We jogged around the soccer field 4-6 times. In P.E., whenever we had class outside, we started with a couple laps around the soccer field.
We never started with a sprint warm-up. We never ran sprints. We jogged and stretched and then started the drills. The only time we reached full speed was during a game or scrimmage. Otherwise, we never sprinted. We jogged. We stretched.
When I was in Trinidad and Tobago this summer (home of Olympic 100m silver medalist Richard Thompson), the kids ran everywhere. They sprinted after each other. They ran in the street. And, they were fast. But, they ran fast a lot; not a lot of jogging or slow tempo runs.
The article also mentions, Champs, a national high school track
championship:
Champs is Jamaica’s equivalent of the Super Bowl. More than 35,000 fans cram into the National Stadium each spring for these high school championships.
Imagine the difference in United States’ Track and Field (or
elsewhere) if there was a national high school championship which created such excitement. In the U.S.A., a talented athlete plays basketball or football because that’s where the money and prestige are. LeBron James is on his way to being the first billion dollar athlete. Seeing that, why would a great athlete not choose basketball?
In Jamaica, the celebrities, the champions, the heroes and the money are in track, and specifically the sprints. So, the top athletes run.
Sometimes, we read into situations more than we need to. It’s not necessarily about genes or training frequency or periodization.
Sometimes, it’s just about motivation and the every day environment.
If you want to be fast, you need to be in an environment which values and rewards speed. Most youth sports in the U.S., and especially P.E., concentrate on fitness, and the myth that long distance equals better fitness than sprints, despite research from McMaster University which shows that a series of 30-second sprints 3 days a week have the same cardiovascular benefits as someone who does 40 to 60 minutes of endurance training at a moderate intensity five days a week (”Built for Speed,” Men’s Health, November 2008).
To develop faster athletes, run fast. Train fast. Play games that require fast running. It’s not rocket science.