ABSTRACT
The sprinter’s strength and conditioning (S&C) coach is tasked with understanding adaptive responses to training to support refinement of physical potential to something approximating a practical ceiling of performance. Delivering qualities to support specific training and reduce injury risk as far as possible, in athletes delivering extreme performances, is a challenge. It is a challenge further extended in delivering physical outcomes that align to unseen optimisations that the athlete and technical coach are seeking: optimisations around the management of available movement ranges, between ground contact and flight times, between stride length and frequency; optimisations affected by the physical qualities and capacities of the athlete at any time. This chapter is intended to aid the S&C coach working directly with sprinters. It is also intended to support those S&C coaches in other sports, tasked with delivering improved speed as a sub-component of their role. As such, discussion is extended beyond the typical merge-point of S&C and technical sprint coach, supporting the reader who needs to see more of the integrated picture.
