344: Henk Kraaijenhof on Athlete-Centered Speed Development and Timeless Training Principles

More show notes at https://www.just-fly-sports.com/podcast-344/ Today’s podcast features Henk Kraaijenhof.  Henk has several decades of experience as a performance coach in a broad array of sports.  His coaching credentials include working track athletes such as Nelli Cooman (former 60m dash world record holder), Merlene Ottey, and Troy Douglas as well as elite team sport competitors. His specialties are physical and mental coaching, stress and stress management, technology, and the methodology or training.  In addition to world-level performance, Henk’s coaching has also bred longevity, as Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s. In the current coaching age, it’s easy to think that because we are doing “new” looking drills, have increased our data collection, and have created various technical models of sport skill, we have a massive edge on what athletes were doing 50 years ago.  At the same time, general trends in injury rates and performance markers should have us thinking twice (for example, Bob Hayes running 9.99s in the 100m in 1964 on a chewed up cinder track).  At the end of the day, it is more “core” elements of training philosophy that stand the test of time, and help us to better understand the needs of the athlete in front of us. On today’s show, Henk digs into speed training through the decades, and how many perceived “new school” elements, are actually much older than we think they are.  He talks about how he approaches “technical models” of sport skill (sprinting specifically), coaching the current generation of athletes, and where our modern world is heading in general on the level of technology.  He talks about the skill of patience in our current coaching environment, and shares some key philosophical ideas on the nature of coaching track and team sport athletes, and what we can learn from nature itself.  Finally, Henk gives his views on his own current technology use in his coaching role. Today’s episode is brought to you by Strength Coach Pro (strengthcoachpro.com) and Lost Empire Herbs For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for FREE (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com