Today’s episode features track and field master coach, Randy Huntington, who is in his 42nd year of coaching athletes to go faster, higher and further. Huntington is currently a national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps. In his work in China he is directly responsible for the development of their sprinters and horizontal jumpers, and is working with such elite athletes as Su Bingtian (100m and 60m Chinese record holder).
Huntington has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage (Powell’s record still stands!). Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.
Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Randy also has experience with speed training for other sports, particularly American football.
It’s always an amazing experience to be able to sit down with such experienced and legendary coaches in the field and gain insight into their process and wisdom. With so many of the world records and high marks in the jumps, not only on the world level, but even American high school, coming out of the 1980’s and 1990’s, it is awesome to talk to coaches like Randy Huntington about what made those athletes successful, and which core principles we cannot forget.
On today’s episode, Randy talks about his 3 and 4 day a week setups for sprinters and jumpers, and how to determine who fits into what mold. He also talks about long term development of sprinters and jumpers, as well as an extensive talk on strength training for the sake of sprint and jump development. This is a legendary talk for anyone who is interested in getting athletes faster and jumping higher.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Key Points:
- Randy’s background in coaching
- Fundamentals of the training from the 1980’s and 90’s and potential reasons nobody has touched 29 feet in long jump for decades (until last week)
- Randy’s training setups for sprints and jumps
- Ways to determine what type to weekly training setup to do based on testing and twitch type
- Rebuilding lost athleticism in athletes who haven’t played enough sports in their youth and specialized early
- At what point should strength training be brought in within the long term athletic development model of a track and field athlete
- Approaches to strength training for jumpers and sprinters
- Randy’s use of bar speed monitoring, and then the 1080 sprint, resisted sprinting and overspeed sprinting
“Just doing a mass only model doesn’t work (in regards to running)”
“I’m seeing a lot more knowledge and a lot less wisdom (in track and field training)”
“By basic philosophy is I train movements first, and then I strengthen movements second, so I am a short to long if you wish”
“The sprinters that I have, based upon their flying 30 or 10 time, I use those to determine, essentially along with the jump test, to determine what kind of tissue this human being has. Those athletes who are faster twitch, I’ll go to a hard-day easy day. For those who are not, I may not, and I may look for a little more work load to get the same stimulus response”
“About every 5-7 years I’d go back to coaching junior high school, because you got to remember the basics”
“The goal is to do something just a little bit better each day, so over time we can accumulate a great change”
“Establish a technical model first before you start strengthening it, otherwise athletes will depend on the strength”
“That’s how you know you are doing a pretty good job coaching, is when you can back away and the athlete can do it on their own”
“I do look at some of the power numbers, and I tend to look at things in terms of watts per kilogram”
“I don’t have a core strength number, that’s just not necessarily true in the sprints, but what I do look at is some of the power numbers, and I tend to look at things in terms of watts per kilogram”
“Our brains won’t let us move something fast that it knows will hurt us”
“When, in a lift, does the bar weigh what you think it weights? One is when at rest, and the other is at constant velocity”
“I don’t use the 1080 a lot for over-speed. I use it a lot for assisted speed”
“Muscles set up joints to take advantage of the elastic power inherent in it”
About Randy Huntington
Randy Huntington is currently the national track and field coach for the Chinese athletics association and has 42 years of coaching experience. Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps – one of only five in the U.S. He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including eight Olympians and seven World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Six of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.
Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On Aug. 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m) – a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington’s coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which is the longest in American history.
Huntington has also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members that he coached, along with Kathy Rounds and Kenta Bell.
Huntington has also worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He has worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and has worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.
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