349: Cody Bidlow on Strength, Technique and Programming in Sprint Development

Today’s guest is Cody Bidlow. Cody is currently the head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. Cody additionally owns SprintingWorkouts.com and the ATHLETE.X brand, where he runs educational content on speed and power training to a large audience. He was an all-conference sprinter at Grand Canyon University, and continues to train and sprint competitively. I’ve had a lot of sprint and speed training shows as part of this podcast series. Speed training is an important aspect of both track and field and team sport. Additionally, the principles of training speed, pushing a human being to the limit of a skill they have been using their whole life, requires an integrative and thorough process, the principles of which can carry over to any athletic pursuit. For today’s show, Cody shares insights on motor learning concepts in sprinting, the consequence of overemphasizing sprint motions or strength training, the role of longer, more metabolic sprinting on total speed development, ideas on “impulse” strength in the gym, and much more. Today’s episode is brought to you by LILA Exogen Wearable Resistance, Lost Empire Herbs and Strength Coach Pro. 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. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:37 – Cody’s athletic journey and how it has impacted him as a coach 9:36 – Questions Cody has asked in his own training journey that have helped him as a coach 16:47 – The type of sprinter that Cody is, and his learning about his own training response 24:41 – Why “over-projecting” in sprint acceleration can be a problem, and how that wasn’t the most successful strategy for Cody 28:09 – Experimenting at the “poles” or extremes of a sport skill, in order to find a better middle point 32:24 – Rationale and context of various sprint drills and exercises, and how to connect technical movements with a higher intensity sprint 36:03 – Using longer sprints, and “more work” in the 15-40 second bracket of training to help one’s overall speed and power abilities 47:33 – Principles on the maximal amount of longer running that Cody would put in a program 51:07 – How the mental and emotional elements of competition can enable better performance in longer sprints 59:59 – The “finisher” mentality in speed and power training and the complimentary impact of a metabolic element in a program 1:06:27 – A discussion on general and specific elements in the weight room for sprinting speed 1:15:41 – Over-pushing in sprinting, in light of the principle of “impulse” 1:17:19 – Cody’s take on the “push” type cue Cody Bidlow Quotes “Something led to that (sprint) position, that might have been a timing issue, that might have been a posture issue” “For me, if I do a bunch of deep squatting, I get super slow, for some, it might make them faster” “I’ve leaned in more to trusting intuition, and not outsourcing to other people as to the right way to do it… you have to trust in your own ability, not just rely on a famous coach that said what to do” “In learning to become better at speed endurance I’ve had to learn things like, not forcing stride frequency but letting stride frequency occur, locking in my posture” “In acceleration, one thing that disrupted me for a long period of time, was purely focusing on projection, and the big shapes idea” “By finding (movement) extremes, it opens up your abilities and gets you out of stereotyped movements, and that’s when progress stalls” “You aren’t doing a drill because it’s going to make you faster, you do a drill to work on one small feeling, and then we take that (feeling) into the sprint” “I think that there’s a skill development aspect of longer runs, simply by virtue of having more steps, you are doing more reps of the specific skill” “There is something to be said about including longer sprinting in your training, just don’t go overboard with it” “It would be unwise to overlook that a great number of athletes who compete at a high level do a significant amount of longer sprinting in some form” “Most of the time, I look at the longest they are going to run (for their race), and then I shorten it up just a little bit” I’ll just finish (an acceleration session) by 1x150, or 1x90, so that way I’m incorporating speed endurance through a longer portion of the year, but the dose is not very high” “If we can build up a huge volume wins in practice, feeling good in practice, that’s what’s going to lead to feeling good in competition and being able to express their abilities” “What do you want your body to remember, the fastest rep, or the slowest rep?” “You get a lot out of doing 1 rep (of a speed endurance run, like a 150m)” “Last year I was (really strong in the deep squat) but was running slower in acceleration than I had in multiple years” “I believe that the ability to generate force in the early stages of movement is a skill that can be developed” “If anything, I want athletes to relax in the top half of a lift (hex deadlift) because I don’t want the body to hold on to contractions” “I might start with an 8” step up, then I might progress to a step up where I’m stomping the box, and my focus is on the instant my foot hits the box” “With athletes who aren’t that skilled, I don’t think (pushing cues) work very well… usually I focus more on impulse” “I almost never say drive your knee…. drive your knee is super slow” About Cody Bidlow Cody Bidlow is currently the head track & field coach at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, AZ, and a coach at EliteU working with NFL combine prep athletes. He is a personal coach for professional MLB athletes, track athletes, and a consultant for coaches around the world. Cody additionally owns SprintingWorkouts.com and the ATHLETE.X brand, where he runs educational content on speed and power training to a large audience. He was an all-conference sprinter at Grand Canyon University.