Logistics of the 23-Second Drill
Ten years ago I met Chris Korfist. You never know when you will meet someone who will change your life.
After hearing things like “STIFFNESS”, “PRIME TIMES”, and “ANKLE-ROCKER” for the first time, I had to know more.
In 2008 (or was it 2009?), I attended a 7:00 AM Saturday practice at York High School to experience the “23-Second Drill”. Chris Korfist had explained his creation to me but I had to see it in action. Chris used a countdown timer. After every 23-second run, the athlete was given an index card with the distance he achieved sprinting 23-seconds. The card then went to the place on the track that would become his goal distance (five meters less than first attempt) on the next run. Runners ran solo. If I remember right, chalk marked the distances. The time between runs was eight minutes (“because lactate levels hit their peak eight minutes after the 23-second effort”). I’d never seen kids run with such intensity. The workout made sense to me. The 46 seconds of sprinting fit perfectly into my micro-dosing, never run 12 x 200, philosophy. On my drive home from Elmhurst, I called Patton Segraves, track coach at Belleville West. Patton probably thought I’d drank too much coffee. My blood had been stirred.
The details of that day, ten years ago, may be inaccurate. Maybe there weren’t chalk marks on the track. Maybe the index cards went on the actual distance of the first effort, not the goal distance for the second. The important thing is the “how to cook”, not the exact recipe.
I had been doing lactate-specific workouts for 10 years. I had coached four try-hard white-guys from a small school to a 3:18.3 4×4 in 2004. We achieved that time without ever *running* in practice. All we did was sprint. We never did mindless tempo running, ever. We stayed specific in our training, believing in “AMPLIFICATION through SIMPLIFICATION”. My go-to lactate workouts were terrific but the 23-Second Drill was game-changer. No lactate workout had ever fit into my “Record-Rank-Publish” philosophy. We ran intensely, had incomplete rest, then ran intensely again. Lactate workouts were just things we had to do. They sucked but we had to do them. The 23-Second Drill added the all-important “meaning and significance” to the equation.
Running the mile relay in 3:18.3 is no big deal for big schools but 3:18.3 shocked the small-school world back in 2004 (and we never *ran* in practice)
(3:18.3) Nathan Murphy 49.1, Nathan Sumner 49.6, Aaron Denoon (alternate) 52.2, Cole Perkins 49.0, Brett Brachear (soph) 50.3
In the last ten years we have adapted the 23-second drill to our unique situation. We all have our unique situations. We all must adapt or perish.
ADAPTATIONS AT PLAINFIELD NORTH
I allow 24 seconds because we do it on a 180m indoor track. We run solo and sprint trying to run as far as possible in 24 seconds. Coaches mark the sprinter’s distance when the stopwatch hits 24 seconds (we don’t use a countdown timer anymore). We have two coaches with watches, one with a clipboard. This way two guys (both running solo) are running at the same time. We could go to three timers, three runners if we were in a hurry to finish. If we had 50 sprinters, we would definitely have a third stopwatch, 3rd runner.
After 10 minutes of recovery (more time allowed if recovery is needed to have solid effort), each guy does another 24-second run and we celebrate anyone who can come within five meters of their first effort. That’s it, two 24-second runs with 8-12 minutes rest in-between. Most sprinters will have a total volume of less than 400 meters. My best guys make it past the 200m mark. If you get four guys over 200 meters, you will medal in the 4×2 at the 3A state meet. (I remember Korfist saying those exact words ten years ago!) In 2015, we had six guys over 200m. In 2016, we had eleven. We placed 4th in 2015, 5th in 2016. Last year we only had three guys over 200. We were Sectional champs but barely missed making the state finals one week later. This year we have done only one 23-second drill (our only lactate workout this year). We presently have three guys over 200 (210, 204, and 204) but we also have guys at 196, 196, 196, 196, 197, 198, and 199. My sprinters will either choose greatness or comfort when we do this again. Check out this link for our practice rankings, updated daily. Practice Rankings
Check out Marcellus Moore running 210 meters last Saturday. The guy in front, a sophomore, ran a solid 192 meters. Make sure you play the sound so you can hear the encouragement coming from teammates.
ADAPTATIONS FOR OUTDOOR
Always run with the wind. Sprinters should always run with the wind in practice. Why would you want to practice slow? We never push or pull anything. We never “run” in practice. We sprint and jump.
The genesis of this article came from a coach in Texas wanting to know the logistics of doing the 23-Second Drill with 35 sprinters. Here goes:
Put cones at every 5 meters from 170 to 210. Put bigger cones on the tens, smaller on the fives. Put something big (flag?) at the finish line (goal is 200m). Have three coaches with stopwatches. First coach raises watch to signify “ready”, start watch on first movement. First coach estimates how far athlete will achieve and positions himself there. As stopwatch gets close to 20, start the count seeing both the stopwatch and incoming runner (not as hard as it sounds). 20-21-22-23. As 22 turns to 23, point or put your foot on the mark. Quickly estimate the exact meters (easy to do, one big step past 180 would be 181, etc.) As soon as the 1st runner is around 30 meters into his run, coach #2 can make contact with runner #2 and get him going. Same with #3. If you have four coaches, you could have four guys running at the same time. It’s not a race but really fast guys will gain on the outgoing runner and have some fun with it (like a cheetah chasing down it’s prey, #FeedTheCats).
The 8 minutes of recovery is not set in stone. In matter of fact, if the runner has not recovered enough to give a solid effort on his second run, he needs more time. We are trying to clear and tolerate lactate (actually acidity is the problem, but lactate is the measurable.)
You will love it when you record, rank, and publish. Kids will see meaning and significance in the workout. They will push themselves to scary limits.
You will find that kids will biochemically adapt fast. That’s why you don’t have to do these God-awful workouts until you get near the competitive season. The adaptations will sometimes result in faster times with the same level of acidosis. Or, you may see the same times but less acidosis. Of course, we would rather have our athletes improving their times with reckless disregard to their temporary pain.
ADAPTATIONS FOR GIRLS
I’ve never coached girls. Many coaches on the girl’s side have made the adaptation of doing the 27-Second Drill. The goal of 200m is achievable, but only for the best girl sprinters (just like the best sprinters on the boys side will cover 200 meters in 23 seconds).
I’m not sure that 27 seconds is the best answer. I wonder if the time increase results in a slower pace.
Here’s another option. Start at the mid-hurdle mark for 300 INT and run to the finish line (150 meters). Make it a 20-Second Drill (that’s a 26.67 200m-pace if they make 150 meters in 20 seconds). I like 20 seconds better because it’s more of a sprint. 19-seconds might be more appropriate. Try it. Use cones and measure just the same. You might even try three 20-second runs. However, I would always suggest you error on the side of less.
Remember, always run with the wind. If the wind is blowing the other direction, begin at the start 300 mark, end on the top of the curve (300 hurdles mark). Use cones to mark the meters.
YOU MUST SELL IT
Last year Edwardsville won the IHSA State Championship. After their first 23-Second Drill, my son, Alec (hurdle coach), called me and said their workout sucked. Performances were uninspired. The reason? They just did it. They didn’t “sell it” to the kids. What a great lesson for all of us.
Last Saturday, I sat my team down and gave them a track-related chemistry lecture. The ten minutes I spent selling the workout resulted in one of our best practices ever. We absolutely won the workout.
If you need to bone-up on your chemistry, here you go.
The Survival of King Mithridates
Teaching Science and Coaching Sprinters
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Tony Holler (630) 849-8294, tony.holler@yahoo.com
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We did this last year with only ONE coach. I put out a mark every meter (took a lot of time) and a cone every five meters (alternated large and small cones). Had six athletes run at a time (outdoors) on my “Go!” They had an athlete watching their lane near the “finish” line. I called out, “20, 21, 22,” loud enough for the counters to hear, but not so loud the athletes could hear. Then I yelled, “TIME!” at 23 seconds. The athletes could slow down slowly, but the counters would hustle to the track and stand at the spot the athlete reached. We’d quickly write down all the distances, then get the next group going. Those who had just finished would mark spots for the next group (in the same lane). I believe we did this with around 40-50 athletes, which was just about enough that when they were all done with the first repeat, it was time for the first group to start their second repeat.
This took a lot of prep time. I put a tape mark every meter on the track for 40 meters (170-210) on BOTH sides (in case the wind shifted). While the athletes were warming up, I put the cones out on the track. I put the athletes in groups of six (fastest six first, then the next six, etc.) before we started warming up. The first few groups started on the regular 200m starting line. The last few groups started ten meters ahead (exchange zone).
Totally worth the time. Love this workout.
Thanks Tony. I work with both boys and girls and 27 seconds with girls is perfect. That is what I did last year. Only had a few make it and the ones that did translated into a respectable split on the 4×400 relay.
Great article!
Would this time change for a much slower beginner master sprinter?
-Ben Edwards
In my opinion, the time should be in the 20-27 range. Too much time ruins the sprint effect. Example: 60-second runs are NOT sprinting. You need to PUSH THE LIMITS of sprinting. In your case, pick your goal time in the 200 and make that your drill. If you have run 26.00 and your goal is 24.99, do the 25-second drill. This calculus can be used with all athletes, all ages.
Thanks for the reply! That makes sense and I implemented it this morning during a workout. Appreciate you and the time you take to share your excellent info/experience.
Intentional or not, you find a way to write about training Marcellus Moore in almost every one of your articles…which leads to the question of why you don’t have him long jumping and running the open 400? He is surely a 23 foot jumper and a sub 48 quarter miler with good coaching which would give you 40 points and a team trophy in your state.
We took an old climbing rope, thanks PE dept, and put tape every meter for 25m. Used a sharpie to label the tape starting at the end of the rope – 200, 199, 198, etc. Place the taped end of the rope at 200m mark and layed it out going backwards on the straightaway. When the workout’s over pick up the rope and store away. Rope is very flexible and can be set up at any finish line necessary.
Very interesting article on a unique idea. Intentional or not, you find a way to write about training Marcellus Moore in almost every one of your articles…which leads to the question of why you don’t have him long jumping and running the open 400? He is surely a 23 foot jumper and a sub 48 quarter miler which would give you 40 points and a team trophy in your state.
I don’t know what articles you are reading. In my previous four articles, I mentioned Marcellus twice. Once I mentioned him demonstrating our 24-second drill, the other a quote. I coach an entire track team, not one kid. Marcellus in the long jump? Speed is important but not the only factor in the long jump. Marcellus does not have long levers and can barely touch the rim. Even if he could long jump 23’0″, he would have only placed 5th in the 3A long jump last year. Marcellus would be super in the 400, definitely a 48-second guy, maybe faster. However, team points at the state meet can’t be the driving force in training an elite athlete. Marcellus has already competed in 9 races in three different states this year and our season has not started. The Murietta Vista phenom, Michael Norman, ran only 31 races his senior year and this INCLUDED the Olympic Trials. Marcellus will run more than 31 races in April alone. Do I really want to put more wear on his tread? In addition, the 400 will literally make a sprinter slower. The 400 is a sub-max race. My goal is to keep Marcellus happy, healthy, and super-fast. I want to limit his volume at all times. The best way to do this is to run the 100-200-4×1-4×2. Thanks for your comment.
I am a retired teacher-coach from Canada, I know one of the biggest pains about coaching is that everyone wants to give you their opinion… I guess my comment was easy to misinterpreted. Sorry. As a coach, I was a believer in the Canadian track system of low volume: indoor meets, short workouts, and Saturday meets. A little like Feed the Cat. It worked very well but, in retrospect, I had very poor luck getting an elite athlete to do well in more than 2 events. I wondered if it was a training system issue or the way elite athletes are hardwired. I’ve always been fascinated by 4-events athletes like Carl Lewis. How did he do it?I am looking forward to reading about your season. I know it is a long journey.
No problem. Your question made me think, and that’s a good thing. If our ideas are never challenged, we don’t grow. You raise an interesting point. What allows some to excel in multiple races? DNA plays a role. I’ve coached rugged elites and fragile elites. I coached them the same. Carl was extremely durable. When elites, like Carl, are trained hard without breaking down, they become good at multiple events. I strongly believe it’s a mistake to train young sprinters for durability and repeat sprint ability because their speed has not yet been developed. At the developmental level, I serve one master, SPEED. Marcellus has good anti-fragile DNA. Last year I could have improved his multi-event talent but at what cost? I believe his improvement from 10.81 to 10.40 in nine months was a result of making speed a priority. Thanks, once again, for making me think. Stay in touch.
Thanks Tony for all your great advice and for keeping me on course when I start to feel that itch to go beyond the minimal effective dose. I just came across this piece that validates the 23/24 second drill perfectly!
http://theconversation.com/less-pain-more-gain-improving-health-and-fitness-with-minimal-exercise-71028
They show that every repeat beyond the first two actually leads to a negative affect. But you already knew that…
Tim, thanks for sharing this. Coaches that “know things” really just have “strong hunches” about stuff that seems to work. The hormesis graph is etched in my brain.
That itch to do more comes from a couple of factors: one is that some of my team is inactive for months of the year (some take the summer off, some take the winter off. Heck, some take both off and then some!). We don’t have a direct connection to the football team — a major setback to be sure. In fact our head football coach is involved with the baseball team and consequently funnels most of his “Cats” in that direction. And the other factor is that our tiny school in western MA is a 7-12 grade district (soon to be 6-12 grade). Hence “training ages” are all over the map. For those near the top of the ladder — the Cats — I’m quite confident with holding to a minimum effective dose. For those who arrive on my doorstep without having laid a good foundation of speed in the off-season, or who are simply physically and psychologically immature — that’s when I get the itch. Not something crazy like 12 x 400m or a 5 mile run in the hills (and we’ve got some beauties!), but more along the lines of increased emphasis on the technical aspects of sprinting at a sub-max pace. My thinking is that until they have the coordination to sprint correctly, having them pseudo-sprint at a max pace only serves to reinforce those faulty neural patterns. Brett McFarlane said it well (in 1984): “You can only sprint as fast as your technique will allow”.
I’ve heard many coaches say, “But I don’t have cats.” Then then they focus on lifting and running. By doing this, they insure that kids will never learn to sprint. I believe you train everyone low-dose and you practice sprinting, not running.