Coaching Tools for Running: Part 5

At the CrossFit Endurance Trainer Course, Doug Katona talks about coaching tools for running. In this video, he highlights the jump-rope and tandem-run drills.

“You can teach people how to run without telling them you’re teaching them how to run,” Katona says.

Common faults when jumping rope include high bouncing, extended arms and jumping from the toes.

“You guys ever see any video of Buddy Lee?” Katona asks. “You ever see how much distance there is between his foot and the ground? Like you can barely get two sheets of paper under there.”

Next, he has the group run in place while jumping rope, followed by running about 150 meters while jumping rope and then letting go of the rope in the midst of the run.

“There’s no reason to slow down,” Katona says. “You should be able to run a 400-meter with a full jump rope … in about 90 seconds or 100 seconds. Doable.”

Finally, it’s the tandem-run drill, where one person stands behind another with hands on the lead runner’s shoulders.

“The idea here is think synchronized swimming,” Katona advises. “You guys want to be in sync.”

12min 14sec

HD file size: 264 MB
SD wmv file size: 146 MB
SD mov file size: 66 MB

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Additional reading: A Theoretical Template for CrossFit Endurance Programming by John McBrien, published Sept. 15, 2010.