Creating the whole athlete

Fitness and developing the whole athlete are two of the main concepts that I feel are important while building a program. Right now we have our sprinters, jumpers all working together on gaining a base. Starting next week we are going to divide them up into two separate groups and start working on short and long sprints work. All of them will continue to lift and go through our core/plyo/agility stations. With the distance runners I feel that developing the whole athlete is one of the most important things. The more "athletic" they become, the more efficient their form will become, the less likely they will be to becoming injured. Most runners only run, which means that they are only moving in two planes, forwards and backwards. This can cause imbalances in the muscles which can lead to injuries. If we can do exercises that work side to side movements and working some of the ancillary muscles we can help prevent this and fix some of those imbalances. I am hoping to get some video of our stations to put on here soon and some of the exercises that we work do to become more athletic. The group has come a long way even in the short time since we got together for camp, and I hope that they can continue to make leaps and bounds with our drills.