This week’s guest is Henk Kraaijenhof. Henk is one of the smartest coaches/consultants out there in the world of training and conditioning, with years of experience training many of the fastest sprinters in the world and consulting and training a broad array of other sports.

I first heard him speak at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar in 2014, where he gave the best presentation I had ever seen on building speed in athletes. After the seminar, Henk gave me some really good thoughts on how athletes generally do better training towards their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Sprinters are designed to sprint fast, and slow-twitch distance runners are built to run further. Subjecting either to a type of training they aren’t designed for an extended period of time won’t yield the results many coaches are hoping for.

Henk might be the best guy out there to talk about athlete centered training regimens. If I ever have a question on muscle-twitch types and training, or training athletes based on psychological differences, Henk is an amazing resource.

Henk has also just finished a new book, “What We Need is Speed”, which is a compilation of Henk’s thoughts on speed in context of technique, motor learning, genetics, fiber types, strength training, training programs and more. I couldn’t recommend it more if you are interested in getting athletes faster.

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.

About Henk Kraaijenhof

Henk Kraaijenhof coaching credentials include Nelli Cooman, Merlene Ottey, Troy Douglas and Tennis star Mary Pierce. His specialties are the physical and mental coaching, in particular stress and stress management and the methodology or training. When you consider both Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s, something is working.

Henk Kraaijenhof currently works for Vortx and his blog is helpingthebesttogetbetter.com.

He has published work in performance, training systems and protocols for elite athletes and has also conducted research in the development and application of scientific training systems. Henk is also involved in scientific research projects in human sports performance in Norway, Estonia, Italy and the Netherlands. He is currently also working as a mentor for the Olympic coaches and Olympic talent coaches in Holland.