Today’s podcast features Henk Kraaijenhof.  Henk has several decades of experience as a performance coach in a broad array of sports.  His coaching credentials include working track athletes such as Nelli Cooman (former 60m dash world record holder), Merlene Ottey, and Troy Douglas as well as elite team sport competitors. His specialties are physical and mental coaching, stress and stress management, technology, and the methodology or training.  In addition to world-level performance, Henk’s coaching has also bred longevity, as Ottey and Douglas ran world class times in their 40’s.

In the current coaching age, it’s easy to think that because we are doing “new” looking drills, have increased our data collection, and have created various technical models of sport skill, we have a massive edge on what athletes were doing 50 years ago.  At the same time, general trends in injury rates and performance markers should have us thinking twice (for example, Bob Hayes running 9.99s in the 100m in 1964 on a chewed up cinder track).  At the end of the day, it is more “core” elements of training philosophy that stand the test of time, and help us to better understand the needs of the athlete in front of us.

On today’s show, Henk digs into speed training through the decades, and how many perceived “new school” elements, are actually much older than we think they are.  He talks about how he approaches “technical models” of sport skill (sprinting specifically), coaching the current generation of athletes, and where our modern world is heading in general on the level of technology.  He talks about the skill of patience in our current coaching environment, and shares some key philosophical ideas on the nature of coaching track and team sport athletes, and what we can learn from nature itself.  Finally, Henk gives his views on his own current technology use in his coaching role.

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Timestamps and Main Points

3:18 – What prompted Henk’s return to coaching sprinting, and key themes he has brought from his learnings in the hiatus

16:58 – Henk’s take on coaching sprint technique, technical models, and a “no system” approach

24:31 – Where and how Henk looks to make changes in an athletes training, and mistakes he made in the past listening to other coaches and opinions

31:44 – Henk’s take on the current generation of athletes from his perspective, as well as the role of technology in modern society in general

38:08 – Philosophy of the role of sport in modern society, and what Henk really values in the process of athletic training and performance

50:16 – Autocratic vs. democratic forms of coaching, and impacts on performance

54:54 – How much technology Henk uses today in coaching a single athlete, versus coaching multiple athletes as a younger coach

1:05:42 – Henk’s view of nature in training, and both observation

Henk Kraaijenhof Quotes

“One difference is that you can film everything now (vs. 2004), everything has become more focused on data processing than before; the smartphone took away a bit of the human aspect of it”

“You see a lot of people trying to hit the track really hard now, you see a lot of hamstring injuries, after this trend came”

“You don’t have a frontside (mechanic) without a backside (mechanic)”

“If you go against your natural preference (in sprinting) you might be in trouble”

“We are lousy jumpers compared to the flea, the cat, the monkey”

“Most coaches fall in love with their own school”

“Why do you think it could be better if you change it; why is it not the most optimal way the athlete already chose?”

“Patience is one thing that is readily declining”