Live Oak Track and Field 2010

Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset

2011-03-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I read a book recently called Mindset by Caroline Dweck and basically the idea is there are two types of mindsets you can have in life:

1) Fixed Mindset - Intelligence is fixed, your IQ in 5th grade isn’t going to be much different than your IQ at 40 years old.

2) Growth Mindset – Intelligence can be improved and can grow. With hard work and effort your IQ at 40 can be better than your IQ in 5th grade.

Based on these 2 mindsets there are a lot of implications.

EFFORT - Those with a fixed mindset see effort as a negative. It shows weakness, it shows you weren’t good enough to do something on your own. They almost see effort as cheating. The phase “imagine how good they would be if they actually tried (or learned technique, or practiced or studied)” is seen as a compliment, and in our society it usually is meant as compliment (which is stupid if you think about it)
Someone with a growth mindset sees effort as the way to get from point A to point B.

OBSTACLES/CHALLENGES – Those with a fixed mindset, stay away from things that they know they won’t have immediate success. If they aren’t good it must not be their thing. As much as they see doing something well without effort as a strength, they see struggling as a beginner as a weakness.
Someone with a growth mindset, embraces challenges knowing that they are opportunities to grow. Doing something you are already good at doesn’t make you any better. Why not challenge yourself.

Dweck posted some interesting research on this fact. They did a study with children solving puzzles; basically the children were given an easy puzzle to solve, where given some feedback and then asked if they wanted to do another puzzle that was more difficult or one that was of the same difficulty. They found that when they solved the first easy puzzle when the researchers said something like “wow you are so smart” (a fixed comment) then asked if they wanted to try a harder puzzle, the children predominantly said no. (all that could happen with a harder puzzle is they prove they actually aren’t smart). With another group they used a growth comment like “I like the way you worked through that puzzle until you found the right answer”. When these children were asked if they wanted to try a harder puzzle they mainly said yes.

CRITICISM – With a fixed mindset any one giving negative feedback is seen as attacking you and criticism is ignored. With a growth mindset criticism is seen as finding a way to improve. They tend to want criticism to help streamline their improvement.

Lets apply this to track. There are many athletes who do an event once and because it didn’t go as well as they planned try to avoid that event from then on. There are many athletes who if they have a big lead they ease up, or if they are way behind they also ease up or do just enough to win. There are many athletes who wait to see what place they got before they decide if they have done a good job or not. These are all fixed mindsets and we need to get rid of them. The only thing we care about is PRs which are the best measurement of growth we have. Everything else is irrelevant to me. There is this belief that if the philosophy of “I don’t care about winning” is the philosophy of a loser and is setting your standards low. I see us as holding you all to a higher standard regardless of who you are racing, throwing or competing against you have to compare yourself to yourself. We will not recognize poor effort that wins.

The funny thing is, at the end of the year, the team that focuses on every person getting as good as they can, how is that worse than the team who focuses on winning as many meets as they can?

As an athlete I had a fixed mindset, I didn’t like the triple jump because I wasn’t good at it, I had good jumping ability but couldn’t put it together. I should have been a good Triple jumper. Instead of putting in more time to learn the event and improve I shrugged it off and focused on the long jump, something I had natural talent for. Every triple my thoughts were “I know I suck at this but wait til you see me in the long” If I jumped well and lost, I sucked. If I jumped poorly and won “Hey at least I won”.

As a coach I have developed a growth mindset, every year I force myself to spend most of the pay on information to make me a better coach. One year I actually spent more to go to a coaching clinic then I made that year coaching. I have 100s of videos from tons of coaches explaining how they instruct and coach concepts. I change the program every year because I al always trying to improve, one season will never be the exact same as a previous season. When I got my master’s degree, my Master’s Project was designing a training guide for coaching sprinters based on the scientific research.

Website Update

2011-03-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all -

I updated the website, there is now a video page where I have linked all the videos that me and Alberto have taken this year. Also I posted some more photos that Alberto took at the Garlic Classic and some photos from the hill. - Coach Mike

2011 Season

2011-03-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

The 2011 season has begun, I am going to try to start using this thing more often, I haven't posted anything since the triple DQs at BVAL last year, that was painful. Finally getting some meets under our belt has got me excited again and ready to go. After each meet I will post a recap here mentioning PRs and anything notable worth mentioning. - Coach Mike

STAL Finals

2010-05-07T08:16:00.001-07:00

Hey All,

Great Meet, honestly we couldn't ask for anything better well maybe some 6th places turning to 5ths but...haha (we had Ashlynn in the 100h, Lauren in the LJ, Dominic in the TJ, & Catherine in the 100 all finished in the dreaded 6th spot, as we know only the top 5 advance) Of course Ashlynn, Dominic and Catherine all PRed and Lauren had her 4 longest jumps of the season so lets not get too gready haha.

So the good news, everyone who was ranked in the top 5 going into the meet advanced, on top of that we had a couple people who were ranked outside the top 5 step up and advance as well. Chelsie went from ranked 13th out of 15 runners to 4th place in the 3200. Jada went from 8th in the HJ to 4th. Sosebee went from 9th to 5th in the LJ and from 6th to 3rd in the HJ. So our team is bigger than we expected it to be which is awesome.

Next the great news, we had 38 PRs. This brings our season total up to 236, our goal is 250. Could it happen at BVAL? Full list here.

Also we had 2 school records. Jada broke the Frosh Soph Girls 300h school record with a 49.52 and Catherine, Pauline, Erika and Lauren broke their own school record with a 50.14 in the 4*100.

Other notes from meet:

Stephanie, Jacob, and the guys 4 by 4 all won league titles (Viz, Daw, Eric and Montoya).

Daw had 4 events he won 2 of them (HJ & 4 by400). Got second in the other 2 (400 & 4 by100)

Jacob, Erika, and Pauline advanced in 4 events.

Chelsie had 3 huge PRs. 8 seconds in the 800, 8 seconds in the 1600 and a minute and 2 seconds (13:46-> 12:44) in the 3200. An awesome meet for her.

Taylor "Santiago" Howard - got 9th on Tuesday with a PR, then the 8th place person dropped out so he got into finals and took advantage going from a 46.32 to a 44.98. Both were PRs.

TJ advanced in 3 events, the only one he didn't advance in, he got a PR by over a foot (SP).

Our 3 100 hurdlers Aly, Ashlynn and Tula were ranked 9,10 and 11th going in to the meet and all 3 made the finals.

2nd Year in a row all 4 relay teams advanced.

Like I said Great job everyone. See you at the track- Coach Mike

Been a while

2010-04-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

Hey I know it has been a while since I have posted but I am really trying to use the new website alot more. www.liveoakcaf.com All my updates as well as any information posted is listed in the "News" Section. It is just a running tally of the most recent news. I would like the website to be something that you check each day rather than each week. As for the blog, well I am still trying to figure out what its role will be in the future now that I can update the website much more easily.

I think it will be around for larger updates that are too big for the website. If I do that though I will link it to the News section so the website should be all you need to check. - Coach Mike

New Uniforms

2010-04-10T20:36:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of Leach sporting the new uniforms.

Spring Break

2010-04-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Schedule for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: form running drills, 4*150s (walk back as recovery) Arnold Workout
Wednesday: In-n-out 200s (bring some cash if you want to get something there)
Thursday: Speed day (relay handoffs, starts, short approach jumps) 3*Sprint-float-sprint, multi jumps, multithrows
Friday: Capt the flag or Pre meet for those competing Sat.
Saturday: Quicksilver Invite Entries posted here

Also at 1:00-3:30 before practice on Tuesday and Wednesday we will have our "decathlon" Some alums are coming back for it, some athletes are trying it for the first time. Should be fun. If you do the decathlon on Tuesday you are excused from the running (150s). On wednesday you can skip the interval runs and just go straight to in-n-out. With no pole vault it is modified a little. Plus to get it to run faster we changed the order of events.

Tuesday
100m
Shot Put
Long Jump
Weight Throw
400m

Wednesday
110hh
Discus
High Jump
Javelin
1500m

Sobrato Dual Meet Results

2010-04-01T20:41:00.001-07:00

Just letting you guys know I posted the results of the Sobrato meet on the website.

www.liveoakcaf.com

I will let you guys find the results, force you to navigate through our new website.

In other news

2010-03-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

I finally purchased new software for editing my website and so I don't need to bust out my old computer everytime i want to update it. Expect it to be updated way more often and for some changes.

Andrew Hill results

2010-03-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the Results that AH sent me, plus the distances that Fresh got in the throws and that I got in the horiz jumps. That first time is obviously bogus (probably closer to 52 seconds)

Event 1 Girls 4x100 Meter Relay
Team Relay Finals
1 Live Oak A 55.64

Event 2 Boys 4x100 Meter Relay
Team Relay Finals
1 Live Oak A 45.59

Event 3 Girls 1600 Yard Run
Name School Finals
Faulk, Chelsie Live Oak 6:24.00

Event 4 Boys 1600 Yard Run
Name School Finals
Groen, Adam Live Oak 5:10.95
Cook, Lucas Live Oak 5:39.00
Dominguez, Gabe Live Oak 5:48.00

Event 5 Girls 100 Yard Hurdles
Name School Finals
Marusarz, Aly Live Oak 19.43
Adair, Ashlynn Live Oak 19.76

Event 7 Girls 400 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Olsen, Pauline Live Oak 1:00.74

Event 8 Boys 400 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Daw, Jacob Live Oak 53.29
Ukanwa, Alex Live Oak 58.54

Event 9 Girls 100 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Rodriguez, Erika Live Oak 12.84
Sparling, Catheri Live Oak 13.54

Event 10 Boys 100 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Alonzo, Taylor Live Oak 11.59
Ornduff, TJ Live Oak 11.75
Tolson, Eric Live Oak 11.87

Event 11 Girls 800 Yard Run
Name School Finals
Faulk, Chelsie Live Oak 2:58.10

Event 12 Boys 800 Yard Run
Name School Finals
Valencia, Artie Live Oak 2:15.54
Cook, Lucas Live Oak 2:30.00

Event 15 Girls 200 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Rodriguez, Erika Live Oak 26.27
Sparling, Catheri Live Oak 28.37

Event 16 Boys 200 Yard Dash
Name School Finals
Ornduff, TJ Live Oak 24.64
Lee, Kenny Live Oak 25.83

Event 18 Boys 3200 Yard Run
Name School Finals
1 Groen, Adam Live Oak 11:28.00

Event 19 Girls 4x400 Yard Relay
Team Relay Finals
1 Live Oak A 4:35.32

Event 20 Boys 4x400 Yard Relay
Team Relay Finals
Live Oak B 3:44.26
Live Oak A 4:18.59

Event 23 Girls Discus Throw
Name School Finals
Saulala, Fa Live Oak 96-09.00
Dronek, Nikki Live Oak 73-10.00
Cimino, Gaby Live Oak 64-08.00
Mallette, Lexie Live Oak 54-02.00

Event 24 Boys Discus Throw
Name School Finals
1 Alberto Suarez Live Oak 81-06.00
2 Diego Rodriguez Live Oak 68-11.00
3 Ramon Lucatero Live Oak 64-07.00

Event 25 Girls Shot Put
Name School Finals
Saulala, Fa Live Oak 30-10.50
Dronek, Nikki Live Oak 23-01.00
Cimino, Gaby Live Oak 21-05.00
Mallette, Lexie Live Oak 19-06.50

Event 26 Boys Shot Put
Name School Finals
1 Alberto Suarez Live Oak 27-01.50
2 Diego Rodriguez Live Oak 28-01.00
3 Ramon Lucatero Live Oak 26-07.00

Event 27 Girls High Jump
Name School Finals
1 Armstrong, Stepha Live Oak 5-00.00
2 Williams, Jada Live Oak 4-06.00

Event 28 Boys High Jump
Name School Finals
1 Daw, Jacob Live Oak 5-11.00
2 Sosebee, Nick Live Oak 5-08.00

Event 29 Girls Triple Jump
Name School Finals
1 Balala, Alexandra Live Oak 30-03.00
2 Drewniany, Lauren Live Oak 28-06.00

Event 30 Boys Triple Jump
Name School Finals
1 Ornduff, TJ Live Oak 40-11.00
2 Balala, Christian Live Oak 36-09.50
6 Silva, Daniel Live Oak 34-01.50
7 Butterworth, Mark Live Oak 32-02.50

Event 31 Girls Long Jump
Name School Finals
1 Williams, Jada Live Oak 15-03.50
2 Drewniany, Lauren Live Oak 15-00.00
3 Balala, Alexandra Live Oak 14-00.50
4 Adair, Ashlynn Live Oak 13-06.00
5 Urban, Tula Live Oak 13-02.00
6 Barker, Sydney Live Oak 13-01.00
8 Alonzo, Kendryl Live Oak 12-05.00
9 Duarte, Taylor Live Oak 12-02.50
10 DiSalvo, Annalise Live Oak 12-02.00

Event 32 Boys Long Jump
Name School Finals
1 Sosebee, Nick Live Oak 18-09.50
2 Lee, Kenny Live Oak 18-08.00

3 straight days of meets

2010-03-27T19:19:00.001-07:00

So we had the Andrew Hill meet Thursday, and the Stanford invite friday and saturday. So I am a little behind in updating everything. That is what I am up to now. Just like I did yesterday, I will offer photos of the Stanford Invite until I can post more. - Coach Mike

Results

2010-03-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey All -

Finally got the email from the AH coach. If you noticed they cared a little too much about winning and keeping with that philosophy apparently if you weren't in the top 3 your time didn't matter because that is the only results they sent. I am very sorry if you ran a race and didn't end up with a time. Let's just move on because I don't want to even think about that coaching staff again. (I could make a complaint list longer than the one I made about the alisal invite last year)

Like I said I am really sorry. Next week is a home meet and I promise we will get everyone a time. As well as let everyone compete and not pull cheap move like saying only the 3 runners can run the 100. Sorry complaining again.

I will get the results posted soon. In the meantime here are over 200 photos of the meet (the first 60 or so are me trying out my frame by frame picture taking sequence on Kenny and Lauren) the rest are from Steve of everyone else on the track team.

(by the way check out the look on coach cunanans face when he looks at Laurens 4 by 400 split, picture 218, classic)

Meet vs Andrew Hill

2010-03-26T08:04:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that I am still waiting on results from Andrew Hill. I was told they would be emailed to me that night. Its 8am the next morning and still nothing, so as soon as I get them I will post them and update the PR list.

What I can say is there were some great PRs that I heard about or saw. Kenny Lee had a big PR in the long jump, going from 18'1" last week (first 18 foot jump of his life) to an 18'8" this week, he really pushed himself this week, can't wait til he hits the taper. Fa Saulala improved her discus by oh about 20 FEET. She improved her 76' throw up to 96'. In the mile Gabe Dominguez also had a HUGE PR. Improving his PR from 6:01 to 5:48. Cookie (Lucas Cook) also had big one in the the mile improving from 5:48 to 5:39. Kendyl Alonzo had a great Long Jump improving by over a foot from last week 10'9 to 12'2 plus she is geting alot more consistant with her approach. Tula Urban joined the 13 foot club with a 13'2". In the triple jump TJ Ornduff had a foot PR going from 39'11" to 40'11". I know there were other PRs and I will post everything once I get results.

-Coach Mike

Pretty Cool

2010-03-21T18:14:00.001-07:00

So the State Leaders were posted and for the first time since Cobbie ran for us we are on the list. (Unfortunantly it is an event that is not run at State haha) The girls SMR from Saturday is ranked 6th in the state of California. Link

SMRs from yesterday

2010-03-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is some video from St Francis. Here is the girls sprint medley, when I zoomed in the camera lost focus so I just turned it off. But you can see erika really opening up the race in her 200.

Here is the guys sprint medley, I learned not to zoom in during filming haha.

St. Francis Invite

2010-03-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Pretty good meet. Here are some photos taken by Steve and then some by Leach.
http://picasaweb.google.com/MikeSullivan705/20100320StFrancisInvite#

We had 2 event winners (within about 5 minutes of each other) Stephanie won the High Jump with a leap of 5'4" and the girls sprint medley relay team of Catherine Sparling, Lauren Drewniany, Erika Rodriguez and Pauline Olsen ran a 1:50 which broke their school record by 4 seconds (set last year)

The Varsity Boys also broke the school record in the SMR and came back an hour later and ran their PR in the 4 by 400. They got 3rd in both races, individually Viz ran a big PR and while Montoya didn't run a PR he put together 2 52s in a span of an hour, which is extremely impressive.

TJ PR'd in the LOng jump with a 19'11", (he also shaved his head and his legs to jump further). He did run a fast anchor leg in the 4*100 though. Leach got his PR in the triple on his first jump which made him happy, then he spent 30 minutes using his moms gps to find a mcdonalds and couldn't which made him sad.

Pauline got her first PR in the 400 since CCS sophmore year. (58.85) She is looking strong, she ran a 37 on the hill on Tuesday of this week.

Erika ran a PR in the 100 (if it is wind legal).

In the distance Chelsie ran a 6:00 1600, her PR is 5:58 which she ran 2 years ago, so she is getting close, her best last year was a 6:02.

Adam fresh off 3 PRs in the dual meet Thurday broke the 5 minute barrier in the 1600 with a 4:59.54.

Prelim Count

2010-03-18T23:36:00.001-07:00

35 PRs.

Nice Job, all the results are entered. I will post them shortly.

Piedmont Hill Results

2010-03-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

HEy Guys,

Coach Cunanan recorded all the races on his camera and what I am doing is counting the frame rate from when the smoke leaves the gun until you cross the finish. THese will be FAR FAR FAR more accurate than the times you got at the finish. Gonna be a while though, I am up to the 100s right now. Then once i get all these times calculated I will enter the field event results and post them. Best to just check back tomorrow.

Another Day of Hurdle Practice

2010-03-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Taylor "Santiago" Howard with a bit of a bloody knee... and this photo was taken after he cleaned it you can see the bloody sock from where all the blood ended up. Like a true hurdler he taped it up and kept practicing. Tomorrow he runs his first ever hurdle race, Im excited.

Warning!

2010-03-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

There is a sniper at Live Oak, if he doesn't like you technique he will take you out!

Some TJ

2010-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Lauren doing a short approach TJ:

Things to notice.
1) Too high on the hop, needs to be out. In the long jump it is about jumping as far as you can in a single effort so you want to get some hight but the tj is a coordinated movement. You need ot get distance without compromising your ability in the other 2 jumps and find that balance. Thats why there are tons of great long jumps and not a lot of great triple jumpers, easy to just go all out its difficult to go hard and restrained. So when she jumps this high she adds distance to her hop but it comes at the cost of her 2nd and 3rd phase. Not a good deal. Laurens PR is 31 feet and that distribution is probably some thing like 13-6-12. Ideally it would be closer to 11-9-13 = 33 ft. Sure she is jumping 2 feet further in the hop right now but it is the same as a 200 meter runner who is always winning coming of the curve but the dies on the straight away, its irrelevant. There is no biggest hop competition (there actually is its called the long jump haha)

2. Second Phase is miniture. After this rep I had her just stand on the board and jump as far as she could and she went further. This shows that her recovery from the big hop not only slowed her down considerably but also had detrimental effect on her jumping ability. (not good when you can jump further from a standing start). Just watch the force of impact her leg has to absorb when she comes down from the hop. (Note: I think her second phase would have been a little further is she wasn't running out of runway but this effected her 3rd phase more than her 2nd phase)

3) Watch her feet on all 3 jumps in the 1st jump it is moving backwards (running off the board) in the other 2 it is just held out in front and absorbs the force of the jumps. If she tried to bring it underneath to absorb that force by the time she can push her foot will be to far behind her. All 3 foot contacts should have that negative foot speed.

Things I liked: Her posture stays upright throughout. Such an important thing that people have alot of trouble with. She swings the foot low on the free leg. Very nicely done.

All her problems are set up from a too big hop and can be fixed by focusing on flatter shorter first phase. Go 2 feet shorter on the hop so you can go 4 feet further in the step thats a good trade. What we see at alot of high school meets are athletes that have trouble with the second phase so they try to go bigger with the hop to make up for it. Lots of 15-7-15s in our league for the guys. Here is a video of lauren and one of Jonathan Edwards (WR holder)

The Rest

2010-03-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

So I still have some things to do, I will come back and critique these later but here are the videos of everyone:

Varsity Boys B:

Frosh Soph Boys:

Varsity Girls A:

Varsity Girls B:

BTW

2010-03-10T21:37:00.000-08:00

If you click the icon on youtube with 4 arrows you can get the video to go full screen where it is easier to see. Also if you want to watch it frame by frame tomorrow let me know and i can talk you through your form.

Group 2

2010-03-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

Varsity Boys:

Posture:

All of them have a slight forward lean, Kenny probably has the best of the group and Montoya probably has the biggest forward lean.

Arms:

For the most part pretty good, Leach never quite gets the elbow to open up behind him, which limits what his legs can do in front. A little asymmetry with everyone else.

Legs:

Very common problem, when the toe comes off the ground they are still pushing. This is the cause of that circular heel recovery, as a group we need to focus on bringing the leg forward as soon as it leaves the ground. Taylor is the only one who does a really good job of this, Kenny is probably the biggest culprit (very large circular hell recovery)

Distance Runners

2010-03-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Group 1: Distance Runners

Adam - Posture: Good, it stays upright the entire time. Arms: Adam actually does a really good job of taking his arms through the optimal range of motion. Short in Front, Big in Back. Legs: At toe off (when foot comes off the ground, Adam bends the knee a little bit before the thigh comes forward, this indicates a little bit of a backward push. I would tell him to focus on more of an Up and Down Motion with the legs rather than a forward and backward on. I would consider this excellent form though.

Chandler -
P: Good
A: Good
L: Loos like he keeps his foot on the ground a little long, which causes him to push late and like adam he has a problem with the knee bending before the thigh is brought forward

Chelsie -
P: Good
A: Good - Maybe a little limited but that is ok with a distance runner, she is getting the core rotation we need
L: Very good Ankle stays at 90 degrees, she brings the thigh forward immediately after it leaves the ground and if you watch she moves up and down while running. That undulation means she is being very reactive.

Danielle -
P: Good
A: Left Arm is limited, Right arm as a larger range of motion
L: Similar Problem with Adam and Chandler knee bends before coming forward we want to pull that thing right off the ground and move forward.

Eddie:
P: Good except that head may move up a little keep it in a neutral allignment
A: Good
L: Sinks a little too much in the support phase, try to lift that free hip when running.

Lucas -
P:Excellent
A:Good
L: Similar to Chandler, he puts the foot down softly and then waits and pushes late, we want more of a downward strike not a backward one.

Tonight

2010-03-10T20:33:00.001-08:00

I will be posting Footage 1 Group at a time. Remember the Three Things we covered today Posture, Arms and Legs. PAL. You guys looked good, I wish I filmed the 200s and 100s afterward because you guys lost alot of it. The way we will do this is I will write some things for you to look at and then let you look at the video.

Breaking Down Footage Now

2010-03-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here are the flying 30 Times:
I rounded up to the nearest tenth but since i did use the camera to calculate these times I put the actual time in parenthesis.
Boys
Taylor A 3.3 (3.30)
Eric 3.4 (3.37)
Nick 3.4 (3.37)
Alex H 3.5 (3.43)
Dominic L 3.5 (3.43)
Kenny 3.5 (3.46)
Jacob M 3.5 (3.47)
Christian 3.5 (3.50)
Joesph 3.5 (3.50)
Kean 3.5 (3.50)
Pelz 3.6 (3.54)
Taylor H 3.6 (3.56)
Artie V 3.6 (3.57)
Silva 3.7 (3.63)
Archer 3.7 (3.66)
Cookie 3.8 (3.74)
Eddie P 3.8 (3.77)
Mark B 3.9 (3.83)
Chandler H 3.9 (3.84)
Devon J 3.9 (3.90)
Adam G 4.1 (4.10)

Girls
Erika 3.7 (3.63)
Pauline 3.8 (3.73)
Taylor D 4.0 (3.96
Jada W 4.0 (4.00)
Ashlynn A 4.0 (4.00)
Lauren D 4.1 (4.03)
Sydney B 4.1 (4.04)
Michela S 4.1 (4.06)
Tula U 4.2 (4.17)
Megan P 4.2 (4.17)
Alexandra B 4.3 (4.23)
Aly M 4.4 (4.36)
Chelsie F 4.4 (4.40)
Kendyl A 4.7 (4.70)
Danielle Y 5.2 5.17)

This week

2010-03-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

This will be our last week for the rest of the season we don't have a meet, so let's take advantage of it. Just wanted to give another plug to Coach Cunanans Website: http://www.coachcunanan.com/index.html

Lots of good videos in there, including jumping and relay videos from the gilroy meet. Check it out. - Coach Mike

Goal this year

2010-03-07T14:56:00.001-08:00

Just a random thought but I think it would be great if we made it through the whole year and people had no idea how you win or lose a meet. Is their any other sport where you try to keep "how do you win" away from your athletes???

Gilroy Meet

2010-03-06T00:20:00.000-08:00

Whew, that meet is over and we are now off and running into our season. We had 21 total PRs which brings our season total up to 24. The full list is posted on the homepage as well as full results of the meet, or you can go here

I didn't get to see ANY field events but some of the things I noticed from the Track and read about/heard about from the field.

*Girls 4 by 100 team (Catherine-Pauline-Erika-Lauren) ran a 51.80 (the school record team from last year didn't run this fast until April 23rd)

*Lucas Cook had a great finish in the Mile and Gabe Domiguez came soooo close to breaking 6 minutes, (6:01, which was a 14 second PR!)

*Adam Groen is getting better (especially in the 2 mile) at running his own race. He came close to 2 of his PRs (mile/2 mile) and got a PR in the 800. Great early season start for him.

*Chelsie Faulk PR'd in the 800 (she could care less but I enjoyed it, haha) IN the mile she went out a little too fast, but that is alot better than going out WAY too fast and ran a season opening 6:08. (Im very excited for her)

*TJ Ornduff learned how tough it is to run a 400, but considering its his first ever he ran great. HE also had a PR in the triple jump.

*Erika Rodriguez, who has been working out since november for her senior year, came out well. Ran a PR in the 200 (26.18) and great 400 relay split (60.7, also a PR).

*Viz and Catherine started out the year with PRs in the 200.

*Pauline Olsen started the year right at 60 in the 400 in the open and relay and also ran a very fast 27.07 200.

*Alex Ukanwa took 10 seconds off his 800 meter PR and ran the first 2 400s of his track career.

*The meet ended beautifully all three 4 by 400 teams winning their races (more importantly running very well at this point in the season.) Such a great ending to the meet.

* Alex Hafenbecker just broke a minute in the 4 by 4 with a split of 59.97. His frosh-soph teammates of Uriel Flores, ALex Ukanwa and Lucas Cook also ran well to give them a time of 4:07 (they will be under 4 minutes in no time)

* The Varsity guys team (Who went to CCS last year) came out sharp, winning their heat and being less than 2 seconds off their best from last season. Eric Tolson had a PR of 54.0. Jacob Montoya held off a great runner from gilroy and one of the best in the CCS from sobrato by running a 52, just a week into the season. Viz had the new experience of getting the baton in first place and trying to run without someone to catch and Jacob Daw ran a strong leadoff leg, fresh off jumping 5'8 in the HJ.

*The Varstiy Girls 4 by 4 of Lauren Drewniany, Tula Urban, Erika Rodriguez and Pauline Olsen also had a solid performance. I was really happy with Lauren, who volenteered to run it because we needed someone. Its a tough race to run especially if you don't do 400 training, very selfless. Tula learned a little about race distribution. Erika ran her fastest lap ever with a 60.7 and Pauline followed that up with a 60.1.

*Taylor Duarte showed some speed in the 100 and from what I hear jumped well in the LJ. Coach Cunanan made sure to point out to me he was impressed.

*Annalise Disalvo ran a great 2nd leg in the 4 by 1, and got her first ever long jumps in.

*Artie Valencia ran a 2:16, with a 1:08 and a 1:08 perfect splits.

*Taylor Alonzo PRed in the LJ, once he gets rid of his nagging quad injury his new PR won't last long.

*Alberto Suarez had a 10 foot PR in the Discus, let me say that again a 10 FOOT PR.

*Diego Rodriguez matched Erika's 2 PRs with 2 of his own (SP and DT)

*Fa Saulala got 2 PRs with a small improvement on her great shot put from last week and for good measure also PRd in the DT

*Ramon Lucatero missed a 100 time because no one in his race knew 2 gun shots meant false start but he ran well, but he did make sure to hit a PR in the discus to the day was worth it.

*In the LJ, Devon Jones, Patrick Archer and Artie Valencia all found a little more distance than their first attempts at the event last week. Keep it up guys.

* I know coach Cunanan was impressed with Mark Butterworth and Daniel Silva in the Triple Jump.

* Aly Marusarz got her first hurdle race under her belt, I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous, she has been injured so I didn't know what to expect. Not only did she run it but she ran it well.

I just wanted everyone to get a time and a mark I was really impressed you all had a lot of great early season performances. Great job, have a good weekend see you Monday. -Coach Mike

Entering Results right now

2010-03-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

Just want to let you guys know I am entering results now and I will post them a little later tonight. Preliminary Count 19 PRs. Great job. Now that all the new people established a mark that number is going to sky rocket. Be back soon with results! - Coach Mike

Meet vs Gilroy/Sobrato/Christopher

2010-03-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

On Friday, (weather cooperating) we will have our first meet against other teams. It will be a 4 way meet with the other high schools in the south county. Just like the alumni meet last week this will be more of a 'meet specific practice'. Our first actual meet is on March 18th. Changing the starting date from Jan 5th to Feb 1st has really shortened out season and I just want to remind everyone that we don't care about meet results in March and April, only May. So if you are feeling unprepared for this meet its because you are, we have a progression we are going to follow and these upcoming meets in my mind are just practice.

Also in the next week or two expect some changes. Our roster is now at 60 athletes, which is great but it is also something we are unaccustomed to. (Last year we finished at 27 and had 7 of those graduate) Which means we have 40 new to track athletes. I am going to have to organize practice a little differently. Yesterday I know their were people who recieved no coaching whatsoever, which is not ok by me. Don't worry we will figure it out.

Bus will leave at 2:30, you guys will be let out of class at 2:15. The bus leaves on time, we wait for nobody. If you want to drive to Gilroy, you can. However, you are NOT allowed to drive anyone but yourself to the meet.

-Coach Mike

Alumni Meet

2010-02-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all -

So the results are posted. Amazingly we had some PRs even. (well tied PRs). Jacob Daw tied his HJ PR with a jump of 5'10 and Nick Sosebee tied his HJ PR of 5'8. We have 4 high jumpers that can jump 5'8 or higher. That is awesome. (not too mention Stephanie who is one of the top HJers in CCS). Jacob and Viz both also ran a 300 in sub 40. Some other impressive results: Erika ran a 43.02 in the open 300, which is a 57 second 400 pace so she is on track to go after 60 soon. Fa (our new freshman thrower) won the SP and DT. In fact her shot put distance 30'2" would have qualified her for CCS Semifinals last year. Wow.

Well that was fun, and like I promised very laid back. This next week we will be competing against our south county bretheren (Gilroy, Sobrato, Christopher) this will be similar to the alumni meet in that it will be pretty laid back. More of a meet specific Practice than a meet itself. We will talk about our expectations tomorrow.

Alum Meet

2010-02-27T17:25:00.000-08:00

Hey guys I will post some results in a little bit, but if any one wants to see some pics from the meet they are posted here, likewise, if you took any pics then send them my way and I will post them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MikeSullivan705/20100227LOHSAlumniTrackMeet#

Good Problems to Have.

2010-02-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Classify this under the good problems to have catagory. Holy smokes there were alot of people at track practice yesterday. I don't remember ever having the problem were there wasnt enough room on the track for everyone. As coaches we are going to need to put alot more effort in to organization of practice then we ever needed to before. It used to just be "ok lets go to the weight room", thats not really possible anymore, we need to assign different times for the weight room, split up groups within the same event. So our life just got a little bit harder but our goal is to still provide the same 'athlete first' philosophy and attention.

This got me thinking about back when I was an athlete, the times when my grades were at their best was when I was doing a sport. In college during football season we had weightlifting from 6-7am, had class time from 8-2, then we had films everyday at 2 to watch our practice from the day before, we practiced from 3:30 to 6:00 had dinner as a team til 7:00 and then you would be exhausted and have to do your school work. When I had very little free time I became super efficient and was a good student. Then when football eneded and I had all the time in the world, things didn't get done immediately, they got postponed, I would wait til the night before to start a project and my grades would slip. It always seemed counter intuitive that I did better with less free time then I did with all the time in the world. My point is sure this is going to be more challenging for us coaches but I also think it is going to make us alot better and more effcient. SO like I said, this is a good problem to have.

(also I might need to buy more uniforms because we might not have enough)

Meet this week

2010-02-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Saturday is our Alumni Meet. This is our first ever so I am sure this won't run too smoothly but hey as long as we have some fun, the alums don't pull too many hamstrings and we bbq afterward I have tough time seeing how this wont be successful.

Not Every event will be contested. Here is the event schedule:

Field Events
LJ/TJ @ 12:00
SP/DT @ 12:00
HJ @ 1:00

Running Events start at 1:00pm(Rolling Schedule, should be done around 2:30 or so)
4*100
Mile
65m HH
300
65m Dash
1000m Acorn Run
200 meter hurdles
4*400
(So basically 2 relays, 2 sprints, 2 hurdles, and 2 distance events)

and Yes the distances are going to be a little shorter. 1) Some of are alums aren't in as good of shape as they used to be (looking right in the mirror on that one haha) and 2) We want this to be fun and not too taxing. Also in the relays the alums can pretty much do whatever they want. 8 by 200 instead of a 4 by 4, go coed in a 4*100, etc...

The acorn run will be 2 - 500 meter laps and will involve some running on the grass, and have one or two obstacles and hopefully be a good time.

I will post the list of athletes and events on the bulletin board at practice today.

Afterward there will be a BBQ.

Vacation Week

2010-02-17T21:02:00.001-08:00

Tough part of a vacation week is the fact so many people are on vacation, haha. Oh well I planned a light week into the schedule for that exact reason. Today we accomplished a good amount:

Observations from today:
We found out what happens to Laurens LJ form when she does a full approach.

We got Pauline her first 4*100 handoffs.

Silva learned some triple jump.

The throwers have the best attendance for the week.

The distance runners have the worst.

Alberto and Ramon had one of the most disasterous/entertaining handoffs of all time.

Erika is still fast.

Catherine is a tough grader.

Ally and Tula learned the hurdles.

Tomorrow and Friday we will probably try to have a little fun and get ready for next week.... it is a meet week already.

Random Thought

2010-02-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

The lazy side of me struck today, I started thinking about the videos I posted on Mark and Lauren Long jumping last night, with my voice over analysis. I actually had the thought, if I just have the athletes send me videos I don't even need to leave my house to coach, haha. That may have been the laziest thought I have ever had, not to mention the dumbest, considering my favorite part of the day is when I am away from the computer and on the track.

In a related note I do think I am going to try and film people more often and post videos with my description of whats good and bad so people can see the things they are doing and what they should be trying to do. I probably won't be able to do that for everyone but I will try to do enough people that we cover all the common problems and show examples of proper form. That way it at least paints a picture of what you are going for. Hopefully they are helpful.

Alumni Meet

2010-02-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

In case anyone is wondering, this year we will be running an alumni meet. I figure that I have been around long enough that we can muster up enough alums to compete. The goal of this meet is two fold:

1) For the athletes: An introduction to what a track meet is like, in a low key situation so when the season starts they have some experience in meet conditions.

2) For the alums: More importantly a chance for alums to come back, have some fun either competing or just seeing their old teammates again.

At my college we have an alumni meet and I just competed at it for the 11th straight time (4 as athlete, 7 as an alum) One of my buddies said "You know when I left high school, I would never have pictured myself going back and competing in an alumni meet each year" I think alot of people feel the same way about track they could never imagine themselves competing after they graduate. My goal has alway been the same as a coach, get people to enjoy or at least appreciate the sport of track and field and for everyone to have a positive experience with track. I think an alumni meet is a good reflection of that. Right now I think we will only have 10-15 alums and hopefully each year that number will go up. I imagine if we did this 5 years ago the number of people would be 1-2, since most people didn't do track after their junior year anyway.

The Meet is at noon on Saturday February 27th.

King of the Hill

2010-02-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

We are running Diana today for the 3rd time this season. One of the traditions we have at Live Oak is to name a King of the Hill after each time we run it. The king of the Hill is not necessarily the fastest person up, sometimes it has been the slowest person up. The idea is more about effort if you normally run 75s up the hill and I see you push yourself to a 68 when you are tired that is more worthy than someone who normally runs 35s running a 37 and beating everyone. Like our philosophy with everything we don't care about the best, we care about personal improvement and effort. That being said the first 2 kings of the hill were the fastest guy and fastest girls. So who were they?

Week 1: Eric Tolson (ran it 4 times 45, 40, 40, 35) just a great progression and a very fast 35 for the first time on the hill this season.

Week 2: Pauline Olsen (ran it 4 times 50, 48, 45, 42) another great progession and tied the girls record for fastest time up the hill. (Note: Eric was no slouch and ran a 34 this week)

Week 3: Who will it be?

(In case anyone is wondering why Pauline isn't considered the "Queen of the Hill" a couple years ago I asked alums and current athletes if we should call female winners "Queen of the Hill" and they unanimously voted everyone should be called "King of the Hill".)

A tale of 2 Jumpers

2010-02-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

So this last Friday Live Oak track alum Mark Cedeno (class of 08) and former jumps coach, jumped at SJCC and I went and filmed it, even though he is wearing the orange and blue of west valley I thought I could break it down and the post it here. I plugged my Rock Band Microphone into the Computer and just started talking (and sometimes breathing right into the mike haha) Mark does alot right in this and I try to point out a couple of things he can improve so as a whole I think it is a good explanation of long jump mechanics.

The other video I posted was of Lauren in her first ever high school meet (back when I was the jumps coach), she wasn't as fast and her form wasn't nearly as good as it is today but back then she did naturally the 2 things that Mark still needs to work on. (to be fair to Mark it is easier to do those things at slower speeds) I just think it is helpful to see the things that I am trying to explain in Marks vid. Anyways here they are... (you might need to make them larger and in 720p to see the details ) (EDIT: I just watched these again, I might be a little harsh on Laurens Running form, haha. This was supposed to be a compliment to her. Also I should mention her penultimate doesn't roll over and she doesn't really lower, so her jump mechanics weren't perfect she just does a good job of swinging the foot low and getting some negative foot speed, which were the 2 things mark didn't do.)

MArk LJ

Lauren LJ

9 Days In

2010-02-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

Realizing I haven't posted anything recently:

Season Update #1
Last year I knew exactly what kind of team we had, mainly because we only had a couple new people, so it was the same as the previous year. This year we are 9 days in and I am clueless, which makes it exciting. WE have alot of new athletes this year, most still don't even know which event they want to do. It is great for the program and a little more challenging to the coaches but coaching is what we enjoy. We had to take the first 2 weeks kind of slow and make sure everyone understands the different parts to our basic program. After next week we will get the winter sport athletes out and I think we will have the biggest team we have had since I've been here. (or everyone will quit after winter break, haha)

Due to all the newcomers we did something we have never done before and that was have a little bit of a track circuit. We had 4 stations: throwing station, long jump/triple jump station, handoff station and high jump station. Everyone spent at least 15 min in each station seeing what the event is and then trying it out to see if it speaks to them or not. I am kicking myself for not taking pictures since I literally did nothing but observe our coaches working with everyone. Some people found events they didn't even know existed and we learned a little about the athletes (who are the type that are willing to try anything, who are the kind who only like doing things they are good at)

Next week is winter break. The athletes that are still around, we still have practice (@3:30)

Off and Running

2010-02-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well the season has begun, alot of new faces which is a good thing. Depending on how many I scare off after this first week we might have the biggest team we have had in at least 13 years, probably longer.

First Day Tomorrow

2010-01-31T11:48:00.001-08:00

Track Season starts tomorrow, before we get to that though just want to say great job to Lexie. I went and saw her performance in L'il Abner, I couldn't understand what anyone was saying for the first 5 minutes or so but then my brain finally tapped into the dialect and it was great. I recommend it to all. Here are the remaining performances:
•Friday Feb 5th 08:00 PM
•Saturday Feb 6th 08:00 PM
•Sunday Feb 7th 02:30 PM
•Friday Feb 12th 08:00 PM
•Saturday Feb 13th 08:00 PM
You can even see a picture of her in action in the MH times...
http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/262652-lil-abner-opens

As for track, really excited to start tomorrow, this is a month later than we have been able to start, so this season is just going to fly by. A big concern of mine is people getting physicals, I put in our rosters and alot of the people who signed up were not cleared yet, we have 4 less weeks this year, so missing the first 2 because you don't have a physical and then the 3rd week is winter break and the 4th week we start getting into our meets. If you don't have a physical schedule one immediately.

See you all tomorrow. Make sure you go support our track athletes in their other endevours, we have people playing basketball, soccer, wrestling and acting. I am going to try to see everyone at least once hopefully more. - Coach Mike

Winter Update

2010-01-28T20:00:00.001-08:00

Just like with the fall I try to see as many track athletes as I can in their other sports. Tonight i went and saw Kenny in a wrestling match, the match didn't last long but that is becasue Kenny pinned the guy quick. Pretty exciting stuff I never had been to a high school wrestling match before. Kenny really did dominate the match, good stuff, very impressive.

Here is a pic I took on my phone showing Kenny standing over his exhaused victim haha.

All Comers Meet

2010-01-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

So today Me, Mark and erika went to the LG All Comers Meet. Here are some slo mo vids of me and mark jumping. As well as me and Erika running in the 55 and the 100. Erika ran a 13.35 100 which she didn't run until May of last year. So she is way ahead of schedule.

Here are 2 of my jumps

Here are 2 of Marks jumps

Here is me and Erika in the 55 meter dash

Here is me and Erika starting the 100 meters

Mark in the 400

Looking forward to the season

2010-01-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days where everything just goes 10 times better than you planned. Lauren was lightyears ahead of where she was last week in her skipping series. The team picked up the remedial jumps and started fixing their own balance, strength and stability deficiencies with out me. I think this workout is going to really help this year. Just made me excited about being able to coach again next month.

New Software

2010-01-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

So I got this new software that will allow for some good motion analysis. So I went to the Long Jump pits and recorded this video. I knew the board was 10 feet away from the pit so once I had that reference distance put in I was able to figure out all kinds of stuff. For example the low point of my penultimate was 2.8 feet off the ground whereas the high point of my jump was 5.15 feet in the air. It allows you to look at speeds and acceleration, I can figure out athletes angles of projection in jumps and throws, it has a ghost feature where is overlays all the images of you on to one picture. Lots of great stuff and I am still learning to use it.

The last couple years I have been trying to talk myself into getting Dartfish, which is a motion analysis program. THe cheapest one is over a thousand dollars, this seems like it gets you 80% of the features for FREE. Very happy with this find. (It is software designed for phyiscs teachers, to help students understand labs, haha)

Here is a little of the program in action:

Here is a pic of my long jump in one picture.

Here is a graph of the height of my center of mass vs time.

Here is a video tracking my center of mass.

January Update

2010-01-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

Still trying to figure out when we can have our preseason meeting, I am teaching a winter class at SJSU for the next 3 weeks so I won't able to be on campus at lunch. I will talk to Porras about it. The biggest thing is just letting people know they need to get a physical if they haven't played a sport yet and that practice starts on Feb 1st.

The meet schedule is all set, I need to upload it to the site (not as easy as it sounds, the computer with my web publisher is no longer the computer I use) Right now the Dual meet schedule is posted. Debating if I should buy the program again or just plug in my old computer everytime I want to update the website.

You guys all know that I don't care how many people we have on the team, but you should still encourage any of your friends that might be interested in track try it out. The more people out there the more we can let people specialize on their best events, with a small team we tend to run a little thin. I think there is a big misconception that track is just running and torture but there are 6 field events and we focus more on running quality and full recovery then the conditioning you see in other sports.

Med Ball and Body Building Series

2009-12-28T22:37:00.001-08:00

Here is our Med Ball and Body Building Series. Typically we use this series as well as our core strength series on general days. These type of lifts are not keys to performance but help the body recover from our neuromuscular days (high intensity) these general strength series elicit a growth hormone responce which helps repair and rebuild damaged tissue. Here is a list of the other series I am planning on posting: Weight Room Series, Core Stability Series, Pre Practice Series, Multi Throw Series, Multi Jump Series, Recovery and Regeneration Series.

Core Strength Series

2009-12-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

SO we started filming all of our exercises and thought I would start posting them here:

First off, is our Core Strength Series... we typically never do all of these usually just pick 3 or 4 on any given day. Really the way to improve core strength is through weight lifting and running.

Some Fun with new camera

2009-12-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a plyo ball hitting the ground at 1000 frames per second... quality goes down the faster the camera goes...

Here is Armando Jumping Rope at 210 Frames per second

Here is an up close shot of Armandos feet while jumping rope at 1000 frames per second. Pretty cool, you can see that he needs to keep his toes up on his landing. Plus you can just see the power of the achilles tendon.

Armando Trying a push up with a clap behind his back, swing and a miss!

Ill post some other videos later... can't wait to get some actualy track events on it!

My favorite coaching rule

2009-12-24T14:54:00.000-08:00

Recently I read a quote that said "Did you invest as much in your career as you did in your car this past year?" I loved that and wanted to repeat that here, I couldn't agree more.

Those who have been around me a few years will notice that no two season are the same, I think we have had a different warm up every year. I try to analyze the previous season remove the things I didn't think helped and keep the things I did think helped. Then I look for new things to try out, some work some don't. There is alot of trial and error. You would be bummed if you ran the same speed in middle school as you did in your senior year of college. I am the same way, in ten years from now I hope I will be a better coach. Anyways, I never planned on being a coach, if I did I would have asked alot more questions when I was an athlete, I was more of the "blindly follow whatever your coach says" type of athlete. Anyways my first year was basically me just assigning the athletes the exact same workouts I had to do. MOnday was tough, Tuesday was technique, Wednesday was speed, Thursday Technique, Friday was tempo, Saturday was meet. The problem was when I wanted to adjust things I couldn't because I didn't know why did them just what we did.

Anyways after my first season, I got my paycheck and it wasn't much and I had bills I needed to pay, but I also felt like I should reward myself for my first season being done. It felt like if i used it for bills, I was coaching for the wrong reasons or if i used it to buy a video game that would be no good to. It just seemed right to use it to make me a better coach. So I went on to amazon and bought 4 or 5 books on track and field. The next year after coaching I used my money to take some classes at Foothill in exercise physiology. Those classes got me interested in exercise physiology and I ended up going to SJSU and getting my Masters in the subject. (there is no way this would have happened if I didn't go to foothill) now I am teaching classes at SJSU. Every year I try to challenge myself to spend as much of my coaching paycheck on making me a better coach. Again following with the theme of lifelong learning. One year I went to chicago for a week long coaching education program sponsored by USATF . It was made to certify me to coach the jumps at the NCAA level. It cost 400 dollars more than my paycheck that year, I still felt it was worth it. Over the years I have used it to buy over 80 books 15 DVDs, our team website (plus the web design class I took at foothill). A couple weeks I got my football paycheck and I used it to buy a high speed camera, I probably wouldn't have been able to justify that purchase to myself with out this rule. The rest of the paycheck I used to buy over 30 hours of video from top coaches in distance, jumps and sprints and throws.

The point of this post isn't to brag about all the stuff I bought but it is just to say no matter what field you go into, never stop trying to imporve, don't be sataisfied. If you don't like your job invest in things taht will help you get a new job.

Merry Christmas!

Goals this year

2009-12-19T13:07:00.000-08:00

I know we are going to have a wide range of goals this year.

We have some outcome goals: I know Erika just wants to make CCS finals this year, Stephanie is looking to make it to state)
We have some performance goals: Pauline is hoping to run a 57 in the 400. I am going to want a huge amount of PRs.

I just want to remind everyone about the 3rd type of goal, process goals. Process goals are more about the technique. For example a process goal for Erika would be "I don't want to come out so low from the blocks" actually "I want to come out at a 45 degree angle" is a better way to phrase that. It would be Lauren saying "I want the second phase of my triple jump to be at least 30% of my total distance". Chelsie might say "I want my first lap to be my slowest of the race". Stuff like that Erika. Chelsie or Lauren may lose their events (outcome) and may not get PRs (performance) but their is still an important thing being accomplished. Part of the difficulty of process goals is you have to underdstand your event.

I don't think any type is anymore important, (I have my personal preferences about which are the best) but if going to state motivates Stephanie to work hard and improve then it did its job.

Lauren in the MH Times

2009-11-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

http://www.morganhilltimes.com/sports/261206-field-hockey-drewniany-heads-lo-all-leaguers

New Blog

2009-11-28T20:17:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

So I created a new blog which will be a place for me to write down my thoughts on whatever I am thinking of related coaching etc... I figured it was best to leave this blog for only Live Oak related things (i.e. Meet results and stuff)

For me personally, writting things out is the only real way I can digest information, just reading it or hearing it doesn't work which is why I took advantage of this blog to get my thoughts down. Anyways if you are interested it is called "My Brain's Colon" (get it? its my way to digest information) My goal is to post everyday. So far I am 3 for 3.

Next Monday

2009-11-27T18:39:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, I definitely did. Ate a ton thursday, played some ultimate frisbee Friday and then ate a bunch more. So Monday is the start of offseason training, I know I just made a blog entry wondering if we even needed it. It should be known that it is completely volentary and individuals who don't go won't be punished (don't even know how I could punish someone, it's track I can't reduce someones playing time)

The main goal is to keep people who wouldn't be active otherwise... active. We won't do any type of specific training, no block starts, no long jump approaches. It will be working on general fitness. There will only be 3 componants of our training: Strength, Conditioning, Flexibility. At the end of it I would like to think you are prepared for any sport rather than just for track. Anyways it starts Monday, Nov 30 at 3:20pm at the Live Oak Track

Fall Sports Round Up

2009-11-27T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well now that all the fall sports seasons are finished we are on to winter. Soccer, Wrestling and Basketball are starting up. I don't think we have nearly as many athletes in winter sports, off the top of my head I think it is just Leach in basketball, Kenny in wrestling, and Alex Ukanwa in soccer. SO make sure you guys go out and support your track teammates in their other sports.

Before moving on though just wanted to wrap up the seasons of our fall sports athletes.

Cross Country (Adam Groen, Pauline Olsen, Chelsie Faulk)

As I mentioned before all three of our athletes made the CCS Meet. They would be the first to tell you it did not go as well as they had hoped. That being said it was a great season for all three. I think Chelsie and Adam took a couple steps forward this year and Pauline accomplished her goal of staying in shape and getting a good base aerobic fitness down before the beginning of the season.

Field Hockey (Lauren Drewniany, Catherine Sparling, Erika Rodriguez)

Well after I put the blog jinx on them by mentioning there chances of making the CCS Playoffs they ended up coming up just short, with a loss to Leigh and a forfeit win against Homestead. I don't think I ever saw a complete game but I did end up seeing like 12 halves, haha. It was really enjoyable seeing these other sides of athletes. Catherine making juke moves against defenders, Erika bringing a ton of energy to the game (I guess that is nothing new) and Lauren being a leader out on the field. Speaking of Lauren she came away with some recognition at the end of the season, being named First team all-league, Junior of the yeat and Non-Glam Player of the year.

Football (Lots, haha)

Like cross country and field hockey another tough ending to the season. They ended up making the playoffs and played against Terra Nova, the number one seed, in the first round. They had a 24-7 lead in the 3rd quarter but couldn't quite hold on and lost 28-24. The biggest thing about this team had to be it resiliancy. They started the season 0-4 and had tough losses to rivals (Gilroy/Sobrato) thet battled back though to beat Oak Grove, make the playoffs and give the number 1 seed all they could handle. Lots of positives to take out of this season. Also because I am a football coach I already know that some on the track athletes on the team will be also getting some awards and recognition but since we haven't had the awards banquet yet I am going to have to keep it to myself.

Great Job All, Hopefully next fall we will have even more athletes competing in fall sports.

Even More? YES it's true! haha

2009-11-22T16:55:00.000-08:00

Here is another website with alot more of a science based background than the typical websites that are trying to sell something....

http://www.ifi.ku.dk/english/communication/previous_arrangements/consensus/program_video/

Free bit of advice that is worth every penny: People that take something simple and make it complex are trying to sell you something, People that take something complex and make it simple are trying to teach you something.

This is something I have learned looking through endless websites and research. I guess there is such thing as over simplifying but in general this is what I have found to be true.

2009-11-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

Keeping with my current theme of lifetime learning I just wanted to pass along a website that I love looking at. IT has speeches from the TED conference which rountinely challenges the way things are and gives me new ways to think about problems.

www.ted.com

Offseason training?

2009-11-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

Do we need it?

Up until 6 months ago I would have said yes... now being in my "questioning everything" phase. I really do wonder about it.

Erika qualified for 4 different CCS events last year, due to an injury she didn't start running until February (and we had to reduce her workload when she came back) Hard to argue she didn't have enough time. Tolson did come out for Offseason training and was able to make it to CCS and take a good 4 seconds off his 400 time. Mark always did offseason training, Courtney did absolutely nothing in between seasons. Both were very successful.

Is year around training one of those "imbred thoughts" that has been passed along? The people who do offseason tend to be the most dedicated (willing to work when it isn't mandatory or required) that probably has a bigger role on thier success then offseason training. (At the very least it plays a role)

THe logic of offseason training is the better shape you are in the more you can do, if you are out of shape it will be hard to do more than a 3*150s, but someone in shape can do 6*150s. They can do more, meaning they can get in better shape meaning they will perform better.

Maybe the truth is, that difference early in the year 3 150s vs 6 150s ends up being 14 150s vs 17 150s at the end of the year which isn't as big of a difference. Or maybe after you get to the point were you can do 10 150s there is no marginal benefit of going above that.

I am still having trouble thinking there is no benefit to offseason training (shows how tough it is to get rid of ingrained thought) I think what we will do this offseason is more related to supplementry training. (Weight room, aerobic, medicine ball work)

Coaching Part 1

2009-11-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

So one of the big problems with coaching is there is a lot of imbreeding (metaphorically speaking) "I had to do this so now you do." I am no different, you guys do alot of workouts that I had to do in college at CMC (500 bds, in&out 200s (old style, not the kind where we actually run to in&out), 50 sec repeats, hammerstrides) Those all came from Claremont. My feeling was we won 4 conference titles in my 4 years there (they are going for 19 straight conference titles next spring) it should be good enough for you. While studying other coaching styles in track I have discovered that at CMC we took alot of our workouts from Jim Bush (coach at UCLA for many years). SO at LO we are doing similar workouts to UCLA in the 70's and 80s.

So why is this a problem?

Well most track coaches look to other track programs for ideas and change but say I talk to someone who follows Bud Winter's (SJSU head coach during speed city) approach that seems like a good idea except Jim Bush was influenced by Bud Winter. WHen you start to study track you realize there is so much imbreeeding of ideas that horrible ideas are reinforced. I have completely stopped looking at track people for references, I no longer ask my old college coach for training advise, I don't read books by track coaches period, and I don't ask other coaches what they do. I cut track off about 2 years ago. Every book or resourse I use is from people outside the sport. I read what athletic trainers are saying (they say static stretching hurts perfromance when done before expolsive activities) so we cut it out of our program. Mark on the other hand is training at West Valley college and they still static stretch. Why? because Bud Winter used to have his athletes do it. His coaches blindly follow what Bud Winter did, the other coaches they run into reinforce it because they were influence by someone who was influenced by Bud Winter too. At the end of the day it seems like 'hey 1000s of coaches are doing this it must be right', turns out 1 person actually decided to do it, everyone else just followed.

Now I read blogs by strength coaches. Books by psychologists. I find as much info as I can and hope there isn't a single mention of track in it. That leaves it up to me to interpret how it fits or doesn't fit into our program. I also like reading things totally not related to sports and find connections, Seth Godin has a great blog about Marketing that I have found with alot of parallels to track. (I even bought his book "The dip" which has no sports mention whatsoever but felt to me like he was talking precisely about track). Malcolm Gladwell's books are awesome for athletes none are about sports.

If you are wondering why is this important? My response is look at the results of the 84 olympics in LA and 08 Olympics in Beijing besides Bolt is their much of a difference? Our sport is stagnating, why because coaches are still doing the exact same things they did in the 60's today. We need some fresh DNA in the track gene pool, way to much imbreeding.

Here is a quote from Seth Godins blog today: "One study found that when confronted with a patient with back pain, surgeons prescribed surgery, physical therapists thought that therapy was indicated and yes, acupuncturists were sure needles were the answer. Across the entire universe of patients, the single largest indicator of treatment wasn't symptoms or patient background, it was the background of the doctor." In our sport almost all the doctors have the same background. How can we advance?

Sorry

2009-11-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

What was I thinking talking about ccs qualifiers before seasons ended. I jinxed it big time. Unfortunantly field hockey had a little bit of a rough ending. They were eliminated after playing the first place team on Wed, then they team they were supposed to play Thursday didn't show up. (they thought the game was Friday)

That being said I really did enjoy watching our track stars in their other sports. Track year around is probably one of the worst things you can do (and I am a track coach). I really do encourage you all to try out different sports (as long as it isn't in the spring, haha. Actually if their is a sport you enjoy more then track definitely do it).

A little tangent but the abruptness of the ending for the field hockey team had me thinking about this. In most sports your season ending is usually a disappointment, except for teams that win championships, it either ends in a loss or if it ends in a win it is on a team that didn't make playoffs. That is a very small percentage who have their season end positively. I know it is kind of a generalization but every last game I had, I went into it hoping it wouldn't be my last.

This is just another reason why I think track is so great and the fact that we can have PRs is awesome. You could have a long jump competition of 16 people and only 8 advance, but you can have all 16 walk away happy if they PR. Now people in team sports can feel this way too even after a loss if they have a caoch who has done a good job of putting the season into perspective. I just think track has an advantage becasue it would be more of a quantitative positive then a qualitative positive. "I wnet in with a PR of 20' and I jumped 21' " That is as tangible of a result as "I qualified"

Anyways congrats to Erika, Lauren and Catherine on a great season. I am biased but the way I saw it was Catherine was in charge of the offensive end, Lauren the defensive end and Erika was the bridge between them.

CCS Qualifiers?

2009-11-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

Time for another update on our track athletes in fall sports. CCS is coming around in the next 2 weeks and we might have every track athlete make CCS. We are 3 for 3 so far:

Cross Country (Adam Groen, Chelsie Faulk, Pauline Olsen):

Monday was the BVAL Championships and all three track runners qualified for CCS. The girls, as a team, qualified by finishing 10th wth Pauline Olsen getting 21:56 and Chelsie Faulk getting a 22:23. The boys didn't have enough runners to have a team but Adam Groen was able to qualify as an individual by running a PR of 18:03.

Field Hockey (Erika Rodriguez, Catherine Sparling, Lauren Drewniany):

This is the final week of field hockey the girls are 6-3-3 and have 2 games left. The top 3 teams make CCS and right now they are just outside the cutoff. Their last home game is Thursday at 2:45 against the team that is just ahead of them.

Football: (Jacob Montoya, Artie Valencia, Kean Viziry, Kenny Lee, Dominic Leach, David Pelz)

Like field hockey they only have 2 games left. The first is against Leland at home this week and then next week at Santa Teresa. Also like field hockey they are right at the cutoff of making CCS. They only need to win 1 of the last 2 games to make the CCS Playoffs.

So if the FH girls go 2-0 this week and the football team wins 1 of its final 2 games, we will have a clean sweep of CCS Qualifiers.

Some action shots coming soon...

Announcement

2009-10-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

I added a track meet this year, we will have a preseason meet against Gilroy this year on March 4th. Christopher high School (new school in gilroy) and Sobrato will be attending along with Gilroy (naturally). Another chance for us to get use to the site of CCS Semifinals and Finals. Man I really can't wait for this season to start...February First!

Rain

2009-10-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

Not a fan.

Lifetime Learning

2009-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

When you tie a reward to something, you strip away its intrinsic value, this is an idea in psychology. You tell your son I will give you 20 dollars for every A you get, sure it may motivate them but now the A has extrinsic value and the research shows that intrinsic value can't last in that situation. The student will never be happy just to get an A. Take away the 20 dollars and now there is no value left, (why should I do this for free?) You can see this alot in professional athletics. We all do this though, I give out reece's after each of you get a PR. The accomplishment itself should be enough. (In my defense, It is more to recognize the athlete than to motivate them. Viz being the only exception haha)

This is my long way of getting to my point, once school is over (college or High school) that doesn't mean learning is over. I understand the point of having tests, it is the (not best) but easiest way to see if the person has learned what they needed to from the class. There is also a problem with people only studying things because they will be tested on it. Now sometimes you are forced to take a class you are not interested in, and it is tough to study. However I recommend trying to actively enjoy learning. I mean increasing your knowledge should be something you enjoy, not something you feel forced to do.

It is not easy to do. I couldn't do it, after I graduated college I was done learning. When I started coaching I realized that I had a deficit of knowledge in exercise physiology and rather than being able to just research and find the information I needed I had to go back to school because I could only really learn when I was being forced to do it for a grade. The good news is my second time through college I was completely engaged I learned for the information not for the test. Now that I have my Masters degree, I am still looking for information, still researching and becoming a lifetime learner.

What I am really looking into for the upcoming year is the kinetic chain of the body. Things like when you have an injury look for a weak synergist. Alot of times with injuries we treat the body part of the injury. If you have a leak on your roof, it shows up with a stain on the wall. Well treating the wall will not fix anything, and sadly that is what happens ALOT. I am really trying to understand the connections within the body. If you have pain in the upperback, stretching the muscles of the chest may be way more effective then working on the spot where there is pain. Really excited to learn more about this and i will definitely post some of the things I find out.

My take home message: Learn for the information not for a test. Try to enjoy it, becasue it is a great skill and there is so much information out there. Alot of people don't.

Muscle Contraction Basics (part I)

2009-10-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

How do muscles contact? Mark is studying this so I figued I would make a blog post about it. One of the lectures I give in my class at SJSU is on this topic so luckily I already have some figures I can post.

Muscle Contraction

First some quick descriptions so the process flows a little better.

Electrical Impule & T-Tubules
When you decide that you want to contract a muscle, lets say the bicep. A small electrical signal leaves the brain and travels down motor neurons to that muscle. Within the muscle there is a whole lot more than just muscle fibers. Namely T-Tubules (or transverse tubules) when the electrical signal reaches the muscle it causes the T-Tubules to release Calcium throughout the muscle.

Actin & Myosin
These are the two primary contraction filiments actin being the thin filiment and Myosin being the thick filiment. They overlap each other and then muscle is contracted the myosin filiments (green) attatch to the actin filiments (red) and pull. Making the z-disc (I call them Z-lines) closer together.

Now this is microscopic movement but imagine many of these doing this, your muscle will become shorter which pulls on the tendons attatched to the bicep and causes your hand to move closer to your shoulder (bicep curl)

Crossbridges

So how does myosin attatch to actin? Check out the figure below. As you can see actin has this intertwining pearl like structure. Wrapped up with it is tropomyosin(pink band) which blocks the area that myosin can bind to actin (binding sites) when a muscle is relaxed tropomyosin prevents myosin from binding to actin (which is what it wants to do). When the t-tubules release calcium throughout the muscle the calcium will bind with troponin (yellow molecule attatched to tropomyosin). The calcium causes troponin to be pulled off the actin, which pulls the tropomyosin band off as well and exposes the binding sites. Now Myosin can attatch to actin and we can have muscle contraction.

Muscle contraction
When Myosin attatches to actin that is called a crossbridge. Within the myosin head there are 2 important things ATP (our energy source) and Myosin ATPase (enzyme that breaks down ATP) when the enrgy is used it causes the power stroke. Basically the head moves toward the center of the muscle which pulls the actin and causes the over lap to occur (and muscle contraction) The only way myosin will release the actin is when ATP reenters the head. So very simply the process is this.
1) Electical Impulse
2) Calcium caused to release from T Tubules
3) Calcium Binds to troponin which exposes binding site and allows cross bridge to be formed
4) ATP is used which causes the "power stroke" of myosin (muscle shortens)
5) New ATP enters myosin and crossbridge is released.

If calcium is still present (meaning your brain is still telling the muscle to crotract) the myosin head will grab the actin again and pull. Think of it as climbing the actin rope until the muscle is totally contracted. If the brain no longer wants the muscle to contract the calcium will be pumped out of the muscle. The binding sites will be covered by tropomyosin again and the muscle will return to its original length.

Rigor Mortis: You know how after someone dies the bodies get all stiff well the reason for this can be explained with the process of muscle contraction. Basically The body starts to deteriorate and calcium leaks into the muscle (no electrical signal needed) it attatches to troponin and that casues the cross bridge to be formed. The ATP is used and the muscle contracts, except that because the person is dead, no new ATP is rebuilt and the bond is never released to the muscle is just stuck in a contracted position. (until it deteriorates some more)

hmmm....

2009-10-07T00:14:00.001-07:00

Big gulps, huh? Well once i decided to restart this I knew it would be important to post every couple days on this thing. I think what I will do is post whatever is on my mind. So in honor of cross country season here is some talk about oxygen debt.

So physiologically oxygen is basically free energy, it has no cost to us. We can burn, for all intents and purposes, a limitless amount of fat (and some carbs) and when combined with oxygen create energy. Now it is a long process (takes about 2 minutes to get going) so if you need energy quickly you will not be able to use oxygen quickly enough. Your body has other energy sources however they are limited.

Alternative 1: Creatine Phosphate

Basically a molecule of creatine phosphate is held together by energy, you have alot of these molecules in your muscle (also important reason to be a meat eater) When this molecule is broken apart that energy is realeased and you use it. The only problem is these bonds can not be rebuilt until you stop moving so after 10 seconds of all out activity you will burn through most of this fuel source. Since this is such a simple process, (1 step: separate creatine from phosphate) you can get energy from this quick.

Alternative 2: Lactic Acid

Your body can also burn carbs faster if it does it without oxygen, however, the lack of oxygen creates an excess of acid (acid is just hydrogen molecules, if there is oxygen they can combine to make water, H2O) Without oxygen acid builds up and there is a burning in the muscles, electircla impulses don't travel correctly causing a lack of coordination etc. You start to feel this after about 40 seconds of all out activity.

I love analogies so I will try to make one that works here. The energy you use from only the aerobic system is your salary, the better in shape you are (harder you work) the larger your salary is. You can think of the energy demand of a workout as your expenses. If you make 500 dollars and your expenses are 500 dollars or less there are no problems. If you can run a 6 minute mile and you run at that speed or slower you are fine. Now if you decide to get a cell phone and now your expenses go up to 550 and since your salary isn't enough you need to go to the ATM and take out 50 dollars from your savings account (Creatine phosphate). So our person can run a 6:00 mile no problem but they run at 5:30 speed now to go faster. In order to get that extra energy they use some create phosphate they have stored. (savings account) however it is limited and once it is gone it will not replenish, until you work some overtime. (eat meat) Now say you decide to get premium cable too so now your expenses go up from $550 to $650 and dipping into your savings in not enough. Now you need to take out a loan unfortunantly it will need to be paid back with interest. Back to our runner think of them now running at 5:00 min/mile pace which has a higher energy demand. Now the body needs to start breaking down carbs without oxygen to get energy, even though it creates acid (interest) and anything created will need to be paid back.

When we sprint all out we go too fast to use the oxygen system but after we finish we are breathing hard... why? Remember the aerobic system is free energy so when we finish we use that system to create energy and that energy is used not for running but to rebuild creatine phosphate molecules and buffer out the lactic acid. (when we run out of money we need to go back to work)

SO back to our runner one last time: They can run a 6 min/mile no prob. (90 second laps) If they run 85 second first lap they created 5 seconds of oxygen debt. Meaning those 5 seonds were gained by using some cretine phosphate and making acid. If on the second lap they also run an 85 now they have 10 seconds of oxygen debt and guess what your body can rebuild creatine phosphate or clear out the acid until you stop (go back to work to re supply your bank account and pay back your loan) by the third lap you run a 95 becasue your body needed to use the extra seconds to clear some of the acid. Unfortunantly you can't get rid of the creatine until you stop. Then on your last lap you push your self and run a 92 and feel horrible afterward becasue you are in oxygen depb, your body is breating really hard to create energy that will rebuilt creatine phosphate and buffer out the acid.

This unfortunantly is how a lot of runners run. They think they aren't running right unless they ae pushing themselves. That sample runner ended up with a 5:57.

A more ideal strategy is go out at 90 for the first 2 laps sure you are now 10 seconds behind the first runner, but you are only half way through the race you still have all of your creatine phosphate and no acid built up (most runners can't handle feeling this good so they go too fast) now you can put in a 87 second lap and on the last lap run a 80. This will give you a 5:47. The only real difference is this when you went fast and created acid in the first race you had to pay it back in lap 3 (which is during the race, not a good thing) in the second race you went fast in lap 4 and so you had to pay back the acid after the race was over. (plenty of time to do it then)

Sorry taht this was way longer then I expected

More pics

2009-10-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Some more shots of the field hockey trio, and some pics of Pauline and Chelsie from earlier today. More Pics can be found here

Cross Country

2009-10-03T17:12:00.001-07:00

The last time I was at a cross country meet was when I was in 7th grade and ran for Martin Murphy. I made the drive to Pacific grove to see Pauline and Chelsie run (and it was a good thing I did because this is their last Saturday meet) Chelsie finished 10th place (23:18) in the juniors race and Pauline got 7th place (22:44) in the senior race. (They race by grade level)

I did take some pictures and will post those in a bit.

I would like to see another meet, but they are all on weekdays from here on out. BVAL Championships are Monday Nov 2nd so I might take a day off of football to go cheer on the ladies and Adam.

Oh and I should mention they gave medals to the top 15 in each race so Chelsie and Pauline came away with some hardware, (Pauline is still a little TOO motivated by medals, haha)

As promised

2009-10-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some action shots of our 3 field hockey players taken by Steve Drewniany.

So I made a photo gallery where I will put any pictures I have of our track athletes doing what they do in the fall. Right now there are only field hockey photos... soon enough there will be more. I am planning on going to the cross country meet on Saturday and will be at the football game Friday (I'll try to remember to bring my camera)

Here is the link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/FallSports#

Update Number 1

2009-10-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the first update on our fall athletes

Field Hockey:

(Erika Rodriguez, Catherine Sparling, Lauren Drewniany)

Been doing my best to sneak away from football to watch Lauren, Catherine and Erika take on the BVAL in Field hockey. I still have no clue what is really going on (when the ref blow his whistle I have no idea why and no idea which direction he will point) What I do know is I saw Catherine score a goal last week against Willow Glen, I have seen Lauren be the last line of defense (besides the goalkeeper I guess), she is way more intimidating out there then on the runway. And everytime I see Erika go in the game the energy of the team goes up. The team tied Cupertino today, and is 2-0-1 in league so far. Eventually I will figure this sport out… Steve sent me a whole bunch of action shots which I will post over the next day or so... (gives me something to post/ you a reason to come back, haha)

Cross Country :

(Pauline Olsen, Chelsie Faulk, Adam Groen, Trevor Zandi)

Due to the hot weather last week, their first league meet was postponed to yesterday (Tuesday) . From what I hear there were a lot of PRs (which you all know is my favorite thing in the world) I heard that Adam Groen had a pretty big one in particular. Pauline has promised to get me some action shots of our track athletes out there running. I am planning on making it out to a meet or two to support the team, it is just tough with no home meets and while I am trying to coach football. It will happen though!

Football:

(Dominic Leach, Kenny Lee, Jacob Montoya, Kean Vaziry, Artie Valencia, David Pelz, Taylor Alonzo, Matt Dariano)

The team is hurting a little bit. 0-3 start and a loss to Sobrato. We have a number of track athletes out on the football team. Got to mention former cieves that I coached first Leach had a couple touchdowns in the first game against Gilroy and will figure out how to punt in the game soon. Kenny Lee looks ridiculously good as well… so good in fact that I can’t take any credit for that. In addition to Leach and Kenny we have Artie also out there looking as quick as ever, Pelz (him and Matt Thomson were are entire Frosh Soph team) is the starting quarterback. Half of our CCS guys 4*400 is also out their and getting plenty of playing time Montoya is returning punts as well as playing z, and Viz is one of our top Corners) Taylor had an early injury but scored the first points of the game against Sobrato. Matt is now the QB of the JV team as well as our strong safety.

Also, saw the band put a beating on Sobrato's band (capes and all, haha) at the game last week. Eric Tolson, Jacob Daw, Emily Frederick, and Alex Ukanwa

Track and Field

Well the season doesn’t start until February but I have been contacted by a few freshman parents with children interested in joining. Not to mention I have been spreading the word around the JV football team. (we will see what comes of that) Jacob Daw and Eric Tolson have been finding time when they get a break from band to run the hill each week. Pauline is already starting her weight room program while cross country is going on so she can set some PRs next spring.

As for coaching staff right now Coach Porras and Fresh will be back next year. Mark is moving on to West Valley to be an athlete again. As always I will coach whatever we need so if I find a distance coach I will coach LJ/TJ and if I find a LJ/TJ coach I will coach distance.

The Blog is back

2009-10-01T00:00:00.001-07:00

Hey all, Hopefully everyone had a good summer.

Probably won't post as frequently as during the season but I will try to give some updates on what our athletes are doing this fall as well as some alumni notes.

You're never too old for track and field

2009-08-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/14/DD6R192CAB.DTL

The Senior games were held in Stanfurd this week.. Love of the game never dies. PRs never get old. =D

Ultimate frsibee round 1

2009-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

So, alumni, current athletes, and friends of alumni showed up for an ultimate show-down. The result was . . . it got really hot and people were needing breaks, but it definitely showed who was in the WSOL club and was a good motivator for those to get out.

I thought it was a lot of fun being around alumni and athletes for a little homecoming minus the heat. There were a lot of intense moments regarding dives, smack-downs and making runs for long frisbee drives.

Just wanted to say thanks to the individuals who showed up (in no particular order) - Coach Mike, Cedeno, Erika, Rookie, Jeff Roberts, Mildred, Tolsen, Justin Martin, Alex the Buff, Luis, and Carlos..

And there WILL BE a round 2 when Luis and I are back in town before fall semester at Cal starts. Hoepfully that means more time to recruit up the alumni and get it going. Can also try out the official ultimate rule of the 10 seconds to throw the frisbee.. supposedly makes the game faster.. and you know track and field athletes - always going the extra mile to push the envelope.

Hope you're having a great summer! I know at least for those 3 hours I was =D

2009-06-25T00:58:00.000-07:00

Hey all you may have seen this before but this is David Juliano, entering a baton twirling competition. I posted it because he qualified for the US Championships in the 1500. HE will be running tomorrow night. Top three advance to the World Championships in Berlin. (He ran the 800 at Claremont in 1:47) HE was fun to watch and a hilarious teammate always doing crazy stuff like this. (i.e. signing up for a baton twirling competition despite not knowing how to twirl batons, haha)

Muscle soreness

2009-06-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Just created a post, not sure if people even know to read the comments haha.

Anyways I think the big thing is the microscopic tears. Lactic Acid is cleared out within a few hours so that is not going to be the cause. The others seem more related to fatigue than soreness. Another cause not mentioned is misalignment of the muscle fibers.

I don't see soreness as something that is bad as long as it doesn't prevent you from working out again in the window of supercompensation.

Here is an analogy:
So I am really pale and I want to get a tan. So I go out in the sun for 15 minutes and the next day my skin is burnt. So I stay inside. My body increases the pigment in my skin to make me a little darker and better able to deal with the sunlight. So I go out in the sunlight again for 15 minutes and this time I don't get burnt. I am dark enough to withstand it.

The rest of the month I go out for 15 minutes everyday. The question is how dark do I get at the end of 30 days?

The answer: Not any darker, I will get just enough to last 15 minutes.

Now think of going to the weightroom. If I go and bench press 100 lbs and I am not able to handle it, I will be sore the next day. (sunburnt) It will send a signal to my body I need to get stronger (darker) If I keep doing the same exact thing I won't get any stronger. Funny how some people will lift the same thing everyday and wonder why they aren't getting stronger.

Soreness lets me know I created a sufficient stimulus to cause an adaptation. The goal is to not get so "burnt" that I can't go out in the sun for longer then increase in pigment lasts.

Soreness is not necessary to cause adaptation, without it though you need to wait a few weeks before there are any noticible changes. Soreness is one of the few immediate signals that you are creating an appropriate stimulus. Which might be good for motivation.

Causes of Muscle Soreness Explored

2009-06-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

So, I guess this is sort of question and a discussion of what I've heard to be the causes of muscle soreness. Because after reading more and more stuff, I really have no idea anymore =C

So what exactly causes muscle soreness?

1. lactic acid build-up
cure: drain your legs with a cool down and stretch
2. Microscopic tears in your muscles, esp for endurance sports
cure: not anything you can do
3. Muscle cell exhaustion
cure: not anything you can do - just keep muscles nourished with CHO and protein for recovery
4. Lack of electrolytes so that your muscles are contracted - constantly working, hence soreness
cure: drink a sports drink, and i will personally recommend gatorade =D

at least that's what i've heard. Wondering what you've heard or what you believe to be the cause of muscle soreness, so that we can find a cure to muscle soreness. together.

2009-06-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Jacob winning his heat of the 400

Erika coming in second in the 100

Mark Winning his heat in the 400

Los Gatos All Comers Meet

2009-06-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

Acorn Track Club Lives

So I cleared everything off my camera, then charged it and forgot to bring it to the meet so had to use my cell phone to get this pic of our 4*4. Got to love it though, an alum, 2 current male athletes and a current female athlete. Great combo.

So here are the results:

4*100: Eric Tolson-Mark Cedeno-Erika Rodriguez-Coach Mike (45.74)

60: Coach Mike 7.37, Jeff Roberts 7.55, Eric Tolson 7.63, Erika Rodriguez 8.41

100: Jeff Roberts 11.74 (PR!!!) , Erika Rodriguez 13.28

200: Armando Rodriguez 25.37

400: Jacob Daw 54.28, Mark Cedeno 54.54, Armando Rodriguez 59.97

4*400: Eric Tolson (56.86)-Erika Rodriguez(64.04)-Armando Rodriguez (61.50)-Jacob Daw

(56.78) - 3:59.18

LJ- Coach Mike 21-0, Rory 15-11 (no approach or warm up)

TJ - Rory 37-0

SP - Mason Lammers (40-7)

DT - Mason Lammers (121-0) Eric Tolson (99-0)

Anyways these meets are every Thursday from now until August 4th, it costs $5 and you can do an unlimited amount of events. Lots of good competition too.

Alumni Alert: Dustin Muhn

2009-06-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-rugby/spec-rel/061609aaa.html

Dustin, who was a former sprinter and long jumper of Coach Mike, goes to Cal and plays rugby.

He was named the USAR All-American.

Athletic Advisor and 100 questions - summer reading

2009-06-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.athleticadvisor.com/

Just wanted to share this handy dandy link, since I am sure with the budget cuts, it will be even harder for track and field and cross country athletes to get access to the athletic trainer. Its got some simple solutions to common injuries that occur, as well as some additional information that athletic trainers know about, like nutrition. There is also some general introductory information on periodization and the idea behind plyometrics.

Also wanted to recommend the book,

100 Questions and Answers About Sports Injuries by Thomas M. Howard, Gary Ho, and Josh Lewis.

Its not super comprehensive, but it does address the basics behind common injuries, what to do, and has a pretty good section on stretching and common injuries broken down by sport. Might be a good summer read for after you're out at practice and you want to learn about shin splints or rotator cuffs.. It'd be good stuff to know if you're interested in being an athletic trainer, coach, or just how to take care of yourself as an athlete.

Floor Sweepers

2009-06-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Janet,

Floor sweepers are you just hold a barbell like you would in the bench press and then you lift your legs to the left and then the right, trying to keep you legs straight. It gets the abs in a good way and you also work the core pretty good because your shoulders have to stabilize the bar as you shift to the left and right.

As for the Gym Jones workout...

The idea is blood misdirection so we start out by doing some sprints which causes our body to direct blood into the legs, then immediately after we do push ups, which is tough when blood is being pumped to the lower body, then L-twists etc... basically trying to keep sending blood one direction and then working out another spot. It is pretty cool, I made a circuit using 17 of our normal plyo exercises that shifts from arms to legs to core and keeps doing that. I know it works pretty good because i am light headed at the end of the workout... blood is going everywhere and I am not getting enough to return...

Summer training

2009-06-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

6/2
Ran the hill 7 times

6/3
15 200s + Wt room

6/4
Ran the hill 3 times + Gym Jones Circuit Training (all about mis-directing blood flow)

6/8
5 -10s, 3-20s, 1-30 + Gym Jones circuit training *2

6/9
Ran the hill 4 times

6/10
15 200s + Wt Room

6/11
Ran hill 6 times (we will probably do some strength training later today)

6/12
If enough People come out -> Ultimate Frisbee

Benefits of organized sports, quotes, and a little kid track workout

2009-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

So, just wanted to congratulate all the people who got involved in organized sports in their youth.. The benefits are many and very nice!! Actually, there's many trends or correlations with education, health, and physical activity.

Being a sports participant, means that you are more likely to have good grades in math and english.

If you go to practice, at least 5 times a week, you are more likely to have an A in science or math.

Non-athletes are 1.7 times more likely to drop out of school.

http://www.teamupforyouth.org/dynamic/attachables/media_filename_93.pdf

_____________________________________________________________

and just an added bonus quote.
"There is always someone out there getting better than you by training harder than you."

________________________________________________________________

and just to look at other age levels. In high school, we work pretty hard with 15 200's, Diana, and 50 sec repeats, and 500 breakdowns and hammerstrides.. What do little kids do?

There is a Hershey Track and Field Games for kids (up to age 14) and this is what they recommended the kids do for events that we, as high schoolers and up do.

Track & Field Training

Not sure what to do to get ready for the Hershey's Track & Field Games? Here are some helpful tips to get you started.

50 meter dash

How to prepare for this track event

Start at the end of your driveway and run as fast as you can to your house. Walk back to the end of the driveway. Repeat 5 times.

100 Meter Dash

How to prepare for this track event

Run the length of a soccer field as fast as you can, then turn and walk back. Repeat 4 times.

200 meter dash

How to prepare for this track event

Find a hill in your neighborhood. Run up it as fast as you can. Walk down. Repeat 5 times.

400 meter dash

How to prepare for this track event

Jump rope for 5 minutes without stopping. Jog in place for 2 minutes. Rest for 1 minute. Repeat 5 times.

800 meter run

How to prepare for this track event

Run around the bases of a baseball field as fast as you can 3 times. Walk around once. Repeat 3 times.

1600 meter run

How to prepare for this track event

Run for 12 minutes without stopping.

4 x 100 meter relay

How to prepare for this track event

Practice passing a "baton" to another person without dropping it.

Standing long jump

How to prepare for this Track & Field event

In your backyard or driveway, practice jumping forward as far as possible from a standing position.

=D Hope you have a good one!

Day 1

2009-06-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

And so we begin...

just thought I would put some action shots from today,

Armando doing some 2 hands under

Erica doing L-Twists with a med ball...hardcore

Mark doing our newest exercise... floor sweepers

Stephanie finishing up her workout with Pauline... the two of them are going ot make our hurdle mobility way better next year.

Where to find me this summer

2009-06-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

This summer I will be coaching football from 3:00-5:00. Then I will be training along with Mark, Armando and others at 5:30 as a general conditioning for track and other sports. It is open to anyone, they don't even need to go to Live Oak or have done track or plan on ever doing track. The schedule for that will be something along the lines of:

Monday: Technique/High Neuromuscular (technique can be event work, speed work, drills for another sport) Side note: I remember one summer Janet came out and we did field hockey drills as her technique.
Tuesday: Diana
Wednesday: 15 *200s
Thursday: Diana again :)
Friday: Technique/ High Neuro

We will also hit the weight room up. We will probably go to a few all comers meets at Los Gatos. (Totally optional)

My rules for the summer are this:

1) It is free. That way I can guarentee you will get in the best shape of your life or your money back.
2) If you start coming out let me know when you miss. I have had days in the past where I waited around and no one showed. Again it is ok to miss, just let me know. With Mark working out too not too worried about having to do a solo workout.

Preparation

2009-06-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple quotes for you all about preparation.

This was the former tagline of this website:

"Success is where opportunity and preparation meet. "

Here is one Steve Drewniany sent me from Winston Churchill

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitting to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour."

Also I like this:

Universal truth: To get something, you must give up something. No exceptions.

In that regard I might as well put some the 'zen' quotes:

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"

"Plan the work and then work the plan"

Stories continued...

2009-06-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Janet I liked the starfish story... here is one I always liked that i told the girls 4 by100 this year.

The elephant story

IF you have ever been to the circus or zoo you may wonder, when you see the elephant enclosure, why is it that the huge, old elephants that stand some 20 feet high and the tiny baby elephants, that only come up to your knees, are tethered with exactly the same size chain attatched to a small stake in the ground.

You may think it completely illogical to treat these animals in the same way. Surely, you may argue, the older, larger elephant should have a much bigger chain than a baby one. A fully-grown elephant could, if it wanted to , simply walk away and, without even breaking a sweat, pull the stake out of the ground, like you or I might pull up a daisy, or snap the chain like a twig.

But that's just the point. The old elephant has forgotton what it's like to struggle to be free. It learnt the lesson a long time ago, when it was a baby, that despite its efforts it remained imprisoned, and so, even though now as a fully-grown adult, it might bave the strength of 10 men, it believes itself to be just as much a prisoner - and has given up the struggle.

The baby elephant, who constantly pulls and tugs at its chain, still has the motivation to succeed - and the belief that it can.

Moral: If you want to change your behavior, first change your beliefs.

Inspirational Stories/Quotes on June 5th

2009-06-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

First of all, congrats to all the grads!!

But just wanted to share two things that I found when I was wandering in the main stacks...

THE STARFISH STORY

As the old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a boy ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with the boy, he asked why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if let out in the morning sun.

"But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," said the old man. "How can your effort make any difference?"

The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it safely into the waves.

"It makes a difference to this one," he said.

And this one just reminded me of Coach Mike's former coach.. except this version is the nice version =D

This child whose life
I touch with mine
Is like a piece of clay
I take his gentle will in hand
And shape it day by day.
-Author Unknown

Diana

2009-06-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Me Mark and Armando ran diana today, we were planning on doing 6 200s. But since Pauline inspired us with her "300" kick of adam we decided keep running until we did 300 seconds of running on diana. The goal was to get the most distance.

Me and Mark got 7 reps in while Armando was able to get 6. We also used our left over seconds to do partials. I had 3 seconds left over and got 15 meters, mark had 13 seconds left over and got 70 Meters, Armando had 28 seconds left over and got 150 meters.

So in total:
Mark 1470
Mike 1415
Armando 1350

Watch out because this may be how we run it next year. I liked this method

Quotes

2009-05-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some quotes about kids:

" Today's young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude & impatient. They have no self control. "

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders. They disobey their parents. They ignore the law. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

"The world is passing through troubled times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves"

What adjustments do we need to make as coaches to deal with this 'shift' in behavior or attitude? I can tell you my philosophy. I give them plenty of room to make decisions on their own and guess what most of the time they make the right decisions. Sure some take advantage of it and take extra days off, but If all we do is tell the kids what to do at what point do they learn? By the way this was sort of a trick question. Those three quotes I posted were from: 4000 BC; Plato (yes the greek philosopher) and the last one was during the crusades. I think we actually have the greatest generation of kids there has ever been. Just some stats I heard at a conference:

* We have the most diverse generation. There are 127 languages spoken in CA public schools

* They are smarter than ever. They had to revise the SAT because people did to well on it.

* Girls are more independent and competitive thanks to title IX being passed a generation ago. This generation never was exposed to the old way of thinking.

We are entering exciting times people shouldn't be as bummed out about this future generation. This is why I love coaching these high school students. I have seen it firsthand. They will do amazing things. - Coach Mike

(Information from DR. Paul Salitsky from UC Davis)

Track and Field Today

2009-05-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Hey if you gys check out NBC at 1:30pm they are showing the Reebok Grand Prix. Last year at this meet Bolt ran a 9.72 to set a new world record in the 100 meters.

(He is not running this year) But Gay and Wariner are along with a bunch of others.

Also I am debating taking a road trip down to the State Meet next Saturday. If anyone is interested in checking it out let me know. - Coach Mike

Stephanie Armstrong

2009-05-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

Not only did she get her own rung on the podium this time (had to share her spot last time) she also moved a little higher up. Big time Congrats to Stephanie ALL-CCS for the second straight year she tied her PR, which moved us up to 219. It is tempting to think about next year already (I know I am excited), but right now is just the time to enjoy the season that has just passed.

Couple notes: I think Stephanie and possibly Pauline are going to run at the Golden West invitational in Folsom on June 13th. (So we are at 219 in the PR department, but the door isn't quite shut at 221 PRs)

Also I posted some of the pitcure I took tonight, basically a lot of Stephanie since she was the only one competing and a couple of our school record 4 by 400

Some guy from Salinas gave me a disc with a bunch of Live Oak photos in it from the Alisal invite and CCS Semis so I posted those too (more Jordan Hasay stalking haha)

Also Sportswurlz was at CCS so I posted their pictures as well. Adding up all the photos I have posted plus I know fresh has another 100 or so that makes over 1600 photos. That is a pretty well documented season. Lots of good memories.

2009 Season Results

2009-05-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

So I think I got pretty much everything this year except some people who didn't make it into the top 3 at Westmonts dual meet (they only gave partial results)

Here is the link to my excel spread sheet so you all can see your progression, I included everything going back to 2006. (I only kept track of sprinters and jumpers back then and didn't do a very good job at it)

Also if you notice the tab called points. Those are our top ten results this year using the IAAF ranking system. Great job this year.

http://www.liveoakcaf.com/2009Results.htm

Top Marks 2009

2009-05-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

Girls
100: Erika Rodriguez- 12.87w (BVAL) & Courtney Robinson - 13.12 (STAL)
200: Erika Rodriguez - 26.30 (BVAL)
400: Pauline Olsen - 59.45 (STAL)
800: Pauline Olsen - 2:27.93 (Westmont)
1600: Olivia Duran - 5:48 (Westmont)
3200: Olivia Duran - 12:20 (STAL)
100h: Stephanie Armstrong - 17.68 (Quicksilver Invite)
300h: Stephanie Armstrong - 48.27 (BVAL)
4*100: Erika-Courtney-Catherine-Lauren - 50.60 (CCS Semi)
4*400: Erika-Stephanie-Courtney-Pauline 4:05.70 (CCS Semi)
TJ: Lauren Drewniany - 31'7"(Avis Kelley)
LJ: Lauren Drewniany - 15'10.25" (Andrew Hill)
HJ: Stephanie Armstrong - 5'2" (CCS Semi) (To be determined)
SP: Nikki Dronek - 25'10.5" (Piedmont Hills)
DT: Nikki Dronek - 85'0.5" (Westmont)

Boys
100:Billy Van Aken 11.33 (STAL) & 11.20w (BVAL)
200:Greg White - 23.67(STAL)
400: Jacob Montoya - 52.53 (STAL)
800: Artie Valencia - 2:10 (STAL)
1600: Adam Groen - 5:05 (STAL)
3200: Adam Groen - 11:25 (Andrew Hill)
110h: Dominic Leach - 18.64 (Piedmont Hills)
300h:Dominic Leach - 47.24 (Santa Teresa)
4*100: Jeff-Greg-Billy-James 43.89 (Piedmont Hills)
4*400: Viz-Tolson-Daw-Montoya 3:34.60 (BVAL)

LJ: Greg White - 21'1.5" (BVAL)

TJ: Greg White- 41'4" (Piedmont Hills)
HJ: Jacob Daw - 5'10" (Santa Teresa)
SP: Mason Lammers - 40' 11.75" (STAL)
DT: Mason Lammers - 127'4" (CCS Semi)
PV: Eric Tolson 10'0" (Santa Teresa)

reminder to read the old stuff and new stuff

2009-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

unfortunately the old stuff got taken over by bots and sex fiends, but if you ever want to see some of the older stuff that Coach Mike has answered via the many questions by myself, Cedeno, Rookie, and a lot of other past athletes, they should be still around.

and if you don't feel like wading through all that stuff, I believe that I tried to combine and summarize all the "ask coach mike" threads into a book that gave coach mike his 4th year of coaching, sorted by topic.

might be a good way to learn all the basics - like what should i eat before a meet, why does plyos actually help the body and so forth. plus, you might discover the digital track past. imagine just going through the archives =D

http://www.liveoakcaf.com/forum/index.php

and just wanted to say if you were interested in new stuff, there's a lot of journals and books on kinesiology, the complete breakdown of the muscles needed in the long jump, and if you're into that type of stuff - sports medicine, athletic training, and functional physiology. Can get you copies of the latest journals or direct you to books or Coach Mike into his library of stuff that is cool to know =D

Pauline/Adam kick 2 & 3

2009-05-29T00:32:00.000-07:00

HEre is another angle of Paulines kick

I think Pauline had a little more gusto with this one, maybe because now she was soaking wet.

OH wow

2009-05-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

Its nice opening this page and seeing stuff written from people other than myself! BY the way if anyone has something they want to contribute I just need your email address to add you to the list of 'contributers'

I have three copies of Pauline kicking adam into the pool, unfortunantly I only saw Stephanies cheap shot on Pauline with my own eyes. (it was hilarious though) I will upload those later. Thanks again for everything. - Coach Mike