The Sprinter's Compendium

by Ryan J Banta, Katie Marshall (Illustrator), Nick Buckvar (Editor)

In this age of “social media” everyone is an author, a publisher. Talk is cheap, words are plentiful though frequently empty. Opinions proliferate, too often self-congratulatory with confirmation bias constantly reaffirmed. Little or no distinction is drawn between Information and Knowledge. Everyone has a product to sell. In the area of coaching too much of the information is superficial, based on opinion or hearsay, anecdotal at best based on an interpretation of someone else's experience. The Sprinters Compendium is different. Ryan Banta has produced a labour of love unique in its scope based on knowledge hard earned through his own coaching experiences as well as those of so many of the world's leading coaches who have contributed to this unique and brilliant publication. The accumulated advice of so many contributing coaches tallies centuries of practical experience where information has been distilled into the essence of knowledge. When these great coaches write their thoughts they call upon empirical evidence based in their actual outcomes, the processes and findings along the way at every level of performance from junior college to Olympic finals. I found the Sprinters Compendium a revelation, challenging every belief I have held about every aspect of coaching and compelling me once again to acknowledge and celebrate the fact that there are many paths to the summit of the high performance mountain. There is virtually nothing missing from this encyclopedia of sprint coaching knowledge along the strength-power-speed continuum. It is a masterpiece compacted into 800 pages and a dozen chapters of wisdom.

Genres: Sports

2187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 27, 2017

Reviews

[Glen House · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must have for any sprint coach or for a track program as a guide to developing sprint power and technique. Ryan Banta has put his years of coaching success and learning sprinting from the best coaches in the world into this labor of love. The Sprinters Compendium will give any coach, whether novice or experienced, the tools to build a top notch sprint program or simply to help his or her athletes become better. The world of track has been in need of a book like this to help sprint coaches build a program from the ground up and the knowledge to plan day to day training for the season. What Jack Daniels Running Formula did for coaches of distance runners, The Sprinters Compendium can do for sprint coaches.