A couple points before starting.
- Â Writing in first person isn’t the greatest, but it came easier this way.
- This is unsolicited. Chasing the Standard has been paid $0 to write this review. Coach Marra is truly very good.
Initially heading into the clinic, I was slightly hesitant because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Learn by watching-isn’t that the same as watching a YouTube video on long jump? What is the difference with Coach Marra’s LBW versus going to any other clinic or symposium and listening to some guy tell you what to do and tell you about the Krebs cycle (chlorophyll…more like borophyll)? Fortunately, it became evident early on that Coach Marra is a highly skilled, engaging, and knowledgable individual. At the coaches’ social when Coach Marra introduced himself to the group, Coach Marra immediately made one a fan of track. In a sport that can be boring at times and in a sport with rather poor coaches education, listening and watching Coach Marra was very refreshing.
The clinic began with sprint mechanics, which would seem to be highly technical and…boring. Coach, just tell me the workouts to make my kids faster. Within 30 minutes, even before working with the athletes, the principles Coach Marra went over were so simplistic that it was almost embarrassing to know I didn’t know these things. Once Coach Marra began working with the athletes, he showed things in such a way that easily demonstrated the importance of sprint mechanics and how to actually sprint.
After sprint mechanics, we moved into blocks. Initially, I was thinking to do blocks first, but after doing the sprint mechanics session, it became evident why we did that first. Blocks, like mechanics, became very simplified; within 2 hours any coach had the ability to turn around a program and have a team full of sprinters. Amazingly, no athlete ran more than 20 meters, but anyone who was there today is automatically faster in the 1, 2, and 4.
The last part of the day was the long jump. We spent no time in the pit which was initially disappointing. My lingering question had been-why do so many athletes struggle to hit the board and get their mark (i.e. how come I can’t figure out how to get kids to hit the board consistently). In reality, it all came back to sprint mechanics. Every coach standing by the long jump says the same garbage-“You need to move back one foot.” That may be true in some cases, but the athletes’ approaches to the board were changed simply by being better sprinters. We also reviewed the final phases in the long jump, which was very helpful, but even without the pit, the lesson was engaging and insightful.
A few takeaways from this clinic:
To be a coach, you have to always be learning and you have to adapt. Coach Marra has been coaching for a long time, but he was always learning and developing. He promotes an active coaching style, where you go home and take notes every single day after practice, a meet, or a clinic like this weekend.
You have to be knowledgeable: To summarize a story of Coach Marra: When he started working with Ashton Eaton, Ashton said to him, “You’d better know what you are doing because I am going to do everything you tell me.” Then at the World Championships, Ashton missed his first two attempts at a low pole vault height. Coach Marra gave his cues to Ashton and he went right over the bar. Paraphrasing, “You have to know what you’re doing because athletes are going to ask you what they need to do and you have to know what to tell them.”
Fundamentals are paramount in coaching and one needs to master and continually practice the fundamentals. Even coaching at the highest levels, he sees athletes make the same mistakes after returning to training after a long layoff. Coach Marra recounted several stories of slower sprinters beating faster sprinters at World Championships because the faster sprinter broke down in his mechanics.
“You can’t run fast everyday but you can run correctly everyday.”
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