Introduction

My name is Stuart Dempster and coaching is both my profession and my passion. I studied Sports Coaching at University and completed my thesis on Long Term Athlete Development. Since then I have worked with international sprinters and hurdlers, as well as Rugby South Africa, Scottish Rugby, Scottish Hockey, NFL Europe and Football in Scotland and New Zealand.

I want pass on some ideas that some of you out there may be able to add to your regular coaching practice. I want to learn from others too-no one person knows everything - and I want to inspire athletes to become better informed.

Initially I will cover how to become faster, what ever your sport. Initially I use Athletics as an example but transfer this knowledge into the preparation of athletes from all codes.You cannot escape the science and when working with players from Rugby, Football and Hockey etc, I have had fantastic results ONLY if a training programme has been given time to establish its self. Indeed I was personal coach to two International Hockey players for 5 years. This lead to a book I wrote with Olympic Coach Bronze medal winning coach Denis Hay entitled “101 Youth Hockey Drills” . Both Louise Burton and Alan Hay derived huge benefits the speed/quality approach gave them. I ended up preparing Louise for the European Championships in May, then the Commonwealth Games in September of 1998. Louise out ran everyone and was never substituted for lack of fitness.

I hope you get something from the upcoming articles which are not exhaustive but are guides to orientate you towards effective and sustainable preparation programmes for most players of most sports.I have used the first few articles to set the scene by showing how this approach works with sprinters. Athletics is measurable and we need to assure players from all other sports that the speed based structure works.

I run The Sprint Stable, check us out on Facebook, please feel free to contact me on sprintstable@gmail.com

Enjoy!

Link to my book: 101 Youth Hockey Drills https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/101-youth-hockey-drills-9781408109823/