Jeff Boelé explains why distance runners should be using wickets to better learn how to put force into the ground. To learn how wickets fit into a 90-minute neural session I encourage you to watch this video where Jeff walks you step by step through the session.
Wickets some after a dynamic warm-up, after dribbling, but before the sprinting portion of the practice.
Jeff isn't the only distance coach who regularly uses wickets in training.
Joan Hunter, whose Loudon Valley Boys have twice won the Nike Cross Nationals meet, was asked the following question by Jonathan Gault of LetsRun.com in a December 6th, 2018 interview.
Gault: Do you think that there’s anything you guys do in your program that other programs don’t do?
Hunter: Anything that we do that other programs don’t do. That’s a great question. Hmm…We run wickets. That’s kind of weird for a distance team.
Gault: You run what?
Hunter: They’re called wickets. It’s kind of a sprint drill. Doug Soles (coach of Great Oak in California, who finished second to LV at NXN) has his HIIT workouts that he does, nobody else really does those. We do wickets, which are just a little drill to teach good sprint mechanics where you space out little six-inch hurdles and you just take one stride over each one.
I set up different spacings of them so that the little tiny short slow kids have their own set of spacings whereas my big fast boys have another set of spacings that matches more their stride. And it’s just a really great way to kind of teach sprint mechanics, stepping over the hurdle and applying force to the ground and running tall. We like to use those about once every week to 10 days during the season. The kids actually sort of teach themselves how to run fast properly, when they do the wickets.
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To learn how wickets fit into a 90-minute neural session I encourage you to watch this video where Jeff walks you step by step through the session. Wickets some after a dynamic warm-up, after dribbling, but before the sprinting portion of the practice.
Jeff's Bio:
Jeff Boelé has a unique background as a coach. In his near 20 year career, he has worked with middle school, high school, collegiate, professional, and masters athletes. With a background as an endurance athlete, Jeff got his start coaching distance athletes at Greenville College in Greenville, IL in the summer of 2000. Upon moving to Boulder, CO in 2005, Jeff's coaching exploits started to diversify. He started working with a small group of post-collegiate athletes and eventually began helping at Lyons middle/senior high school (Lyons, CO) a few years later. It was at Lyons that Jeff's coaching acumen was refined. Brought on to coach the high jump, Jeff took the challenge of becoming a great jumps coach seriously, and that meant taking a deep dive into the speed/power world. Eventually, Jeff handled programming for the cross country team and all event groups (sprint, jump, throw, distance) for the track and field team. He had direct oversight of the jumps and distance events.
In 2015, Jeff met renowned coach Dan Pfaff at the ALTIS training enclave in Phoenix, AZ. Through this mentorship, Jeff was inspired to pursue a massage therapist license. Becoming a licensed therapist in 2017 was one more skillset Jeff added to his coaching toolbox. The combination of sports therapy, speed/power and endurance training have equipped Jeff well for his current role of working with professional and semi-profession distance athletes in Boulder, CO.
Jeff has a proven track record of fostering a culture where athletes of all ages and abilities are able to develop and see continued progress in their athletic pursuits. Jeff holds USATF Level I and II (endurance) certifications and a jumps event specialist certification from the USTFCCCA. Additionally, he is a licensed massage therapist in the state of Colorado.
Jeff works with or has worked with a number of notable athletes and teams.
Paul Roberts - 2 x Nike Cross National qualifier, 5th place Footlocker Cross Country (2015), IAAF World Cross Country qualifier (2015)
Katie Mackey - Multiple time US national champion, IAAF Indoor World Championship and Diamond League participant
Lyons high school - 16 team state championships (cross country/track) and numerous individual state champions since 2010
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