October is a busy time for Shocker Track and Field

By John Wise - Sprints/Hurdles/Multi's

Even though the track and field teams aren't competing until January, the fall is still a very busy and important time for the coaches and athletes at WSU.

For the athletes in the sprint/hurdle/multi group its imperative to have a successful fall training phase to ensure a high level winter and spring track season.  The summer and fall is our "base" to build upon to try and achieve the highest peaks possible at the end of the year.  While we are doing lots of fartleks, hills, and tempo runs, we also have a significant focus on explosive training that involves sprinting, plyometrics, and Olympic lifting.  Building power and explosiveness is something that has to be done year round to see big jumps in performances for sprinters, hurdlers, and multi's.



6am hurdle mobility with the sprint/hurdle/multi's



Next week we will be testing the 30m start, 30m fly, 300m dash, standing long jump, standing triple jump, over back shot put throw, and hang clean.  The athletes are always excited for this testing period to see how they compare to the previous year's results.  This group has been working hard and I'm always fired up to see where we are and what we need to work on to achieve our goals!

Running at "Champion Hill" near Benton, KS

We are only a few weeks from watching our cross country team host the MVC Championships.  Our ladies are looking good to be a serious threat to win their 6th straight MVC title and our men are very motivated to improve on last year's performance even though they've been less than 100% in terms of health.  It should be a great show out at the RAFT Golf Course!

Around the office the main thing we are discussing daily is recruiting. As a staff we meet every Tuesday for a business meeting and every Wednesday for a recruiting meeting.  In the past we've tried to put these two meetings together into one but have felt the emphasis on recruiting gets lost in the shuffle.  We defintely feel like we are more organized and are talking to terrific recruits all around Kansas and the nation.  We've had a few recruits on campus already but October and November will be very busy with multiple recruits at WSU every week.

We usually bring 50-70 recruits to campus every year on "official" visits.  I'd say right now our 6 coaches are talking to about 80 athletes and by the end of the year it will probably be around 150.  Of those 150 we will bring in about 25-30 newcomers every year.  How to fit all those athletes into 12.6 men's scholarships and 18.0 women's scholarships is an even bigger puzzle that maybe I'll talk about when we get closer to the February signing date.

One thing is for sure - there is rarely a dull moment around the track office these days with fall training, recruiting, and as always Coach Rainbolt's quirky leadership style!