Track and field is a challenging sport, and to perform at your best, you should train during the off-season as well as during the competitive season. To excel in track and field, you must develop a number of different athletic skills that will help you in each of the different disciplines in track and field competitions.
Speed
If you are participating in any sort of race, from sprinting to longer distances, improving your speed will aid your performance. Although practicing the exact distance of your event can be helpful, an exercise method known as fartlek training can also help. As the online running resource Cool Running explains, fartlek training is an "unstructured interval session," meaning that you perform a training run with intermittent bursts of speed lasting from 15 seconds to three minutes.
Strength Training
Events such as pole vaulting, discus and the shot put require a lot of strength, but even activities such as running can benefit if you improve your strength. For this reason, you should perform functional weight training activities, which target groups of muscles in a way that mimics the motion of your sport. For instance, performing the bench press can be considered functional training for the shot put, as it involves a pushing motion that trains your shoulders, chest and arms in a manner beneficial for launching the shot.
Agility
Agility involves quickness and maintaining balance when altering your direction of movement. You may be able to improve your agility by using an agility ladder, which is a rope ladder that you place on the ground. Fitness website Perform Better! explains that you should begin on one side of the ladder and move laterally into the open spaces between the rungs, one foot at a time, beginning on one side and ending on the other side, and moving up the ladder, one rung at a time.
Endurance
Endurance refers to the ability to perform an action continuously for a long period of time. You can perform endurance training by taking long training runs or rides on a stationary cycle or bicycle, but you can also develop your muscular endurance in the weight room. The Army Field Manual recommends performing exercises for more than 12 repetitions per set to improve your muscular endurance, so if you are a distance runner, performing high repetition leg presses or squats may help improve your endurance.
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