Sport Coaches - Stop Watch FraudToday, as you obviously know from the title of the ‑‑ I'm gonna talk about stopping stop watch fraud. Stopwatch fraud is an epidemic I see growing here today and without getting into like a big philosophical debate about whether we live in a computer simulated universe like going into the matrix and this really cool show you should check out called closer to the truth. I see some stuff going on out there that I'm gonna attribute to stopwatch fraud. Not some innate ability to overcome the laws of physics because that's what it comes down to all things being equal. Now, because I want to make sure that we're all on the same page,
I think it's important from a training standpoint that we're all speaking as coaches, we're all speaking the same language, using the same terminology. I have found that when you do that, things work out a lot better so what is stopwatch fraud? Well, stopwatch fraud is this habit that certain coaches have ‑‑ not you of course. I'm preaching to the choir but people you know so you can help the people you know. These are times he was running and we got guys running like 11:3, 11:4 but running the same 50 time. Why? Because even officials stopwatch fraud. So very quickly my favorite kind of stopwatch that I think you should get one if you are a football coach working with 40 guys. Or a baseball coach doing 606 guys or a track coach of course you should all have one of these kind of watches. Not one of those little bootleg watches I see people running around with. Now, here are the things we have to understand about how to use a stopwatch. Most people think they already know how to do it but apparently you don't because I see coaches look at their watch and look at the time they get and their committing stopwatch fraud. I try not to commit stopwatch fraud. I learned this a long time ago when I was in high school. The school record at the time was in the 200‑meter dash, my school record before I broke it was 22:5. Yes, I know that's not very fast school record but keep in mind when I was in high school, I didn't lift weights or do speed work or do dynamic warm up and very quickly I was taught my senior year of high school ‑‑ some of you track coaches are gonna throw up in your mouths when you hear me say this but it's a true statement. I was taught to come out of the blocks and clap my hands together like this out in front of me when I come out of the blocks. In a step position, gun goes off. Clap your hands together out in front of you. Not a criticism of who taught me that but come on my friends. How fast can you run? As fast as you're being taught. That's a whole different kind of fraud we're not gonna get into today. Stopwatch fraud is our topic. We got to make sure that we are using the sop watch in the correct ways so here's how it goes. First and foremost we got to make sure we use our index finger. Index finger to start and stop. The more important thing to do is we always round up. School record is 22: Five like I was saying when I was in high school and I ran 22 Fifty four times. I was like yes I tied the school record. Coach said no you didn't tie the school record. You always have to round up. 22:54 equals 22:6. Always round up with hand times. You add the .24 conversion and make it automatic. That's what we got these ridiculous 40 times with football players because you look at it and you came on a four: Seventy‑one and you're like oh, I'm gonna get me that four: Seven. He worked hard. No, it was a four: Eight. Round up please. That's just the rule. That's how it's done. A kid runs a 10:93 in the hundred. Oh, he broke 11. I'm gonna give him the ten: Nine. No, it's an 11 flat my friends. Stop committing stopwatch fraud. Always round up. You can ‑‑ no matter what the situation is, your kids have opportunities to run faster unless it's the last race of the year. The problem is I know you want to give them that faster time. How about that earn that faster time by ‑‑ what's it called? What's it called? Running the faster time? Have them run the faster time instead of giving them the faster time through fraudulent activities. How do you do that? Well, I'm gonna tell you how you make athletes run real time so they don't commit stopwatch fraud. Stop running the bogus times. The bogus hand times. That's why my state is considering only accepting full automatic times in the 35 because bogus times get sent in and their ridiculous. That's very simple.
There are five by motor skills athletes need to learn if they want to get faster. Speed, teach them how to run fast. It's a skill. It's not just run for four seconds then take four minutes rest. That's not the solution. It's part of the solution. It's a means to an end. You need to teach them how to run fast. Strength. Can't get fast if you can't get stronger. I look at these freshman athletes that come in. They come in from other sports and I say what did you do to train for your other sport? They look at you like a deer in the headlights. Why? Because they don't train. I'm gonna talk about that upcoming. Not training for sports, just playing your sport. Terrible way to do it. Coaches, if all you're doing is playing your sport and you're not in the weight room and doing all this other stuff, shame on you. Shame on you. I'll talk about that later. Flexibility. You're making kids more flexible. They're gonna get faster. You develop specific and general endurance conditioning, they're gonna get faster. Speed, strength, flexibility, and coordination that's the fifth one after endurance. Develop their coordination. Kids cannot do basic stuff if their ‑‑ do that and they're gonna get faster. So stop with a stopwatch fraud, get to training your athletes to be belter athletes. How do you do is that what's the solution to that problem? Here's the thing my friends. Click on that link right below here that says how to make your athletes faster. Click on that. That's the solution to your problems. The solution is not longer stopwatch fraud. Stop with the stopwatch fraud and start actually having our athletes run the real times. That's all I have for you guys today. I hope you can use that to your advantage. I think if you use a stopwatch in your mind you're saying right now yeah, yeah. I round down. I round down and give the kids the benefit of the doubt. That's nice, but you're doing your kids a disservice. You're doing your program a disservice by giving them fake times. So that's all I have. I'll be back next time with some more of my insights on training and all those other things. This is Latif Thomas. Thanks for listening. If you haven't already, click on that link below, grab yourself a copy. Remember, complete speed training and complete program is on for customers. Wednesday night ‑‑ what is it the seventh? Wednesday night the seventh of January, that's tomorrow, we're gonna be having our live Q and A session so bring your questions. 8:00 eastern time for complete speed training people and 9:00 eastern time for my complete program is not just for track people. I know we've got a lot to talk about because I've been getting the e‑mails. We're ready to go. Thanks for listening. I'll be back in the next day or two with some more fresh insights on how to get and develop faster athletes.
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