Canadian sprinting has come a long way in the last 40 years.  In the 1950’s, the 60’s and early ‘70s ‘to sprint’ meant ‘to run a short distance’.  That all changed in late 1972 with the arrival of Gerard Mach, who assumed the job of Canadian national coach in the sprints, hurdles and relays.  In a few short years, ‘to sprint’ took on a new meaning and that meaning was ‘to run extremely fast’.
Gerard had competed for Poland in 2 Olympic Games and had coached the great Polish team at three more.  When he arrived in Canada, he was already known as the most innovative and successful sprint coach in the world.  Gerard implanted his unique approach to sprinting by constantly touring the country, spending countless hours on every type of track, working with a generation of sprint coaches and with virtually every good athlete in Canada.  The improvement in Canadian results was remarkable and we feel and see the results to this day.
Even though I had coached athletes to the national team level, it took only one session with Gerard to be completely humbled.  Gerard’s first lecture in Canada was delivered in German with an interpreter, since he spoke little English.  I took copious notes as he explained the exercises that made up the Mach training system.  The exercises he described were a strange novelty to Canadian coaches and athletes in 1972, but today, these  ‘A’ and ‘B’ exercises are introduced to young athletes on their first day at the track. 
My notes from this first lecture read something like this:

Mach Sprint Drills

1. Knee lifts with emphasis on down stroke; dorsiflexion of foot important; execute in marching, skipping or running forms
2. Knee lift with extension of the foreleg on the down stroke; accelerate the heel; execute in marching, skipping or running forms
3. Other drills that engage the hamstrings e.g. straight leg heel pulls or butt kicks with heel

It seems that I was the only one who had made thorough notes of Gerard’s presentation and these schoolboy-like notes became the standard handout at clinics.  I don’t know what an ‘A’ exercise would be in Polish, or what a ‘B’ exercise would be.  But I am very thankful that I didn’t use bullets or numbers as my notational format.  Somehow saying  to an athlete ‘Do a long ‘A’’ sounds more polite than saying ‘Do a long Number 2’.
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