Aaron Rouge-Serret Aaron Rouge-Serret
Images: Duane Hart Sporting Images

Added variables

“There’s actually not a whole lot of variation in my program. I enjoy training – I always find I want to go to the track – so mental stimulus isn’t a big issue for me. My coach trains me individually and fortunately we get along really well, so, as a result, training’s easy. We just go through the motions together. Every now and then we may go interstate for a week or two; train at a different track, in different weather. Sometimes Adam will also put me in a training group, just for something different, to ignite that spark again. But we enjoy what we do, so there’s really not a lot of stimulus needed.”

Race day

“When it comes to major comps, sprinters can’t be hit-and-miss. You’ve got to nail it on the day, otherwise it’s never going to happen. “On race day I try to relax as much as possible, conserve as much energy as I can. I don’t have any pre-race rituals or anything like that. Leading into the race, I’m always extremely focused during my warm-up. I do my exercises away from everyone else so I can really focus on myself. In the warm-up, I’ll normally jog two laps of the track, do a long stretch, then get some physio from my coach, working my hamstrings and back. After that I’ll go through three basic drills. The first is a drill where I skip up on my toes, working my dorsi-flexion. The second works extension, so I’ll go for a light jog and then every three or four strides I’ll put in a big sprint step, trying to hit the track as vertically as I can. And the third is just a basic skip to warm my entire body. I do all those drills over 20 to 40m.

“Then I’ll do four or five run-throughs over 60m. The first two or three I’ll run in flats (jogging shoes) so the pace will be pretty relaxed. After those, I’ll put my spikes on and the fourth and fifth run-throughs will be at around 80 per cent. I’ll normally finish with one hard rep at 95 per cent. After that, I’ve found that I only need to do two or three starts – then I know my body’s ready to race.

By the time I get to the coolroom, I’m just thinking about technique, what I’ve got to do coming out of the blocks. As soon as I get to the start line, I clear my head. If I’ve done the training – I’ve worked hard, trained smart – then I’m going to run fast. So as soon as that whistle blows, and they call ‘on your marks’, I’m not thinking anything. I know I’ve done so many reps of this in training that it’ll just happen.”

– Aaron Scott