"‘Don’t you have to be very strong to be able to "use power but not energy’ at the start ? Can anybody just tell themselves ’ ok, i’m gonna start with power, but not press too much ?’
Same for keeping the head down longer than your natural gear shift times…"
To a large extent, there’s your answer. I think most people, if they say to themselves, “I’m not quite going to try as hard as I can,” they end up running relaxed and getting out of the blocks faster. For one thing, if you go in there with the idea of applying absolutely the maximum force on the pad that you can, the time needed to apply that force is longer. Power without pressing too hard. But, you have to practice this.
For keeping your head down, everybody has a maximum point for keeping your head down and accelerating, and keeping down beyond that point leads to slower times. Find that point by experimenting in practice, then practice it again and again and again, and you’ll be able to do it in races.
There’s that conversation Mo and Ato had about the 100 meters being a choreographed dance…