20M Accel.

Im posting a video of myself last saturday doing a 20 accel from standing. I was told that I “cycle” my legs? And that I should keep my feet lower during the accels.

If anyone has time to answer my questions, I was just wondering if it’s bad to run like I do during the accels and if there is a tightness or weakness issue that causes it.

Thanks!

I think I timed it a little under 3sec.

http://www.vimeo.com/3611838

BTW dont mind the dizziness feeling you get. My 11 yo daughter was filming me LOLOL

It looked like you were stepping over the knee as Charlie recommends. Got good extension on the frames I could pause. I might have wanted a little more aggressive arm action forward and up. Thought it was good though.

Thanks. I know CF recomends it but is it bad to do it early in the accel? I was not even aware that I did that…

I feel if you don’t do it early you usually push out the back which is not good towards later phases. Listen to the man with the most results!

Its funny you mention that cuz I do push out the back after 30m. That’s the one thing I would love to fix just cant figure out how… Maybe I should just run slower and do it right then go back to running fast… Who knows…

I swear Track is lucky i love her LOL… or else I’d dump her for all the heart ache she causes me :slight_smile:

Looks like you can improve by getting more strength in your hips so that you can gain more speed and stretch in your posture that already look strong.

I don’t think changing the technique will give any improvements, I think it will come with stronger and more mobile hips.

And maybe your daughter could assist Charlie in his next movie :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the help. I guess driving to and from work doesnt help much in creating mobile hips!!! But I will def keep at it… I should do more hurdle walk overs??? How about the cycling over during the accel ? is that bad should I focus on more of a shuffle? that does not feel natural to me… but I think the cycling affects me after 30m… I will try to post a vid of me in trasition…

Thanks again for your input…

On a side note all three of my divas would love to be recorded LOL

All three girls are not too shabby. I’ll post them doing explosive med ball. They got so much strength from charlies stuff that the 11yo can do the pentathalon (2:40 800m 20’ shot 12’lj 4’2"HJ and a 16sec for 80m hurdles)

The two younger ones (10 and 7) can actually clear 30in hurdles. I really do think more folks should train kids CFs way it comes so natural to them. It’s just sprinting and jumping kids love it…

I was definitely looking forward to more footage after having made it through the 40 seconds of undulating camera work (no offense towards your daughter).

From what I’m able to gather from the film, here’s my coaching points with respect to things that you can fix from one rep to the next:

  • I prefer to see bladed or at least more relaxed hands. In my experience, anything resembling a fist inevitably transfers to tightness/rigidity in the shoulders/neck/face.
  • It looks to me like you raised your line of site slightly prematurely. I look for the cervical spine and chin to rise as one unit along with the remainder of the thoracic/lumbar/sacral regions of the spine and it looks to me like your chin, and line of sight, rises earlier than the rest of you.

In my view, any sprint that is initiated from a motionless start, whether from a push up, 3pt, block start, or standing/falling start such as the one you used in the video, is a mechanism of improving early acceleration/drive phase.

This is so because of the forward lean that comes along with starting void of a pre-run. Consequently, my approach is to look for and instruct drive mechanics that correspond to the body position during the start and acceleration specific to the type of starting position that is used.

From a standing/falling start, the takeoff is obviously not as horizontal as the other variants; however, drive mechanics still apply.

As far as what others have mentioned, regarding stepping over, knee drive, and so on, I think it looks solid.

I’m not willing to speculate much more beyond those technical aspects that I mentioned without seeing more video in slow motion.

For future reference, even if your child is assisting you, if there is a hand rail, garbage can, picnic table, etcetera, nearby, she can place the camera on top of it and us it as a make shift tripod.

When you first come out of blocks, you have low heel recovery and don’t start stepping over till you are getting closer to upright. don’t ask me why but I can’t get the film to play (I’m sure not a teckkie) so I can’t comment on your style on this clip

Wow thanks!

I will keep those points in mind. That was the first time I was on the track since January so I might be ragged… I just came off a long lay off. My work schedule and home responsibilities took me out of commision for indoors… I was Getting up at 5:30 am and traveling 4hrs per day plus training became too much. So I started doing anything to stay in shape (see the alan wells training post) Hopefully I can hit the track more often.

Sorry for the rambling :slight_smile:

Thanks for posting CF! much appreciated… So Should low heel recovery during accel be a conscious effort if its not happening naturally?

I will try to get another video. That site can be hard to load up because it eats up alot of bandwith (its like a youtube but for high def videos)

If you concentrate on the arms starting and have a good body position, the heel recovery should be a natural outcome, as will be the transition to stepping over.

Ahh ok… I will think about that. for the next video :wink:

Here is another video on the same day. Here im forcing my chin into my throat for some reason. I guess I am trying to stay low but lack of power wont let me do it naturally??? In this (video if you can see it) i still start stepping over early but my arms look as if im trying to force my way thru the accel… Could the stiff arms in the begining be why the early step over? Sorry for the annoying questions but I really dont think about anything when doing these I just go…

The one with the gray shirt…