Asafa Powell in Miami!

I never knew it was illegal… My coach said nothing about it that it was illegal. When he still was competing he said that he used to place his foot almost simmilar like the one in the picture…

As I said earlier- it used to be illegal but hasn’t been for some years now.

My feet are the opposite… closer to the ground, with just the ball of the foot on the pad. I tried placing my whole foot on the pad and it just didnt work for me, especially up high.

LOL then my coach could consider himself “lucky”… He went to 4 oly’s…

Who is your coach? What events?

Pretty lucky to have that kind of experience in your coach.

Victor Saneev went to 4 OL- maybe three. But I don’t think he would of ever used blocks in them.

LOL no

he’s running in lane 3, representing Holland…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk5WDodb_Q0&feature=related

He ran 100-200 and 400
But at first he was a 400 meter runner and than he came down to 1 and 2

Good to hear you have a coach that has been on the world stage. I havent had a coach since I left college in 2001.

It’s been legal since the early 1980s, so ’ some years’ is a relative term!

why is that?

LOL ok, i thought you meant something like 5 years or something…

yes sometimes i “forget” that, because he has seen a lot and been through some things as well…

There are alot of people that dont coach the way that I think will work for me. No recovery days, too much volume, no idea what to do in the weight room, never ran stuff like that.

Have a look at 3:20 min on this video from Asafa’s 9.78 final in Rieti: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_tp1V3ikbQ&feature=related

You can see that the back foot is, indeed, placed quite high up on the block, and the front foot is carried so low that it actually scrapes the track as it comes forward.

So are you choaching yourself?
And how does that works for you?

Yeah i posted the vids up at sprintzone, and someone mentioned the same thing, about the low carriage…

Yea I coach myself, I have a few training partners. Pr 10.38

Are you kidding me? Those foot positions (one in the pic and one in the vid) are not even close.

I think something that may have been over looked is that the placement of the foot on the block (ignoring block spacing for the time being) will in part determine the angle of projection out the blocks. That being said a man that is 6’3 and wishes to to compete with the shorter sprinter in the first half of the race will more than likely utilize a block arrangement that will account for his long levers.

I think the same can be said for the extremely :eek: heel recovery out the blocks. I would think it is extremely difficult to compete in the first half of the race with out making the necessary provisions. In my mind that what makes him the most impressive sprinter ever! I’m certain (not just by his WR times) that he’s much more effective through 30m or so than past tall great sprinters (Lewis, BAiley, Christie, Whetherspoon etc).

Lastly, although I think we’re over analyzing what was a single frame in a practice/training session, wouldn’t a foot a placed high on the block put the athlete at a great disadvantage when applying force? Force is applied through the tibia–>foot–>block. The further away the tibia (ankle) is from the block the greater the demand placed on the structure of the foot and run the risk of rolling the pedal back. I’ve been fortunate to hear a stories from BJ where the block pedals would fly off the block frame in practice! …just my $0.02:rolleyes:

I would expect that having the back foot higher than the front, with the front also slightly elevated, changes the line of drive lowering the departure angle slightly without overly lowering the C/G, which is an advantage for a tall man strong enough to use it.
Thoughts?