Agreed…what are your thoughts of the quality of the push off the blocks with the foot placed higher on the pad?
Also, what difference would you expect between the effects of lowering the CG by manipulating the arms (a la Ben) in the blocks compared to lifting the feet on the pedals?
Thx
There’s more range of difference lowering the arms but it’s important to keep the C/G up with a taller athlete.
Is feeling comfortable in the blocks a must? Or could someone try uncomfortable block postion which can make him run faster and get out of the block “better”…
better for me = faster. I think better would have no other meaning I guess!
When i was younger (9 years or something) i was being told that it was not important to sit comfortable… But for me, that’s a whole different story now…
If i don’t feel good in the blocks, i can’t react the way i need to…
Wouldn’t it also affect the stretch reflex? With his heel being that much higher on the rear pedal he would spend more time in the stretch shortening cycle but his exit more powerful?
what do you mean by spending more time in the stretch-reflex? 
:o
Guess I didnt necessarily mean spending more time as in anything too significant, but the stretch being more pronounced than it would be if the whole foot is on the pedal. How much of an impact would that heel pushing further back have on the initial steps out of the blocks (power, efficiency etc)?
Found this one on youtube - you can clearly see the back foot drag PJ was talking about.
Just a thought; might the film crew have asked for more air time so it looks better on the camera’s?
It is amazing how he does that without losing a step.
If you could move the back foot further up the block while maintaining the same push from the front block you’d be able to decrease the swing time of the knee lift, as PJ described earlier.
You can clearly see the emphasis is placed on driving the hand back, while little emphasis is on pulling the hand forward - perhaps the reason why Asafa is ‘floating’, waiting for the rear knee to come through after he already has triple ext.
I have plenty of examples of the ‘floating’ you describe. it is an example of greater block pressure from the rear leg and a resultant faster extention off the front block rather than a delay in the rear knee coming through. You see this as an initial flight off the pedals usually followed by two very quick steps a la Ben.
in this HSI video john smith is telling conwright some thing like this about his foot placment on the block, something about having the heel back while in the blocks that way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQonsP-tWR4
Can you explain how the foot placed high on the rear pedal may reduce swing time?
Thanks
I had a look at Stuttgart WAF video, actually it is the 2nd step which has flat cycle, where the foot has horizontal displacement, very close to the track, i guess it even touches the ground. Asafa and Michael Frater where side to side on that race and had similar start pattern so i gess it is a thing they work at practice.
You don’t happen to have a vid? 
I think this is the race that PJ is talking about…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19UxHJKDB3c&feature=related
I’ll try and find some Frater footage and then we can compare. Ok…couldnt find any decent stuff…I have some great footage of his starts at the Commonwealth Games in Oz. I do see some similarities with the two at the start especially with the arm carriage…
Comments?
I actually like M.Frater…great athlete…awesome cadence.
I see that discussion on this observation was shut down pretty quickly…dismissively even. The problem though is that the body of top speed visual evidence available to viewers is large enough to subvert the premise that [i]somehow the camera speed is too slow to catch it.[i]
What does seem evident from race video evidence is that the maximum knee extension that Asafa demonstrates (the maximum knee extension that Asafa demonstrates…rather than what his knee joint’ s potential maximum extension actually is) during top speed running actually occurs before foot contact. By the time contact with the ground is made, the angle of extension has begun to recede, and continues to do so.
The fact that Asafa has been estimated to be running at some 80-90% of effort in the Miami video does not seem to be enough of an argument to not start thinking about the implications of the video evidence. If the pattern of his stride is so strong at this speed, why would we think that it would shift dramatically at top speed, when the race evidence seems to support exactly what we are seeing at sub-maximum?
What I have found in personal experiments with this (combined with Piasenta’s focus on “footing” or quality of foot strike) has been a noticeable (re: dramatic in my case) change in the perceived level of effort at higher speeds. It feels quite like someone took off the brakes.
Now granted, I was only ever a 10.8sec sprinter, and this is only one person’s experience, but it got my attention enough to consider that maybe something else technically is going on with Asafa Powell that helps separate him from other competitors.
I notice the same type of stride characteristics that we see from Asafa in top speed slow motion video of FloJo from Seoul…and wonder?
The relative ease that both of these athletes exhibit at their very best, compared to others around them, along with the different visual signals we see in their strides might warrant some analysis and experimentation by forum members, even if it doesn’t fit with views expressed/held.
On the issue of Asafa’s knee extension (or lack of!) - I know he’s only jogging here but also when he sprints there doesn’t APPEAR to be full extension… whether his ‘toe-off’ is just incredibaly fast so we don’t see the extension, or not… he does something different to the others.
If he does sprint with a slightly bent leg and considering the ant. pelvic tilt (although not so pronounced when running compared to walking) there ought to be a huge amount of emphasis on his hamstrings - more so than most sprinters… ? ? ? please discuss
Hi Charlie and others !
I also think the start arm action of Asafa is superb ! I am really amazed by this. I do have a question about the arm action, not in the start but after a few seconds i mean after 60 meters or something. His backwards arm swing is amazing, but his forward arm swing isn’t that big. Than I was thinking about Justin Gatlin’s arm swing…I’ve searched and youtubed a bit…and his forward arm swing isn’t also that big. + the fact that the lower arm doesnt get a lot in front of the runner, but actually very close to the body.
So what I’ve learned with this vid is that the backward armswing is of HUGE importance in sprinting ! I think I’m gonna be thinking a lot about this when I am on track…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80tHksrNhqY
Check this video of me doing some starts. I am the one on the left. I have this same issue. It is hard to see but when I slowed it down on my computer, I noticed that I had a big back swing and my arm was close to my body when it came forword. I dont know if it is bad or good. I am the guy on the left.
this is all really cool, i might say…
just about the high foot on blocks, i did try to read it all, but may have missed something…the blocks he used are way smaller than the international blocks they use in races…so maybe thats why…
but thread though…