While watching the trials I’ve noticed more than a few sprinters with high foot placement in the blocks. Has this been discussed here before? I thought it had but searching yielded nothing.
So what are the arguments for higher rear foot placement (1+" up the pedal)? Drawbacks?
There was some discussion some months ago regarding Asafa doing the same thing, although I believe Asafa moves his foot further up than you mentioned. Charlie mentioned that this is useful for taller sprinters to get additional block pressure. You might be able to find the original thread if you do a careful search.
I’m the same height/weight as Asafa, and this works very well for me. I’ve had the best result with the rear foot moved 3-4" up the rear block (near the top of a Newton Block pad) and the rear block moved 1" back to compensate. It definitely increases the pressure from the back foot, which is something difficult to get if you’re tall.
BTW, John Smith is not exactly enamored with the technique. He’s concerned that moving the foot up changes the angles in the blocks from optimal. He has somewhat come around to understand that he’s coaching mostly 5’9" guys, but if you’re Asafa/Usain size (me) those angles are going to be off anyway. So, this is a method that might work better only if you are well over 6’–or maybe if you’re only a “little bit tall” you move your rear foot up a little bit.
This is something that requires some experimentation and practice–with a stopwatch. Don’t just run out to a race and try this.
Thanks for this, I coach a 6ft 3ins 16 year old, I’ll certainly consider that option over the winter.
Remember, if you use the top portion of the block face, you may need to lower the block angle because, with most curved block faces, the top portion is steeper than the bottom portion.
Many thanks for the tip Charlie. 
Moving the rear foot up the block definitely helps with block pressure for tall (over 6 foot) sprinters, but this is not a “cookbook” method where you walk up to a race, move the foot X inches/cm up the block and you’re ready to rock.
Expect to spend some practice time (with a stopwatch) messing with foot placement, rear block spacing, and block angle, before you get it completely right. It all comes down to getting your butt has high as possible and shoulders as low as possible. I personally do it almost exactly as Charlie has said, including hands all the way wide ala Ben, but if you look at Asafa and Bolt in the blocks you will see that different people do different things.
Also, the part of this that deals with departure angle (how low the shoulders are) is also connected with strength level: Build your guy up in squats/plyos in the offseason to use a lower departure angle.
That’s interesting in terms of keeping the shoulders low. Dave Lease advocates the chest being fairly high so the knee can come through easily, therefore the hands are pretty much shoulder width.
Many thank ikh, its something I would work on over the winter months. A lot will depend on his strength levels. He has only been with my group a year and while he is getting stronger there is a lot of work to do in that area. He is very tall and lean and did not have a great background in conditioning.