Thanks for sharing. Much appreciated
Does it matter if low heel recovery is more biomechanically efficient or not? The first few steps are so much slower than those at max velocity that I can’t see it being a huge deal whether you use low heel recovery or not.
There are plenty of athletes using a traditional higher recovery that still run fast. I wish I knew enough about biomechanics to be able to compare the two approaches.
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Bolt and Gay’s first steps from the slow motion video:
This is block clearance:
It does look like Bolt might be jumping. Note the difference in extension and also in departure angle.
This is the first step landing:
I think if you show somebody the guy on the right in this image (#2), he would never guess the result at the finish line.
Great info thanks!
Any other cues that they used for different parts of the race?
Top speed cues, etc.?
If the distance from the ball in hip to the knee is the same as from the ball to the ball of foot does bringing the foot closer to the butt create a shorter lever
The lever becomes shorter the greater the knee bend.
This is why in the sprint position at MaxV it is advantages to execute high heel recovery; minimizing backside mechanics and providing for faster knee through.
This is also why we do not see complete knee extension in the flight phase subsequent to stepping over as this would cause GCT to occur far in front of the hips.
During early acceleration, however, where the force vector is predominantly horizontal and the speed is slower by default, and considering how well Powell and Bolt start for taller guys, I think they’re definitely on to something with the low heel recovery.
One of my players does this during speed work; however, it ends being a detriment because he continues to carry out the low heel recovery too far into the sprint. So this is something we’ve worked on during the previous off-seasons- stepping over and down.
i assume you mean he keeps using low heel recovery during the transition phase. what type of cueing is used during this? it seems to be established that the best cues for tope speed are down down down, and the best for starting is horizontal pushing, but what about during the transition?
Actually, if you look at image #1, Bolt clearly has superior triple extension. Look at the straight line from his heel through his head. Gay has a bit of a break at his hips. He looks like he is trying to stay low.
As far as image #2, it is hard to tell from the angle, but it looks like Bolt is slightly ahead of Gay, even at this stage. Also, note that Bolt’s swing leg very low, but is still further advanced compared to Gay’s. That means that his second step will happen quicker.
Great job on the images!
If you look at image #1, Bolt clearly has superior triple extension. Look at the straight line from his heel through his head. Gay has a bit of a break at his hips. He looks like he is trying to stay low.
As far as image #2, it is hard to tell from the angle, but it looks like Bolt is slightly ahead of Gay, even at this stage. Also, note that Bolt’s swing leg very low, but is still further advanced compared to Gay’s. That means that his second step will happen quicker.
Great job on the images!
Right, the transition from the starting angle to the fully upright position does present an interesting challenging because, by definition, no two steps during this phase feature the same angle of extension.
Like Charlie, I’ve made it a point to limit the amount of cues I give during actual sprint training and save them more for the drill work.
In my experience, as far as the actual sprint work goes, I’ve relied upon ‘let it happen’, ‘head in line with spine’, regarding upright sprinting: step over/down, downward arm action, vertical action and more ‘pushing’ during early acceleration. I’ll typically reinforce up to 2 verbal cues throughout any single speed session.
Obviously the bulk of my players spend the majority of time in starting, re-directing, and acceleration during a game so the bulk of our volume is spend in the acceleration distances.
So as far as cues directed towards the transition from early acceleration to upright running, thus far, I’ve relied upon ‘let it happen’ , ‘head in line with spine’, and ‘knee through’ such that the transition from angled to upright happens smoothly and incrementally from stride to stride.
No doubt a work in progress particularly considering the fact that most of my guys have their mind on football not track.
Along those lines, one of the many Charlie quotes that comes to mind is “what matters in the end is sport performance, not maximizing the training components for their own sake”
It is a club, you have to be accepted into the club.
The answer I got when I asked a now deceased level 5 coach what would happen if I applied.
Is there any advantage of bending the knee past the equalateral triangle equivelant.
No problems 
Things they worked on with me personally was the ‘sprinters lean’ I worked on this with Blake a few times a week. No real cues just when you bring the head up from accel keep the chin in slightly and make the upright transition smooth…dont rush to see the track. Hands to chin and strike down. Blake’s ability to hold the sprint position was unreal. Relaxed in the face…stepping over and down.
I saw and heard a few 200m cues too. The main one was with regards to turning the shoulder (the right shoulder) towards the straight away while running the curve (if that makes any sense) with a slight lean in towards the inside part of the lane. I remember Ato saying something similar on the HSI documentaries.
Watching them train is far better than watching a one of race…you get to see the movements over and over again.
so using the cue “knee through” one would be concentrating on essentially high knees? i do notice that during powells tranistion it looks some what like he is “prancing” and i could definitely see how cueing knee lift would cause this, just it still would seem strange to me that whereas at top speed and accel the cues are on pushing down/back, during transition it would be a knee cue…
While we routinely perform the high knee/running A drill during power speed (3x or 4x/week) I never have the knees come higher than the athletes ability to maintain complete extension at the support knee.
Regarding the ‘knee through’ cue during actual sprinting, I make sure that my athletes know that I’m not cuing high knees as this will often cause the trunk and/or hips to drop.
The knee through, is literal, in that I simply want them to think about punching the knees forward
Well, once the upright position is assumed the higher the heel recovery the shorter the lever and theoretically the shorter the recovery/swing phase in general. Assuming power output and mobility is in place, stride length is covered and the faster recovery cycle coincides with frequency.
I’m not sure that I would cue such a thing; however, one thing I first noticed about Powell’s, in particular, upright running was his seemingly minimal backside leg mechanics- high heel recovery and beautiful stepping down action.
My background is more in the mechanical/construction side, building power stations etc. I also spent a lot of freetime reading books and watching anything I could associated with human movement.
I cannot gasp the concept that past the point of equilibrium with the knee that a higher heel raise will be faster or more efficient given the extra time/energy required for the extra movement. If Usain was mechanical I would say he is efficent primilarily because he seems to have a more efficient exhaust/recovery cycle.
The problem is quantitatively/qualitatively determing what you’re describing as equilibrium from one sprinter to the next.
Lever lengths, tissue attachment points, and power outputs would all effect the degree of knee bend during recovery from one sprinter to the next.
Interesting to discuss, however.
It obviously makes sense to only address mechanical issues with sprinters that are clearly inhibiting their full potential from being realized.
Thanks!
The sprinters lean…more from Bud Winter.
I notice on film they all really focus on “hammering” down. Watching any vid of Bolt and Asafa warm up you can see them doing this very hard even in their warm up strides.
Personally, Blake has great top speed running form. That dude is gonna be bad.