Can i get some suggestion on this issue?
How much does it affect a sprinter when his heel is almost kicking the butt before the knee come forward. I know the sprinters should step over and cross at the support knee but i just found out one of my athlete spends a lot of his time pulling his heels to his butt before bringing the kne forward.
How can this be rectified, any drills or exercises, please help.
Drills could be A-skips, wall-kicks/ ham kicks that work on bringing the knee up instead of down. How flexible is the athlete’s quads?
He is quite flexible, what are wall-kicks/ ham kicks?
Kicking the butt on the way back through is mostly a factor of pushing on the way back in the first place. “Stepping over” and keeping the action up and down will ensure that the foot is at its highest point when it’s directly under the butt.
Thanks for Charlie for the reply.
The thing is what is the best way to eradicate this problem. Also what do you mean by "and keeping the action up and down
When running at full speed, the emphasis is on stepping over and down and not on pushing. The propulsive force is applied automatically, in a time frame that is too short for conscious (fore-brain) influence.
Charlie:
you have mentioned the fore and hind brain stuff before (with ladders). Is your view a result of many different readings, discussions, or primarily one reading source? The long and the short of it: can you suggest a good read on this topic?
Carson,
Look up cerebellum, this is the “technical name” for the hind brain. There’s tons of info.
As a quick definition, it’s the area of the brain that stores and performs subconcious movement patterns.
When you walk to the fridge and open the door, you don’t think about raising your body from the couch, placing one foot in front of the other, stopping at the fridge, extending an arm, opening the door etc. It just happens. That’s the cerebellum at work. Imagine how much more effort going to get something from the fridge would be if we had to think about every process. Now relate the same example to sprinting - yet this is how many people run their race.
Living in Australia, my current favourite illustration for the speed of the cerebellum over fore brain movement is swatting a fly. Lets say the fly is at point B, somewhere near your head and your arm is at point A, resting next to your thigh.
Your arm will get from A to B much much faster than if you conciously thought about moving the arm from A to B. Why is this so? The cerebellum KNOWS the fastest route and the order of muscle activation to achieve this and doesn’t have to think about it because it has learned this process and refined it as a reflex.
Think about the implications to the start. Should we be thinking about lifting the lead arm off the track to get to a point, or should we be thinking about getting to an imaginary point B so the fly doesn’t get away?
thanks dcw23! Well written.
Think about the implications to the start. Should we be thinking about lifting the lead arm off the track to get to a point, or should we be thinking about getting to an imaginary point B so the fly doesn’t get away?
So mentally - do u think it would be better just to think about the hand flick during practice starts but during comps or time trials to focus on the finish line and crossing it first ?
No, I just think that you shouldn’t think about lifting the arm. Think about where it should go to when initiating the process instead. It’s much quicker. Try it.
Thanks Carson. Cheque is in mail 
Great post, great cue DCW!
dlive11
Can you please answer the ? i asked above (the 3 post)
AND
dcw23
Are we now saying the hand is what we think about moving and if so “Greenwhere shlould it go when you initiate the movement”
I dont know toks it depends on what his other phases look like… The Take off phase, and flight phase what do they look like? Does he get full extention or not in his strides. Is he tight or not. What exactly is your question anyways. Is this it??? Does it matter if your leg hits your butt or not in the landing phase ? I doubt it. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesnt. If anything it barely grazes you butt like ben. Can you really tell if your burning down the track anyways. Do you want to kick yourself in the butt everytime you run. I dont. It matters more if your other leg in the landing phase is straight and planted on the ground… Anyways these drills dont make you fast they prepare you to do a workout.
Sorry I misunderstood I was answering your first question toks.
Sorry Mr Lane, but how can you ask me “What exactly is your question anyways” My question to dlive11 was what are wall-kicks/ ham kicks?
Apart from that you are wrong with your last sentence. Drills is a breakdown of the way u run and sooner or later you body gets use to doing it fast because you have done it slow(drills)
Yes each drill should minmic each phase in sprinting. Usually 3 types of drills are done as 3 type of phases are invovled in sprinting.
Ok train with just drills and see what you run then. So many coaches but way to much emphasis on drills what was wrong about my last sentence?
And honesly to continue on drills which is an interesting topic and often hurts the sprinter more then helps the sprinter. How many coaches have a regiment of 50 drills, leg swings done in a circuit type fashion or over repeat distances 100m with no rest ect…ect done so wrong that in the end it makes the sprinter tight instead of loose. Toks what do you have your athletes do for drills then?
A Skips
B “”
and one two other drills. Can i just say the guy in question is one of the fastest men in the world:clap: So the point is coaches that advocate loads of drills defeat the object of doing drills anyway.Refer to the top of this post for reading on hind brain and the part it plays in sprinting.