Agreed, I continually stress rhythm and relaxation to my guys regarding speed work, power speed, throws, and so on.
While there’s differences of opinion on how to perform power speed, particularly skips, (Pfaff likes flat foot landing) I prefer to instruct skips rhythmically with a forefoot landing and a degree of rhythm and flow to body movement almost as if one were performing power speed to a groove.
Pfaff states that it’s natural to land flat footed or even heel to toe during skips; however, I disagree as that was never my natural inclination nor have I witnessed it in the vast majority of my athletes over the years.
I’m critical of my guys attaining full extension of the support leg so I actually like to see a bit of a forward body angle (from shoulder to heel) during the A skip because this follows a conscious toe off when propelling one’s self forward horizontally.
This is what I went over with Craig James and Jesse Palmer during the small feature that they aired before half time on ESPN.
They both picked it up quite well and, having the requisite mobility and coordination, looked good on the A skips and Running A right out of the gates; requiring minimal corrections.
James I’m with you. I was a rhythm/power sprinter and I tell all my athletes who I train (regardless of sport) to try a drill just for rhythmic purposes. (A skips for example). I’ll admit the athletes who have natural rhythm were usually faster but the 1’s who got it after a few weeks showed dramatic improvement.