I’m getting back into sprinting, so I want to get my form down right. I don’t know how I can run correctly if I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, which is what I’m trying to do.
I know when you sprint you’re supposed to have a nice open stride, hips about parallel, and land on the balls of your feet. I tried doing three of those, and wanted to make sure that I was doing all of that correctly, or if there was something else I need to work on.
Hey man.
Good job on getting a camera up and running.
One note on camera - i was expecting you to run past on the tartan, not 20m away on the grass! You want the camera closer, so your head is near the top of the screen and your feet near the bottom. It will mean you’ll see less Distance, but will see more quality, even if only over 1full stride.
Or, get somebody else to operate camera.
Do you have anyway to edit the footage so it plays in Slow Mo. Or even Freeze a few frames for say 5sec or so we can see what is going on more.
Check out the following as an example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kfsX7j4ybY
Anyway - i agree totally about the ARMS. Whilst the arms are looking like that, its pointless looking at anything else. fix the arms, and other items should fix up along the way. Arms precede legs. Fix arms, then re-tape some new footage.
Would hazard a guess, if this is how you have been running, i can see why you have been getting plagued with injuries this last few yrs 
Agree with the Mirror option. CF says practice for many hrs before you even attempt FAST work when arms are in a state like yours. Use a mirror, and even a camcorder hooked into a TV set, so you can see Front on in the mirror and side on in your TV from your camcorder - all at the same time.
You guys are funny, hooking a cam to a TV etc, his problem seems to be so elementary that it should easy to fix.
Hey man!
Well it’s time to fix my form and get myself back on the track for good 
I can edit the video to play slow, but I might just keep your video suggestion in mind and record a few sprints tomorrow and edit those. I’m pretty sure my arms don’t usually go crazy like that, because I know better haha, but hey I never had a video to see like that so who knows. (and no I’m not in denial, so I’ll do those practice swings and make a mental note before sprints!)
I understand that arm swing is critical, but I still would like to know how my stride looks generally.
Thanks
Many many ppl cannot run NATURALLY correctly, thats a horse crock. I see ppl over and over again who cant run period. Typically i see those that are more NATURALLY fast than others, is because they CAN run correctly without thinking or training. You know the guy, the guys who runs 11.1 in grade 11 and doesn’t train ever. Technique they just KNOW what to do. The rest of them, like 99% of the population, run like chumps.
The styles i see everyday from ppl doing an attempt at “running” is crazy. Even JOGGING people get wrong.
You wont learn to run fast correctly until you learn to run slow correctly, and do drills correctly.
Just getting your technique down, could involve any or all of the following
1 - knowing what to do
2 - doing that in the right order
3 - being tight in certain muscles
4 - being weak in certain muscles
5 - being too strong in certain muscles compared to other muscles
and the list could go on.
Sorry for the rant
It should be! But if ya aint got anybody around to tell ya doing something wrong, what else will he do? He already THOUGHT he was doing it right…
You could turn side on to the mirror - but the twisting could throw him out too much to be of value??
Since he does have a cam - it would only take 5min to set up.
Naturally, the best bet is to get somebody else.
Just suppling options
Whatever it takes to get my form down, I’ll do it! That’s why the more information I know, the better It can’t hurt (unless I physically try to correct too many faults at once)
But once again about my stride…lol
I’ve always noticed that my stride length was rather short. I also noticed that when I switched over from heel running to toe running, my stride opened up dramatically and my legs relaxed. Perhaps I’m over exaggerating the toe landing in my video, as fogelson pointed out. It didn’t feel 100% natural, but I felt very relaxed when I ran like that
Anyways, how about I get a better video, and then we take it from there?
Your stride kinda look like tyson gay!!
Hahah, if only I had his speed too !
Its too hard to tell, perhaps its my connection with youtube??
It appears to be open - but i cant tell if your landing infront of your hips or not?? I can only pause two frames, and one is blurry and looks like nice high knee’s.
Yeah the blurriness is my fault (crappy cam, and the distance). You might be right about the landing, but the quality can’t really determine much I guess huh.
Let me try to take some videos tomorrow from a closer distance, and hopefully the quality allows for a good critique !
Okay, following boldwarrior’s suggestions, I took a few videos of my start (no blocks, yes spikes), some 20m sprints, and some 30m sprints (all at the very last segment of the sprint)
I took careful notice of my arm swing and running ‘toe-y’, and tried to keep those in mind when I ran today
I noticed the following faults in my videos:
i) My start:
I rise too quickly(although I was not using starting blocks)
I don’t achieve full extension (i think?)
I rebend at the knees a little
ii) My acceleration/Max V
My elbows aren’t perfectly 90 degrees
I seem tense
My head is up and back
I may not be achieving full extension
I’ll upload the videos in slow mo either later tonight or sometime tomorrow.
Keep those comments in mind when you watch my videos though.
Thanks
Edit: Video is here! Sorry about the text in the center…hopefully it’s not too much of an obstacle.
And if the video doesn’t play, it’s still processing to the server. And if it won’t play in the embedded player, click on it twice to open it up on youtube and it should play
Thanks
…bump… ^
No need to bump. it says still processing.
I think you should all-in-all revert back to what Charlie says. Less is more and stop thinking. All of this worry at this point is a bit unnecessary. I understand the feelings of worrying about every little technical point, but it is unlikely to be a productive endeavor at this point if you just started back and are not in shape.
The video plays for me, but not in the embedded player yet. Double click on it to open it up in youtube and it should play
Well anyways, it’s not like I’m going to stop training because of some technical faults. I always like to know where I’m making mistakes, so I can fix them. Trust me when I say I’m not stressed out about this. My form will get better, but only if I know what’s wrong first of all.
It is not processed. That’s the message. You having it in your cache and being the person who uploaded it is going to change things.
You missed the point. At least some technical faults are likely from simply not running as much and being out of shape. Changing them at this point is not going to be productive and possibly counter-productive if they induce bad habits of their own. I mean, stuff like that arm movement… You don’t need video analysis to work on that.
Gotcha, it’ll probably be processed sooner than later heh
Anyways thanks, hopefully my form improves as I get back into it.
alrighty, I have the video up and running a few posts up! Sorry about the crappy quality once again, but hopefully it’s clear enough to get a good look. I spliced together 6 different clips…2 starts, 2 20m, 2 30m (filmed at the final meters)
Dorsi flex = Your toes point Towards your Knee - you do this just before Foot strike so your foot lands Under your center of gravity and therefore you have less ground contact time. Your doing the exact Opposite
Your knee should be getting somewhat higher. Basically it should be at 90deg to your body - not parallel to the ground though - unless your completely upright. Doing the strength drills at the end of a session will help with this, as said in the Spp seminars. Severe lack of height like your showing = shortened stride length = slower.
IN the start - your head is actually Hidden its that far down. You want a nice straight line from your head, across your spine, into your hips, into your knee and finally into your foot. Your tightening up your shoulders and upper back with your head down like that. Not good
Your popping up out of the start, your almost Upright from the go. If you do the GPP correctly, you’ll fix that.
Your not getting Any hip height - that will come After you fix your form, do a proper Gpp, loosen up tight muscles and develop some nice power and strength. It will come, but not running like that
Oh yeah, the video is a vast improvement, but it never was up until now. For some reason there are words in the middle of it?
If i were you, i would do the Gpp, work on Flexibility and get some Foam rolling done on them Hips, legs and back. Gpp rules. Fix them arms duriing Gpp should be easy enough. Learn to Dorsi flex them feet. In 7wks time, you’ll be a new man.
Wowowow, now THAT’s what I’m talking about Thanks for really taking a good look at my form man!
I feel like if I dorsiflex I’ll land on my heels, but maybe I just need to give it a shot and it’ll be just fine.
Can you explain the strength drills that you mentioned? I’d like to try those out
PS I used a freeware video editor to slow down the video, and it put those words in the middle of the video because I didn’t buy the full program. Looks like it didn’t stop you from tearing me apart tho