I was waiting for that to come up. Back when I first experimented with blocks, I found that having my toes way up high felt the best. Is that definitely slowing me down some?
Most people would say yes. That being said I have seen it done before (rarely).
Do you recall how fast that rarity was by any chance?
And I’ll keep that in mind and do some more practice starts from various toe positions.
FYI for everybody saying my form is horrible…yeah it’s not the best, but I’ve never had a coach, never had my form looked at, and haven’t seriously trained since the summer of 2005. I just keep my head up, because I know my form will only get better, and so will my speed. I have patience, and I do this for fun 
The world’s best male and female starters (Powell and Fraser) have their feet high up in the blocks. Nevertheless, in this case the blocks are too small to place the feet that high. I would say that at least half of the sole of your feet should be in contact with the blocks.
For unlimited, your blocks are way too far back. Your back leg is almost completely straight in the set position, which is why you have to rock back to get any sort of power generated out of the blocks. The knee angle of your back leg should be around 130 degrees in the set position.
When you’re in your upright running position, you are leaning back and your shoulders are pulled up (can’t see your neck), which is a sign of excessive tightness.
Timing you from first movement on the last run, I get about 5.2s, which would probably equate to about 5.5-5.7s electric. Assuming that this is actually 40m, you’re in about 12.0-12.5s 100m shape.
Your first movement is back, if you have your toes along the ground and the blocks high enough to make contact with the foot in the set position you may eliminate the backward movement.
1.Try to get full extension from the blocks when you start instead of trying to cycle your legs as quick as you can.
2.When you’re in the blocks and you have your toes touching the ground, you might not be coming out at as low an angle as you could if you had your feet higher up on the blocks and not touching the ground. However, I don’t see what benefit you get from raising them even higher up the blocks like you do in your video. You want to get a 45 degree angle out of the blocks and I don’t think you raising your feet up that high helps you to do that or helps in any other way. Why do you feel more comfortable with your feet that high?
That makes sense, I have a lot of practice to do with the blocks so I’ll keep those tips in mind
Edit: Err…yeah thats right…the 40m WAS about 5.2 seconds. I fail to see how my camera is off by about .3 to .5 seconds? It’s accurate to 0.0333333333 seconds (every frame is that long, basically), so the only error besides that is not considering the reaction time,… You are making camera timing seem as inaccurate as hand timing.
So basically, my entire foot should be pressed into the blocks, correct? If so, that would make sense that my blocks are too short to have my toes up that high. Thank you!
ntr: I feel like I’m coming out of the blocks at a lower angle I suppose. I also feel like more of my bodyweight is being supported by my feet/legs, so it feels like I’d be able to move faster I guess. But about your first comment, I’m not sure what you mean exactly. I know the first few steps are supposed to be choppy-ish, but are mine TOO choppy?
You really need to start doing some simple research so you can solve these simple issues yourself. Charlie offer many products in the store that would solve technical problems.
I’m in school right now and work as much as I am able to without interfering with my studies. Plus I have considerable payments to make in other aspects of my life, so until I can even afford to spare a dime elsewhere, this is really the best I can do. It’s already been noted numerous times that I should buy Charlie’s products, I’m well aware of that. But with that out of the way, I’m not forcing anybody to answer my questions. I’d just appreciate it if people did
Use that little “search button” on top.
what muscles would tend to be weak on someone who has high heel recovery at the start? i have this same problem yet im squatting over 2x my BW…
Hahaha I’m thankful for everyone who’s actually trying to help me. If you can’t help me, or just don’t want to help me, leave my thread now.
It was throughout the entire run. I’m not talking about leaning back, which you also did. I’m talking about arching your lower back. It is running too tight and could also be from being weak all around when in the sprint position.
And I took an average of a few 100m walks to determine how many strides it takes, and then calculated that into strides per 10m. Then I placed an object at the finish line, and had my friend stand there to clearly show it. I don’t think it’s hard to believe my 30m is ranging from 4.2 to 4.3s though…that’s a slow time. Maybe I’m doing this wrong, but I stopped counting frames when any part of my body crossed the line, whether it be my hand or my knee or my foot, or whatever. Is that wrong to do? Also that’s without reaction time.
I think it is substantially slower than 4.2-3. It looked like a 12low to mid level 100m acceleration–maybe even slower.
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Based on your overall abilities and your other lifting numbers, your squat is likely substantially above parallel.
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Post video.
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I’m talking about strength in the specific body positions you will be in during sprint acceleration, which can be related to the weightroom, but is not 1:1.
Okay. I probably should work on good mornings, SLDLs, and weighted situps to bring up my core strength, but what about the tightness ? I know the obvious stretches: one leg hammy stretch, kneeling hip flexor, quad stretch. Then there are the dynamic drills, and then foam rolling, but what else?
And I’m not even going to touch your last comment lol. Looks can be deceiving, but I’ll do it on the marked football turf next time (and do 50 yards) just to be safe.
Look at the sprinting. It is god-awful. Do you honestly expect that you’re in 4.2 video shape (which, when you go to a meet and have adrenaline, could go down as low as 4.1fat)?
I don’t say that as an insult–just giving you reality. You are clearly strong overall and you have a lot of room for improvement (which is a good thing), but forgetting the speed and just looking at things technically, it is horrific. You should be able to improve your time greatly by working on the basics and getting into a good training program. There is no reason for you to be doing blocks at this point.
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i only weigh 138 so while, yes, i can squat 2x my bw to parallel im still not very strong…
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good idea, i probably will at some point
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valid point
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i don’t wanna jack steel’s thread so ill stop talking about me… but i also had an extreme arching problem and it was because i was trying to force myself to stay lower so maybe trying too hard to stay low is contributing to your problem
Don’t worry about the insult part, I really am not getting worked up at all.
And I appreciate your advice, and I put it to use. That’s why your response to my video was that my arm swing improved. As long as I hear what’s wrong, I’ll work on it!
You are incredibly tight in areas including your lower back and you think doing good mornings is going to fix that? Come on–that is asking for trouble. Reduce your lifting intensities one. I don’t even need to see your program to have a good idea that you are doing way too much lifting to optimize sprinting. And those stretches + foam rolling as a good way to start, but the issue is tissue quality first and ROM second.
And I’m not even going to touch your last comment lol. Looks can be deceiving, but I’ll do it on the marked football turf next time (and do 50 yards) just to be safe.
I’ve seen plenty of people train and run at various levels. One of my good friends that I have trained with and seen many 30s of have a PR of 12.10 and he is, at worst, running the same speed as you do in those accels. Probably faster in fact.