That is the way I see it, It’s a bit premature trying to fix problems further down the chain yet. When you get your feet right you will stay lower. Your foot will be in the position you want it in for the first footplant.
BTW try and put a few dollars away each week and buy some of Charlies material when you have saved enough.
Thanks…you actually seem like a nice person too. I appreciate your help 
If I buy anything it’s not going to be for a while. I shouldn’t be called a cheap ass by anybody here, because nobody here knows my life or my financial situation. I enjoy sprinting, but priorities come first. Trust me when I say I can’t put away even a dime right now…I don’t keep not one penny of my paychecks. So I truly appreciate it when nice people such as yourself actually try to give good advice because I can’t afford the resources I need right now.
Try to keep your shoulders down and relaxed when sprinting, don’t push for speed when you need to learn to run with good form first, reduce your weight lifting, work on your flexibility (e.g. hurdle walkovers).
I think you are leaning back because that’s the only way you can manage to lift your knees. This could be related to your hip injury, or simply be a result of a lack of flexibility.
Thank’s I try to be polite and curtious.
To quote David Waite(former Ncle knights coach went to England, and a nice guy) The better athletes have better motorskills, work on it first and with proper followup the rest will happen.
Me being a not so nice guy, I first met Darren Clark when he was sent to the Lower Hunter as a coach to tap into the genetic pool that was forming, a couple of us stopped developing motorskills and the pool dried up.
just work on one thing at a time. Get it right, then look for t next thing. You have too many things to think about now, you’ll get confused, and do each thing half ass’ed n get crap results or take twice as long.
Once #1 is fixed, lets say arm action, then record more footage so we can donfirm if ur arms r right. Then we can give u the thing to work on.
As has been said, fix one thing, and u may find a whole range of other issues get fixed in t process.
Now, u just got to figure out what ur gunna work on next?
My start Seems like the easiest improvement to make: Front knee 90 degrees, Rear knee 130 degrees, hands slightly wider than shoulder width, hips high, fingers arched high, arms straight but not locked at the elbows, shoulders above or slightly in front of hands, breathe in, and try to lower my heel recovery (which I’m going to attempt to do by driving my knees a bit higher)
Driving your knees higher isn’t going to lower heel recovery.
What will…?
Pistons…
As opposed to cyclical I presume
To be honest, I don’t see the point of spending a lot of time doing blockwork unless you plan on racing, and it seems you don’t right now.
Getting in the blocks before you are strong enough or flexible enough is a recipe for badness in my opinion. I know my coach has always kept me away from them especially early in the season, and I now know why. People can really tie themselves in knots mentally in there.
If at some point you can afford it, and you followed the GPP information, it would do a world of good. A lot of the suggestions there can be done on one’s own with minimal supervision.
What do you do for general strength and flexibility?
I know you had mentioned some financial restrictions. Is there any chance of you working out with a group in your area? A coach or training partner is critical. Where are you located?
Speaking just from my own experience, the amount of improvement I made working out on my own has been pathetic. Luckily, I live in Toronto where there are some great minds (as well as the greatest mind!).
Good luck!
i agree - forget working on your block starts.
re-read the cf manual - im sure you said you have that.
Cf says in there, dont do Blocks until your strong enough, in the mean time, do Belly starts (lay on your belly and scramble up and run)
or you can do
Med ball throw and chase
Med ball shoulder roll back, roll onto shoulders then roll onto bum and continue onto feet, jump and throw ball, land in push up position and chase ball
Med ball jump throws onto high jump mats
For you - i would be looking at anywhere from 2-6months of just that before you even contemplate Blocks work. Even if you got comps Right now, i would not practice blocks NOW.
Otherwise, most of your other sprint work should be Hill runs or sleds or tire pulls
Ensure you do Tempo - i would add in bodyweight exercises between reps - if anything, it keeps the pace slower and makes you overall stronger
Gym - If your paying membership - i would cancel and put the money into a savings box, then buy CF products. I would then do stuff like this in your local park in the mean time, costs you nothing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-518q_bCcbQ
Example wk might be
sunday - hill runs and bodyweight exercises - 15min of Abs n stretching
monday - tempo -15min of Abs n stretching
tue - off
wed - medball throws, belly starts and exercises -15min of Abs n stretching
thurs - tempo -15min of Abs n stretching
fri - off or a few Hill runs -15min of Abs n stretching
sat - off
I would be looking at around maybe 3months of something similar before progressing. Hopefully by then, your flexibility will be better - your power will improved, your general fitness will be better and your technique is much improved.
And also, hopefully by then, you’ll have some Cf products.
Trust me - its imposable to tell you what to do correctly just via Forums.
you need real info, - the videos are that jam packed with info they put these forums to shame.
Hell - even if you find a bunch of kids, and start training them for only say $20 per wk or even only $10 - get 6 kids and your making $60-$120 per wk. Use that cash to instantly buy some more training material. Train them at the same time your training yourself. Its not much extra time, maybe 15-30min per day more max.
I know i harp on about the products - i just feel for somebody like yourself, they are a must have, not a should have, a must have.
T-Slow:
Maybe this summer when I don’t have classes I’ll be able to get the products? I do have the CFTS(as boldwarrior amazingly remembered lol), so yeah I could read through that again.
For general strength, I just follow a 3 day a week lifting routine, relatively low volume, moderate to high intensity, focusing primarily on compound lifts. Lower body 2x a week, upper once. Flexibility is my weak point…I stretch for maybe 15min after a tempo run or workout, foam roll a little bit. That’s about it though
I have friends who sprint, so maybe I can talk with them and work something about? That would be a good idea
Thanks for the encouragement! I’ll ditch the blocks for now and in the mean time do the best I can until hopefully this summer when I can get the vids
bold: I’ve been doing tempo runs, and they’re feeling quite easy now Volume is rather low, about 1000m.
And yeah your approach looks a lot better than mine. My approach was to just rush into a speed endurance phase so come the Fall my GPP wouldn’t be so dragged out, but I guess that really isn’t a big deal.
I’ve been keeping my volume rather low,…about 120m excluding my practice/warmup sprints. If I reduce the distance back down to 10s 20s, and a couple 30s, do you think I should just start around 100-120m and work up slowly to around 200ish? Also for hills, is 20-30 deg too steep? And sorry for so many questions now, but would you use a walkback recovery on these?
Oh yeah, and that workout looks so ghetto, but I love it haha. I have weights at my home though so there is no money involved there
I know what you’re saying about the videos, and trust me I do want them. Probably this summer I’ll be able to afford them, if things come together as I hope. But you know how it is when you have unexpected car repairs, college bills (books, tuition), gas, insurance, etc. End Rant lol
I appreciate your replies as always. It sure beats one word responses or people just saying “you’re wrong” and adding nothing useful.
So in short, I’ll cut blocks out, focus on a split such as the one you gave me, work on form, and occasionally post progress videos. Hopefully this summer I can afford the videos too.
If you do the belly start have someone watch and it will soon become obvious which leg goes forward when you come back to the blocks.
You are trying to be too technical, while standing lift one foot 40cm off the ground and have the heel of that foot 30cm in front of the toe of the other foot. you don’t run with your knees.
cheers
using the lever principle everything has a place, when hands in x the forearm is at Y and the upper arm at Z.
keep your torso the same control as walking, angles can change but control doesn’t. Relax, relax, less control more balance.
just checked your profile Usteel, your friends are beauty and the beast
take a look at the distance between the ball of the foot and where ground contact will be.
now lift heel closer to butt without moving upper leg, look at distance and compare.
JD
Ahahaha, yes, yes they are!
Wow, I just stumbled upon a video I have from almost a year ago. This was me about 4 months post-op from hip impingement surgery, with absolutely ZERO sprint training prior (yes I’m an idiot lol). I was about 10 pounds lighter too. Already accelerated for 30m before the vid starts. Video is 30 frames per second
I wish I had the raw video because I used some editor at the time to splice the video and I lost a good segment of the run, but I was pretty quick in that vid. Arm swing looked decent , my stride looks pretty open too.
how did you change your name to PF18 ? and why?
i see in that last video - your arms looked the same!