Critique my start please

Training/Competition Videos Video Analysis
1

This was very rough and I feel I’ve improved a bit. Few things I notice: going upright too soon, being a little tense, and my start looked terrible. Any suggestions how to fix that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdFQEpOGPE&feature=channel_video_title

Thanks!

2

The first thing I noticed is that you looked up very early, so the body was following your head. The head should stay in line with the spine, thus the head should follow the body. If you allow yourself to come up naturally your acceleration will be smoother and you will be able to lengthen the acceleration phase.

3
  1. You never come to a set or stable position, you’re bouncing all over the place.
  2. Your set up (feet spacing, center of mass, shin angles, etc) is wrong, fix this first before you work on mechanics.

You seem to have a decent amount of power and quickness but you first need to learn how to set up correctly.

4

To add to what is being said, you are using the moyle foot placement with a conventinal start body position. The moyle start has the feet close to the line with most of the weight on the legs ( you can lift both hands off the ground without over balancing). there is nothing wrong with the moyle start and i know of a 14yr old girl who ran a 11.72 100m using it, as coaches most of us just like bagging something different. What I suggest is firstly to work out if you want to have the majority of weight on your hands or feet. I am going to sit back and see what someone else suggests. Good luck.

5

I’d just like to note that after 10 sec in the video is not part of my actual sprint.

6

Elaborate please. Can you refer me somewhere that teaches the set up?

7

http://www.runningmechanics.com/

Check out the clip on the right “40 yd start mechanics” . This video is from an admin here and should give you a good quick overview. Things to note as you watch the clip-

  1. Even while setting up and demonstrating he is always stable
  2. The feet are straight ahead, yours appear to be a little crooked
  3. I personally prefer athletes use a little longer setup, 1.5 foot lengths to line, but one foot will work if (see #4)
  4. The hips get over and slightly in front of the front foot
  5. Hips are up and when he moves he doesn’t dip the hips back down, every movement is forward from that point
  6. The back is straight and not bent
  7. The up hand is near the hip
8

Thanks for the tips. I guess I really never bothered to learn the start (I was also never taught it) in the blocks or during the 40, especially since my start was never the issue in the race (60m). However, since the 60 includes a great deal of acceleration, this should shave some time off for me. My problem has always been developing max speed (I have a bit more bf% than the average sprinter), but it’s creeping down now so I should be ready for tryouts in october.

I assume explosive medicine ball work and such will help a lot with my acceleration. My pb in 60m is 7.62 - looking to get 7.40 at least this year.

9

This is a common issue with athletes new to sprinting. They think since they are quick to 5-10 meters that their start is fine but then can’t figure out why they have problems like popping up early at 15 meters. Block/stance setup is the foundation, which then sets up acceleration, which set ups max velocity. If the foundation is off everything after that point will also be off.

10

Would you like to gamble on my version of the start?

11

My last few sprint sessions have used what Stikki suggested, however, on my next training session I will attempt to use the “moyle placement” and see which feels better.

12

is that you squatting 290x5 and 375x1?

man i could do 290x5 but only max at about 320. Good work.

13

Hemann, yup that’s me. I could’ve done more probably, but I kept my ego in check.

Update: Just downloads Practical Session 1 & 2 and I’ve watched them once. I wish I had a coach like Charlie just observing me and perfecting my form. It’s really hard to do it myself.

14

You should get some hill work in. Concentrate on form when doing hills before trying to blast off up the hills. Dont go slow but make sure you work on form. Triple extension/arm swing/low heel recovery and neutral head alignment. What state are you in BTW?

15

Ontario, Canada. :slight_smile:

16

Where in Ontario? Why aren’t you training with a coach / club / group?

17

Hamilton. I’ll start training w/ my university team again in october but the coaches there aren’t really that good. It’s basically like a “here do this” and they hardly watch and give any input. No idea where to find a quality coach here tbh.

18

I’m based in Toronto. Let me do a little bit of asking around. I know there is a good multi-event coach that works with a few Niagara area students, maybe I can find out more info from them. It can’t hurt to ask.

19

That sounds really good actually! I’d really appreciate it if you could find out anything.

20

Be careful who it is if you do get an outside coach, if you’re affiliated with a CIS University program already and the coach you get workouts from is also affiliated with a competing CIS institution you can get into a sticky situation. Not saying that’s going to be the case but just be aware.