Drills

Thanks Charlie =)

I just finished contrast showering, it has been a while… I will stick to it, as the feeling afterward is worth the struggle! :o
I also got an EMS since last spring, and take great advantage of the active recovery program, mainly on hams and calves.

This I understand and agree with, I would like to add a new drill should be performed slow to gain control as speed more then often hides technical faults.

Ok, here we go again.
My personal comments:

  1. I’m still A-skipping my knees high… Next time around I will keep them even lower, I don’t know why I do this!

  2. First time posting my running A’s. Blast out the criticism :slight_smile: cause I have a lot of running A’s strength endurance to do until February…
    I can see that again, I bring my knees up too high…

  3. Scissor skips, or how do you call them? I am still not clear if one goes for height or distance, because I have seen both.

  4. Ok, LAST attempt with B skips before I drop them all together. Angela, if they still suck, feel free to let me know. I am a strong person :o

  5. A skips

//youtu.be/yW-tuWwQbDM

  1. running A skips

//youtu.be/HjkDzA9IVC0

  1. scissor skips

//youtu.be/lQlAApGrrsQ

  1. B skips :eek:

//youtu.be/uGkVlO9XKXU

You need to get these to Gerard. He would probably talk to you about these video clips for 4 hours. :smiley:

Gerard Mach?
Is he wandering in the internet also?
Anyway, 4 hours is too much :eek::smiley:

How about you summarise in a few lines what would he might say.

Looking better Stef.

A skips, maybe a bit more arm action.

Running As, good body position which is often difficult to achieve. IMHO possibly a bit too much forward movement. Focus on toe up, and really having minimal ground contact time. You should find that help.

Scissors skips the way I do them is with minimal ankle action. See how high you get and about 1/2 way through seem to be pushing off? Try and keep the ankles almost locked.

B’s don’t get the leg coming out till on the way down.

Echoing some of above.

1)Toes up, particularly with the left foot(rt. foot looks okay) and perhaps slow down the forward movement speed.

2)Toes up, and quicken arm action.

3)not familiar with that drill

4)Bend/fold the leg into a tighter angle(the legs are opening up too soon largely because they are not folded enough in the first place-IMO) and emphasize the quickness and flexion of the knee (rather than the action of the foot as this swinging action should occur more easily, naturally as a result of what happens before it) much as a hurdler would do with their lead leg. This should shorten and thus quicken the lever.

I dropped them with my highschool kids because the effort and frustration and bad habits got in the way of general conditioning and running. I noticed an immediate improvement the year I cut my A-B drills down to almost nothing.

Good points, thanks from all.
Oh yes, and this is an issue: My left foot won’t toe up too easily… It’s a flexibility issue I’m trying to work on.
I will just drop the B skips, I think!

If there’s more, please let me know.

A Skips / High Knee Runs / B Skips

Last year Torre Edwards said these are the only 3 drills i have done, i asked John why only those 3 he said when she masters them i might giver her another to do.

basically saying they are the only 3 you need to use.

A.
knee still to high, hip, knee, parallel to the ground.
When Michael Khmel was coaching Matt Shirvington (white man low tens) and doing this drill he used to say -if you can’t see your toe then the foot is too far back.

I thought that not seeing your toe would suggest good ground contact patch? Where as, if you can see your toe, and your foot is landing in front, it increases breaking forces, no? I therefor, thought that it would be better for the foot to land further back (like dead center) rather than in front.
(Not compared to where HER foot is landing, but for sprinters in general per se’.)

Can you point out what I have missed?

I’d say:

  • A skip looks definetely better
  • running A a bit too “jumpy”, while it is not a frequency drill, I’d like to see a bit more frequency. It will help with form, also.
  • straight leg, in the dedicated video by Charlie, the athlete doesn’t jump and the movement is a little more forward, you have to kick away the legs, in the video looks like you have almost only vertical displacement. Legs always straight, also.
  • in the B skips I think you focus too much on going high with your kicking leg. On the contrary, the first part has to be like an A skip, with the heel coming more toward the glute and then on the way down you kick the leg out by keeping your toes up. Height of the kicking leg is determined by your flexibility.

I think you don’ have to give up, absolutely. In just one week I see a lot of improvement. A lot of time before giving up.
Also, good development of the lower body, at least from camera, and very nice hip stability and core strength.

Because you can see your toe while the foot is in the air does not necessarily mean you will overstride, it simply means the foot will travel faster to make ground contact relative to cog.

Why are you doing these exercises?

What do you hope to achieve?

Are they helping?

What you are doing now is trying to perfect an exercise, while what you really want to perfect is the event.

So how does it improve your sprint/speed/100m?

Thanks everyone, again. I’m taking things into consideration.

Z, I’m doing these exercises as a warm up to my main sessions (after jogging and active stretching). It’s a progression into the main sprinting part.
They also help with form, and me personally having a knee-issue that came back again recently, the pain pretty much vanishes when I achieve proper form.
Hence my interest in getting these right, since I can clearly see how much they help.

Of course, this is not my only training… I’m doing a short-to-long for the 400m indoors (February ‘peak’).

Polite… :slight_smile:

:slight_smile:

Ok 1st I agree your A runs are a bit jumpy. 2, I definately agree you need more arms. Your barely using them. 3, I totally agree with everybodys constructive critisism. When are you planning on running and where?

Thanks =) I am doing what I can to improve things.

I am running in Greece, a couple of preliminary meets in the beginning of February and nationals on Feb.27th. (travelling back and forth from Milan)

Luckily I will be in Greece for a month starting Dec19th, because it’s getting COLD here… and there are no indoor facilities. brrrr… :o