When you get proper knee-drive during the first few steps, are the opening-up of the step bound to happen?
What about the stepping-over?
During the first part of the pick-up phase I have read that it is not appropriate to have the “step-over” during this very early stage.
What I mean is - if the vertical component is in place early will the horizontal component take care of itself as the race progress?
That is - will focusing on the up and down movements at the start automatically lead to a lenghtening of the stride and perhaps even to a degree of stepping-over?
No. If you focus on up and down at the start, you won’t go anywhere. Think of how you would run up a hill or even to an extent, push a car. You don’t think up and down, you think drive force into ground. You need to accelerate a body of mass, in this case, yours. Think up and down once you have accelerated that body of mass.
Once you master this concept and get this “feel” then develop it to delivering the force “with a spring”, i.e. not only push as above, but take more and more energy from the ground as you progress, that is, your stride length will gradually increase as you incorporate the elastic energy (not by trying to lengthen your stride by reaching) as will your stide rate. To utilise this elastic energy you must be relaxed and let it come to you as you accelerate. i.e. You push for less and less time as you progress.
Thank you for your answer. I really shouldn’t have written “at the start” , that was a little vague.
The second part of your answer is what I was looking for.
Great post Dcw23.