Help with Sprinting mechanics

Hi Guys,
Can anyone help analyse my form here
I know its probably terrible but where to begin correcting it?

[video=youtube_share;lV4odfsk1DU]http://youtu.be/lV4odfsk1DU[/video]
Its taken using a 210frames per sec camera and the tradeoff is the darkness in anything less than daylight
Thanks!

Any recommended sources? I’ve been reading this today and its a good start. I do have some understanding of the movements but not great yet

Thank you…

You look like you are jogging as you arm motion and knee lift is very passive. If you are sprinting I would say work on your arm motion and step over more. Upload another video if you can.

What have you been doing in training? What is your training background?

All my vids so far are at 210fps so they all look like that. I’ll take more vids today at full speed so you can see how slow i am really…

I’ve been training on & off with Charlie’s GPP dvd for years. Im mainly a rugby player & havent ever trained with a sprint group formally. I had acl graft surgery 12 weeks.

I’ve always known my knee lift to be very poor. How can i improve this without artificially creating a horrible stride? Im doing hurdle walkthroughs about 1x a week but not enough i suppose…

Any advice on things to read/drills to do/mobility flexibility/ appreciated!
Thank you

Some more:
[video=youtube_share;z8CPaIfTVj0]http://youtu.be/z8CPaIfTVj0[/video]
[video=youtube_share;8itNDaB3SHk]http://youtu.be/8itNDaB3SHk[/video]
[video=youtube_share;sgU7fAuoUiQ]http://youtu.be/sgU7fAuoUiQ[/video]
[video=youtube_share;zaF9yax6LFg]http://youtu.be/zaF9yax6LFg[/video]

Sorry if I was unclear on my response, but I don’t want you to cue your knees directly which is causing you to take pity patty steps. Knee lift will improve as power and mobility improves. Work on improving the flexibility of your quads/psoas and strengthening the posterior muscles. During the start you should feel like you are pushing well behind your center of gravity and as you start to gain momentum the action should feel like you are stepping straight down. The more power you have and the faster you are running the better your mechanics will get. Proper mechanics are not possible if the power isn’t there yet.

Hi joconnor,

Probably as a result of your rugby background, you look like you are carrying your head low and your shoulder high. This is a defense mechanism in rugby, whether you have the ball or are running at the guy with the ball. You’re trying to protect the “knock-out button” on your chin. I’d suggest that as a result this is keeping your hips low and back as you drive up in the first 15m or so, and carries on as you come up (or don’t come up fully) to full speed. American football guys have same issues. Low head carry keeps hips low, high shoulders lock your hip’s rotation about long axis of spine so that they can’t function properly, which effects knee drive and optimal knee height.

If you put your back to your nearest door-jam and prepare to get your height measured, you will instinctively hit a good tall position through the long axis of your body, usually including a natural lowering of your shoulders. When running at whatever pace, every time your foot drives down through hip/leg extension to GC, your head/hips should be acting as if you are preparing to get measured. You can also practice this during the Running A drill that I mentioned in the other thread for practicing leg/hip extension. As a concept, it is really all one thing…drive the leg and elbow down, while at same time keeping head and hips high. When I first began to change this (because I grew up playing American football) I had to consciously re-tall myself on every single contact…until it progressively became a habit. This will add to the elasticity of your entire body.

This is all good for fast running/sprinting, but can be applied to acceleration as well. Differences are that your tall, straight long axis is rotated forward…and your foot is on the ground for majority of the time you are driving hip/leg to extension.

Long story short…my suggestion, taller head and hip, drive limbs down.

The main thing that’s jumping out at me is that your shoulders are stiff. Your arms are moving, but the shoulders aren’t rotating about the central axis, which will limit the hips rotating properly as well, thereby shortening your stride length. Let the shoulders roll.

Although it’s a little hard to tell from the videos, your feet might be dangling a little during recovery. Try cocking the foot as you step down. Knee lift will sort itself out if you are stepping over and down properly. Don’t think about the knees, think about the foot.

That strikes a chord with me! Thank you!

I was watching a Tom Tellez youtube yest and that exact same thing came to me. Thank you! Very sharp eye.
I seem to be moving my arms from my elbows down but not my shoulders at all hardly!!
Thanks Guys - plenty to work on

Any advice on the best angle to video myself running. I usually train on my own so getting someone to video me is hard. Directly side on after about 20m start seems to give a decent view.

I am going to train with a sprinters group for the 1st time ever next Monday - very excited!