At practice tonight I had a couple of athletes/coaches watch my flying 30’s.
They all said the same thing.
My cadence is very very good. (Very fast turnover)
ground contact time is low. (Also good)
Problem is my stride seems too short and my knees aren’t coming up enough.
What can I do to help address this? They mentioned not to force raising my knees as this might cause me to brake (landing too far in front of the cog)
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Chris
This is where we need Coach Hare. He’s right to state that the stride must be completed, and any conscious attempt to rush it will cut the action off and screw things up. Shorter ground contact does not come from an attempt by the athlete to shorten it- it comes from the strength that raises the hips, which THEN shortens ground contact naturally in proportion to overall stride time.
How could I best address this though in my training?
I am not trying to shorten my stride, purposely increase my cadence or rush things.
Are there particular cues I could follow? Any drills that would help beat this into my head?
I will try and get videotape of my race next week and post it for you to have a look at.
Thanks again,
Chris
Post a vid-clip so we can see. In the meantime, emphasize the arm swing to see if this contributes (it should)
If I am visualizing correctly, the cues I use for my athletes are in this order, toe up, heel up, knee up. I feel that this allows the athlete to bring the foot up instead of “behind” which creates “smaller” steps and breaking, because the A drive is just not in the proper position.
I hope that makes sense.
I also agree with Charlie - I feel there is not enough emphasis on the hands. Your hands will determine the action of your feet.
Any comments
Here is a vidcap from a race back in June about 4 weeks after I started training again. (I am about 6-7 tenths quicker in the 100 meter now compared to then)
Things that are different now:
Arm action is different now (My arms were pretty messed up in the vidcap) That isnt to say something else might not be right with my arm action now 
Elasticity is much improved now as compared to then. (I am spending a ton of time on the ground in the vidcap and was recovering from plantar fac. in my left heel)
Core is much stronger now than then
I had performed virtually no speedwork prior to that race. (literally none in about 6 years LOL) Just GPP work for several weeks. The race was a baseline to gauge improvement against throughout the year.
Thoughts? How do the knees look? This isn’t a very good representation of my technique now but it might give you guys a bit of help in diagnosing my problem.
Cheers,
Chris
How is your flexability at the mo?
(Mainly in the hips, upper hams and quads.)
How about alternate bounds, one leg to the other?
U say u have improved your technique since the clip, so it’s a shame we can’t see your improved technique.
As it goes, in the above clip your heels r way up high to early.
Your heels are at their highest point as your thigh is still just about in the vertical angle of recovery position.
Stand on your left leg, grab right ankle, hold it up to your butt, whilst
your right knee is way in front of left knee. Your right thigh should be 45
degrees, not vertical as your heel is brushing against your butt.
No, this is not a training exercise or a flexability exercise but it strongly emphasizes better body position.
Think about how much extra work u are doing when your heels come up way behind you instead of slightly behind and underneath.
I have found the following 3 drills quite usefull in developing the quality;
Wall slides. U run forwards imagine a pain of glass behind you, your heels must not break the glass. This drill willmake sure your hills won;'t go to far behind u but won’t do much for “step over”.
“under” butt kicks. Think of a better name if you will, this drill beats the traditional butt kick exercise. In this one you try to get the heels to kick your butt when they are UNDER your butt, not behind.
“step overs” in the “fly-in” drills. This should take care of both.
However, some of the bigger hitters on the forum may well give you more intricate suggestions and guidelines to improve your stride length.
***** I repeat what I said right at the begining, how’s your flexability becuase I believe this to be a major component.
Quad flexibility is good. Ham flexibility is mediorce but I am working on it.
When you say the heel is up high too early what exactly do you mean?
Can you point me to vid clips to show me what you mean? (Side view of sprinters on the track)
thanks man
Chris
I have re-edited my post slightly, read sentance number 5 about standing on one leg.
Imagine 2 scenarios.
O.k your recovery thigh IS moving forwards beyond vertical angle when your heels r at their highest but only just.
I’ll try and find some clips. Mo Green and Marion Jones r usually good examples.
SH*t, gotta go, I’m in the library, and this computer does not have access to real or media player etc…
Besides gotta get to the bank…
Speak to u soon, somebody else may chip in later with other training suggestions.
Thanks man that is very helpful Looking forward to seeing clips as well
I found a good video that I had saved with Bruni talking about the different stages in the race. Going to analyze that. I can see what you are saying now.
http://www.advantageathletics.com/sprints/greene.html
http://www.advantageathletics.com/sprints/jones.html
Those are photo sequences of Mo Greene and Marion Jones to analyze for now until we get some movie clips.
The Mo Green pic posted by 400stud slightly demonstrates the quality and better than the Marion Jones clip I believe. Look at the “behind” shots of Mo Green, they demonstrate to a degree, even though he’s bend running in the photos, but a video slo mo would be great.
As a side note; when the heel recovers correctly there is less pressure on some of the lower torso muscles by the hips and less likely to “bum out”.
The thigh should not be 45 degree neccesarily when heel first touches butt, but close on, and cewrtainly not vertical.
Charlie has mentioned that during the last 20m of a 100 m sprint the legs might start “free wheeling” so don’t analize the technique of sprinters during their last 20m. This is a mistake that some people make becuase the only time we get a perfect side on shot of a 100m race is usually the last 20m.(camera angles.)
Chriss; also try pulling your belly button up.(cue)
Of course, top end speed mechanics for heel recovery r differant than pick-up mechanics.
(Don’t know when those shots of Marion were taken.)
I see what I am doing now. I am almost performing 3/4s of a stride LOL!
I am going to try a couple of things tomorrow night during speed.
Thanks,
Chris
Unfortunately, these aren’t good examples of top speed mechanics these two can generate as the clip of Mo is at the beginning of the exchange zone and the clip of Marion is at the end of a 400m where backside mechanics predominate.
Deffinately agree with Charlie’s point above.
What we need is a 60 to 80m segment of a 100m race at championship leval.
http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/heroes/bio_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=119471
There is a link to a website with a video of Marion running the 100 and 200 in 2000. The video is on the right.
This is a photosequence taken during Sevilla 1999 100m semi-finals at around 75-80m, Maurice Greene won in 9.96 (w-0.7).
To compare with Chris30 film, few points are usefull for comparison and show big differences:
1- position of front leg at take-off
2- at touch-down, both knee are in the same line for Maurice Greene (perfect examples were DeLoach and Arron, whose swinging leg knee was even ahead of touch-down leg knee), this is due to fully extended leading leg allowing a fast foot speed at touch-down (perfect examples D. Bailey and Flo-Jo), and due to a fast swinging leg (example Göhr).
3- Chris30 needs to find a way to maintain a higher leading knee during swing phase.
Great series of pics thanks for the information!
I had a couple of folks watch me run again tonight and things look better (though not perfect)
I was running at ~90% trying a few cues and my lead leg mechanics were better. Also one of the guys saw the clip I posted here and mentioned that my technique and speed is better now even at 90%.
One thing I noticed when everything “clicks” there is MUCH less effort involved. I am higher through the hips, have better stride length and exert much less effort/cadence to maintain the same speed.
I just have to get things clicking consistently and then be able to do that with relaxed form at higher speed/intensity.
Thanks to those that helped me out today on the track. One of the guys visits here.
cheers,
Chris