how to i get sprinting stride up

it seems like in the middle portion of the race i seem to not go with the high knee techniques, any tips

do the A-drill series, helped me alot. focus on getting tall, high up on your toes, the first couple times you do it your hip flexors will probably be sore.

Video analaze of cones in practice (in and outs). Watch to see if you get more vertical then horizontal and make the changes from there. Focus on not getting too vertical during cones!!! These drills teach proper mechanics at top speed. Concentrate on running tall, but again not getting to vertical when you run through each segment of the cones. Watch frame by frame and make sure your takeoff phase angle is not to high. And that you are getting full extension here. This could be the problem. Correct excution of cones that all…exhale and hit topspeed smoothly.

First, we have to understand what proper technique is. The vertical component out weighs the horizontal sometimes up to 10 to 1 while sprinting depending on the athlete. The better the sprinter, the more the vertical component. Athlete run faster by covering more distance per stride. The body becomes a projectile off of the ground. Trying to keep the hips low will cause a short stride. Why?..try to reason this one out. When the leg extends, it drives the body upwards. There is then a contradiction of trying to extend the legs but keeping the hips from raising. If the athlete contact with the ground is made directly under or behind the center of gravity, then as the body moves forward (pivots over the foot), the hips will drop. The next obvious thing that happens is that the athlete then leads with the foot instead of the knee. Look at the push off the ground, foot placement, and how the foot is coming to the ground. Intuitively, the more force you want to apply downward the higher you would get the foot away from the ground. With the foot higher, the knee lift should be higher. Get a garden hose and turn on the water then from the horizotal raise the angle and see what happens. As the angle become more vertical, the water travels farther. The same is in sprinting.:shoot:

how do you lead with the foot and not the knee? I seem to have a problem of landing behind cog and I think it makes my hips drop. I saw myself run for the first time in over a year and I was surprised. Compared to my training parter, for every stride he did, I did two strides. How do i practice getting my foot strike. I noticed I don’t get horizontal at all which I know is not good. If I try to bound a little when I run I slow down considerablly. Next weekend I’m going home, so I will try to post a clip of my 150’s and maybe someone can help.

You are not supposed to lead with the foot. You lead with the knee. The whole idea is to reduce the moment of inertia of the leg so that the leg can swing through faster during the recovery phase. By leading with the knee and tucking the leg underneath, allows the leg to swing through while increasing angular velocity. This helps to increase the stride frequency. Foot placement is under the knee with the shin @ 90 degrees to the ground at foot contact.

Thanks for the response. I am going home this coming weekend and check the tape, hopefully i’ll be able to post it.