My point was that the Mach drills performed properly should not negatively affect sprinting nor sprinting technque.
I do think they(Mach drills) can help contribute to proper posture for max. velocity mechanics and thus elasticity could also be enhanced but I don’t see them as technnique drills per se. Technique is best improved, as I have learned, by perfecting the skills of sprinting at sub-max. intensities and gradually increasing the speeds of the the actual sprinting while attempting to maintain the proper technical skills along the way. The drills are also plyometric to a degree.
Do a search on this site as there have been many discussion/threads related to this subject.
Pioneer: You said “perfecting the skills of sprinting at sub-max. intensities etc.” How can this best be done without a coach(and therefore someone to give cues/assess form in real time etc.) I am getting a digital video camera and such to help me fix my form but I don’t have anyone to give cues while I’m actually sprinting. Any ideas? Thanks!
The perfecting of skills can happen if you know technically what to do to execute properly. If through the info available on site as well as the various products you should own you develop an idea of the or a tech. model you should be fine.
Without a coach it can be difficult but certainly not impossible. Having the digital camera available for, at times, instant feedback can be very useful. I say at times since you would want to avoid becoming overly reliant on the camera to tell you what might have been right or wrong with a prior sprint. Over time you need to develop a feel for what is going on rather than looking at the camera everytime for the feedback. It is important that the feedback is used but not preventing you from being able to instantly self correct.
I should clarify, though, I think having the camera there, in lieu of a coach-or even with a coach, can be an extremely valuable tool for you to use. I’d certainly rather have one available than not but you will need to know when something is correct or not, at times, without having a coach or camera to let you know every single time. At least try to come to an assessment of how a particular run was executed prior to looking at it in a replay. It will likely always be useful for you without a coach present and likely more so early on in your program since you’ll probably want and need more feedback. My point is that you want to avoid being too dependent upon the camera to tell you everything, everytime. You could possibly film everything for a complete review after your session yet only review some of the actual sprints during the workout.
Regarding technical emphasis, please try to avoid loading your head with too many tech. points as concentration on too many things is concentration on nothing, imho. Emphasize one point for an entire session as CF does(I believe).
Another method I like to use is have a small rotation of tech. emphases of which to concentrate on and focus on one point for one sprint, a different point for another and so on. Until you have gone through the rotation of say 3-5 key points and repeat. Occasionally just eliminate any thought and just sprint. Over time I would think you would want to be able to eliminate much, if any, thought from execution and if you are well trained you will simply be on auto pilot. Of course the quality of such performances will be directly related to the quality of your many sessions of training. Over time the only key point to possibly focus on is a recurring tech. problem that you might have.
As CF has said, every drill and every run to be performed with complete relaxation.
With all that previously said, I will add that you have a valuable tool available to you from which to obtain at least some feedback. Without a competent coach present, that is probably the next best option.
To reiterate the tech. development guidelines take a CF saying to heart- First you do it right and then you speed it up.
I train myself and my form has been tip top by my ex-coach when he had time to check me out. I am also very aware of how i move during sub-max speed, but for me to fix my form with the help of nobody is easy. Usually my form would be horrible from the perspective of other coaches thinking it wasnt alright and that was different with every other coach, and everytime i fixed it i would run worse. Sprinting under my own power allowed me to go to another level once again, my body seems to know best. Then again i cant speak for everyone.
Just another quick question: Any ideas on what digital camcorder I should get or what to look for in a camera? Also, should I be using a tripod or have someone hold it? Any other notes on the topic?
Bottom of the range Sony, a laptop and some kind of instant replay program (TimeWarp, Dartfish). If you want to do analysis during training. Otherwise just a camcorder (maybe hard disk driven these days), where you can get the clips off the device and onto your computer in as quick a time as possible.
Alright, so by bottom-of-the-line, you mean sub-$200? How should I set this all up? Just have the camera on a tripod and run by? Will I only be able to get 1 good stride out of each sprint?
I’ve been trying this all out with a crappy analog camcorder I have laying around and it seems you only get 1 good stride per run, maybe 2, as before/after said strides you’ll be at an angle to the camera. Right?
I use a Sony DCR-HC28 camcorder and it works just fine. The new hard disk camcorders such as the DCR-SR42 30GB Handycam® Camcorder and JVC GZ-MG130 are about twice as expensive but look quite good. What you go for really depends on what you want to do. If you want to run the camcorder straight into your laptop via firewire for real time slow motion playback (e.g. dartfish) then make sure you have the firewire port on the camera itself and not a docking station. To film at the track buy a tripod and use that.
There’s a very important point that has to be kept in mind when discussing proper sprint technique and it often gets overlooked. There is a difference between what the body is objectively doing in space and what the sprinter subjectively feels himself doing.
I really didn’t appreciate this distinction until I trained with Charlie. I was very familiar with his discussions and analysis of sprinting technique, but it wasn’t until Charlie gave me feedback on my technique and made adjustments that I really understood what the correct action feels like. And to be honest, it felt very weird at first. Basically, it took over a year for the correct action to become natural for me because I essentially had to unlearn years of incorrect technique.
Discussions of technique really have to be broken into two categories. One is for the coaches regarding what the athlete should be doing and what the coach should be looking for. The second is for both athletes and coaches regarding what the athlete should be feeling, which is not necessarily the same as what an outside observer will see the athlete doing. I think the single biggest mistake coaches make in coaching technique is telling the sprinter what he should be doing when he runs (which the coach sees) rather than what the sprinter should feel. I know I’ve harped on this several times in the past, but for me personally it was a major revelation.
Therefore, if you’re primarily interested in coaching technique, either your own or someone else’s, I would pay especially close attention to Charlie’s description of what sprinting should feel like more than the detailed discussion of the biomechanics. Unfortunately, reading a description will only get you so far without observation and feedback from a coach. Tom Green visited Charlie shortly after I did and he summed it up quite well by saying everything is just words on paper until you have hands on coaching.
One of the most important descriptions that Charlie constantly uses is the emphasis on the vertical up and down motion of the arms and legs. People read this but I don’t think they really understand it. When you’re sprinting properly there is almost no sensation of the horizontal motion of your limbs, especially the legs. After Charlie adjusted my technique, subjectively it felt like I was simply stamping my feet up and down really quickly, yet my speed improved dramatically (I was indoors and I started closing on the wall at the end really quickly) and the action was much easier.
Another example that Charlie uses in one of his videos is when Angela Issajenko ran a PB in practice and came up to him in tears. When he asked what was wrong, she said “I can’t feel my legs.” Charlie replied, “That’s what it’s supposed to feel like.” And Angela suddenly relaxed and said, “Oh! Okay.”
Flash: Just a quick question, do you think this “phenomenon” of only experiencing the up/down feeling is from the way the torso is moving effortlessly(from momentum) thus causing the limbs to only have to volitionally move up/down and all other motions being caused by momentum(other than on the first step, I guess)? Sorry if this confuses you, it confuses me too! I’m not even sure what I mean but it makes sense to me, sorta-kinda.
I think it’s more a matter of the horizontal component happening so quickly you’re not aware of it.
It’s the same thing with ground contact. If you read Speed Trap, Charlie describes how sprinters actually lose the sensation of power as they become more powerful because they can overcome the ground contact forces so quickly and easily. It almost feels like you’re floating. If you can feel the ground, you’re spending too much time on it. This goes back to Percy Duncan’s distinction between running and sprinting: running occurs on the ground, sprinting occurs over it.
Given the fact that one should only feel a sensation of vertical limb movement when sprinting, how would you go about correcting the form of someone with poor backside mechanics (i.e. not enough hip extension resulting in short stride length)? I’m asking because I myself (see my clip in the video section) as well as an athlete I have just started to coach have this problem, and I don’t know how to address this effectively while taking into consideration the fact that consciously trying to increase hip extension will slow you down.
BTW: This is probably not a flexibility or strength issue, as I can achieve good triple extension when bounding.
One method to assist with achieving complete/full extension is to ensure that you use a correct arm action as described in the Charlie on sprinting thread-link supplied earlier in this thread.
Some sprinters, it seems, can have too compact of an arm carriage/arm swing to permit full extension.
Also, making sure you achieve a complete vertical torso position(the stretched-tall position some have spoken of) can also help to contribute to a more complete extension at max. or near max. velocity.
Thanks for your comments, but could you elaborate a bit on the above? The thread you mention suggests to focus on moving the elbows down instead of back, so how would an emphasis on vertical arm movement help increase horizontal leg movement?
