Yep, and the people up there in the North are straight talking and rough, but likeable.
Thanks Martn76, but we’ll have none of those comments about being rough. I know you Southern softies can’t stand the cold winds in these parts. 
I watched Powell and Chambers warm up for the heats and made some notes if anyone is interested. I’m at work and the notes are at home but can post them tomorrow if members would like to see them.
would be nice 
just as a sort of “public service announcement” for those who care, and who may not have cottoned on yet, under the Advanced Sprint Training heading there is a thread named “analyse this” which contains some pix of sprint action this year, including both the 9.77 races.
Of course we would like to see them if you’re willing to share them with all of us at the forum.
For those of you interested…go back and take a look at the most recent 9.77 by Powell. You will see that around 45m, Chambers-Powell-and Frater all execute similar techniques while entering their top speed phases and for most of the race. This is something that Stephen Francis has taught all three sprinters with Powell being in the best positon physically to execute it and also having spent more time learning it. Frater seems to have the hardest time performing this technique but it has already helped him tremendously and there is still room for improvment. Compare what the three of them do technically with Lewis-Francis or any of the other sprinters. Gatlin has just started utilizing this technique as of this year. Also note that Chambers could have run under 10 seconds during this race. Watch what Chambers does the last 15m.
True to form spoken like a real northener. Phil we are looking forward to your notes, cheers.
Vincente.
What do you think will be the focus when running in this form ?
What special advices will you give to the athlete to help to achieve this position?
We will be looking forward to seeing your notes.
0-45m: Upper Body=Drive the arms back and down (With the emphasis on the arms moving back at this point in order to keep the torso down. Watch Maurice and Ato). The arms should keep their respective angles when moving backwards but…the wrists should arc below the hip (The easiest portion is from 0-20m and a good example of this being executed is Shawn Crawford in 2004) Keep the head and back straight.
Lower body=Step over as soon as possible (Highly correlated to single leg strength/mobility/stability and also kinesthetics). THE BEST STARTERS (i.e. Bruny=Fastest 30m-Maurice=Fast 30m & 60m-Olu=Fast 30m & 60m-Scott=Fast 30m & 60m and of course Ben=Fastest 60m ever) all perform this action.
45m-85m: Upper Body= Drive the arms down, see them in front.
Lower Body=Tap the track. Turn it over. Be active in bringing the recovery leg forward. Tuck it in. (Once again, mobility, stability, and single limb strength is essential). The trunk should feel as though your sitting up straight in a chair.
Stepping over as soon as possible I think would be the start point and probably all that is needed.
What does stepping over feel like to the sprinter during early acceleration and at max v?
Reason for the wrist arching?
Maybe for chechink the relaxation,and preventing a too laterla movement?
I think “be active in bringing the recovery leg forward” wil be very important,if someone is not used to run in this way.
With tuck it in you meen the foot dorsiflexed passing under the butt?
This is just for the heat, I couldn’t observe the warm up for the final as could not gain easy access to the warm up area from the stand I was in. Race scheduled for 15.10
Warm up proper preceded by walking around astroturf pitch, then spent some time chatting with a couple of other athletes. Had a towel on head while walking around so didn’t take particular notice of this, didn’t realise it was him from distance.
Commenced warm up 13.55 on a tartan surface, track length 40m
Walked up and down swinging arms in sprint action.
Very relaxed strides over 30m x 3
Alternating High Knee Skip Drill x 8 skips quickly accross ground developing into easy stride out. x 4
More easy strides x 3
14.20 Spikes on
Strides, picking up the tempo on each one x 2
14.25 Faster acceleration x 20m
14.30 Set up Blocks
Test Blocks 3-4 strides easy
14.35 Acc from blocks over 12 strides then ease off but still emphasising knee lift for 5-6 strides x 1
14.39 Blocks drive out hard over 3 strides then ease off.
14.40 Head for report area at other end of stadium.
Every thing was interspersed with slow walk back rest, very relaxed, very laid back.
Very few athletes warmed up outdoors, the majority used the EIS indoor centre at the other end of the stadium which I could not gain accesss to. Saw what I came to see though.
I will post Dwayne’s warm up tomorrow. Look forward to your inevitable comments and will clarify anything if I can.
Hmm… would this shift potential injury-areas (traditionally hamstrings) towards the groin and quads (e.g. Powell last year & Maurice in Edmonton)?
PhilG
Great post. I’ve seen Powell warming up numerous times but i’m usually focusing on my own job. What surprises me is that you don’t mention any physio interventions, as he usually spends more time on the table than on the track (and even more between heat and final), and usually Asafa does his WU with Michael Frater. Could you confirm it?
should i at the end of 45m just tap the groung. I feel if i tap i lose power, i feel like im not generating anything. Then again its been awhile since i done it especially in a race. Coach says i have the lightest and quickest ground contact times considering my heavy weight, even moreseo then the 11.00 FAT sprinter on our club. I’ve been pondering whether to power maurice style or tap tap like asafa and gatlin somewhat do?
Well done! I did not think that anyone would pick up on this observation. You are absolutely correct and this is where monitoring the athlete with the utmost detail comes into play. The techniques that Powell and camp utilize…maximize a sprinters speed by…1.) Shortening the levers (legs) tremendously creating a greater amount of torque and speed while also 2.) Creating the maximum stride length for the individual without any conscious thought on his/her part to increase length (IT HAPPENS NATURALLY). As Charlie has pointed out many times before, the actions that occur while sprinting were created by the actions beforehand. In our Universe, Before anything can happen…Everything must happen. The Negative aspect of running in this fashion is that the athlete is far more likely to get injured within the groin muscles and…when top speed is reached, it is very hard to “hold” this position for very long.
Maurice was injured during the World Championships in Edmonton in which he would have no doubt run under 9.76. If you study the film you can see somewhere around the 60m-70m mark Maurice seems to shift into a unknown gear (watch the right leg) and the way he begins to step over is magnificent. I truly believe that the way he was running pushed his body into a completely new realm which he of course was not physically ready for. His mental prowess during this race was second to none before, or since (to keep everything together in order to finish while at the same time experiencing two pulled muscles.)
The only way to avoid this type of injury when executing these techniques is by paying extreme attention to detail (from the coaches point of view). The athlete must not have any muscles imbalances from front/back and right/left sides of the body. There also must be a great amount of single limb strength along with stability in place. Most of the members of this site focus too much on how strong Ben Johnson was and think that they need to be just as strong but this way of thinking is incorrect. If you are my competitor and you tell me that your bench press is better than this year but you’ve lost a half an inch of mobility in your shoulders…then you’ve gained nothing and I will still smash you.
“should i at the end of 45m just tap the groung. I feel if i tap i lose power, i feel like im not generating anything. Then again its been awhile since i done it especially in a race. Coach says i have the lightest and quickest ground contact times considering my heavy weight, even moreseo then the 11.00 FAT sprinter on our club. I’ve been pondering whether to power maurice style or tap tap like asafa and gatlin somewhat do?”
Just run. The stronger the athlete is the less time they spend consciously thinking about producing force. Asafa doesn’t think about it at all. Gatlin is working on it. Ben Johnson just shut off his internal dialogue and ran.
You must see the whole picture.
Conditioning=Speed=Strength=Power=Speed Endurance=Special Endurance=Flexibility=
Mobility=Stability=Eating Habits=The adaptation of Will, etc…
in 2001, in all his summer season, Mo had problems with his knee
in his injury you also have to count that one.
That’s interesting pierrejean, he warmed up on his own, there was only a handfull of athletes using the outdoor warm up area, the rest were indoors (air conditioning ?). He may well have had a massage prior to warm up and/or between the heat and final.