I bought the race dynamics ebook as well as CF training system and speed trap over the holiday. I was sucked in reading for hours what awesome material!
I have some curiosity regarding the start and would like some input from the experience here on the forum. If anyone could direct me to some sticky threads on mechanics I wont waste your time. also what products would be ideal to learn more about this?
as far as optimizing my own start, Im confused on how to combine the material between what the Cf material ive purchased says and the film on Ben from what I’ve learned from the tom tellez school of thought and from the film study ive seen on todays Jamaicans and americans.
The main differences in my mind:
CF- emphasis on fast hands and powerful contained arms to be the catalyst for the legs. important cue of “stepping backwards” out of blocks. seems much more “quicker” with a natural cycling of the legs and transition to vertical sprinting
TT and JAM/US film study- power through extension. feet and legs push back/forth like pistons maintaining very low ground clearance and much less cyclical. giant arm ROM.
is this just a confusion in cueing? Am i missing a bigger picture? I realize this highly depends on the individual i.e. body type and strength/power/CNS levels, and that I’m not a world class sprinter by any means. I have good strength and decent power (6ft tall, 189lbs. 375 backsquat 3m standing long jump) but ive never had a very fast reaction time like the streotypical sprinter. I havent tried any of the new techniques yet from CF here is film from some typical starts over the fall. they feel powerful but not fast:
[video]https://youtu.be/cBN-UWeWOp4[/video]
[video]https://youtu.be/S4AbcavOlCE[/video]
also just to clarify the an ideal breathing pattern in the 100m as explained in the books, does this look right?
inhale in block
exhale 0-30m
inhale 40-50m
exhale 50-70m
inhale 70-80m
exhale 80-100m
Check out “The Mechanics of Sprinting and Hurdling” by Ralph Mann
You seem to have a decent pattern of low heel recovery, and fast linear switching of the legs. One major issue I see though, is your landing, especially from the zero step. Take a look how far your foot is on the moment it lands. It is in front of the hips. This wastes time and also makes you push too much vertically, and causing you to lose your driving angle prematurely.
Also, Tom Tellez does not teach low heel recovery. In fact, he teaches the opposite - “run out of the blocks” is something he has said, and he encourages cycling.
In Ralph Mann’s book he defends low heel recovery, mostly due to the frequency argument - that it saves time by getting you into the next stride sooner. He also goes onto say that cycling is useless at the start because the air time at the start is too short, which would mean you have better hip height when using low heel recovery at the start.
Regarding piston or cycling, notice SAFP stepping over and starting cycling on the 2nd step. I’ve learned to do it more like Asafa with stepping over starting on the 4th step, but just about everyone quick does it like this. Here’s a video, “Top 10 quickest starters of all time” with slow motion of several, and the technique is more or less the same:
My experience is that the low heel recovery is a consequence of sprinting against heavy resistance–sleds or hills. It is not something you spend time training for. It just happens if you use dynamic resistance.
Bentz, as for your starting posture- your starting/set position is much more efficient in the second video because you’ve set your feet farther behind you. In the first video your front foot is too close to your hands (and if front of the plumb line of your hips) this requires more time to achieve extension at take-off.
Note, however, that in the second video you “load” prior to taking off. This countermovement is a tremendous liability that, if timed poorly, will leave you left in the blocks as everyone else clears them.
As for your position at first ground contact, I agree with Brett in that it appears as if your volitional effort to clear the “blocks” is too great and even though your shin angle is positive you are more upright due to the geometry, resultant of ground contact point in relation to hips, that Brett pointed out.
If you look at the point where your first ground contact occurs, it should, as Brett pointed out, be behind the vertical plum line drawn down from the crease in the same hip.
Surprised no one’s posted this one yet. Aside from a little overstride on her second landing (as Mann has pointed out himself), a pretty solid start, I think.
She’s probably even cleaner on her second landing on this one (3 point), even though you can’t see her first landing because someone’s in the way. Her hips also drop a tad, in set, just before she pushes, but I think that may be just due to the 3 point start, as she doesn’t have the same problem in the blocks.
exactly, what many sprinters have issues with, me included is waiting for it and trusting yourself. When im uber relaxed at practice when sprinting it feels like im flying. Only problem is duplicating it every time
I usually will come out the blocks and the first few steps will be quick and powerful then at about 20 meters I relax and let the speed come out.
As to the issue of achieving consistency in relaxation- this is where real time electronic timing can be very useful.
While I’ve shared Charlie’s views on the need to “hide” the stopwatch from athletes at times in order that they aren’t “fighting” for more speed and thereby tightening up, clearly there is value for the sprinter to focus on a single cue from one rep to the next and see how the focus on that cue is reflected in the time.
As you surely know by now Chris, there are many athletes who are positively surprised by what the timer says resultant of not “trying” to sprint fast. Thus, having an immediate feedback loop proves highly relevant when securing the consistency of a particular motor behavior.
For anyone interested in relaxation, especially as an applied skill, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Relax and Win by Bud Winter, which recently came back into print a few years ago thanks to Jimson Lee.
im relaxed sometimes when i have my headphones in, with a great focus going. I can tell when im really relaxed when everything appears to slow down and im able to do everything correct mechanically. I can feel myself stepping over, face so relaxed i appear to look sleepy.
Generally when im not relaxed I either didnt get good sleep, stressed from work, cns is beat from other workouts, or im just tired overall
It maybe that when one is tired, it’s impossible to relax unless the overall effort and speed goes down significantly. I think it’s possible that people tighten up when tired because they’re trying to compensate and make up for the lack of CNS power output by attempting to apply more force, which ends up with further loss of speed.
This is true whether on not you are tired. Relaxation works after the acceleration phase either way. The old saying goes “accelerate to 60 then relax,” or whatever you can accelerate to if you can’t accelerate to 60.