4 x 10m push-up starts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EtM1S5mVnBg
Same video at 70% speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yehl6zuOcuM
4 x 30m block starts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LfdqdWXGIN0
Same video at 60% speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1eh68xjz9KA
2
the fef looked like you set the cam up a mile away. lol
Really focus on doing drills (A skip, B skip, A run, B run etc) with focus on keeping front side focus. Her mechanics are very backside. I have a girl very similar and in a few weeks of focused sessions, have seen improvements. Is she tight in her hamstrings by chance? glutes? I might also add these in her warm-up, doing just 1-2x for 5-6 seconds each.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ThwVXO8AQ The video shows it doing himself, but a partner activation could also be used.
“the fef looked like you set the cam up a mile away. lol”
Yah, video camera obviously doesn’t have a wide lens
She has always had strong backside mechanics issues… worked on them last spring and seen improvements… until the nerve injury (the verti-max to plyo box jumps fiasco).
Daily warm-up includes A skips, running A’s…
Her hams are almost never tight, occasionally her quads get small areas of tightness that require extra massage.
Really would like to improve on this…
Are you able to get some video of hurdle step overs? 30" at least, if not 33? Most of my girls do 30. Head on video of right foot over first for a set, then left foot over, then do sideways step overs with camera head on. I’d have better idea from that.
I don’t have access to hurdles… guess I need to build some DIY pvc hurdles…
How is her ab strength? I’ve found my runners with insufficient ab strength tend to backside.
What would be a good test for ab strength?
That’s a good question. I don’t have a test I use - mostly just seeing how well they do with our ab work in training.
What level does she get on these?
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_strong_are_your_abs_really
What about number of V-sits she can perform before her lower back starts to arch at the bottom of the rep?
Her second year in track (7th grade, about 4 years ago and age 12) her coach, Mike Cunliffe, noticed issues during running and drills…one of which was that she could not bring her knees up anywhere near 90 degrees, more like 60.
Mike said she needed to go to Dr. Bruce, and that he works wonders and hopefully could help her.
I remember through many sports before, soccer, baseball, softball, while doing drills she would not get her knees up… I just assumed she was not exerting the effort… just going through the motions like almost every other kid there…
After talking with Coach Mike, I asked my daughter about her ability to bring her knees up, she told me she never was able to as far back as she can remember, and showed me repeatedly how far she was able to bring them up… which was only about 60 degrees.
She went to see this Dr. and he did his assessment of her, then for about 20 to 30 minutes worked on her… no ‘bone popping’, but using pressure points inside the roof of the mouth and on the head… and different alignments of the body.
During this time he mentioned that she has probably had this issue her whole life… I replied that I had asked her, and she had also said as long as she can remember she had this problem.
When the Dr. was finished, she stepped onto the floor, she was all smiles, saying she never felt better…
The Dr. asked her to do a couple different physical tasks… then, he asked her to raise her knees as high as she could, one by one… I was quite surprised to see her easily able to raise each knee at least 120 degrees.
This is the same Dr. I have described in posts here before, each time she sees him, he has at that visit, ‘fixed’ whatever the supposed injury is, within a matter of 20 minutes or so… all claimed to be physical ‘injuries’ needing lengthy physical therapy and time to heal, by the best local Doctors, which I went to the local Doctors first, as it is almost a 200 mile drive to see Dr. Bruce. I won’t make this mistake anymore, for now on, she goes to Dr. Bruce first.
I just now had her raise her knees and she shows about 100 to 110 degrees of flexibility…
She had a ‘maintenance’ visit with this doctor about 2 months ago, he went through and ‘reset’ her body, getting ready for the up coming season. At the time, she did not have any issues.
Obviously she needs extra work in this area, and the 2 years previous running on the schools cross country team (even though both years she placed 5th at State) did not help, as not just the workouts, but the distance running form works against proper sprint form.
Suggestions for drills and other means to correct her over emphasized backside mechanics would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Rainy, she just finished her Saturday workout plus weights, tomorrow or Monday I will test her and see how she compares.
I’d be curious to know what her standard posture & typical gait pelvic alignment measures are.
Are these something easily measured at most chiro/doctor office, or need to go to a specialist?
We had some that used a local orthopaedic doctor to measure oblique angles about the pelvis (among other issues). Prior to joining the group, these athletes had excessive anterior pelvic tilt which became worse during their fall running seasons. With consultation and designed work we were able to effect near neutral alignments for a few.
However I’m not suggesting that this would solve the issues you described with your athlete. Though we did link more than a few hip flexor or proximal issues to postural integrity and pelvic alignment.
When a person has a movement issue, look to rule out any structural blocks. Her being able to flex the hip standing to 90 of higher, to me, says it’s not structural. She can do it standing, but not well when sprinting.
I have several kids who ran just like her, and with some variations, have made big improvements in a few weeks without any chiros, doctors, secret ab workouts. I had to find ways to put them in positions I wanted that they could perform.
The easiest was a focus on drills. Here is the list of drills we do on speed days:
John Smith Pizza Box A SKip and B skip followed by 20m run outs.
Traditional A skip, B Skip with 20m run outs.
Progressive A runs into run outs
The progressive A run starts as a strength endurance run seem in the PowerSpeed downloads. We walk for about 10m and then progressively increase the stride length with each step until the point I am running next to them.
We did this for a few weeks and scrapped the training plans. I didn’t see a point in doing things if they werent done right. I stepped back and made the changes I felt were needed.
I suspect most females will find the first progression on the t-nation site pretty straight forward due to centre of gravity, as it seems targeted to men. One note about V-sits is that sometimes people with weak abs can’t support the spine sufficiently to do the exercise without some pain, so stress with her that she stop at any sign of pain.
Here are some drills done Saturday (yesterday), which might give clues?
Work needed on triple extension, dorsiflexion.
Running A’s
High Knee Skip Bounds
Straight Leg Bounds
Sprint Bounds (needs work being more vertical, triple extension, and dorsiflexion)
2 Foot Hops
Left Left Right Right Hops (at 4:14 you can see her walking back for 2 consecutive reps. This may give clues with posture, or?)
2 Foot Hops with Medicine Ball
Over the past year or more, this site format is really frustrating… I have to log-out of using Explorer or writing/editing posts is next to impossible… if I want to post or edit, I have to use Firefox… why is this site like this???
I’m not an expert on posture so I’m not going to comment on that, but the first thing I noticed is that her left knee comes slightly higher than her right at the end of her running As, and in her high knee skips too. I don’t know if that’s relevant or not, sorry.
She has a has had a history of hip imbalance (that is how Dr. Bruce describes one of the things he treats her for)… . She is usually weaker on one side than the other when doing PNF stretches (hip flexor issues?)