Speed Clinic

I went to a speed clinic yesterday, and the instructor preached against triple extension, but just getting a faster recovery, he even made us wear some band device he made that keeps your knee at a 90 degree angle and forces you to not achieve triple extension but rather a faster recovery. He said the fastest people in the world run like this…is this man full of it…?

I’ve seen this discussed before, at least the emphasis of quick recovery. Although i’ve never heard of deliberatly reducing triple extension to achive it, i guess it is a natural by-product of a fast recovery sprint action. The running style does exist though, maurice greene is a good example to watch. If you have a slow motion of the edmonton 100 final you can see it and it’s a constrast compared to tim montgomery’s action.

That’s just an optical illusion (lack of full extension). The guy at the clinic you went is FULL of it. If the knee never extends you’ll be running sitting down (low hip height) and evidently it won’t matter how quickly you can cycle your legs if your stride is 1 meter 80. This also means you will not be delivering full force to the ground. …ridiculous…this guy should be shot for taking your money…oh yeah … and grab his device and hang him by the neck with it.

it was a free clinic paid for by my school…i feel like i got the real clinic with this board and charlies book…

Luckily you have the knowledge to bypass this sort of bull, your unlucky teammates don’t! As is said, sprinting technique is not learned, it’s unlearned through poor coaching!

It’s pretty difficult to acheive the latter without the former!

Yes he is. On the old forum, we had a film loop at regular speed and directly below it in slow mo. At regular speed, you couldn’t see the full extension but in slow mo it was obvious. (can you find it or re-post it DCW?)
What confuses some people is that the faster you go, full extension occurs sooner after you pass the hip, as the hip is higher relative to ground.

Here’s the link with some pics, but no longer the video:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=1093&page=2&pp=15&highlight=triple+extension