“You should always run taller then you stand”…this is what BJ told me some years ago. If any one had the opportunity to stand at track level like I have as BJ ran past you, you would clearly see what I’m talking about :eek: as it was like he wasn’t touching the ground…It makes perfect sense for what is now obvious reasons.
Anyways, in looking back of all the sub 9.8s sprinters (legal or non-legal wind, so that includes King Carl) I find it very intersting to see how the running posture differs between the current two 9.7 sprinters in Gatlin and Powell compared to others. If you take BJ for example you can see how his head, neck and back are “in line” or neutral, as some might say, and in turn sprinting extremely “tall”. Now you look at Powell, and to a greater extent Gatlin, you can notice a fair amount of flexion throughout their spine, sprinting at a height “shorter” than possible :o . I interpret this as a result of trying to achieve optimal hip flexion or knee lift and subsequently less back side mechanics or “butt kicking”.
Looking back at BJ, Carl (especially) and Mo who all maintained a fairly errect running posture, had far more butt kicking and what appears (as I could be wrong) to be less knee left with the obvious exception being Carl who had a great deal of both.
Should anything be made of this or am I just wasting everyones time :o :rolleyes:
Interesting questions, some were discussed already, but not into too much detail.
I guess the only thing to clarify these things further would be a schematic drwaing made after photo sequences from the side showing the angles torso-upperleg-lowerleg comparing sprinters like BJ, CL, Mo, Gatlin and Asafa.
Fully agree with your observations - from the photo sequences we’ve got I think it’s visible that Asafa’s leg action takes place much more in front of his body (draw a line from his CG to the point of GC - his legs hardly move behind the line)
Secondly his heel does not come es close to the hamstrings like most other sprinters.
Third observation: “Older” technique of the greatest was to “swing” back the leg when they were relaxed and hamstrings-calves angle goes towards 180 degr. (FloJo, Ben) - I always thought that was a sign of flexible, relaxed technique - Asafas does not change the angle in thi knee that much after GC and he brings it forward again faster.
To sum it up:
[b]forward movement (higher knees): the angle abs-quads (hip) is smaller (towards 90 deg)
forward movement (not “butt-kicking”): the angle hamstrings-claves (knee) is bigger (not towards 0 deg like others, no heel to butt)
backwards movement (knee hardly behind CG): the angle erec.spin. - hamstrings is bigger (just littlebit less than 180 deg).
backwards movement (no full extention of legs): smaller angle (knee) hamstring-calves, never close to 180 deg. (no knee extention close to 180 deg after GC)[/b]
I’d say - all things most sprint trainers would change in a novice doing…
I coach the straight head-neck-back as believe that is the most effective way to apply and absorb forces. What I would have to look at more closely would be the # of strides, the length and the frequency at different segments (ie, 0-30, 30-60 and 60-80) to see where exactly the change rests.
Interesting enough I’ve noticed Powell to run with straighter posture when he runs…lol, slower (ie. 10.03 @ CWG, 10.10 W @ Penn and even during many of his sub 10s from a year ago).
Nevertheless, my biggest issue/concerns lie in the back position flat vs. flexed. In other words, a level pelvis vs. slightly posterior tilted pelvis.
The head weights about 4.5-5kg, hence, head position will affect the overall balance and direction of power to some degree. There might be a reason why some sprinters find it functional to keep their heads “low” (e.g. Maurice, Asafa & Justin). Just like it made sense for Ben to keep it straight (popping out of the blocks like he did). Once you’re up, there’s no other way but to stay up!
I guess it’s easier to ‘step over’ but still keeping force production horizontal when the spine is flexed and the head acts like a small weight at the front of the boat?
