Stepping over

[sady]

@Flash

I’m not ready to entirely dismiss all drills that emphasize recovery. It depends on the needs of the athlete. For example, Charlie showed me a terrific drill that he used as an athlete to teach himself to keep the feet under the body during recovery instead of cartwheeling behind.

However, when you move from drills (which are relatively slow) to actual sprinting, it’s a whole different ballgame. When you’re sprinting, by the time the plant foot hits the ground the swing foot is already off the ground and coming over the support knee. If you try to switch your focus from stepping down with the first foot back to stepping over with the other foot you’re behind the power curve because that foot is already on its way over and forward. If you think about raising it, you’re more likely to unnecessarily exaggerate the motion. You really only have time to think about cocking the swing foot in preparation for the next step down.

I am not suggesting all drills should be disregarded, but (heel to butt-stepping over knee) and trying to carry it into the running stride has not worked for me. I do have old vhs videos (1980’s) of athletes before and after. It’s ironic that the athletes appear to perform the action at speed, the faster the speed the better the action. I ended up treating drills as a motor skill and dropped the ones I have questioned.

My wife was coaching some athletes yesterday afternoon, one of the girls has been accepted at a sport school and she commented her school coach has a new drill, one she has been doing for a couple of years, she asked if she was to do the drill the old way or the new way. The new way is how I was doing it 10+ years ago, so she was told to say she is trying but is a motor moron. I have known the coach since the 1980’s and paid him once to coach at a clinic, no other coach would allow their athletes to come to the clinic so I had some athletes I coached go, the first thing the coach said was “your coach has no idea what they are doing, I do”, he only had one athlete change over and she hasn’t improved since.

I agree with your second paragraph and Charlies drill feet under body would be relevant because the brain has time to incorporate it during the power curve.