I know we did some discussion regarding SF vs. SF several days ago.
OK, let’s look at this from a different angle.
How can we distinguish if one needs to concentrate on the rate or length?
I have seen athletes who look like they’re covering a lot of ground w/ each step at max velocity but once you get the numbers it’s a different story.
You can’t always look at it from a naked eye it goes deeper than that as we all know.
I have seen the formulas out there stating your SL should be 2.5 times your leg length and all that. But how can we really fix the problem w/out guessin.
Any thoughts?
Kenny Mac~~
Kenny Mac, first off, sorry to hear about the plantar. A buddy of mine put a heelp cup in and said it helped him tons. Second, good luck to your sprinter at Nats!!! My team -UC Davis- is there also. In my time dealing with young sprinters (14-18 at Foothill HS Pleasanton) I at first tried to “open them up” when I saw that they were chopping their strides, thinking maybe flexibility and being weak. Then, if they were turning over slowly, we would work on fast feet drils or ladder type stuff. I kinda threw that all out the window, though. I went with the stop watch and my eyes. If they were winning, putting out good times, and were not over striding much, I felt that they would excell naturally. The key was not to force either avenue, in my mind, this would only lead to tightness. Look at Ben Johnson for example, his strides were so fast, that some probably said (early on at least) to open it up more, cover more ground. I am sure people thought the same with a young Carl Lewis, too… More freq, to slow turnover. Another thing, maybe if I had access to and time for equip that would allow me to further analyze my sprinters stride and freq, I would try that way also. But I am broke! and don’t have time!!! Take it easy… btw, Aaron Thigpen runs at Berkeley this weekend I beleive…
Thanks for the reply! Yea I’m going to try that heel cup because my heel is worst. I hate to shut down my season, but this heel is forcing me to do so.
Nc’ is going good. My sprinter missed out on the finals, but she ran a great race considering her big improvement from 12.5’s to 11.96.
She’s having fun that’s all I ask. ENJOY the experience because there’s a lot of athletes who would love to be in her shoes today!
Guess what ? I’m about to go get me some heel cups NOW!!
Thanks for that advice
Kenny Mac~~~
I can’t really see a formula as power levels vary widely, but relaxation and form will allow the athlete to find his natural balance between the two elements.
to evaluate stride length at maximum speed speed, you can compare it with body height, that’s not as good as leg length, but leg mesurement depends on the method used (generally, it is taken from the ground to greater trochanter), and it’s not easy to know body height than leg length for someone!)
for men , the ratio stride length / body height at maximum speed is 1.30-1.40, for women it is 1.25-1.35. If it is less or more than those numbers, you can consider that the sprinter is achieving extreme value.
For women, ratio <1.15 and >1.45 are problematic. Among top sprinters, Marlies Göhr (10.81), Ingrid Auerswald (11.04) and Nadezhda Georgieva (11.09) were under 1.20, and Griffith-Joyner (10.49), Marie-José Pérec (10.96) and Christine Arron (10.73) were over 1.40.
Don’t have as much info about male sprinters.
Between those extreme value, everything is possible, so don’t try to follow a model, each runner is different. Any thoughts?