what should you feel

I figure I would start a seperate thread on what is felt during sprinting. A lot of times in sprinting its hard to figure out what is a deliberate action and what is a reaction or reflexive.
I hope others are interested in this also. Below are a few post on the topic from a different thread.

Q. in which part of speed trap is that Charlie. And just out of curiosity isnt one supposed to keep the hips higher?? to allow for a freer range of movement and triple extension?

A.Yes the hips should be as high as possible, which you CAN’T do if your trying to claw the ground. Check Speed Trap and you’ll find a number of references to the technique and feeling of top sprinting- it feels as if you’re stepping up and down, as the horizontal impetus is so quick that you can barely sense it.(C.Francis)

Q."The human machine’s pushing forces are much stronger than its pulling forces. Thus the optimum angle of the lower leg with the ground at contact is 90 degrees. If the foot is foward, there becomes an effect of a repeated breaking of foward motion. It also causes the athlete to pull his/her body over the leg before pushing off. This action is usually noticed in the athlete who overstrides or over-extends. The runner should learn to drop onto the foot so it will be in the strongest driving position. "(Tom Tellez)
Charlie, is the stepping down you describe the same as dropping onto the foot, is it a sensation of stepping down from a height?

A.That’s a bit tricky. At top speed, when you are ‘stepping down’, the leg is also swinging back (though you may not feel it), and the hip height determines how much of a ‘contact patch’ you have on the ground, both ahead of and behind the CG. The higher the hip, the smaller the patch, and the smaller the better. The slight bit ahead of CG creates the optimum conditions for the pre-stretch of the muscles in the full upright position.
During the start and throughout the accel period though, all the action is in the pushing mode. This is sucessfully initiated from the Gun by ensuring that the front foot in the blocks is BEHIND the point of the hip. If it’s in front, you’re in trouble from the outset.

Q.Charlie could you give a description of how the first 10 strides/acceleration, should be executed?

What drills would aid the first 10 strides? To what level should the arm/hand reach for full extension?

A.The emphasis is on powerful but relaxed arm drive and the feet will land at the appropriate spacing without conscious thought, as long as the blocks are set up properly. You can see how the training towards this objective proceeds on the GPP DVD.

That’s a bit tricky. At top speed, when you are ‘stepping down’, the leg is also swinging back (though you may not feel it), and the hip height determines how much of a ‘contact patch’ you have on the ground, both ahead of and behind the CG. The higher the hip, the smaller the patch, and the smaller the better. The slight bit ahead of CG creates the optimum conditions for the pre-stretch of the muscles in the full upright position.
During the start and throughout the accel period though, all the action is in the pushing mode. This is sucessfully initiated from the Gun by ensuring that the front foot in the blocks is BEHIND the point of the hip. If it’s in front, you’re in trouble from the outset.(CF)

Should you feel a change in hip height when sprinting, or the up and down feeling is only with the legs?

To keep this thread alive I will tell about my own limited experience.

Because at top-speed I mainly feel the relation between hip and knee and not the relation between hip and ground I was fooled for a long time.
When I run poorly hip-height feels great, because even though the hips drop, the knees drop even more, creating an illusion of being tall. I believe this is a fault with many beginning sprinters and obviously this is not what is meant by “staying tall.”
When running good and relaxed, top-speed feels a bit like sitting-down and running at the same time, because the knees are coming up to nearly hip-height. “Back here I am sitting and there in front of me the knees are going up and down.”

I don’t know about the “sitting-down” thing, it does not sound right. However, all of this is totally subjective. I do agree with the feeling of everything being in front.

My experience is similar to Thor. That’s a good way of describing the feeling. I also feel like the upper body is being pushed forward in a wind current and the feet are only keeping me at the right height to stay there.

I see now that using the word “sitting-down” isn’t quite right because that gives the impression that I feel as though the hips are coming down, but what I feel is the knees coming gradually higher until they are so high it feels like I am “sitting”.

Since I wrote the above posts I have come to realise that I was rushing the acceleration and thightening up and overstriding, and besides the few times I really was relaxed I would lock the hips and overstride anyway, to feel like I was really striding. When I felt like I was sitting I probably was.

Running now feels like a long, slow acceleration, demanding great patience, until all of a sudden I seem to break free from something and just rushes forward, feeling very energetic and relaxed at the same time.

Ive felt this feeling when hitting top speed. When I learned to keep my hips high and run tall, I would almost feel like falling foward but I my leg speed and my balance would not let me. I felt relaxed and like I was putting no effort into running. It was an awsome feeling and I PBd too!