Which areas should I focus on?

The Forums Ask Us.
1

Here’s the link to a video of me doing starts and a flying run, hopefully I can get a hand from you guys so I can find out what areas I should start focusing on

http://www.udeportes.cl/secciones/atletismo/alex2.wmv

thanks i advance for all your help

Alex

2

Two things I realized about your start…
1-you “wind up” before going
2-lack of arm drive especially on the first step

3

when you say wind up do you mean I move backwards?? and how would I address the lack of arm drive?? is this due to a lack of strength? (not enough push means I don’t have to drive as much with my arms??)

4

I’m gonna bump this in hopes that others will take a look at the video and give me their opinions.

here is the video by the way:

http://www.udeportes.cl/secciones/atletismo/alex2.wmv

5

Yes. When I say you wind up you move back and down then go.

The winding up may be a lack of strength as you mentioned (not enough power from a stic postion so the need to use the stretch reflex) but as far as the arm drive that is not really a lack of strength. It is a technical issue. When the gun goes off you want to drive the arm of your front leg powerfully and high/out, kind of like you are punching somebody. The other arm should forcefeully go back behind you. This motion is noticed mostly the first step but should be a focus during the fisrt few steps of accleration.

6

How can this lack of strength from a static position be addressed? I ran last week and I was left in the blocks, everyone was about 1mt ahead of me by 2nd step, this might be because I’ve been doing some heavy weight work coupled with accel. work, but not much block work. The rest of the race was allright but still there is a lot of room for improvement.

Please help!!

7

As Quick says, drive the arm forward! DRIVE IT in a straight line! I wouldn’t worry about forcing the other arm back as that may lead to improper balance. BANG! DRIVE THAT ARM!!! Compare yourself to a couple other guy’s starts.

8

Thanks herb, that’ collage of images is awesome, plus… I really identify with the last one mmmmmmm beeeeeer!!!

I’ll work on my arm drive and I’ll try to incorporate it so that it happens unconsciously, I’ll get back to you on how it goes.

Cheers

9

Ok so I’ve been training the arm drive, and I’ve performed the exercise you recomended, and on friday during training I was coming out of the blocks and everyone there all noticed the same things, that my front leg, (left leg) wasn’t pushing on the blocks, and my right leg was adjusting really quickly so that I wouldnt fall so all I was doing was standing up and running rather than pushing out and sprinting.

Anyway, just for investigative purposes I swicthed my blocks around to right leg front and bang just like magic I was pushing more on the blocks, and more arm drive, however it was a bit stranger (probably because it hasn’t been trained) point is maybe my right leg is stronger than my left, despite the strength imbalance I mentioned a while back, but it seems to apply power better to the blocks when starting. I’m gonna see how this goes and try to get a short video up.

CHeers

btw, any help, suggestions are more than welcome!!! :smiley: