How to Improve Your Sprinting Technique

By breaking sprinting technique into its component parts you can focus on and improve specific phases of the action. Good sprinting technique has some of the following characteristics (1):

START PHASE
i) Bodyweight evenly distributed over four contact points in the start position (i.e. hands and knees). Front knee angle is ~90^o, rear knee angle ~100-130^o.
ii) Explosive push off with both legs. Front leg extends remaining in contact with the ground while back leg swings forward. Extended front leg and trunk form a straight line.
iii) Arms swing opposite to legs, elbows flex to ~90^o and fists swing towards forehead.

ACCLERATION PHASE
iv) After first two strides, foot touches down in front of center of gravity.
v) Forward body lean begins to decrease until normal sprinting position is reached after about 22 yards (20 meters). Head is relaxed, eyes focused straight ahead.

MAXIMUM SPEED PHASE
vi) Push-off angle from ground is ~50-55^o. Trunk is almost erect with ~5^o forward lean.
vii) (Midflight) Push-off leg folds tightly towards buttocks in a relaxed heeling motion. Front leg thrusts forward and upward at maximum speed (~44mph in elite sprinters). When front thigh reaches maximum possible knee lift, lower leg swings forward in a relaxed movement.
viii) Foot meets ground with ankle slightly extended (plantar flexion) directly under center of gravity. Bodyweight is balanced so that only the ball of the foot touches the ground.
ix) Shoulders remain steady, elbows flexed at ~90^o, kept close to body throughout all phases. Hands swing forward and up above shoulder height, down and past hips. Arms and hands should have an aggressive hammering action. Head aligns naturally with trunk and shoulders and facial/neck muscles are relaxed by keeping the mouth slightly open.

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Sprinting Technique Program

These sprinting technique drills can be performed in this order or alternatively focus on just 3-4 drills. There is no need to perform multiple sets and repetitions.

Raise Knees: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
Sprint 10 meters concentrating on raising knees as higher than normal. Jog for 10 meters and then sprint for 10 meters and rest.

Fast Knee Pick Ups: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
Jogging on the spot raise your knees to waist height while emphasising arm action. Move forward 10 meters with this action concentrating on the number of ground contacts rather than how fast you cover the distance. Try to get as many ground contacts as possible.

Flicks: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
While sprinting over 10 meters concentrate on flicking your heels up to touch your butt.

Leg Speed: 60 meters
This is a normal sprint over 60 meters except all of your focus should be on your legs. Try to gauge the optimum leg speed for you by taking different stride lengths to see which yields the best results.

Skipping: 40 meters

High Hops: 3 x 40 meters
Bound from one foot to the other. The action is similar to skipping except your are trying to gain as much height as possible and stay in the air for as long as possible. Remember to recover fully between attempts.

Elbow Drive: 40 meters
Sprint for 40 meters concentrating on driving your elbow in a straight line. Keep your elbows flexed at right angles while keeping your arms relaxed.

How to Improve Your Sprinting Technique

By breaking sprinting technique into its component parts you can focus on and improve specific phases of the action. Good sprinting technique has some of the following characteristics (1):

START PHASE
i) Bodyweight evenly distributed over four contact points in the start position (i.e. hands and knees). Front knee angle is ~90^o, rear knee angle ~100-130^o.
ii) Explosive push off with both legs. Front leg extends remaining in contact with the ground while back leg swings forward. Extended front leg and trunk form a straight line.
iii) Arms swing opposite to legs, elbows flex to ~90^o and fists swing towards forehead.

ACCLERATION PHASE
iv) After first two strides, foot touches down in front of center of gravity.
v) Forward body lean begins to decrease until normal sprinting position is reached after about 22 yards (20 meters). Head is relaxed, eyes focused straight ahead.

MAXIMUM SPEED PHASE
vi) Push-off angle from ground is ~50-55^o. Trunk is almost erect with ~5^o forward lean.
vii) (Midflight) Push-off leg folds tightly towards buttocks in a relaxed heeling motion. Front leg thrusts forward and upward at maximum speed (~44mph in elite sprinters). When front thigh reaches maximum possible knee lift, lower leg swings forward in a relaxed movement.
viii) Foot meets ground with ankle slightly extended (plantar flexion) directly under center of gravity. Bodyweight is balanced so that only the ball of the foot touches the ground.
ix) Shoulders remain steady, elbows flexed at ~90^o, kept close to body throughout all phases. Hands swing forward and up above shoulder height, down and past hips. Arms and hands should have an aggressive hammering action. Head aligns naturally with trunk and shoulders and facial/neck muscles are relaxed by keeping the mouth slightly open.

---

Sprinting Technique Program

These sprinting technique drills can be performed in this order or alternatively focus on just 3-4 drills. There is no need to perform multiple sets and repetitions.

Raise Knees: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
Sprint 10 meters concentrating on raising knees as higher than normal. Jog for 10 meters and then sprint for 10 meters and rest.

Fast Knee Pick Ups: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
Jogging on the spot raise your knees to waist height while emphasising arm action. Move forward 10 meters with this action concentrating on the number of ground contacts rather than how fast you cover the distance. Try to get as many ground contacts as possible.

Flicks: 10 meters - jog - 10 meters - rest
While sprinting over 10 meters concentrate on flicking your heels up to touch your butt.

Leg Speed: 60 meters
This is a normal sprint over 60 meters except all of your focus should be on your legs. Try to gauge the optimum leg speed for you by taking different stride lengths to see which yields the best results.

Skipping: 40 meters

High Hops: 3 x 40 meters
Bound from one foot to the other. The action is similar to skipping except your are trying to gain as much height as possible and stay in the air for as long as possible. Remember to recover fully between attempts.

Elbow Drive: 40 meters
Sprint for 40 meters concentrating on driving your elbow in a straight line. Keep your elbows flexed at right angles while keeping your arms relaxed.

Peaking, Planning and Periodization

Timing is everything.

Can you really peak 2 or 3 times a year?

More recently, Jeremy Warnier’s 2004 season come to mind with his victories at the NCAA Championships, USATF Olympic Trials, and of course, the Olympic Games. Each of these victories were personal bests, and he sure saved the best for last!

Did he really peak 3 times that year? Or 4 times if you include his NCAA Indoor Championships?

Or was he just that dominant?

A funny analogy to this article is a bodybuilder’s daily eating plan. He just eats one meal a day – constantly – basically he eats all day long, every few hours.

So JW (and Clyde Hart for that matter) looks at the whole season as an entity. Sure, there will be rest periods and taper before big meets, and hopefully some recovery and regeneration after a maximal effort or World Records. The big meets are just blips along the way of the master plan (or Excel spreadsheet!)

Coach Hart claims it’s not “peaking”, but “reloading” after a major meet.

Asafa Powell’s coach Stephen Francis believes in one long peak from April to September. He doesn’t believe it is possible to peak for indoors, Jamaican trials in June, and then the World Championships or Olympics in August simultaneously. This may explain some of Asafa’s world records in June or September.

But he does believe in a 10 Day taper before the competition at 30% of the volume. I caution on the decrease volume as I’ve seen athletes gain weight! This is why we do a lot of low intensity tempo such as 20×100m at 75-80% speed.

This year, the NCAA Championships and USATF National Championships are exactly 2 weeks apart, so you would just carry that peak. It’s just one long peak.

Sample Periodization Examples

Here is our triple periodization model for a short to long program:

• “Period 1” from Oct – March – emphasis on 0-60 meters
• end of period 1 – usually the Indoor Championships
• “Period 2” from March-June – emphasis on 30-120m
• end of period 2 – usually the National or Regional Championships
• “Period 3” from late June to Sept – emphasis on 60-200m
• end of period 3 – the World Championships (or major meet)

Note period “blocks” are not of equal duration.

The above example assumes you live in a area where you have access to indoor meets in Feb/March, and outdoor meets in June. The WMA are usually held in September, but this year the World Masters Athletics Championships in Lahti, Finland will be held earlier from July 28-Aug 8, 2009.

So your schedule may dictate a double periodization, instead of a triple with a shortened season.

How To Race And Train For The 200m: Part 2

Part 2: How to Train for the 200 Meters

Generally, I follow the flow of their training schedule.

Assuming a 12 week season, the training focus is generally going to look like the following. Now keep in mind, this schedule breakdown considers that the athlete competed in a sport or did some degree of organized training the previous season, even if it wasn’t track. Therefore, the prep periods are not as long or as general as they would be, say, during winter track (if you compete indoors in your area):

Weeks 1-3

During this time we’re going heavy on the acceleration development, speed drills and mechanics. We’re also going to start in the weight room immediately and focus on improving work capacity and pillar strength on recovery days. We’re doing 2 days of low intensity, double leg plyos.

They’ll likely spend one day per week with the 2/4 group (through the whole season) and perform a rep or two of short end Special Endurance II or long end Special I. I know that once the season is in full swing, with many 2 and even 3 meet weeks, we’re not going to be able to do a ton of formal training. So building a ‘base’ is important now, just not a base of excessive low and middle intensity training.

We’ll probably have our first competition at the end of this period. Ideally, I’ll run the athlete in the 100 and 400 or 100/4×4 plus field event/s. Trust me I understand that most times athletes run what you need them to run to win meets.

Weeks 4-6

During this mesocycle, things are starting to get a little bit more specific. We’re still doing the things we did during the first 3 weeks, except I’m reducing the volume of tempo work on recovery days and I’m moving from 2 days per week of speed to 3 days over the 6 day schedule. I’m also transitioning to single leg plyos only if athletes have proven themselves.

Now I’m adding maximum velocity work (fly 30s – 40s, sprint/float/sprints), working out of blocks and starting to work on running the turns.

We’ll also move from Special I runs to some long Speed Endurance runs at the low end of intensity (90%), most likely with the 200/400 groups, assuming their speed work is on schedule.

In meets they’ll see their first open 200. In this time I like the 200/400 double and probably a 400/4×4 double toward the end of the cycle as things will be getting much crisper and faster in the coming weeks. This is the hardest part of the season from an energy system and psychological standpoint. Kids are sore, they can smell the end of the season and they’re running lots of meets. On recovery days and days where you’re competing, say, Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Saturday you have to break the monotony of doing the same old thing, especially since there isn’t the possibility of getting in a workout. That’s when I break out the movement based games. Ultimate Frisbee, speed tag, split the cone and other games are really fun and your athletes will request them on the next recovery day.

It can breathe new life into a long season.

Weeks 7-8 – Pre-Competition

We’re now getting to the early stages of the part of the season my athletes call ‘Fun Track’. Fun track is when we’re not doing tempo work or GS circuits every recovery day, but we’re still doing aerobic capacity work and GS work. Practices are shorter and contain less drills, reps and exercises.

The weight room is still going strong (3x per week), some athletes have graduated to single leg bounding drills and they can hold Swedish Ab (plank) positions for a good 2 minutes before threatening to kill you or quit the sport forever.

We’re doing fly 40’s and Speed Endurance transitioning from the turn to the straightaway. Blockwork is taking place on the turn from all lanes and we’re learning to how to drive for the 5-6 seconds out of the blocks before going into a float.

We’ve mostly left ‘intervals’ behind us in favor of ‘reps’, meaning that our rest periods are much longer, we’re doing far fewer total runs and all speed days require spikes.

Athletes can now hit their times within a tenth or two in either direction and can generally tell you what their workouts should be (if you’ve taught them well) and by week 8 they aren’t complaining about feeling so ‘heavy’ all the time.

In meets, athletes are running more open 100s and 200s. The 4×4 is still part of their lives, generally at least 2/3 meets during this time.

Weeks 9-12 – Competition

True ‘fun track’ has arrived. The League Championship or first major meet is just a week or two away. Recovery days consist of extended warm up routines and a few strides. Non-CNS days are done in 45 minutes and people either take off right away or stay to socialize. Athletes are smiling in the warm weather and talking about where they’re going to be seeded for the upcoming championship meets. There’s a good chance there’s a few seeding sheets going around and people are talking about the PR’s they’ll run and how their relays will do.

Speed work is all full recovery and you generally let athletes run when they’re good and ready. Additionally, speed work is all various elements of race modeling:

1. The start and drive phase
2. floating the turn
3. the transition from the turn to the straight or sling shotting the turn
4. lifting over the last 50meters
5. even learning how to time the lean at the tape

We’re still in the weight room of course. Generally we’re in there until athletes start to peak. Some athletes prefer to keep lifting a couple sets early in the week of a major meet, others don’t.

At this point of the season, as the saying goes:

The hay is in the barn.

You’ve either prepared your 200 runners to get through the rounds and run a good relay leg or you haven’t. But there’s nothing you can really do about it now.

Meet events are all business and athletes are trying to prime themselves for a big PR at their biggest meet. So they’re running their post-season events now.

If you follow this general format for your season, the timing of your progressions should all come together at the right time. Of course, this is all dependent on your writing your athletes’ training plan starting from Week 12 and working backward to Day 1, Week 1.

You have to know where you want to go before you can figure out how you’re going to get there. But by teaching your athletes how to run the race the way I suggested and following this general outline, your 200 meter sprinters will run their Personal Best.