5 common sprint mistakes: Start and Acceleration
Sports Performance Coach Shares 5 Ways to Sprint Faster
The ability to move the body in synch is an extremely undervalued capability. Most people workout one muscle group at a time. They’re strong in single areas, but not when the body is required to move as a single unit. When they try to activate various strong muscle groups at once, they don’t understand why they can’t generate the same power. Those who can, rarely realize the complexity of what they are doing. The people who can’t move their body in synch usually don’t realize it. There are incredible performance benefits that can be unlocked by understanding how the body moves as a single unit. Just a few technical adjustments to an individual’s movements Can yield amazing performance benefits. Here are 5 common errors, causes, and corrections in sprint technique.
Sports performance Tip 1: Places arms at shoulder width
If you are looking to generate as much power as possible, you have to keep all parts of the body in line. By getting wider than shoulder width you decrease the efficiency of your starting speed!
Sports performance Tip 2: ~90 degree in front knee
In the initial push, your rear leg produces greater initial force, but your front leg must exert force longer of the two, thus having more influence on the start. To have a powerful start, you need to put yourself in optimal starting position. If you’re hips are too high or too low, you lose efficiency in your acceleration. When setting up, adjust your hip height. Your front knee should be about 90 degrees. Clarification:, Sub elite sprinters hip height front=about 50degrees hip height rear about 90degrees. Elite sprinters hip height front=about 40degrees hip height rear about 80degrees.
Sports performance Tip 3: Load the whole body not just the arms
Remember what your purpose is, you are sprinting not doing bicep curls! The arm set up is important! However, to produce the power output needed for your greatest acceleration potential. You must distribute your body weight evenly across the body. By putting too much weight into the arms, you are affecting your hip and knee angle as well as direction of power. Solution: Raise your hips upward instead of forward, straighten arms and distribute the weight evenly!
Sports performance tip 4: Focus your eyes on the ground
Don’t raise your head up to look in the direction you are sprinting as you come out of the starting blocks. You are causing unnecessary tension in your dorsal muscles! If you are concerned about the safety of the course, check for pot holes before you get into stance, otherwise, keep your head down during the start. Keep your eyes on the ground until you get going.
Sports performance Tip 5: Don’t skip sprinting steps
Premature upright posture is often the cause of inadequate push-off force. You should not be in upright posture until you get into the maximum velocity phase. This means you are no longer in the start/acceleration phase which is about 25yards into your sprint.
These 5 sprint adjustments may take some practice and relearning. Once your body adjusts, you will see great improvement in your acceleration and it may even transfer to an increase in top speed.
Kirill Vaks
BA, CSCS, ACSM-cpt, NFPT-sns
Performance and Fitness specialist
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The power plate, a vibrating plate, which many assume is a gimmick! A machine that looks like a doctor scale on steroids, you stand on it and it stimulates your muscles? That’s right! The problem is not with the technology, but the way it has been used in the past. Many, think of the shake weight, “Hold this! and you’ll get a workout!”. The science behind the power plate goes much further, as well as the range of exercises that come with the power plate. Let’s go through the facts!
The topic on Steroids has been brought up often in the past 10 years. It seems each year a new sports figure is found using them. Commercials, informing the public, of the dangers of using steroids have become more popular but share only the worst case scenario. Before I continue, keep in mind, I believe in getting results naturally, without the use of steroids or any other performance enhancing drug(s). However, I also believe a person should have accurate information and then have free choice on how to act. If you have a strong diet, challenge yourself every time you train and live a healthy life style, results will come to you. There is no greater feeling than not only reaching your maximum potential but then sustaining it! However, Let’s better define the process and affects.
championship. By 1960 use of anabolic steroids spread to other Olympic sports. Presently, hype and drama of steroid use is pervasive in professional sports. However, steroids are also used by many who are outside of organized sports. A national survey was conducted among high school seniors. The survey showed that 7% of respondents were using or had used steroids. One-third of the admitted users were not involved in school sponsored sports and more than one-fourth were using to improve appearance as opposed to athletic performance.
The short term use of steroids, may have a few more benefits since the adverse effects are not as prevalent. However, in short term use, the concern is more on will the person be able to only complete 1 cycle? When hormones are out of balance, mental stability can be more vulnerable.
Now the follow up to the approach “just keep trying” is.. “so I should just hang there?” Yes… & no! As you hang there for as long as your grip allows, try to pull yourself up as much as you can (anything is better than nothing). Hang and pump! Activate the muscles that should be pulling you up, this way your body gets a taste of what is to come. There are also modified exercises which must be done to accompany hanging there. Begin doing a “control down” or eccentric pull up. Begin at the top of the pull up, your arms at 90 degrees or chin to bar (use a step, plyo box, or just jump up into the pull up position.) Then control the motion from the top down as slow as possible. To add another exercise into it, you can also use an assisted pull up machine. Make sure to challenge yourself when performing assisted pull-ups. If you can do more than 4 reps, decrease the assisted weight until you are doing them on your own.
bell!? (For me personally, there is nothing more exciting.) True kettlebell exercises are power exercises. In other words, by the definition of power, maximizing work performed per unit of time, by incorporating more muscles, you increase the amount of work done. Simply, power exercises force you to do more work than regular exercises, thereby yielding more energy used, or more calories burned. You may be asking how this helps bypass the knee pain. Power exercises incorporate your whole body, which all stems from the hips. The kettlebell exercises use minimal knee bending!
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