If the upper body and arm movement is dialed in it will be much easier to hit the proper positions with the lower body. Remember, the goal of sprinting is to provide maximum vertical force to the ground.
In order to achieve that force, the pelvis or hips should be neutral (not tilting forward or backwards). This will create a stretch across the hip flexor muscles during the stride. Similar to the stretch of the arms, this will allow for an elastic return of the thigh to the front side of the body.
To sprint fast you need to have the foot land directly underneath the center of mass. Think of stepping over the knee and driving the foot straight down into the track.
Longer strides should be the result of applying more force to the ground which will automatically propel you forward.
Many athletes make the mistake of trying to cover more ground by lengthening their stride. This is a mistake and should avoided at all costs.
Over-striding or “reaching” is a killer when it comes to sprinting. The reason is because when you reach out for a longer stride you are going against your inertia. It’s like putting on the brakes every time your foot hits the ground.
Each stride will also be less powerful if it lands in front of the body. You won’t be in a position to fully utilize the strength of the quads and gluteus muscles. Reaching also puts unnecessary stress on the hamstrings.
Instead focus on pushing down to the track or ground with a neutral pelvis. Watch where the foot lands in relation to the body in the video below. Both athletes have a great stride length without reaching.
Responses
Fantastic as usual.
Good materials, gonna study all this and put in practice as I already being doing based on your videos.
Heck yeah, thanks Rossano!
Great review. I am a male who is 72 years of age. I have never trained or ran sprints until a few months ago with my primary goal being to compete in the 70 to 74 year Senior Olympic age group. Watching and reading the information above made it very clear that i have much to learn.
I very much enjoyed and appreciate all of the proper form and training that this article describes. You did it in a manner that was clear and easy for a novice to understand. Thank you .
Sincerely Claude
Great job !
Appreciate the kind words Claude! Really great to hear. Best of luck with your training and let us know how it goes once competition resumes.
Great info, I have a background in barbell training and combat sports, however I detest steady state cardio and I needed more conditioning to combat the middle aged weight gain. Over the covid curfew I decided to do what I been talking for years-sprint. I started on the 40 yd incline in my parking garage and have been using vid on youtube to self coach and avoid injury. . I like this comprehensive page because as I progressed and became more educated I realized I had questions on drive, foot strike and posture. This gives me good info to progress..safely. I am quite aware that trying to move a 45y/o, 200lb frame in a sprint can really pull something lol
I’m looking forward to receiving DVD. In just reviewing and applying technique from your YouTube videos,the next day I was able to surge another 5 mph beyond my maximum uphill intervals ! I’m a 1500 meter runner looking to improve my surge and kick and maximum speed. I have recently converted well to midfoot strike (with light heel touch) from the hell of heel striking (ughh- injuries). My cadence is very high (200-240)in 400M, but stride length low. So I need drills, strength and flexibility to drive glutes and achieve good escape velocity and stride length.Thanks. Can’t wait!
Thanks for the comment Christopher, that is great to hear! The course will certainly help you develop your stride. I sent you an email about accessing the course (it’s digital vs DVD). Keep us updated on your progress!
Hey guys my name is Oscar, I’m an 18 year old spanish athlete and here’s my problem.
The thing is that I’m a very powerful sprinter, but my problem is that all that force is aplied to the ground in the wrong way because my steps are too loud, my coach says that that i aply so much force to the track that I could be losing about half a second and even a second in my runs, and i don’t know how to correct that, any guesses? I would apreciate a lot that you guys reply to me.
Looking forward to hear from you, have a good one
Hi Oscar. the good news is that there is no such thing as applying too much force down to the ground. Usain Bolt has been studied and researchers found he could produce about 1000 pounds of force with each stride! So you want to keep your force production as high as possible. It sounds like there may be other areas of your technique to improve if your feet are making a loud sound. Look at where your foot is contacting the ground (in front, underneath center of mass etc.) Look at how your foot is contacting the ground and where you are landing. Look at your posture – is your back straight and are you hitting the “hard post.”
Other areas to check are stride length vs frequency.
We’re about to release a new sprinting course this month that goes into great detail concerning these areas. Let me know if you are interested and I’ll send you a discount code. Good Luck!
Good teaching guide to apply to our young and potentials. Would like to appeal for more guides in Running Techniques and Running Form
Good article. Is this equally helpful for kids of age 7 – 9 years as well for making them the future best sprinters? What additional pre and post drills are necessary to bring perfection of good body postures? Thanks for all great information.
Hello Hansraj, thanks for the question. Yes, they will most certainly help kids 7-9, getting good habits established early is key to sprinting success as they mature. Check out our free videos for more drills that help with posture and of course our sprinting master classes (Speed Progression and Sprinting Smarter) include a ton of drills that address all aspects of sprinting.