Many sprinters work on developing greater flexibility and faster.Some sprinters now bench press more than 300 pounds and squat more than 400 pounds. Improving sprint running technique can lead to as much, if not more,progress, often in a shorter period. For the most part, sprint technique has been ignored mainly because most coaches believe running is innate either you have it or you don’t.In my work with athletes, I have found that every athlete has been able to improve running speed by modifying technique. Too often, coaches and athletes go by the adage that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This is old-fashioned thinking. If Henry Ford and other early car makers thought the same way, we would still be driving Model Ts. There is always room for improvement, even for a world-class performer.
To compound matters, ranning usually is surrounded by entrenched myths. Runners constantly are being told to kick themselves in the butt when bringing the swing leg through, to land on the heel first when making contact with the ground, and to lean forward when in full stride. Close examination of the world’s best sprinters shows all of these recommendations are erroneous.
Instead of wasting time kicking oneself in the butt, the key element in sprinting is to drive the knee forward as quickly and as forcefully as possible after the pushoff in order to prepare for the next landing. Contact with the ground is usually made on the ball of the foot and, in some cases, almost flatfooted.
To make such contact, however, it is necessary to bring the swing leg, which extends fully out in front of the body, downward and backward as forcefully as possible. The faster the leg is moving backward when it makes contact with the ground, the more the braking forces are minimized, the more the upper body is thrown forward and the more you land on the ball of the foot. As a result, when the pushoff occurs, it is in the horizontal direction, rather than vertical. When running longer distances, bringing the leg down and back still is needed, and you should never land on the heel first. The heel hit not only acts as a strong braking force to forward progress, but the impact forces can, in time, injure the body.
The only time a runner should lean forward is when accelerating. Once achieving full stride, the trunk should be erect. This positioning allows for more effective hip joint action to bring the thigh forward and down and backward during the running stride.
The pushoff is done mainly with ankle extension. During the landing, when contact is made on the ball of the foot, the Achilles’ tendon and the calf muscles accumulate a great deal of energy via the eccentric contraction. This energy is given back during the pushoff.
Note that in world-class runners the landing and pushoff are executed in. 10 of a second or less, .05 of a second is for the landing and .05 of a second for the pushoff. If you instead landed on the heel, the pushoff would take .04 -.05 of a second (or more), which would slow you down tremendously.
Once you master the key elements of the sprint (powerful forward knee drive, paw-back and an effective pushoff via ankle extension), you should then do special strength and explosive exercises to develop the speed of execution of these actions. The exercises must be very specific to these actions or they will have little benefit.