If you had a 4x1 that went 52.9 at a meet with one lineup of 4 girls, then did a TT in a practice with the same girls but in different order that did 53.6 would you make that change? Basically I am putting my best 2 runners on the curves with the 3rd leg being about 115m and putting the slowest girl as anchor. They only ran against themselves.
One girl did about 10-12 vaults today in practice beforehand the others only did relay handoffs before the TT for old order. I only told them today about the TT.
It can't hurt to try it. From a personal standpoint if I have two really fast kids and two slow, I will usually put the slower two in front, squeeze what I can out of them, and then let the fastest two try to catch. Thats just my way, not that it is right or wrong.
A 53.6 at practice should go significantly faster against competition. I would give it a shot. Good Luck!
I agree about the competition part, but how much faster. significant is 5%, if they run a 50 flat, I'll piss my pants. Considering the size of my school and the lack of a real stud at the small school HS level. I hope I can get my girl who went sub 8 55m FAT in feb then had a stress fracture.
basically it lines up like this 2-3-1-4 with 1-2-3 being relatively even, but 1 is better 200m runner than 2, and 3 is worse than both 1 and 2 @ 200m. I currently use 3-4-1-2 just like you and 1-2 currently go about 205-7m.
for our program we have always used our slowest person second. i would maybe put 2 lead off to 4 then to 1 and finally to 3. This way you give your fastest girl a nice longer leg through the corner which she might handle better than the rest. just a thought.
Currently my 4 x 1 goes 4 then 2 then 3 to 1. We have run 49.23 Fat, so there isn't a real huge diff between the runners. I love this subject though, there is so much room for a coach to manipulate different variables in relays. All this really breaks down to the particular athletes that are on your team. Usually I try to pop off my slower kids and run to the faster ones, but I have changed that in the past when the kids didn't fit the plan.
Unless there are special circumstances I'd typically prefer to have my best guy on 2nd because that leg permits the longest stick carry (~115m). My current 4 x 1 are all better 200m guys than 100m so it isn't really an issue. I've got my lone senior (and only true short sprinter) at anchor so he can carry the stick across the line during his senior year.
a quick question: does everyone use the 1,3-2,4 method for handoffs? we dont because we dont have a great 4x1 or 4x2 for that matter, however if we perfected this would it help overall (2-4 meters per handoffs is what ive heard). we have very good marks and our handoffs are getting there, but lack of athletes i dont think our guys can do any better than 4-5 in the conference. suggestions? thanks
in 4x1 definitely always do alternating hands blind exchanges, in 4x2 you can get away with semi-visual excahnges.
We typically have 2 good exchanges with 1 ok to bad one. I am working on lengthening the amount of acceleration zone they use. I just had to recue them to stop from lifting their heads after exchanges have taken place.
I don't see why people prefer putting the slowest runner on anchor position. I think its more of a psychological strategy that people try taking the lead first. For us we put the fastest on anchor, who could move up 2 to 3 positions. And we place the 200m specialist on the 3rd leg because it is not only a curve, but as long as the second leg. It's not so much of who is faster, but what each of their strengths are; the one with the best explosive power and acceleration phase runs the 1st leg, etc.
1st leg is usually the slowest leg of all the legs, starting from blocks and all, but it can 90-110m long, just like the anchor leg can be, but it's typically close to 100m.
