Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Mike Young - 30 July 2008 08:06 PM

How I described I like it or how I described Powell?

How you like it, with the toes on the ground.

00Scoots - 31 July 2008 06:19 AM

Mike Young - 30 July 2008 08:06 PM

How I described I like it or how I described Powell?

How you like it, with the toes on the ground.

Yeah. I’ve found that it provides more stability and theoretically, it should also put the plantarflexors on greater stretch which should aid (very slightly) force production.

00Scoots - 30 July 2008 07:44 AM

 
Mike- I know that you are a huge proponent of having the heels touching the pad to create a stiffer pillar on the start

Tom Tellez talks about how you might get less of the stretch reflex of the leg when you set your blocks to have your heels touching the pad.  I wanted to see what you guys think about this and what angles the blocks should be set at.  You can hear the interview at http://www.athleticscoaching.ca/default.aspx?pid=11&spid=82&sspid=103
He starts discussing it around 29 minutes.

getit - 31 July 2008 05:49 PM

Tom Tellez talks about how you might get less of the stretch reflex of the leg when you set your blocks to have your heels touching the pad.  I wanted to see what you guys think about this and what angles the blocks should be set at.  You can hear the interview at http://www.athleticscoaching.ca/default.aspx?pid=11&spid=82&sspid=103
He starts discussing it around 29 minutes.

He actually discussed this point quite a bit in the recent ELITETRACK super clinic at the Olympic Trials in Eugene. He was questioned about it though because even when the midfoot is on the pad, there’s still a quite obvious stretch reflex of the gastroc complex when viewed sagitally with even a standard camcorder recording (i.e. high frame rates aren’t necessary). With this in mind he didn’t seem to be as definitive as it originally seemed.

In Beijing there were a ton of athletes short and tall VERY high on the blocks…I saw 2 athletes with their feet 4-6” above the ground. Obviously this isn’t something that one could do on ‘standard’ starting blocks since it requires an extra high pedal but this seems to be something that is either being coached or athletes are doing ‘XYZ does it so that must be why XYZ runs fast’ reasoning. I’m personally not aware of any American coaches that are instructing the athlete to be several inches high on the blocks but it’ll be an interesting trend to follow. Is this the new ‘head down = drive phase’ phenomenon?