[i]Originally posted by 2belite[/i]
The lower leg unfolding is a "reaction" not a "action". We as coaches must differentiate between the two and only coach the actions.
This is exactly what I'm saying! This is exactly the reason I never once mentioned actively opening the knee joint in my first post in this thread. I think you may be thinking that I'm talking about the b skips that you commonly see out on the track…..the ones with the ludicrous knee lift, active kick-out, and no active downward thigh acceleration. If this is the case, than we're not even talking about the same thing. The B drills I'm referring to are done with a knee lift to A position, as I originally stated, and not higher; and the opening of the leg is a passive reaction to the downward acceleration of the thigh. I'm not a huge fan of the B skip or any other drills for that matter for teaching sprint mechanics, but the fact of the matter is, if the thigh is accelerated downward with any rapidity whatsoever, the lower leg will open. The degree to which the leg opens (this is what I think we're getting hung up on here) will be dependent on the preceding actions. That is, if prior to the downward acceleration there was an equally fast forward and upward acceleration of the thigh (as is the case in sprinting) the lower leg will open more; likewise, if the thigh is taken beyond parallel with the ground (not what I'm suggesting, but what is often seen), the hamstring will have more tension and when the thigh is brought down the leg will open to a greater degree (as is commonly seen in B drills). Whether or not this action is very much like sprinting is another point. All I was indicating is that given the parameters that define a B drill, the way I suggested is the closest to correct sprint mechanics.
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