I saw that elite sprinters like Mo Greene, Crawford and Gatlin etc. swing their arms sideways (driving their elbows outwards)……is there any implications to sprint mechanics??
Thanks~!
Arm Swing
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Participant
All important at the start of your race, it reduces the unconsious and actual physical need to maximize power by building up from side to side, so in other words:
Instead of going wide with your feet out of the blocks and in drive phase (what mo straightened out just before the ahtens final), doing so with your arms/upperbody displaces this momentous force and also makes up for the natural need to do this.
Coming out of our blocks we actually want to stay alligned with foot posistion from our “set” posistion.
(One foot in Front of the other).
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Participant
Good point. However, it is coincidental, notice that you will see many such as gatlin/doc patton/kim collins with arms in a chopping-type style/straight out in front – up and down when in MaxV. However, during acceleration this may be a different story.
Another point is in noticing the size of Maurices Lat muscles (and the rest under his shoulders), he has lats the size of college wrestlers and so does Capel, Crawford, Leonard Scott and Coby Miller. They can’t help but running/appearing that way, or even when not running; that’s just the way he is built – or has built himself. I’m almost 100% sure. Overall, it makes no big difference here, although swinging arms/being relaxed are obviously important in a natural sprinters motion, little things such as open/closed hands and how your arms appear to be, are not.
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KeymasterI don’t think it’s a big deal. The main function of the arms is to counterbalance the motion of the legs and add to vertical propulsive forces. As long as the arm swing matches the leg swing in amplitude and speed then I think it’s doing its job. In fact, I think that a slight cross towards the midline is beneficial.
Contrary to popular belief, the arm swing does not contribute to the horizontal force production of a runner (except during early acceleration). This is because the arm that is moving backward cancels out any forward propulsive forces created by the forward swinging arm. Despite not contributing to horizontal propulsive forces, the arms do contribute significantly to vertical propulsive forces (which is the limiting factor in top end sprinting). This is because despite the spatial phase difference of the arm swing in the forward-backward direction, both arms move are synchronized in their upward and downward movement. The synchronized upward movement of the arms increases ground reaction forces and thus increases vertical ground reaction forces. In light of the fact that the arm swing doesn’t directly contribute to horizontal force production and it does contribute to vertical force production, the argument that an arm swing that crosses the body is detrimental to horizontal speed is pretty much moot.
In fact, in proper sprinting mechanics, the pelvis will rotate in all three planes with every stride. Likewise the shoulders should rotate slightly to counteract the action of the pelvis. So if we were to view a mechanically sound runner from overhead, we’d actually see that the shoulders and hips would move in a scissor like fashion. That is, as the right side pelvis moves forward, the left shoulder would also move forward. This rotation would contribute to the appearance of the arm swing moving towards the midline.
ELITETRACK Founder
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