[Jake]

Jake on February 7, 2014 at 2:31 am #205596

Hi all,

Began training October 2012 totally new to athletics and after a month did my first competition getting 7.14 over 60m

Finished 2013 with 10.83 / 21.36

This year I took it on myself to do speedwork from day one including accel and max v once a week each except early in fall which was two accel. My coach doesnt believe in short to long and despite my best efforts his view wont change. I also got appointed a s+c coach and physiotherapist after gaining funding for it. Since working with them my technique has changed alot. I have had physio on my back as my QL was tight along with my hip flexors. My rom was terrible but now this is all improved. My sprint technique has changed too to display better low heel recovery and progressive angles.

Last week I did 3 60m races and I got 7.16 twice and 7.14.

 

Whats gone wrong! !!

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated

[David Gain]

David Gain on February 7, 2014 at 12:49 pm #205644

I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself over the 60m times, if you’re new to athletics then your technique won’t be particularly refined, and especially over 60m it doesn’t take a lot to screw a race up. I’ve run anything from 6.99 to 7.15 over 2 competitions this year so you’re not the only one!

This is a 200m where you ran 21.79 (lane 8)

And here’s a 100m where you ran 11.03 (lane 6)

I noticed a few things from the 100m video in particular:

1. In the set position your hips are a lot lower than everyone elses, and as a result you don’t seem to ‘spring’ out as fast as the guys either side of you when the guns goes. Changing my set position this indoor season was what got me my PB last week, and while not everyone starts exactly the same it could be worth looking at.

2. Your shoulders/upper body rock left to right slightly once up to speed, which will be wasting energy and putting your running action out of sync.

3. This links to the second point, and I don’t know if it’s the camera angle, but your knees don’t look like they are getting that high between strides. And if your leg swing is faster than your arm swing that could be what’s causing the upper body to rock as the actions overlap during the and of the leg cycle.

Hopefully some of the other guys will have some input too.

And good luck in the 200m this weekend too!

[Jake]

Jake on February 7, 2014 at 3:32 pm #205651

Thanks for the reply 🙂

The rocking is what my s+ c coach picked up something to do with my thoracic mobility and my QL which i went to therapy for and it seems to have sorted out.

Its funny you should say about the high knee lift, i noticed that on the video from last weekend and i seem to have really low knee lift, i know its something to do with anterior tilt but cannot really tell the pelvic tilt from video.

Also my first step seems to be bigger than my second and third, is that natural?? im not so sure.

Are you running this weekend too?

Good luck too and hope you do well 🙂

[David Gain]

David Gain on February 7, 2014 at 4:01 pm #205652

I was going to say, that 100m video was the first BAL match of the season so I thought you’d have probably been tweaking a few things since then. Good to hear you’re already working on it though.

Knee lift is something I’ve been trying to work on since last season too, I’ve been working on increasing my hamstring flexibility after I pulled one last year, and one of the benefits to the increased flexibility is some extra ROM/knee lift which should help with top end speed this season.

And yes it’s normal for the first stride to be longer than the second and third. Most sprinters really push out hard on the first step and seem to ‘hang’ in the air for a split second before touching down and driving out.

I’m not competing this weekend unfortunately, last year I had a good indoor season but my outdoors suffered because of the hamstring problem. So this year I’m only doing a couple of indoors and then just concentrating on making sure I enter the outdoor season fit enough to get through it injury free.

[Zack Trapp]

Zack Trapp on February 8, 2014 at 6:49 pm #205687

1.) Is there a difference in training load between last year and this year? There is a huge difference in running a time in the middle of a hard training block versus when your in competitive phase type training. What did the week leading up to the meet look like?

2.) What were the tracks like surface wise? Did you have good competition this year?

3.) Does your S&C coach know what your doing on the track when planning workouts? It could be problematic if your trying to do conflicting things on the track compared to the weight room.v

4.) Typically, improvements in speed from mechanical improvements take time as the body has to adapt to the firing patterns of the new, but more efficient range of motion.

5.) I could be wrong, but typically the first push out of the blocks IS longer than the second, but not the third. It could be a problem of over-emphasizing a full push on the first step compared to the next ones.

Hope this was helpful.

[Jake]

Jake on February 10, 2014 at 3:55 pm #206303

Thanks for the reply!!

1) training load is a moderately higher and more high intensity work, last year was very much tempo based.
2) Track was lee valley a very fast track from what ive heard and competition was very high
3) S+C coach periodizes the year according to my coach
4) Thats what i was thinking but how long would this adaption take??

thanks again 🙂