stride variables

    Posted In: Sprints

        • Participant
          vhall on July 31, 2007 at 12:23 pm #13265

          Will someone please describe the interaction of stride length, stride frequency and number of steps within a particular distance. Is it likely that a faster athlete will take the same number of steps in a 40yd or 100m sprint when a distinguishing factor is a longer stride length for the faster athlete?

          Could you please give a brief description of how stride length, stride frequency and number of steps interact between sprinters of differing performance? Is there any literature that examines these 3 variables?

          Thank you in advance.

        • Participant
          davan on August 1, 2007 at 12:11 am #65915

          That's a lot to ask, but one thing Charlie Francis has said on the subject, about Ben Johnson, is that his number of strides in the 100m stayed the same throughout much of his career (when he was running 10.2x and running 9.79), despite getting a lot faster. He said the difference was that he took more, shorter steps at the start and fewer, longer strides towards the end. That's just one case study, but maybe it'll help you.

        • Participant
          premium on August 1, 2007 at 12:58 am #65916

          stride length is how far apart your foot touchdowns are when your running, and it can be increase by increasing leg strenght
          your stride length usually increases was you approach top end speed

          stride frequency- im not sure what that is ,but it is probably how many strides you make per second

          i could add more but it would be opinion, so ill stop there

        • Participant
          tcnj28 on August 9, 2007 at 11:28 pm #65917

          I have always heard that the faster you are the less steps you take……which woudl make sense….sprinting fast is about frequency and stride length…..the longer the strides and quicker the strides the faster you will be….if you increase your stride you will decrease how many steps you take, no?

        • Keymaster
          Mike Young on August 30, 2007 at 10:54 pm #65918

          ….if you increase your stride you will decrease how many steps you take, no?

          Yes but it should be noted that you won't necessarily increase your speed. For an extreme example, imagine bounding…not very fast but you cover a lot of ground with each step.

          ELITETRACK Founder

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