In this blog I’m going to be talking a little bit about sprinting/running form and common mistakes I see when training athletes. Most of the time when I see athletes begin to run, or are coming from a place where they may not sprint often there is a lot of tightness in their upper body. When they run they are putting out so much effort that they end up tightening up and slowing themselves down. You always want to emphasize a “relaxed” sprint. It will take a while for young athletes to get this because 90% of the time when they relax their effort level of output will decrease along with the relaxation. When an athlete relaxes you want them to keep their legs and arms moving at the same pace just without as many tense muscles.

You also want to watch their foot strike and this is something you may be able to catch in their movement screen. Some athletes are fast but their foot strike is HEEL_TO TOE . This is not what you want to see at all, especially when sprinting. You want to have athletes striking midfoot/ball of foot. The heel should never touch. Some athletes also REACH in front of themselves when they run. Reaching/Over striding is when an athlete foot extends past the knee when the right or left leg is in front during their stride. When the foot is in front the shin angle should be perpendicular to the ground, or the thigh and shin should be roughly 90 degrees. This prevents the athlete from putting extra strain on their hamstring. When the athlete “Reaches”, or the foot extends too far past the knee and the athlete brings the foot back to strike the ground in a pulling motion moving into the next stride, it will most likely strike the ground in front of their body/hips causing them BLOCK, meaning the foot lands in front of their hips SLOWING them down, and causing them to have to use their hamstring to pull the foot all the way from the front side to the back side. That’s a lot of work and also how many athletes injure hamstrings because of this. You want foot strike to be as close to directly under the hips as possible when in a full sprint.

Another way to change this would be something I know as ankle runs but others may know as dribble runs. Ankle runs can be done 3 ways small medium and large. An ankle run is a run where the foot only cycles as high as a certain part of the leg. Small goes to the Ankle, Medium, goes to the calf and Large to the knee.

The purpose of these drills is to perfect the mechanics of the run so that there is not too much front side or backside in an athletes run.

Another thing to watch is the athlete’s arm. Are they coming across the body? Or are they moving in a linear path at their sides. We want all motion moving the athlete forward so any movement across the body should be eliminated. Simple arm drills in a mirror or drills holding a light weight can help an athlete be conscious of their arms and make sure that they are relaxed and moving linearly. Always emphasize relaxation. Any unneeded tightness always slows the athlete down.

Below I have provided a link to wicket runs. It also comes along with a brief explanation of how and why coaches can do them.

Wicket runs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl-Q-WUUBzQ

Dribble Runs by ALTIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHv8Q-55TRY

Here you will notice he is landing flat foot. If an athlete is having trouble keeping dorsi flexion (toe up/flat) when sprinting you could have them do it this way. Otherwise I suggest landing the same way you would run, on the ball of the foot.