Sprint form improvements with big results
Speed is the number one thing that agility athletes come to me to work on and I'm excited to talk to you about two common, and impactful, areas for improvement.
You’re going to learn some tools that will improve your sprinting mechanics and speed. Without good sprinting mechanics, the speed doesn't follow.
What I’m going to show you right now, and what I want you to take from it when you're watching this, is how much a person's speed can improve with a focused effort on their form and mechanics.
This is possible and you can do it too.
The two areas we’re discussing today are knee height and foot strike position.
KNEE HEIGHT
We are going to talk about knee height first. When you drive your knee higher and you’re sprinting, it maximizes your power development. The higher your knee can go you're going to be able to apply a greater force to the ground which is going to enable you to push off harder.
You could think about your knee like a hammer and you’re hammering a nail into a board. The harder you hit the hammer onto the nail, the deeper that nail is going go into the board and faster.
In that same way, the higher the knee goes, the harder the foot can hit the ground. And actually, that cue of hitting a nail into the ground underneath you is a great way to make good contact with your foot into the ground and create that really powerful movement that we're looking for.
After a little practice under your belt, the knee driving up creates a bit of height and buoyancy off the ground.
Okay, so how do you pattern really good knee height? Here are some drills that I’ve used successfully with hundreds of people. Aim for 30 seconds a side.
What I’d love you to do is almost over-correct your knee height. Practice HEIGHT. I’ll tell you right now that with the excitement and handling, your knee height is naturally going to drop. “Train hard, trial easy.”
MOBILITY AND KNEE HEIGHT
One thing that can affect adequate knee height drive is mobility. These are my favourite ways to build the mobility you need for this movement. Aim for 30-60 seconds per side.
FOOT STRIKE POSITION
Ideally, when sprinting the foot will land right below you on the forefoot. When you’re jogging it’s mid foot, and when walking your heel will touch first.
Heel striking is when the foot extends in front and you touch the ground first with your heel. We don’t like heel striking for sprinting. Heel striking when sprinting is slowing you down and is really hard on your joints.
As a species, we are not designed to be landing on our heels when sprinting but modern footwear with its dense foam heel makes this possible without discomfort. The dense foam absorbs the impact and if you were to take your shoes off, please don’t and just trust me here, and try to sprint with heel striking there is no way your body would allow it. It hurts too much!
It is also not an ideal landing position from a ‘pushing off to the next stride’ perspective. When you land on the forefoot you can seamlessly pull the knee into the next stride. If you land on your heel you’ve got a distance to rock over before you’re in a position to push off again. Major loss of efficiency and power.
These drills are going to help you connect with where you should be landing on your feet when you're sprinting, which is more the ball of your foot.
What I'd love for you to do is film yourself 30-50 meters from the camera. You’ll want to catch a side view. With this new information, examine your stride.
Are you knees lifting to approx your hip height? Are your heels striking first? Analyzing your video will help you decide which of these two areas you need to work on.
WORKOUT FORMAT
Dynamic stretches 30-60 secs/side
Warm up with a light jog or power walk 3-5 mins
Foot strike drills 30 secs/side
Knee height drills 30 secs/side
Sprint 30-100 meters, 2-4 times. Rest as needed between runs. You should feel fairly fresh before you head into your next sprint.
Most important of all, be your biggest cheerleader! There are a lot of big feelings when it comes to our bodies. All of us. And especially when we’re trying new things! You’ve got this!!
