Proper Sprinting Form In 3 Steps

Ken Harnden outlines a three-step plan to improve sprinting form, focusing on head position, hip alignment, and low heel recovery.

Want to increase your speed and develop proper sprinting form? Your just 3 steps away! Olympic Sprinting Coach Ken Harnden has a three-step plan to help you reach your goals, plus tips on how to review your sprinting videos. You'll get detailed breakdowns on technique with slow motion sprinting demonstrations by Mustaqeem Williams, so you can see exactly what proper form looks like. 0:00 Introduction 0:13 HEAD & HIP POSITION 2:01 FOOT-HIP RELATIONSHIP 2:50 LOW HEEL RECOVERY 4:00 TOOLS FOR SLOW MOTION VIDEO SPRINTING EVALUATION The first step is all about head and hip positions. Where your head is in relation to your body has a massive impact on your sprinting posture and form. A big mistake a lot of athletes make is trying to 'stay low.' This causes the center of mass to move forward and reduces power by causing the hips to tuck. Another common mistake is having the head too high. This causes an over-rotation of the hips and shifts the center of mass back. In this lesson you'll learn what the proper head position looks like for sprinting and tips on how to achieve it. The second step focuses on ground contact. Where the foot strikes the ground in relation to the center of mass has a big impact on speed. You want to align your forces in the direction you want to go (for sprinting this means down the track). Coach Harnden provides valuable insight on where the foot should land and why it's so important. The third step centers around low heel recovery. The fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line. When sprinters have a high heel recovery they are spending too much time in the air (and effectively increasing the length of that line). Naturally this leads to longer air time during the flight phase of the sprint which isn't ideal. Athletes that spend a lot of time in the air don't spend much time on the podium. Why? Because speed is stride length multiplied by stride frequency and having a high heel recovery will really hurt stride frequency. Finally as a bonus Ken talks about what he looks for when reviewing slow motion video of sprinting. These tips work great for athletes and coaches alike. Get the Speed Progression Master Class outperformsports.com/product/sprinting-smarter-speed-progres… instagram.com/outperformsports/ #sprinting #runfaster #trackandfield #speedtraining #100meter