Workout Wednesday: Olympic Coach Loren Seagrave's Sprint/Hurdle Tips

Your quads aren’t the problem. You need to orient your legs so that they do most of the movement in front of the body. This is called “frontside mechanics.” Check out Carl Lewis, Frankie Fredericks, and Asafa Powell to see this in action. A good way to train this movement is with Loren Seagrave’s thigh pop drills. Video: link to this video Ralph Mann discussing frontside mechanics with an athlete: link to this video

The first step is to continue training. You will improve over time. Two things I’m noticing: There’s a lack of intentionality in the arms. You want to drive the arms, staying relaxed at the shoulder joint. As the leg passes behind the body, you’re sort of lagging. Elite sprinters rip the leg from the ground as it passes behind the body (slow down the attached video to 0.25 to get a good look). This can be rehearsed directly with drills like scissor bounds and thigh pops, as well as indirectly through exercises like sit ups.

You would keep the feel while relaxing the knee to restore the cyclic movement. The thigh pop is meant to initiate the hip flexion movement in sprinting. link to this video

I agree with the premise that 13 year olds should focus on sprinting regularly and improving mechanics. I’d like to address a few of the ideas that you expressed past that point. > I’d be in the top 10 sprinters of all time if I used the most expensive training philosophies With all due respect, I think this underestimates the significant role of genetics in sprinting performance. Following the methods you described will likely prove difficult for a 13 year old due to financial barriers. Because I’m not fully familiar with Adarian Barr, Chong Xie, or David Weck, I won’t criticize their philosophies on running. It’s worth noting that none of them have trained or had a significant role in t…