Michael Khmel: 200 & 400 Meter Long Sprints Drills (DVD)

Michael Khmel: The Best of British Track & Field 200M & 400M Long Sprints Drills (DVD)

If you are not familiar with name Michael Khmel, check out his podcast and his other product review here.

Michael Khmel is the Senior Performance Coach for Sprints and Relays for the UK.

This DVD covers three aspects of running the 200 and 400 meters in relation to drills: (1) Basic running drills (2) Arm mechanics (3) How to run the curve.  According to Kheml, these are the three errors for long sprinters that can be easily corrected using drills.

In the running drills section, he covers the basic back kick drills to focus on low leg recovery form.  In addition, Coach Khmel shares his insight on maintaining a tall posture for ideal running form.  Higher hips means less ground contact time.

For arm mechanics, he discusses the proper arm movement with a stationary arm motion that focuses on keeping the shoulders stable while maintaining proper motion.   Rotation, whether it’s over or under, must be carefully controlled.  Ideal arm angles during the running motion is also discussed.

For curve running, Khmel presents a drill sequence that teaches techniques and strategies for proper form on the bend in order to allow the maximum speed coming out of the curve.   This is usually the case for 200 meters when most coaches use the term “slingshot”.  For the 400m, deceleration has already begun prior to the final home straight so maintaining form and optimizing stride length and stride frequency is the key, all while staying relaxed.

Of course, indoor oval events has twice as many curves!

This video was produced in 2009 and is 38 minutes long.

Michael Khmel: The Best of British Track & Field 200M & 400M Long Sprints Drills (DVD)

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