“The Start” has always been a fan favorite for discussion.
Everyone worries about the start to shave a few tenths of a second, when they could work on speed endurance and shave a few seconds, especially in a 200m.
Then again, a good start sets you up for all phases of the race. So you might as well execute to the best of your ability and let the pieces fall in place.
I wrote about Valeri Borzov – A Clinic on Sprinting from Starting Blocks – First 3 Steps and Usain Bolt Training Regimen Video – The Start.
I’ll post Asafa Powell’s sequence next week.
Now, we can’t forget about Carl Lewis, can we? (I am sure some of the Carl-haters are saying “yes”!)
Carl Lewis was a relatively tall sprinter, and back then, coaches thought tall sprinters didn’t start well compared to a shorter sprinter, like Andre Cason. Despite being tall, Carl has excellent form coming out of the blocks, thanks to Tom Tellez and countless hours of practice.
Today, Usain Bolt is rewriting the record books… literally.
Before I attempt to dissect his start (in a future article), I’ll put up the photo sequence of his first 3 steps, courtesy of the IAAF NSA. The number below each frame is for reference purpose only.
This video was from a 200m start at the 1988 Olympics.
Jimson Lee
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Tellez theories emphasize that one should think of the forces being ‘down and back’ at the start before transitioning to them being down (He advocates ‘put the foot down’) as one accelerates out and is into their full running.
Funnily enough that whilst Carl’s splits over the first 30m were never setting the World on fire in the 100m , his start in the 200m was often very good and he’d make up the stagger pretty well.
I never really liked Carl’s trunk position when starting. I know Tellez says to let the torso unravel naturaly, but I feel that Carl kinda stood up pretty quickly even compared to everyone else in the ‘pre-drive phase’ era.
But what do I know, at one point Carl held the 60yd World Best!!