Top 14 Ways to Improve your Start - with or without Starting Blocks

Last Updated on March 23, 2015 by Jimson Lee

If you are looking for articles and videos on the start, you’ve come to the right place.

This Blog is over 7 years old, so there is a wealth of information here.

I’ve covered (with a little help from some guest writers) topics ranging from the infamous toe drag, how to use blocks, getting out of the blocks, the Bud Winter Rocket Sprint Start, 2 point starts, 3 point starts, 4 point starts, falling starts, and asymmetrical hand positions.

So there they are in chronological order as they were published on the Blog:

2014

Carmelita Jeter Block Analysis – Improving your Start

A great video analysis by Coach Adarian Barr, using both voice over, as well as frame by frame analysis on Carmelita Jeter start and drive phase. Not only do you see the good and the bad, but HOW TO correct it.

2013

Yohan Blake and the Rocket Sprint Start

Does Yohan Blake use the Rocket Sprint start, used by Armin Hary in 1960 and then subsequently Bud Winter? HINT: Read The Rocket Sprint Start

2012

Lolo Jones & Justin Gatlin: The Jamaican Toe Drag Revisited

Here is another great video analysis by Coach Adarian Barr, using footage taken from the London 2012 Olympics.

How to Do Different Starts… 2 Point, 3 Point, Falling Starts

Derek Hansen offers a great instruction video and DVD for sale on how to do various starts. Highly recommended for coaches for all sports where you need a great start, which sets up the speed correctly. It’s all about getting yourself in the right position

Jeff Demps Starting Block Technique

I used this technique for years, because I was taught to move my left had (with a right rear block) upwards and forcefully at the crack of the gun.

So, by using an asymmetrical hand position, with the left hand closer to the line than my right hand, it works for me.

Dwain Chambers “Jamaican” Toe-scrape Foot Drag

This is one of the highly controversial topics in the start. Physics show it is better. But it’s the stopwatch that counts!

What do you think?

Asafa Powell Starting Blocks Sequence

Here are some great stills of shin angles and joint angles to show one of the best starters in the world, Asafa Powell.

2011

The Rocket Sprint Start, 2011 Edition, now Available!

In 1964, Bud Winter published the book The Rocket Sprint Start based on Germany’s Armin Hary 100 meter victory at the 1960 Olympic Games.

If you’ve seen the vintage footage, you will agree on two facts: (1) he was one of the fastest starters of all time, and (2) his pickup in the first 20 yards was amazing.

What did he do differently? Read on…

Starting Blocks are Overrated!

Back in my days competing at the indoor Dartmouth college track meets, we did not use blocks for the oval events (200m & 400m). Why worry? Alan Wells didn’t use blocks in his early years until it was mandatory for all events under 400m, and the advent of electronic sensors to detect false starts.