[quote]diggers04 wrote:
Since its Friday I guess this is a little late but in case you ever run another 40 here’s my 2 cents:
you will make more improvements over 40 yds by practicing the first 10 yards. you should cover the first 10 yds in 5-7 steps. a lot of guys think quick turnover is key but actually the opposite is true. drive out hard and cover as much ground as possible. don’t try to reach forward when driving out though, that will just cause a breaking action. it just takes practice.
everyone else covered the start pretty well but i will throw in some stuff that helped me too. keep your feet about hip width apart when starting, if you are too narrow your balance is compromised and you lose stability. if you are too wide you lose power. think of the width you would keep your feet when performing a vert. jump. depending on height, you should try to keep a heel-toe relationship between your feet.
this allows you to utilize power from both feet on your first step rather than driving off the front foot only. a really easy way to determine your front foot in the stance is to use whatever leg you jump off of best. most right handers use there left foot.
here’s another little tip courtesy of Joe D…after you have set your feet, instead of just bending down and putting your hand on the line, place both hands a foot or so in front of the starting line and balance your weight over all 4 points of contact as best as you can. then, bring your down hand (right hand if left leg is forward) to line the line. from here all you do is bring the left arm back at a 90 degree angle to your hip and you’ll be ready.
you will need to practice this because you won’t be able to hold this position very long without falling over. it will allow you to get as much of your body over the line as possible and give you an advantage on your first step distance. Keep your eyes about 3 feet down the track to focus on where you want that first step to land with your neck and face relaxed.
Just practice the set up and sprints out to 10 yds for awhile and gradually increase the distance until you run full 40’s. remember you aren’t conditioning and don’t exceed 300yds total volume in any session.
just a side note, you are a football player and not a 40yd dasher so don’t get consumed in practicing this stuff all year. i would train for speed/agility specific to your position and start practicing the 40 a couple weeks before camp or whenever testing comes around.
a 4.5 guy who has bad technique and doesn’t understand his responsibilities will play slower than a 4.8 kid with good technique and understanding of schemes and responsibilities. Kelly Baggett said once that in football there are only 2 speeds…fast enough and too slow. good luck[/quote]
[quote]Scottish 190 wrote:
Shoot, I didn’t see this thread before I made my own post about Kelly’s new sprinting article over at EliteFTS. Anyway, here’s the link to it:
Ya, I read that article - great article. I must say, though, I was in toronto at the SWIS symposium a couple months ago and Defranco gave a presentation which was exactly the same as Baggett’s article. I wonder if Baggett was in toronto also and he collaborated with coach D. Regardless, that article speaks the truth and is simple to understand. those r the kind of articles that i like:)
Steel
Joe has definitely impacted my thinking and more importantly has verified a lot of the same things I’ve seen over the years. For a long time I’ve maintained that sprinting is a high intensity event like powerlifting or something like that. Along those lines, I’ve noticed over the years that everytime I train a guy trying to improve short distance sprint times pretty much the same way I’d train a squatter trying to get stronger that most people got faster providing they did a minimum level of sprinting. I’m pretty sure Joe has noticed the same things which I believe is different then the current most popular line of thinking where you have to be out running 5-6 times per week year around in some capacity.
And I still maintain based on the people I hear from that even with the lower volume, high intensity influence that charlie francis thinking has brought to a lot of track and other sports programs, that a lot of people STILL tend to do too much running when they should spend more time building the foundation for running. I know guys right now who are running at top 10 college track programs that are so overtrained it’s not even funny. I can’t say my system is a duplicate of anything…it’s continually evolving and has been influenced by Charlie Francis, the guys at inno-sport and many others…even Mike Mentzer influenced my thoughts back in the day. Hell, I guess you could call it westside for sprinters…lol…cause seriously if you just substitute a dynamic effort squat day with a sprint day and a tad more speed work spread throughout the week, most guys are gonna get faster, at least once they’ve surpassed the initial movement mastery stages like I talked about in that article.
The article got to be too long but there were a few other things I really woudl’ve liked to talk about and expand on one of them being that I’ve also found you have to look at the build of a person and train accordingly to influence and/or build the right structure because the form will largely dictate the function and the strengths and weaknesses of an athlete. Charlie Francis talked about this with his “what looks right flyes right” terminology but I’ve just kind’ve tried to expand on that…Body"building" at it’s finest :)…wish i had some pics to talk about what I mean but people are born with different structural/postural tendencies and I think you have to train to address and manipulate those accordingly. For example if you have someone born with big quads and skinny butt and hams then you’re gonna want to train them a bit differently then you would someone with the opposite characterisitcs and they’re most likely going to demonstrate different strengths and weaknesses. If you have someone with a natural lean towards posterior pelvic rotation you’re gonna want to address them a bit differently then someone with anterior pelvic rotation. It’s really an interesting topic that i’m still learning a heckuva lot about…
Seriously as soon as 2 a days start I think all the track stuff goes out the window. See who can get in there and hit somebody and make a play. Yeah during the draft and all you listen to the media and all these teams/scouts/etc. will neg on a guy with a bad 40 time…a lot of times just so they can pick him up in later rounds at a bargain price! Look at a guy like Nathan Vasher…good example. If you ever get a chance to watch position specific drills that’s where the best combine evaluation occurs IMO.
Moving like a football player should move is difficult. You guys ever watch the agility competitions for dogs? That’s kindv’e what Im talking about. Those dogs aint’ as fast as greyhounds but sure can move.
IMO if a player wants to grade out his best he should make sure he meets the minimum “athletic attributes” and focus the rest of his time on perfecting his skill and being a technician on the movements that have to do with his skill…for example watch a group of collegiate defensive backs run one on one pass coverage drills compared to a group of NFL defensive backs and you tend to see huge technical differences even if the athletic attributes are the same.
the first thing i noticed is in the picture of the guy coming out of a start.look at his up leg.i feel he is cycling too early.your first step should be low , long and swing almost like a pendulum. cycling too early , ie;heel to butt , makes you move up not forward. just look at his hips, they are behind him. think about it, the clock has started and he is moving his heel to his butt not throwing his body {hips } forward. yes the cycle is a quick movement but we are talking about hundredths of seconds.
also i feel that people try to mimic block starts without having the blocks to push off of.therefore i feel you can go with a little wider base with your feet a good distance back from the line.this will maximise your push.
Hell, I guess you could call it westside for sprinters…lol…cause seriously if you just substitute a dynamic effort squat day with a sprint day and a tad more speed work spread throughout the week, most guys are gonna get faster, at least once they’ve surpassed the initial movement mastery stages like I talked about in that article.