Please critique my sprinting form

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1) Work on correcting your right foot valgus (splayed out). Dribble and dorsiflexion drills and rebound plyos.

2) Have the kid in blue tutor you on the lean. He executed perfectly. Not only did you not lean, but you looked over in the exact wrong direction. Watch world class sprinters and they are looking straight ahead or right at their fastest competitor as they cross the line.

Otherwise not too bad.

On second look I would like to see better eye focus on the line and a relaxed jaw and shoulders. It looks like you were fighting through a hailstorm. Your arm mechanics were way better than his though and I didn't see the typical overstriding.

Brink of Greatness wrote:

1) Work on correcting your right foot valgus (splayed out). Dribble and dorsiflexion drills and rebound plyos.

2) Have the kid in blue tutor you on the lean. He executed perfectly. Not only did you not lean, but you looked over in the exact wrong direction. Watch world class sprinters and they are looking straight ahead or right at their fastest competitor as they cross the line.

Otherwise not too bad.

Thanks for the suggestions, my coach says I run too tense and I lean back too much, but we haven't been able to fix the problem yet :(

Maybe John James/Matt London / rojo^2 can chime in.

One way to work on tension is to do strides holding small paper (Dixie) cups one in each hand lightly. Also focus on quick popping feet, forward directed hips and quick but relaxed hands.

Also find a solid dirt decline (slight downhill) and do strides, leaning forward while staying relaxed. Jog backwards back up to engage the posterior chain of neuromuscle.

For lean, jog lightly in place on the balls of your feet, then hold you arms comfortably straight up in the air. Keeping your body straight in line with your arms, begin to lean/fall forward until you feel the nee to stride forward, then drop your arms but keep your shoulders and hips in place nice and square. Feel how your hips are properly above the balls of your feet and just keep leaning in with this posture while keeping quick cadence.

Brink of Greatness wrote:

One way to work on tension is to do strides holding small paper (Dixie) cups one in each hand lightly. Also focus on quick popping feet, forward directed hips and quick but relaxed hands.

Also find a solid dirt decline (slight downhill) and do strides, leaning forward while staying relaxed. Jog backwards back up to engage the posterior chain of neuromuscle.

For lean, jog lightly in place on the balls of your feet, then hold you arms comfortably straight up in the air. Keeping your body straight in line with your arms, begin to lean/fall forward until you feel the nee to stride forward, then drop your arms but keep your shoulders and hips in place nice and square. Feel how your hips are properly above the balls of your feet and just keep leaning in with this posture while keeping quick cadence.

Shut up!

Top tip, don't post messages on letsrun asking "please critique my running form"

I like that Dixie cup drill!

Hello everyone, I ran a 25.41 FAT today but I still think I'm taking a step forward. My coach said that I ran way too tight but apparently I had one hell of a lean at the finish line!

Charlie K. wrote:

Hello everyone, I ran a 25.41 FAT today but I still think I'm taking a step forward. My coach said that I ran way too tight but apparently I had one hell of a lean at the finish line!

Good stuff! Keep refining your technique by listening to your coach. The fix is not immediate so be patient. You seem like you have lots of time to cut off

You only posted video of the end of a 200, so kind of hard to critique it, since your form is starting to break down at this point, probably.

But, overall pretty decent form. I disagree with the poster above on most of his points. Getting hung up on that valgus is a waste of time. Some people just do that. Some of those people are world class. Is it ideal? No. But is it likely to be possible to be fixed? No. Working on it specifically will probably either get you hurt or just waste a lot of time and effort that could be spent on actually productive training sessions.

I think the only thing I would work on is your hips are a bit too far behind you. You're sitting a bit as a result. Get those hips a little more under your shoulders to get full triple extension. In your case, my guess is you have tight hip flexors. So I wouldn't work on this aspect of form specifically.

Instead, I would work on adding some hip mobility and strengthening. Hurdle walk overs, forwards, sideways, backwards, combinations of those. Id also throw in some work with Swiss ball against a wall, doing drills similar to lunges with the ball under the front leg for some, back leg for some. This increased hip mobility I suspect will solve this issue in your form, which is the only issue of any actual significance.

Oh and your coach is spot on about you being tight. But that's not really a form issue, since you can have perfect form and still need to relax and loosen up. Definitely work on that as well. You can practice running relaxed in practice. Do it for every step you take in practice so it starts to become part of how you sprint. This shouldn't need any specific drills or technical work, although some people say it is one of the side benefits of in and out sprints, which makes sense.

The foot vagus and lagging hips are *both* a symptom of weak hips. Deadlifts, Romanian Deadlifts, split squats, hip thrusts, single-leg hip thrusts, dribble drills and sled pushes both forward and reverse.

I won’t get into it because you have a long way to go, but I will echo that you have weak hips.

In fact, you are not sprinting, you are running. Your body position and carriage are totally wrong, and you have no front-side development—nor, given your position, can you summon any front-side capability.

You need tons of standard drills, along with maybe weights and specific hip/glue exercises, before you can begin to think of any meaningful improvement.

There are plenty of places you can find a basic sprint program described, then you need a coach who knows anything to observe you and tell you what is happening, and what is not happening.

You are not a natural sprinter, and you need to start at the beginning. It will take dedication and interest, and if you came to me I would suggest that you might find a different challenge more rewarding.

But to each his own, and good luck with your endeavor. If you proceed and ever “get it”, you will realize it immediately, and will feel like a million bucks! The good thing is that because you will be building capability from the ground up, you will experience basic gains along the way, which can be a lot of fun.

Really? I do powerlifting as well and here are my PRs (with gear): Squat- 452, Bench- 358, Deadlift- 496

Those are very good combined numbers.

If your form is legal, you should stick with Powerlifting over sprinting! Your bodyweight is what?

You are nowhere sprinting, but by the looks of it you are already somewhere in Powerlifting.

Go for it!

Step 1: Use different music

Charlie K. wrote:

Really? I do powerlifting as well and here are my PRs (with gear): Squat- 452, Bench- 358, Deadlift- 496

With those numbers it actually may be more of a power imbalance from weaker tibialis, hammies and hip flexors. See kneesovertoesguy @YouTube for how to test and address this.

What emphasis do you have on drills and ploys, and what is your overall training like. Your basic strength is tops and your form isn't super bad, so it's a matter of finding out where the "leaks" are. That is the job of your coach, who has more of a 360 view of your situation.