How do heelstrikers sprint?

OLD SMTC SOB wrote:

Womack wrote:

I wanted to ask heelstrikers, how do you guys sprint? You sprint on your heels? You change to forefoot only when sprinting? I have never seen any elite sprinter sprint on his heels- not even one.

Very slowly.

Came here to say this.

As baffled as you are wrote:

I ran with a guy in college who was a vicious heelstriker. I remember watching him do strides once..He just couldn't get on the balls of his feet. He never broke 28 in the 200 and once when he had to do the 4x400 he didn't break 60 seconds. The rest of us were kinda baffled.

Who are you and how do you know me? :)

I was that guy in college. I'd "sprint" on my heels, even doing strides. I learned to run as a little kid slamming my heels into the ground, and by college it was so ingrained into my muscle memory that I had a hard time changing.

It's also true that I was slow and likely would have been no matter how I ran.

Look at slow motion clips of 100m elite runners. When they go out of the blocks they are high on their toes because they are accelerating leaning forward, yet they are still not in a very high speed. After words at around 60-100m they are at their top speed, yet they hit the ground much more flat (forefoot off course, on the ball of the foot) but way flatter than when they get out of the blocks.

So it's not the Velocity.

Isn't Kirani James a heel striker? Darn close if he isn't.

check out from 1:30 onward - I think he is a heel striker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMeR2bDPr-4

agip wrote:

Isn't Kirani James a heel striker? Darn close if he isn't.

check out from 1:30 onward - I think he is a heel striker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMeR2bDPr-4

He's Not. Runs forefoot like all sprinters. Look well. You can't be an elite sprinter and heel strike- doesn't work.

This thread is about heelstrikers when they sprint, not elite sprinters per se.

well it's like this wrote:

Unless people actually are sprinters they can't really sprint effectively no matter how they land.

So if you are talking about heel strikers ramping up the pace as fast as they can then they merely run like the well known fast heel strikers. Aouita, Ovett, Morceli, Botayeb, Skah, etc etc.

Pretty sure the OP could be up on his toes and yards behind those guys.

Aouita, Ovett, and Morceli were midfoot strikers, and moved toward the forefoot as they picked up steam. Watch any vid of them in slow motion. It may look like heel striking at regular speed, but not all when you slow the vids down. No heel striker could run 46 - 47 for 400m like those guys (hell, Ovett ran 47 in the 400 as a teen).

It's not like that at all wrote:

well it's like this wrote:

Unless people actually are sprinters they can't really sprint effectively no matter how they land.

So if you are talking about heel strikers ramping up the pace as fast as they can then they merely run like the well known fast heel strikers. Aouita, Ovett, Morceli, Botayeb, Skah, etc etc.

Pretty sure the OP could be up on his toes and yards behind those guys.

Aouita, Ovett, and Morceli were midfoot strikers, and moved toward the forefoot as they picked up steam. Watch any vid of them in slow motion. It may look like heel striking at regular speed, but not all when you slow the vids down. No heel striker could run 46 - 47 for 400m like those guys (hell, Ovett ran 47 in the 400 as a teen).

Sure, bend and twist to fit everyone in your tidy shoebox.

Some people heel strike. Some of them are fast. Deal with it.

Aouita, Ovett, Morceli are certainly not heel strikers.

No elite who runs 5000m and below is a heel striker.

Believing otherwise is foolish.

makeitgreatboy wrote:

Aouita, Ovett, Morceli are certainly not heel strikers.

No elite who runs 5000m and below is a heel striker.

Believing otherwise is foolish.

Seeing is believing. Keep looking.

we looked boi. All the videos I saw show that they look like they're about to heel strike but dont. Like this pic

http://athleticssuperstars.tripod.com/800m_Moscow_Olympics_1980.jpg

He looks like a heel striker in the air but quickly rotates his foot before landing.

Heel striker here

certainly not fast, but I can heel strike a 26 low 200m and a 56 low 400m.

MacMillllerrrr wrote:

we looked boi. All the videos I saw show that they look like they're about to heel strike but dont. Like this pic

http://athleticssuperstars.tripod.com/800m_Moscow_Olympics_1980.jpg

He looks like a heel striker in the air but quickly rotates his foot before landing.

No. His foot wouldn't rotate that fast in such a short distance even if Fred Astaire coached him.

Next you'll try to convince yourself that he lands "under his center of gravity".

dream on wrote:

MacMillllerrrr wrote:

we looked boi. All the videos I saw show that they look like they're about to heel strike but dont. Like this pic

http://athleticssuperstars.tripod.com/800m_Moscow_Olympics_1980.jpg

He looks like a heel striker in the air but quickly rotates his foot before landing.

No. His foot wouldn't rotate that fast in such a short distance even if Fred Astaire coached him.

Next you'll try to convince yourself that he lands "under his center of gravity".

Dude. Watch slow motion videos, not still pictures. Ovett does not f*cking land on his heel. He just doesn't. Some very fast guys do, sure. But Ovett is NOT one of them.

A still picture IS a slowed down video....

Just like arm swing, if you are a midfoot or forefoot striker, you will land that way whether you are running 8 min per mile or 4 min per mile. At highest speed you may land slightly further up on the forefoot, but ultimately speed is irrelevant.

The cadence or speed of your arm swing should not be significantly different whether you're running 8 or 4 min per mile.

dream on wrote:

MacMillllerrrr wrote:

we looked boi. All the videos I saw show that they look like they're about to heel strike but dont. Like this pic

http://athleticssuperstars.tripod.com/800m_Moscow_Olympics_1980.jpg

He looks like a heel striker in the air but quickly rotates his foot before landing.

No. His foot wouldn't rotate that fast in such a short distance even if Fred Astaire coached him.

Next you'll try to convince yourself that he lands "under his center of gravity".

dream on wrote:

MacMillllerrrr wrote:

we looked boi. All the videos I saw show that they look like they're about to heel strike but dont. Like this pic

http://athleticssuperstars.tripod.com/800m_Moscow_Olympics_1980.jpg

He looks like a heel striker in the air but quickly rotates his foot before landing.

No. His foot wouldn't rotate that fast in such a short distance even if Fred Astaire coached him.

Next you'll try to convince yourself that he lands "under his center of gravity".

Yes the foot can rotate that fast from that point forward. I have slow motion videos of myself and I do the same thing.

Here's a slow motion video of a runner that has a forefoot landing with a heel down/toe up position very close to touchdown, but still definitely landing forefoot:

Being able to push off from the front part of one's foot comes from a strength in one's calf, ankle mobility, and I'm sure one's natural gait. Back in the day we ran in wafer like training flats or spikes which had no support. All that built calf strength so one naturally pushed off the ball of their feet when sprinting. When I began road racing in my 30s (in the 1980s) I had to remind myself to land on the middle of my feet after the first couple of minutes. With the adoption of clunky training shoes I noticed many high school beginners already heel striking within the first 50 yards of a 400 race. As a coach I have always urged my runners to train in spikes when we ran any intervals under 800 meters. Of course some who needed orthotics could not do so.