The 8 Musts To A Great Block Start

Today we’re going over the eight keys of having a great block start and really getting into the specifics within each one of those eight categories. I want to make it very clear what it is that you want to be able to work on within each of these eight parts of the start so you can have a great block start and so you could run faster immediately.

There are 8 things that you should be able to identify within your block start so you can get a clear understanding of what it is you need to get better in each category.

The first one we’re going to be talking about is the toe off and and seeing the toe behind the heel, I think is the most clear way to be able to see how well you are towing off. Coleman keeps all of his weight forward so then as he’s towing off he’s able to get the heel all the way up right underneath the toe and then pushing forward from there or getting the heel in front of the toe.

I think the most important thing is having the range of motion within the big toe to be able to get to this position. I like to do different types of calf raises where, instead of going through a block start, I’m just holding on to a wall and I’m just working on getting that range of motion within the foot and doing different types of exercises to work on this. We just want to make sure that we’re getting the height within the heel, working on the timing. You could also do like holding the bottom of a lunge so you get into a regular lunge position where you’re upright and then you just sink down into the bottom and just hold that position, and have that knee as close to the ground as you possibly can hold it for, like 20 to 30 seconds, and really feel not only the strength build up within the thighs but also achieve the range of motion within the foot.

The second one is going to be the landing. What’s important about the landing is making sure that when the foot hits the ground we have one foot right underneath the hip and the important thing about that is we’re continuing to come forward. If the foot is actually behind the hip you don’t need to get that good of a landing position if you have your foot underneath the hip.

I think Christian Coleman i the best starter in the world but if we can get the foot behind the hip, number two is do I have my heel up, and then number three is when the foot hits the ground how much does my heel drop and does my heel drop at all so the idea is as the foot hits we want to be able to immediately push right back off.

We need to have the foot in a pronated position. Pronation is when the foot is essentially even right, if my pinky toe was lower than my big toe, landing essentially on the outside part of the foot or landing more with the outside part of the foot- that’s what you want to avoid. We also want to make it so as the foot’s hitting the ground we’re either going kind of downwards with the foot or backwards with the foot. The priority would be to be able to get the foot to be slightly backwards. When the ankle drops we won’t be able to effectively maintain the height within the heel, that’s what’s most important here is we got to make sure that that heel stays up and we’re nice and stable within that heel as we’re landing.

Number three is the cycle of the leg. What are we doing with the foot as it’s coming off the ground? I think having a good heal recovery is critical. Some people appears to drag the foot but what’s important is we don’t want to end up lifting with the heel as much as we want to be driving through with the foot. Not everybody is lifting that toe or dragging that toe. A lot of athletes are just keeping that toe pretty low to the ground you don’t have to be dragging the toe. I do think that could be an effective way to address an issue or address a high heel recovery if that ends up being something that you are consistently doing.

Number four is the arm swing. Now with the arm swing what we want to be able to understand is that first movement that elbow wants to be coming up, and the hand, and the wrist. The general height we want to get to where that elbow is getting more towards the head. We don’t want to end up having the elbow low that ends up getting too low it comes through and therefore won’t be able to have good balance so you can land with so much weight forward is by being able to get that elbow all the way up to help maintain a good balance within your body.

We don’t want to be too wide with the hand going back and then we also don’t want to get stuck with our hand too far back behind us so we can’t come through. It is important to be able to create that coordination from the right to the left leg to make it so you could have a great block start.

Number five is a fast foot contact time so if we look to see how much time we’re spending on the ground. How an explosive block start looks or how a powerful block start looks or how great block start looks a important part of that is how much time you’re spending on the ground, so when you start to get some of these things down you get the push off, you get the landing, you’re getting the arm swing, the leg cycle, a lot of things are looking good.

We have to make sure that we’re doing the things effectively with the landing and work on the things that we talked about within the landing in terms of pronated landing with the heel up and then work on as soon as that foot hits the ground. We want to be as fast as we can to be able to get that heel to come right up and through.

Number six is distance per step – how much distance are we covering. What you would want to be able to get is four steps about 5m depending on your height. I usually tell people that we want to get about four steps and 5 yards you get the heel at the end of the marker within those first four steps and so really trying to get the range. Now I do want to clarify this: we don’t want to over reach or over stride within the start. This is a very common problem that we see and so if our foot is landing too far out in front of our body, we want to be able to have the foot underneath the shoulders. If our foot ends up getting too far out in front of the shoulders then we’re over striding and then the distance per step is actually a null thing, it’s not something that’s actually helping you it’s actually something that’s hurting you because you’re trying to too hard to go in and overstride and typically, if you are in that category, you don’t have a fast foot contact time and you’re also probably landing more towards the heel not towards the front part of the foot. So those types of things are going to be important parts that you want to be able to consider.

Number seven is the foot height or the dorsiflexion. Being able to get into good Foot height position and that goes into having a good distance per step is being able to maximize the dorsiflexion as you’re bringing the foot through this could also go into knee height. I didn’t want to make an extra one I could easily made this nine, and said knee height and foot height. There’s no way you can get good foot height without getting good knee height both of those are going to happen at the same time and so the key part of having a good start is maintaining great dorsiflexion.

I see a lot of people do is lift high within the heel so instead of pushing forward or getting a good push from the block, what they’re doing is lifting more with the heel so then the action of the knee ends up being more of a downward movement where we really want the action to be more of a lifting up movement. You can work on single leg or ankle jumps where you’re just working on lifting up the toe coming back down lifting up the toe coming back down, just getting good at or just two leg ankle jumps. I think that’s a great way to do that, I think single leg broad jumps is a great way to do that and working on this all the time with athletes that I work with is just them putting a kettle bell on their foot, lift up with the kettle bell, come right back down and just do that a bunch of times. I think you have to be great at having strong hip flexors and also be very strong within the ankles within the shin in order to run fast.

Number eight: I think this is has more to do with just the mentality around the block start. We want to be patient and we don’t want to be rushing through these seven steps while we don’t necessarily want to be running slow. Having a great block start, we don’t want to end up rushing through the push off because if we rush through the push off then that’s when you end up lifting more of the leg, or if we rush through the cycle of the leg then we won’t be able to get the dorsiflexion and be able to get good range and good distance per step, so the reason I say that patience is important is because I see athletes a lot of times rush through some of these important seven steps that will help them get the full benefit and if you’re not utilizing the push off to its full capability or if you’re not using the arm swing to its full capability and instead just trying to rush through, you’re not going to be able to cover the distance right.

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