Many of our IFPA Certified Youth Fitness Instructors, Certified Speed & Agility Coaches, Tennis Conditioning Specialists, and other Sports Conditioning Specialists have requested additional information on the correct techniques for sprinting.  Since sprinting is the most essential and basic of all athletic movements, I am pleased with the high level of interest and am happy to supply detailed information on sprinting form and techniques. 

Please keep in mind that while there is no perfect style for anyone or any body type, proper sprinting form is not a natural act.  There are approximately 200 different details I look at when I train someone to sprint.  I will cover the top 50 or so details in this article.

The 40-yard dash has become the single most important test used by professional and college football coaches to evaluate potential players for positions, scholarship offers, and pro contracts.  Other sports coaches are finding the 40-yard dash and its variations equally important. 

Make no mistake on this – the success of a future in sports (football, basketball, tennis, or any sport that requires SPEED) depends on your athlete's time in as short a distance as 20-60 yards.  Teaching your athlete to sprint correctly can be the most crucial time you will ever spend.

Our first goal in sprinting is to strengthen core stability to enable your athlete to use their kinetic chain as efficiently as possible. One philosophy of sprinting is that an athlete’s performance is based on how efficiently the athlete can transfer ground forces through the kinetic chain (foot - ground force generation - to - ankle - lower leg - knee - thigh - hip - trunk - shoulders - arms).

One of the best ways to strengthen the core, kinetic chain, and the muscles needed for the "Propulsion Phase" is the Squat. Squats strengthen the muscles needed for Propulsion, but strength is not enough, you will also need to transform your increased strength into increased POWER!

Keep in mind the fact that your foot will strike the ground at 7.7 g's or more and world-class sprinters immediately explode off the ground upon foot contact. The longer your foot is on the ground, the slower you are, and vice versa. Your exercise prescription must include both strengthening and power exercises. This requires the use of Periodization to maximize strength development, and Program Design that adds the judicious use of Plyometric Training.

Plyometrics is a specialty mode of training all to itself. The IFPA has developed Speed, Power, and Plyometric courses specifically for you to learn to use these exercise modes with all levels of athletes, safely, and effectively.

Many coaches look at the efficient use of the kinetic chain as the true source of all athleticism.  Therefore, to teach correct sprinting, I start from the ground up.

Sprinting has four phases:

The Propulsion Phase (Phase One)

1. The toes of both feet should point directly forward or slightly toe-in.  Never toe-out!  Toe-out causes some of the propulsion energy to push the athlete laterally instead of directly forward.
2. Extend powerfully with the hip and thigh through the knee.
3. Extend powerfully through plantar flexion on the ball of the foot (plantar flexion - toes point).  Many coaches teach pushing through the toes.  There is little power and no balance on the toes. Power comes from the ball!
4. Push powerfully through the foot to project the body forward.

The Drive Phase (Phase Two)

1. Requires power and coordination between arm drive and leg drive.
2. Powerful hip flexion – driving the thigh up and forward. Both thighs must remain in the vertical plane.  Observe from the front and look for lateral movement in the driving thigh.  Lateral movement dissipates energy laterally instead of driving 100% forward.  The support leg and the entire body should always remain in the vertical plane (correct any lateral movements).  The thigh should drive powerfully to a position parallel or near parallel to the ground.  If this position cannot be achieved (ordinarily because of lack of flexibility or strength) optimum stride length cannot be achieved.
3. Arm drive is essential in this phase. Arm drive and arm frequency control leg drive and stride frequency (the faster the arms drive, the faster the legs move).  Arms move opposite the legs as the left leg drives forward, the right arm is driving forward.  It is important to teach arm drive forward as well as backward.  (Remember the laws of physics:  for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).  To drive the arm powerfully forward, your athlete must drive the opposite arm powerfully backward.
4. Arms should be bent at 90 throughout the sprint.
5. The arm drives forward to a position where the hand is approximately even with nose height.
6. The arm drives backward to a position where the hand slightly passes the buttocks.
7. Avoid tying-up. Tying-up occurs when both agonist and antagonist muscles (opposing muscle groups) contract forcefully at the same time.  For instance, the athlete is trying too hard and contracts the biceps brachii (in the front of the arm) at the same time contracting the triceps brachii (in the back of the arm).  The inability of the overstimulated athlete to successfully relax the antagonistic muscle group results in inefficient arm drive and slower speed.
8. Tying-up can be avoided by keeping the fingers of both hands relaxed and cupped. Tell the athlete to keep his or her fingers lightly together, and to visualize holding sheets of paper between each finger without wrinkling the paper.
9. Coach your athletes to understand that their ability to relax their muscles quickly is just as important as their ability to contract their muscles quickly.
10. Arms should swing smoothly and effortlessly from the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder joint.  Tying up can result in hard contractions of the latissimus dorsi and other muscles.  The Lat spread can cause the elbows to spread laterally.  This creates a shoulder rock that will dissipate the energy of the arm and drive out to the side, instead of driving forward.
11. Shoulders should be relaxed and down. If you see the shoulder rise toward the ears, coach the athlete to relax or drop the shoulders.
12. Eyes are focused approximately 20 yards ahead.
13. The head is held neutral in the vertical plane.
14. Jaw is slack in order to prevent tying-up, therefore, aiding the athlete to relax.
15. Keep the ankle locked up (in dorsi flexion) until the landing phase.
16. Hips and shoulders should be squarely facing forward in the direction of the sprint.
17. Maintain strong intra-abdominal pressure (suck the belly button towards your backbone). This is an essential foundation of all athletic movement.  Intra-abdominal pressure creates a solid wall that the abdominal and trunk muscles can push against.  This enables the muscles of the trunk to quickly and efficiently contract.  Great athletes know this instinctively. Others must be taught in order to become Great Athletes!  Without intra-abdominal pressure, the muscles cannot quickly and efficiently contract, and the athlete’s kinetic chain breaks down, preventing optimum performance.
18. Always maintain proper posture: head neutral, shoulders back, down, and relaxed, and allow natural spinal curves within optimal postural alignment.  (The IFPA recommends that every athlete have a Basic Postural Assessment by a qualified medical expert.)
19. Drill athletes to develop both static and dynamic balance. Sprinting is 5% support and 95% drive.
20. Drill to increase stride frequency – the rate of leg turnover. Most athletes increase total speed by working on stride frequency.
21. Run sprints at 90-95% of maximum speed and do not be surprised if some of your athletes sprint their fastest time ever because of greater relaxation and avoidance of tying-up.

The Landing Phase (Phase Three)

1. Coach the athlete to land on their heels. You will find that as the athlete approaches maximum speed, the athlete will land flat-footed.  At maximum speed, the foot will quickly come underneath the body.
2. Overstriding (the foot landing in front of the body) can cause a braking action that slows the body down.
3. The leg should extend forward and down with the ankle locked in dorsi flexion until contact.
4. The pull-through can be practiced by straight-legged shuffles and cycling drills that teach the athlete the brushing action following contact.

 The Recovery Phase (Phase Four)

1. As the foot leaves the ground simultaneously: butt kick (driving heel to buttocks), dorsi flexion of the foot (toes and foot curl up toward shin).

This is essential to transfer energy from the ground, through the legs, and to the hip and thighs.  This is also essential to create the shortest lever possible in the leg.  (Short levers move quickly – picture an ice skater initiating a spin.  With arms extended out to the side [laterally], the skater rotates slowly.  When the skater begins to shorten-the-lever [by bringing the arms into the body], the skater rotates faster and faster until the skater is a blur with the shortest lever possible [arms wrapped tightly to the body].)

Starting

1. Requires quickness more than speed.
2. Requires focus and concentration - mental toughness. These are highly desired traits for any athlete.
3. Use a starting position appropriate for your sport.  Track sprinters use the 4-point stance.  Football players use the 3-point or 4-point football stance.  Tennis players use the 2-point stance.
4. Two-point stance: The athlete stands with feet shoulder-width apart, feet parallel, toes facing forward, and knees slightly inside the toes. Knees should be bent nearly 90 degrees, hips in slight posterior pelvic tilt, back straight, shoulders back, head neutral, and eyes looking forward (approximately 20 yards ahead).  Arms are bent at 90 at the sides and weight should be distributed evenly over the balls of the feet while maintaining ground contact with the heels.
5. On GO, the athlete explodes off both feet, driving one leg forward and the opposite arm back.
6. The Athlete should be nearly falling forward with body lean approaching 70 for the first three steps. The initial three steps will be shorter than the athletes’ normal stride length.
7. Watch for two body angles. The line should be straight from ground to hip at approximately 45.  The second line is from the hip to head initially at 70 forward lean.  Both lines must be straight at all times.
8. The athletes will become nearly upright as they approach full speed. For those who have watched Michael Johnson burn up the track, you have probably noticed him fully upright and appearing to lean slightly back.  This technique obviously works for him, but it is certainly not recommended for your young athletes. Other than Michael Johnson, I have never seen a world-class sprinter lean back in a sprint. For example, Usain Bolt is more typical of world-class sprinters with a slight lean forward.
9. After the first three steps, stride length increases to the athlete’s ideal length.
10. Athletes must be coached to accelerate all the way through the finish line.
11. World-class athletes take up to 40-50 meters to achieve maximum speed. It is highly unlikely your athlete will achieve maximum speed within the first 20-40 meters.

General Notes

1. For tennis players, the 20-yard dash is the majority of their speed work. A tennis player's average distance for a shot is 4 meters (less than 5 yards).
2. Twenty yards is the distance from the baseline to the opposite court service line.
3. Since almost all tennis courts are built on a grade to help with drainage, your athlete can get some over-speed training by running downhill and resisted training by running uphill.
4. Follow the drill work outline in the IFPA Youth Fitness Instructors, Speed & Agility Coaches, Tennis Conditioning Specialists, and other Sports Conditioning Specialists courses to correct any form and technique faults exhibited by your athletes.
5. Remember, it takes time to develop proper form and technique.  Use patience and encouragement to help your athletes to get it right.