Scribd
Upload
166 views3 pages

The Key To Speed

The key to speed? discusses two recent studies that examined the running patterns of elite sprinters. The studies found that world-class sprinters have a unique gait that allows them to apply greater ground forces when running, unlike other runners who simply bounce off the ground. Specifically, elite sprinters cock their knee high and drive their foot into the ground with a stiff ankle to abruptly stop the lower leg upon impact. This distinct limb motion elevates ground forces and accounts for their ability to achieve maximum speed. The research indicates sprinters are able to decelerate their foot and ankle extremely quickly after impact.

Uploaded by

khajezade44
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
166 views3 pages

The Key To Speed

The key to speed? discusses two recent studies that examined the running patterns of elite sprinters. The studies found that world-class sprinters have a unique gait that allows them to apply greater ground forces when running, unlike other runners who simply bounce off the ground. Specifically, elite sprinters cock their knee high and drive their foot into the ground with a stiff ankle to abruptly stop the lower leg upon impact. This distinct limb motion elevates ground forces and accounts for their ability to achieve maximum speed. The research indicates sprinters are able to decelerate their foot and ankle extremely quickly after impact.

Uploaded by

khajezade44
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

The key to speed?

by Athletics Weekly October 27, 2014

Recent studies show that elite sprinters have a unique and distinct
running pattern for maximal speed
Two new studies at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, have shown that
the worlds fastest sprinters have unique gait features that account for their
ability to achieve fast speeds.
They suggest that the secret to elite sprinting speeds lies in the distinct limb
dynamics sprinters use to elevate ground forces upon foot-ground impact.
Human biomechanics expert and lead author on the studies, Ken Clark, a
researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory said: Our new
studies show that these elite sprinters dont use their legs to just bounce off
the ground as most other runners do. The top sprinters have developed a
wind-up and delivery mechanism to augment impact forces. Other runners
do not do so.
The findings address a major performance question that has remained
unanswered for more than a decade. Previous studies had established that
faster runners attain faster speeds by hitting the ground more forcefully than
other runners do in relation to their bodyweight. However, how faster
runners are able to do this was fully unknown. That sparked considerable
debate and uncertainty about the best strategies for athletes to enhance
ground-force application and speed.
Clark added: Elite speed athletes have a running pattern that is distinct.
Our data indicates the fastest sprinters each have identified the same
solution for maximizing speed, which strongly implies that when you put
the physics and the biology together, theres only one way to sprint really
fast.
We found that the fastest athletes all do the same thing to apply the greater
forces needed to attain faster speeds. They cock the knee high before
driving the foot into the ground, while maintaining a stiff ankle

Study co-author and running mechanics expert Peter Weyand, director of


the SMU Locomotor Performance Lab, said: The critical and distinctive
gait features identified by the studys authors occur as the lower limb
approaches and impacts the ground. We found that the fastest athletes all do
the same thing to apply the greater forces needed to attain faster speeds.
They cock the knee high before driving the foot into the ground, while
maintaining a stiff ankle. These actions elevate ground forces by stopping
the lower leg abruptly upon impact.
The new research indicates that the fastest runners decelerate their foot and
ankle in just over two hundredths of a second after initial contact with the
ground. The study included track athletes who specialised in 100m and
200m events and more than half had international experience and had
participated in the Olympics or World Championships. All the athletes in
both groups had midfoot and forefoot strike patterns. Their running
mechanics were tested on a custom, high-speed force treadmill that allowed
the researchers to capture and analyse hundreds of footfalls at precisely
controlled speeds.
The researchers measured ground-force patterns over a full range of
running speeds for each athlete from a jog to top sprinting speed. Clark
reported: We looked at running speeds ranging from 3-11m/sec. Earlier
studies in the field of biomechanics have examined ground reaction force
patterns but focused primarily on jogging speeds between 3-5m/sec. The
differences we found became identifiable largely because of the broad
range of speeds we examined and the caliber of the sprinters who
participated in the study.
The classic spring model of running does not explain the unique gait
features of top sprinters.
The contemporary view of running mechanics has been heavily influenced
by the simple spring-mass model, a theory first formulated in the late
1980s. The spring-mass model assumes the legs work essentially like the
compression spring of a pogo stick when in contact with the ground. In this
theory, during running at a constant speed on level ground, the body falls
down out of the air. Upon landing, the support leg acts like a pogo stick to
catch the body and pop it back up in the air for the next step. Its been

generally assumed that this classic spring model applies to faster running
speeds and faster athletes as well as to slower ones.
After the researchers gathered ground-reaction force waveform data, they
found that sprinters differed from other athletes. From there they compared
the waveforms to those predicted by the simple spring in the classic model.
Clark remarked: The elite sprinters did not conform to the spring-model
predictions. They deviated a lot, specifically during the first half of the
ground-contact phase. Our athlete non-sprinters, on the other hand,
conformed fairly closely to the spring-model predictions, even at their top
speeds.
Sprinters have a common mechanical solution for speed one that athletes
who arent as fast do not execute. Clark concluded: This provides
scientific information so coaches and athletes can fully identify what to
train. It is our hope that our results can translate into advances in evidencebased approaches to training speed.

You might also like