Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #3: Gill1918 presents Dillon Martinez "The 7's of the Sprint Start"

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#3: Gill1918 presents Dillon Martinez "The 7's of the Sprint Start" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gil 1918 Project, a podcast series by coaches, for
• 0:04
  coaches, powered by Gil Athletics.
• 0:06
  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Hello everybody. My name is Dylan Martinez and
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  today we're going to be talking about the Seven s s of the
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  Start. I developed the Seven s s of the
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  Start as a way to help myself teach the start more
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  efficiently. But also in my day job as a
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  professor of physical education and sports science, I created
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  and teach a techniques of speed coaching class so that future
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  coaches can be more confident in how to teach the skill of speed
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  development to their athletes in the future.
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  And in doing so, I created the Seven s s of the start.
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  Now, the seven s s of the start are very easy to implement once
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  you understand the why behind each of the s s.
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  Just yesterday I had an athlete over to my house for a speed
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  session and the main thing that he wanted to work on was his
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  block starts. He's a sophomore in high school
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  in Minnesota. I said, all right, go ahead and
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  get in the blocks and show me what you got right away.
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  And we did a timed laser 10m start, and he ran a 193, which
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  isn't terrible, but there were lots of little things that I saw
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  as it pertains to the seven s s that we're about to talk about
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  that we cleaned up in 5 minutes. And in 5 minutes he went from a
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  193 to a 183 over that 10m section.
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  So taking a tenth off in 10 meters is a huge accomplishment,
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  especially in 5 minutes. So let's get into the five s s
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  of the start. So the first S is shins.
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  A lot of people know to look for parallel shin angles in the
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  blocks, but just because they're parallel doesn't mean they're
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  correct. We want to make sure that the
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  angle of the shins are aggressive down the track.
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  So much so that we want to ensure that when the athlete
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  projects out of the blocks, that front knee drops towards the
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  ground as minimally as possible. A lot of times an athlete might
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  have parallel shin angles, but the shin angles are pointing way
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  too much towards the sky and not enough down the track.
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  And if you slow the video down of that projection enough, you
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  will see that that lead knee drops before it goes forward.
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  And if you look at the timer associated with it, that drop
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  might take 2/10 of a second. Now that's huge.
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  That is the difference obviously between an 11 two and a 11 flat
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  100 meter dash. And that might be the difference
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  that your team needs and is looking for.
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  Next we have shoulders. So the first S is shin.
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  The next S that I teach is shoulders.
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  So we want the shoulders when they're in the set position to
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  be directly above or slightly in front of the starting line.
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  The way you will know from a coaching eye perspective if this
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  is incorrect is if the arm angle is going backwards instead of
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  the arm angle going forwards. A lot of times I just take a
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  picture of the athlete and then I draw a line straight down from
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  that shoulder joint and see where it makes contact with the
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  ground when the line is at 90°. A lot of the coaching apps that
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  we use, like on form or coach's eye or huddle technique allows
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  you to use tools like this and that is something that I've
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  found very useful in teaching the shoulders cue.
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  We want to be directly over or slightly in front of the line
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  because it gives us closer proximity to the finish line
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  than otherwise we would be if we were leaning backwards too far.
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  The next S is slope. This has to do with the body
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  alignment, specifically from the top of the hips to the top of
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  the head. I want one nice line from the
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  top of the hips to the very top of the head, going along the top
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  of the back of the head. In this position, a lot of times
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  an athlete might have their head kinked up so that the line would
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  go from the top of the hips to the base of the neck and then it
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  would be flat across the top of the head.
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  We don't want that and we'll actually talk about that more in
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  our next S. So we're looking for a nice flat
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  back, meaning a straight line from the top of the hips to the
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  top of the head. But we do not want it to be flat
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  as in parallel to the ground. We want there to be an
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  aggressive angle downwards from the top of the hips towards the
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  top of the head. This is going to ensure that our
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  spine is in proper alignment so we can, when we get into triple
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  and quadruple extension, as I'll talk about, we are in a much
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  more advantageous position to be as efficient as possible in
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  those first couple steps out of the starting block.
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  The next S is sight. So, so far we have talked about
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  shins, shoulders, slope, and now we're going to be talking about
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  sight. And what I mean by sight is
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  where our eyes are focused on when we are in the set position.
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  Too often the athletes eyes are straight down in the set
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  position and this will actually produce a flat top of the head,
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  meaning that there's a kink in the neck.
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  So like I was talking about before with slope, there's a,
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  instead of a line going straight from the top of the head to the
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  top of the pelvis, the line from the pelvis goes down to the base
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  of the neck and then it's flat across the top of the head.
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  Ultimately, what this is going to end up doing is 'cause our
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  athletes to do something that I call run over our eyes, our
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  first couple steps are going to be significantly shorter because
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  our eyes are stuck on the ground straight down.
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  So the way that we fix this to get proper spinal alignment and
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  proper projection is focus on the site.
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  So a lot of times when our athletes go up into the set
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  position, I have them look at the top of the block.
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  So the part of the block, the peg that is the closest to the
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  starting line. In my experience, that has ended
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  up being the perfect spot for them to focus on with their
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  eyes. Next after sight, we have step,
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  specifically the zero step. So at some point during the
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  start, we want there to be a portion of time where the
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  athlete is moving forward while both feet are off of the ground,
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  hence a zero step. There is a there's movement that
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  is taking place without a step happening.
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  This is going to increase block clearance.
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  This is going to help elevate the switch, which is the next S
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  that we're going to be talking about or the next two.
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  And then in the next two s s, we'll be talking about, this is
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  going to increase movement efficiency and ultimately set up
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  our first three steps to be as optimal as possible.
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  Also, when we project out farther without taking a actual
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  first step, we're spending less time on the ground.
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  And time on the ground is just friction.
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  And we don't want friction necessarily when we are trying
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  to run faster. Next is I have to give credit to
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  my dad here, who is I think the best Sprint coach in the state
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  of Wisconsin. It is sun, meaning black out the
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  sun with your drive hand. We want your hand to get high
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  enough that if there was a really bright light out ahead of
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  you, you'd be able to block that light out from getting into your
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  eyes. A lot of times what I'm looking
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  for is that lead hand to be above the head.
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  In our experience, this has helped the Athlete 1 project out
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  from the block significantly farther, increasing that zero
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  step that we just talked about. But more importantly, I think it
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  is helping and aiding with the hips coming through and getting
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  into the proper triple extension position.
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  A lot of times if the hand isn't coming up powerfully enough or
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  the arm isn't coming up powerfully enough, the hips
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  aren't projecting all the way through either.
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  In my anecdotal experience, this has been the one Q that has made
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  the most amount of difference when it comes to increasing
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  proficiency. Coming out of the blocks is
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  blocking. Is the Q black to the sun in the
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  S of sun? And lastly, we have switch.
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  When you are videotaping your athlete coming out of the
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  blocks, you want to be doing it from the side if you're going to
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  be looking for a switch. What a switch means is when the
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  lead leg hits the ground, the back trail legs knee is right
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  next to that stance foot's knee. The error that you will see is
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  the front foot hitting down while there is still a big thigh
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  gap and that angle is very open. We want that next foot coming
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  through and that leg coming through already before we even
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  take that first step or if that first foot makes ground contacts
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  to set us up efficiently for the next step.
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  Now something I want to talk about with leg cycling and
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  switching in general is I want to address the toe drag
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  conundrum. The toe drag is not something
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  that should explicitly in my opinion, be taught.
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  It is rather a byproduct of doing the seven s s or a very
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  efficient block start. If you watch Asafa Powell, for
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  example, his foot just taps the ground.
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  It is a result of a low heel recovery and a very active
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  switch taking place. The cue that I prefer and the
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  cue that I talk about with my athletes is buzz the tops of the
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  grass with your toes. This will help the heel recovery
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  stay low, but it won't produce that dragging sound.
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  It won't ruin these expensive spikes that our athletes are
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  wearing. And ultimately, I just think toe
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  drag is more friction than we want coming out of the blocks to
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  begin. So a couple things as we wrap up
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  here. Two years ago, I had the
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  privilege of coaching the fastest athlete in the state of
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  Wisconsin in the 100 and the 200.
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  Coming into the season, he had a PR in the 100 of about 1071 and
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  I asked him going into the season what is the thing that
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  you think you need the most work in?
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  And he said blocks and I was like, I couldn't agree more.
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  Going into the season, we worked very hard on the blocks.
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  In the offseason we worked a lot on his starts as well and
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  implementing these seven s s took his 100 PR.
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  He was already the state champ from about a 1071 down to a
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  1058. And like I said yesterday, just
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  yesterday, focusing on the seven s s of the start with the
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  athlete that I was working with dropped 110th of a second in
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  about 5 minutes. Just making sure that we set
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  ourselves up by putting the body in the proper alignment to push
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  efficiently and then focusing on the sun, the step in the switch
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  actively once that push has taken place, in my opinion, has
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  made all the difference. I have an entire course online
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  talking about the seven s s of the start.
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  I also have an entire speed coaching certification.
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  It's basically what I have based my college course off of, but I
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  wanted to make it widely available.
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  In my experience as a coach and as a professor teaching future
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  coaches, the lack of knowledge on how to teach speed as a
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  specialized skill is one of the things that plagues our
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  profession the most. But ultimately it comes back to
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  the fact that we assume that all kids and all athletes are taught
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  how to Sprint efficiently, namely in elementary physical
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  education. But as somebody who trains
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  elementary physical educators, I can tell you confidently that we
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  do not train physical education teachers to teach the skill of
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  sprinting. We teach them how to teach the
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  skill of running, but that is a significantly different skill.
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  So in my course, I lay out how to teach the specialized skill
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  of sprinting from a pedagogical perspective, meaning the best
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  practices that you can use as a teacher to ensure that your
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  athletes are actually taking in the information in a way that is
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  meaningful to them. So I hope that the seven s s of
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  the start can help your athletes get out of the blocks more
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  efficiently. And I hope you have a great
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  track season. Thank you all for listening.
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  Have a great day, God bless. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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