Learning to start quickly is key to fast sprinting
By: Justin Feil
For beginning sprinters, the starting blocks are bulky, a pain in the butt to carry from meet to meet and harder to figure out than trigonometry. After plenty of practice, however, the blocks can be the difference between first place and second, between a Mercer County gold medal and bronze.
"You’re talking large amounts of time," said Montgomery High head boys’ coach Jen Riddell. "We do block work a good two or three times a week. We have all the kids measured out precisely. It’s very important."
At West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Mike Jackson believes in working from the blocks every day.
"It’s one of the most important aspects of the race," the Knight boys’ head coach said. "In terms of acceleration, to get a lot of thrust, it’s crucial."
Though Jackson has some bright young students of the blocks, it’s not something that generally comes easily.
"It’s very difficult for first-year students," said Princeton High girls’ head coach Andre Bridgett. "It’s even more difficult for kids who have been taught incorrectly. Just helping them believe in them can be tough.
"You want to make them aware of how significant it is to learn how to start. It sets up most of your races. I always point out that it’s not the fastest person who wins, but the person who slows down the least. It sets up everything. If you’re eight feet behind, you quickly become discouraged."
Getting a good start can be a key difference. But it takes time to get down all the mechanics and be able to best utilize the starting blocks.
More frequently than the freshman sprinter who has been taught incorrectly is the kid who’s never used blocks. It’s fairly obvious from the outset who has experience and who doesn’t.
"The biggest thing is you want them to feel comfortable," said West Windsor-Plainsboro South head coach Todd Smith. "You want them to know that they don’t have to use the setting (the blocks) are on when they step up. You see it all the time. They just try to squeeze in whatever it’s set at. They don’t understand you’re allowed to move them."
Adjustable foot pedals can slide back and forth before being set in the most comfortable position for a runner. Small spikes on the underside of the newest starting blocks hold them in place on the track. From there, runners have to figure out what’s their most effective starting position, whether it’s left or right foot back slightly of the other.
"One of the hardest things is just trying to get the kids coordinated," Bridgett said. "To get the right leg coming forward when the left arm is coming forward, it’s natural when you walk and run. It’s tough when someone asks you to run from the crouched position. Whatever happens naturally goes out of the way for most young people. It takes a couple months just to grasp the fundamentals. It can take a couple years to feel extremely comfortable with it. I try to impose it on them early, from the first weeks on."
"It’s much harder for the younger kids," Smith added. "A lot of times they don’t understand how much weight to put on. They need to stay low. Usually they stand straight up. There are techniques to work on it and they’ll get better."
At Montgomery, Riddell counts on a number of plyometric exercises to help perfect starting from the blocks. In one, a sprinter lies flat on the track and springs up into a sprint. It teaches them to start low out of a position that’s even lower than they’ll be in the starting blocks.
In another exercise, the sprinter starts in a standing position and falls forward as though their feet are glued to the track. At the last possible second they begin a sprint. The exercise helps show sprinters which foot they push off from, the one that should give the biggest push out of the blocks.
The Cougars also work on staying low out of the blocks. A pole held across a runner’s lane just beyond the start ensures that he or she won’t stand up too quickly out of the blocks.
"There’s no point to blocks if you pop straight up," Riddell said. "It’s the whole concept of physics. Being a math teacher, I try to work on that intellectual side too."
"The hardest thing is staying low out of the blocks," agrees Jackson. "You have to almost feel like you’re falling forward. It’s a little uncomfortable when you start. That’s the No. 1 area a lot of kids could improve in."
On Jackson’s team is proof enough of what a good start can do for a sprinter.
"We have some kids who are overachieving," he said. "Joey Mastrangelo, he’s beating kids out of the blocks. In relays, he makes up the stagger because of his start. He’s got a huge edge with a good start. It means a lot to be out front as a sprinter. A lot of sprinting has to do with how much you stay relaxed. You don’t want to run the race by the opponent. Kids run more relaxed when they’re in the lead.
"On our team, Albert McCullan is a real flowing runner. He just runs out of room in races. However, Joey is beating him at this point because his blocks are so much better. When Albert comes out of the blocks better, he’s really going to explode."
Jackson and most area coaches encourage using blocks from the 100 to the 400 meters and for both hurdles races.
"It makes the hurdles a real science," Jackson said. "They know exactly how they’re going to come out and how they get to the first hurdle. Blocks make it more of a clinical approach. Not only does it have to be quick, it has to be the same every time."
Learning to use starting blocks certainly isn’t easy. World-class sprinters struggle to perfect their starts. It’s why so much time is spent on starting from the blocks in practice.
"The one point we try to make is that every second, every tenth of a second counts," Smith said. "These blocks, if used correctly, can really help you. If they’re used incorrectly, they can add a few seconds."
In other words, the starting blocks can make all the difference in high school track.