The Crouch Start slaoke Bymos / Join simon “leche Bymesis coach of many years - Level Vand coach of Wort indoor 260m champion, Olymoic and Gommonmeath Games reprecontatve Malini? ansfod. The National Youth Event Coach for Spits, Jackie lectures and mentors many develoning caches. John Simon is a Level coach vito has had along involvement in caaching visually handicapped athletes. ‘iin the sprint fraterty there is much debate about the ‘pest body poston to star. Pressure on te hands or through ‘he feet, feet positon inthe blocks and where to poston the actual podals of the blocks are just a few topics that can attract contracted conversation. $0 what is best? ‘Some tne ago John Simon, Level N coach in NSW wrote about an unconventional crouch start which Ne coached. He explained this method came about due to the age of competion - where circumstances caused lat of slippage, despite uso of spikes. Eventhough blocks were now used, ne {ound is athletes liked the method and found it gave them a ‘decided advantage. John sill uses ths technique and swears by the principles it applies. [Ried ‘The princiole af this technique fs somowhatcferent rom the standard textbook approach. One a the abvious differences. betwoon a crouch start and a standing statis the feet of the crouching athletes must be farther behind the line John expiains that he picked up this ‘unweigitng’ version of siatng from Tennis, It is used by the receiver who is expecting a wide serve but is unsure whether the balls going ‘a hisihe left ight. As the ball is served, he/she drop their hios momentarily, thus taking some weight of the lags. Tis ‘enables the legs to react more quickly than if they were stil Dearing the ful body weight Gravity aocelerates a faling body atthe rate of 9.76mis. Ha person jumped off a 100m high building heishe would more ‘an halve the 100m world record. The Ital velocity would ‘considerably exceed that of any world record ole by their ‘own muscle power, Therefore, this technique begins with a ‘controle fall, similar tothe rinciole of “unweighting”, using ‘rotational moment to conver the fling vertical momentum. into linear maton Without the emphasis ona strong ove, the athlete can relax the muscies a litle, thus enabling a faster neuro-muscular reaction, AS a powerful movement requires recruitment of ‘many muscle Mibres, the gravity assist buys the runner a little tn, encling them to bulls powor into the aceleraton ase thlete and C [Amajor aspect of this starts that tho feet are ose together inthe linear plane, no more tan or 4 om apart. This ensures the inal movement of the athlete is square and balanced, 0 the driving acceleration forces are applied in a stitly linear rection and net wasted in a wide steping gait which is sometimes needed to correct equibrum if the runner is intially unbalances by a drive which may be slightly off cent In this unconventional star, each leg has a ciferent role. The leg which takes the fist ste is refered to as the ‘stepping Jog’ wile the otter is the ‘support leg’ a it nally supports the body weight. ‘The sprint start is cued by sound. Therelore ts essential to {ran the athete’s reaction to the sound ofthe stating gun This raises & point - now do we want the athlete to react? Which muscles or muscle groups shouldbe the fist to react to the sound of te gun? By giving the athlete a particular ocus, the coach helps thom to use the natural adrenalin rush, for nervous reaction, in a positive way and to focus on the process ofthe race athe than bocome distracted by thinking out possible outcomes. The most common cuo ie to driv the arms, one forward (obuicusy) and one backwards. Recent biomechanical fexperimentations has demonstrated that this is actually counter productive. In all normal b-pedal locomotion the Jog museles are the iiiators and the arms move tractonally ‘ater to counterbalance trunk rotation, Therefore fan arm is moved fist, ints normal counter rotational mation, a rotation vil be inflated, causing a series of corrections, most likoly manifested in a wide striding galt. In adaton, the normal leg arm synchronisation wil be interrupted, thus slowing the runner, in saying hs, bth arms need to be driven strongly to counteract any rotation The most obvious cue is to concentrate on moving the “stepping leg’. This can be reinforced in training untl the athlete firmly associates tho sound of the gun with fast | ‘movement ofthe ‘stepping leg”, As there is no postive divo vith te technique, the role ofthe “support leg", which wil be explained later in more detal, complements this movement. ‘The arms are simply allowed to move natural.“The secret ofthis technique is In the “crouch” and “set” posions. Once these are mastered and correctly executed, ‘the remainder follows natural. In this version o the crouch star, the hips are raised as high as possible, lke the old “unc slart technique. This enables a good ‘al. Unie ‘the bunch, the knee ofthe supporting legis locked. When the gun fies, the athlete concentrates on raising both arms ‘of the track, which inate the fal. The locked knee tums the support eg into alver, wit the ankle joint asthe fulcrum. ‘This converts the downard fll into forward movement, at a Similar speed. The locked knee is ten “unlocked” allowing the his to collapse a litle. This is the ‘unweighting’ that {tees the bg, enabling ito quickly follow the former traling (stopping) log which has now mace theft stride, completing the transion from downward t forward speed, ‘The “NO DRIVE” Start “On Your Marks” There are a number of ways of determining the position of the feet in relation tothe starting line, however the general Principle is they should be as close tothe line as body shape and flexbity wil permit. One method isto have the athete knee! and place thei hands in the normal staring positon, bohind the ine. The knoe of the “support lag" is thon positioned behind the thumb ofthe appropiate hand. Without ‘moving the knee the foot is tucked under int the erdinary starting postion and the knee is then raisd to its normal ‘upright orientation. The fot ofthe “stepping log" places 3 4 omto the rear of the fot ofthe "support eg” and he athlete | ready forthe next phase. Its posible to start th the feet ‘ie by ide, instead of having @ linear separation, but | nave ‘seen only one athlete who requaly starts this way. Another ‘ule of thumb’ tip for positioning the starting blocks is to pace the knee of the trailing le, close to and immediately behind the starting line, so the length of the athite’s lower leg dotormines the position of the rear biook. Te fant block is then placed slighty ahead ofthe oer, how close being determined by the athletes flexbiy. Set" In the “set” position the athete's hips are raised until the kee ofthe “stepping log” is at an angle of approximatoly 160 degrees. The hips are therefore higher than the soulders ‘and noticeably higher than inthe accepted position of 120, degrees. The blocks should be set at low ange to cause flexion atthe ankles. High block angles are more comfortable in the crouch positon but itis sometimes necessary to point Out tothe athletes thatthe race begins from the “set”, not ‘rom the “crouch”. a ‘nthe sound ofthe gun, the fst movement should be a quick stride withthe “steppingleg”. The knee of the “support leg” is. ‘momenta lacked, o cause the centre of gravity deliberately raised bythe high hip poston) to rotate (al forward) about ‘the ais ofthe anke. By straghtering the body in te intial rive, the core musces give impetus to the 1st movement The knee is then straightened 2s the hips fall and the trunk. |s extended up the track. Owing tothe extreme forward cot positon, an athieto who corectly executes tis manoeuvre and reacts to the gun simultaneously with their opponens, val find they ase already slightly aead of runners using @ conventional position Aeceleration ‘Although the quickest way to the fish Is @ straight tne, ‘2 surprising number of runners accelerate in a zig-zag fashion, This may be due to factors previously mentioned, such as an arm movement precoding tho log movement ‘ant an over enthusiastic emphasis on leg dive. However, a turer factor can be a poor Vansiton trom the "set" stall balance postion to the running dynamic balance. The set" allows for a reasonably stabe four pont static balance. The ‘comparatively widespread of tho arms provide atral stably. Wien the arms it rom the track, lateral stability is poor unt the dynamism of velocity restores balance (in the samo way that itis difcuit o balance ana stationary bike). To keep the bigytle analogy, fa stationary rider attempted to suddenly apply maximum force tothe pedals, they would ‘ost key fll off. With tis staring technique, the clase lateral fot positon and emphasis on timing and technique, rater than maximum power, enables the athletes to leave the Docks in atrall balanced poston, despite the selfinduced linear overbalance. ‘Thoy aro thon asked to use as much power as is consistent with maintaining lateral and linear balance, progressively Increasing to maximum. That is, power is increased in a rising curve rather than in a sudden burst. Contrary to what, might expected, tis seems to shorten the aceleation perio, so that the techniquo is particulary kind to sprint hurdler, who need to reach maximum velocity quick while being wel balanced before they reach he fst hurd. on baa Feet close together in the linear plane and close to the starting we owe eee tna Mike spo "160 esp es meaty seotr cnn thation ou Taxon wiping ote or appt a sxwentinc St tered - ognize pnt manum costing tp. Wher mr wis nd en ped at wen ats es wpe by seh be ca ae diay tego pate eg thatsate. This can be achieved by straightening the arms ‘and locking the elbows, sa the body weight fs sunported ty the bones rater than the muscles. TO enabie the ‘al’ the shoulders need to be ahead of the hands and starting he in the ‘so’ positon Eatortal note: T the bax’ and sor advised to start tart isa litle ‘out of ne baginaing coach would not be ith but experimentation i part of caching not work would be incorect. The athete Is ‘xperment of one 3 a coach always needs to leave their wind open fo any discussion. Hence I have asked a coach witha vast amaunt of expertence fo comment on “the stat ‘and what she would advise coaches fo do when coaching this Gificul skil. Jackie Byrnes is 2 coach of many years ~ Level Vand coach of Word indoor 200m champion, Olympic and Commanweeth Games representative Melinda Gansfr Reaction Time (RT) and Block Time (BT) + speed are inherent factors. ‘Alcan be improved with peactice’caching but inited by Ine inherent factor. Sprinting is up an forward. ‘The most important component of speed from the blocks ‘nd beyondis the development final near acceleration produce as a result of speed + strength = power “There ave three types of str: The Bunch or Bullet Start ‘The Medium Start ‘The Elongated Start [Appraisal John Simon theo : In ooking at “The Crouch Start proposed bythe above author ohn Simon, | would Ike to make these Comments: ‘This submission advocates use of type of Bullet Start wih the fet close together (-4em apart) but atthe same tine suggesting the fet be closer to the line than normal onthe linear plane. It is suggested the “knee of the stepping legs at an angle of 100 degrees’ This gives a higher than normal hip poston and in my opinion wil reduce the abilty of the athlete to apply productive force through the leg/teet Decause te bays then folded toa more acute angle thus reatitng the athlete to achieving approx. 45 degree ance ‘rom the blocks langle of release) and full power ine from foot to head straight) Keepin mind the aim sto actieve al tis ina fraction of a second. ‘Thewniter's mention ofthe runner's acceleration ina zigzag {ashion and suggesting it may be due to an arm movement preceding a leg movement and an over emphasis on leg drive. | would lke to add here that often found tis technique cated out by young male sprinters but never with any female sprites in ll he years of coaching, One Perhaps could conclude i is“a boy ting”? | would suagest tis proposed starting setup would work and be svocessfulin some cases but nat atthe more advanced level ot sprinting. | am not sure | am the coach to be puting this forward as. | was not svecessul in achieving outstanding starts with Melinda (Gainsford) and it haunted me. No mater what we ‘ried things cnt change but | felt beter when the various, gurus" of sprinting were ined, over a period of time, to ‘work with Mel but never achieved better outcomes therefore ‘Molly went through her whole sprinting career coming from behind and chasing ne Was tal successful an ‘During the years of coaching and seeking coaching knowtedge [iniialy promoted and cnached te “text book” approach ‘withthe 90 dagree/ 02 degree eg angles (approx. JT hands ‘wider than the shoulders, oes on the around ot. ‘Over a period of yoars we (Mel and 1) made changes we ‘thought would improve tings such as:- + hands same as shoulder width apart leaning forward + head inne withthe body throughout © eyes focussed straight dawn or sighty tack + Bothfeetpushed frmiy backint block inthe"set poston thus eliminating the reflex action ofthe foot going back before it comes forward. ‘© slow to rise on the “set” taking a breath + éynamic arm and leg reaction on the un Wie found the setup of two (2) steps back to front foot toe placement plus one for back foot worked well and this hasially puts the fet ina Bult Stat type of postion. Using this method you didn’t neod a tape measure because you always had your fet with you ‘These are the PROGRESSIVE steps | would se: From the oneet when “on your marks” is called just have the athlete put the preferred foot tothe line and the too of the bck fot in ine with tho Heel of the trot foot and just stand there looking ahead, as focussed as you can got them at this age... nothing ese ‘onthe command set” knees ae bent wth weigh transfered ‘mainly tothe font foot, shoulders and head over te line, both heels of the ground and arms ready in a running postionThis movomonpesiion is developed over a long period of time and requires practise, practise, practise to ensure that ‘the epposite amis forward and the boy is leaning forward in ‘a crouch type poston. IF enough weight Is dstrbutes AND held on the font foot ‘throughout the “set” into the gun it wil eliminate the very common practice of young athletes jumping up of te around before they move forward. This nas always brought a simile to my face when half te racing pack goes forward and th rest go up. It the poston of eaing forward with weight say 80% weight ‘over font foot is executed wel the positon is referred to as, ‘the “point of equilbium” in that i you gave the athlete a gentle tap trom behind they would fal forward. ‘The head should bein ine with the body thoughout creating power ine” with eyes focussed just aead Femomber takes practice to make ta habit As the athlete bocomos more confident the further they can ‘crouch, maintain balance and dive forward more efficient. | advocate as a coact that you ensure the atheto is very ficient inthe “erouch standing start” before getting spikes and starting blocks. As the atlet grows and becomes stronger and faster rather than older, introduce spikes and eventual blocks. If this coaching methods applied wel then the transivon onto blocks is made easy. Edlto’s note: The crouch stat or any starting postion has ‘alway been an elemento sprinting coaches experiment with, Wit ever change? 1am not sure. But heathy discussion is aly good. I hope this creates some.