Coach Joe Thompson shared an area of his expertise with our players. Good running form will help athletes in so many sports. Review these key reminders from Coach Joe. Overemphasize form when practicing so it is natural and efficient in competition.
Sprinting form checklist and reminders
Upper body
Head
- Keep your head in line with your spine
- Focus your sight directly down the track
- Relax your neck and jaw muscles
- Don’t clench your teeth
Shoulders
- Don’t shrug your shoulders. They should be kept low, not up by your ears.
Hands and Arms
- Run with open palm (if you naturally run with a closed fist, stay relaxed and don’t clench)
- Remember “Elbow to the sky, thumb to the eye”
- Sync arms with legs
- Remain upright during maximum velocity. Flexing or extending at the hip will limit your range of motion.
Lower body
- Run on the balls of your feet and push off
- Keep stride long but comfortable. Overstriding means less power and unnecessary stress on the hamstrings.
- Focus on rapid turnover of sprint cycles with knees parallel to the ground
To summarize, Coach Joe says if he had to reduce it to fewer bullet points he’d write:
Form:
- Posture
- Arms
- Balls of your feet
Pressure Baseball 