Improving running form

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Aug 23, 2016
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DD is 9 and she is a slow runner. Well, that's not true - she's not that slow if she's at the park chasing her friends around, but if she's on an athletic field she's slow.

I would love to post video but the poor kid is very self-conscious about her speed so she won't let me record her running. But yesterday she was almost in tears about how she was the slowest on the team (they ran the bases and were timed), and she wants me to help her.

I can see how her form slows her down, but I don't want to give her bad information about correcting her form. So are there readily available resources that can help me teach her proper running form?
 
Feb 28, 2015
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Heatbox
Both my DD's have been there. I would suggest a speed/agility class a couple times a week. Both my DD's have improved their shuttle and home to 1st times since they started in agility. Speed is mostly genetic but even slow girls can become faster. Neither one of my DD's is the slowest on their team anymore.
 
Feb 11, 2018
9
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Is she heel striking? Overstriding? Try having her run without shoes on football turf or soft grass (this is a natural way to improve running form because the body quickly learns and adjusts without shoes).

The only way to get faster is to run fast. Try working from 4x20m runs up to 10x20m runs with full recovery 2-3 minutes rest between each run, over the course of a few weeks and time her or have her race against a friend. Point out how each time she is improving even if the times don’t show it or tell her she is getting closer to her friend each time.

Asafa Powell has the best running form, this video is great because t goes through a bunch of angles, the side angle is the best.

https://youtu.be/eeRCz80Xys0


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Feb 11, 2018
9
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I would say that trying to teach good running form for young kids is really more trouble than it is worth. The main point that young kids understand and can take action on is to “run on the ball of your foot”. If they get that, they are more than halfway there. Running without shoes helps with this; most kids I’ve taught simply don’t run on their heels when you take their shoes off. Some do and they will have a harder time learning to sprint with proper form.

The main issue is strength to weight ratio. I have coached high school track and field for 15 years and it takes my kids all 4 years to truly get up to decent technique. The rest of the improvements happen from growing and weight lifting, just getting stronger. The fastest kids will have a natural springiness to their run with the foot landing close to directly under their hips, most everyone else heel strikes or overstrides.

Workouts like I mentioned above without shoes on turf or soft grass will work to improve her speed. Lifting weights, squatting and power cleaning will help; bounding is a drill you can look up that will help too.


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May 13, 2013
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DD has been doing speed and agility classes once a week since she was 13. But yeah she had that same problem prior to the classes where she's a hell of a sprinter and could smoke others running a full 100 yd dash, but once we got onto the dirt its seemed like slow motion and heavy steps. Aside from that we used to bring our team out once a week to our turf HS football field for an hour conditioning class where we'd focus on nothing but proper running mechanics, and worked in plyometrics, along with a lot of bleachers. Now runs around a legit 2.8-2.9 H2f, and 12.1-12.4 H2H, but I agree about finding a local class, or training facility where they work with sprinting, or agility.
 
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Feb 11, 2018
9
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Good topic an good info so far. Do any of you recommend Kbands training? It looks legit

https://kbandstraining.com/

I’m sure the product is fine. There are lots of these kinds of things out there. You won’t find many track and field sprint coaches using these, though.

In my opinion, there is no product that actually matters and truly helps. If anything has worked, it comes down to just actually training and the kids growing, maturing, and becoming stronger while the training was taking place. You can spend money on items if that is the catalyst to get you out to a field or turf and actually training, but it isn’t necessary. The most important products are a decent hill for resistance running and a turf field so you can run without shoes (after an extensive warmup and build up to get used to running without shoes). After that come barbell weights. Get your daughters back squatting, power cleaning, and dead lifting. I am sensitive to the fact that sometimes other coaches or even products can motivate kids due to a little bit of placebo so exploiting that is ok.

Let’s be honest here. Baseball and softball players do not need to be world class sprinters. First of all, they simply do not have enough time/space to really get out of the acceleration phase to transition to maximum speed running, which for elite pro sprinters is around 60m, for elite high school athletes is about 40m. Most elite kids under high school hit their top speed around 20m in an all out sprint. You put people, bases, and the potential of a turn in there and they will likely never truly be at a full out sprint. In the acceleration phase where the end goal is 20-30m away, to be honest, anything goes. Technique won’t really matter other than running on the balls of their feet and feeling like they are accelerating/“pushing behind them” “like a piston in an engine” the whole time and not standing straight up. In the field, the outfielders may have to run 10s of meters, but everyone else is likely 10m and under for any given play.

So where does that leave us? I believe we need to just train simple base running. Get the kids out there on a turf field, without shoes (or with them if they aren’t ready for that yet, more on barefoot running if you want you can ask). Put a base down at 10m and practice running all out towards it, maybe even drop the bat first I dunno, this could be one of the variations to keep it engaging. Do that 3-5 times. Move the base to 15m do that 3-5 times. Move it to 20m, do that 3-5 times. All these runs need to have full recovery of 2-3 minutes and you have to work up to this work volume. Perhaps the first week you only do the 10m runs for example. Do this 3x per week, time them, have them race friends, have them race you.

Encourage them to run on the balls of their feet and to “push backwards” the entire time. If they are heel striking take their shoes off. Take a 10 minute break and put 2 bases down to try to incorporate the turn, etc. Maybe do 5 of those with full recovery. Then take 10 minutes off and end with some hill runs (2-3 sets of 8 with full recovery between sets and jog back recovery between reps) of 10, 20, and 30m (always with shoes, these hill runs unless you have a turf hill). If they are truly running their fastest on each rep, they will get faster. It will take a couple weeks, but you will see an improvement. One last note about these workouts is that you have to end it completely when their times start to suffer for two reps out of 3. There is no point in training sprint speed when you are tired. Be careful with volume. Sprinting is hard on the body even if it doesn’t feel like it, less is more in this case.

Now to the field. We need to also train reaction time to the ball. We don’t have to train back and forth capability. It won’t hurt, but won’t be the best use of time. You can correct me if I’m wrong about this, but I don’t see much back and forth zig zagging in baseball/softball. So I’d have them start at a position at the some distance, have someone swing the bat and then I’d throw the ball out to their left or right and have them sprint to it to try to get it (not too far, maybe use cones to help guide the throw). Maybe 10-20 reps of those would suffice.

This is all coming from my sprint coaching background and my observations of baseball/softball and I’m new to the softball field myself so if I’m missing something, I’d love to learn more and I’m sure we can come up with drills that would help these athletes for this particular sport.


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obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
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Boston, MA
Codeman9 has some good info there!
Something I want to add is that reaction time and knowing how to run the bases are important as well. DD#2 looks like she's fast, but it's all in her head. When on base, she knows when to start and she explodes right from the start. She slides well too. These characteristics get her safely around the bases, creating the illusion that she is much faster than she really is.

That being said, the most important sprinting techniques I have found are
1) running on the balls of the feet
2) lean forward. Start your sprint while falling forward and maintain that angle.
3) keep arms flowing smoothly and pumping straight front and back. Eliminate all side to side motion.
4) also, work on quick starts- like 3 yd sprints. Focusing on explosive starts.

Working with 9 y.o., I would recommend practicing the 4 techniques above, especially during the season. Over the course of a year, work in the 20 yd/60' sprints as described by codeman9. As they get closer to 12, you could maybe get more into those.
 
Aug 23, 2016
359
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Thanks for the great advice, everyone. There's lots to think about.

DD does run on the balls of her feet, so there's that. But she doesn't seem to get much push off the ground, if that makes sense. She doesn't really use her momentum well.

I don't think she overstrides. If anything, I think she needs to stride further. When she tries to run quickly her feet get behind her center body mass, and she starts to lose her balance, so unless she slows down she is afraid she'll fall over. I think this can be corrected by lengthening her stride just a little - not much, just enough to maintain her balance.

And I've never thought about the side-to-side motion with her arms. She's definitely flapping her little chicken wings, and I'll work with her on that.

The good news is she is a smart base runner, and her lateral movement is good, and she's not a bad little slider. I really hope that a couple of small changes can make a big impact.
 

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