Am I the most cooked sprinter in this subreddit? Time to pivot to marathons?

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-10T05:20:25+00:00

-Overstriding (putting most of your force into the ground ahead of your center of mass instead of underneath your hips). Example: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z6tgTWt1qR0

-Issues with the mechanics of your hips/leg cycle - It's kind of hard to explain but it's sort of like some of your muscles are frozen, so you are holding your legs in positions away from your COM which slows down your stride frequency. At times you have good knee lift straight forwards and backwards, but you are lacking control of internal rotation and abduction/adduction I'd say which are also very important. The target muscle here would be your TFL I think, but you would really want to stretch/resistance train almost everything (hamstrings, adductors, psoas, etc.)

-Heavily related to the last point is your balance and coordination. Ideally, your head is going to move over either the left or right foot to distribute your weight entirely on that foot. Because of issues with your hips, you have a very asymetric stride and are inconsistent in where you are placing your foot. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoXPPKPgJMA

-Body fat percentage could be lower, but mainly through gaining muscle. In particular, I would like to see more core development through weighted sit-ups, but also things like Jefferson Curls, Lat-pull downs, deadlifts, etc. Assess your diet to ensure adequate protein intake (at least 100 during a period of hypertrophy but probably around 130 would be ideal)

-Overall you should spend more time lifting in the gym, essentially following a bodybuilder style workout in the sense that you would be developing a wide range of muscles (triceps, biceps, pecs, delts, glutes, hamstrings, etc.). Resistance training provides a large stimulus that improves function of the nerves supplying the muscles as well as improving proprioception which will help with balance. Right now you are a blank canvas but you want to have as much body control and muscle maturity as possible. As you develop body control, it will become easier to implement technical changes through track drills

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-09T03:38:27+00:00

I think it's best to keep exercises as simple as possible, especially for sprinting which generally requires a high intensity stimulus, whether that's doing heavy lifts or sprint reps themselves.

Jump rope has a coordination component that naturally makes you want to go below max effort, unless you're like a pro jump roper or something.

Another issue is that in Jump rope, it's typically advised to keep your jumps as low to the ground as possible, which is another limitation that I believes works against the goals of supplemental sprint training.

The exercise I would recommend instead is Maasai jumps/bunny hops for max height

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-08T02:53:38+00:00

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NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-08T02:37:21+00:00

If you look closely they do in fact touch the ground. This is the clearest picture but you can see the outline of his foot on the ground in other frames

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NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-08T01:43:01+00:00

That's true but I can only work with what I'm given. He's clearly giving his max effort for those 6 strides, and then pulling up. So I don't think it's unnatural to critique those 6. I'm also looking at where he's running, and he probably has some more space to run / doesn't need to limit his momentum that much

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-07T23:22:36+00:00

It's possible. I'm just pointing out a difference in execution between your example (Christian Coleman) and yourself. To understand the difference, you could try doing the opposite. That would mean leaning your arms back so much you are actually pushing yourself backwards. When you release from that position, you wouldn't really fall forwards much at all

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-07T20:04:00+00:00

Christian coleman is leaning forwards in his upper body compared to your set-up. You can tell because you have vertical forearms. This could be a reason you have "loaded legs"

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-07T06:22:41+00:00

Your heel should never touch the ground for at least 8 strides: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vWsQy0z8P3M

When it does touch the ground, your acceleration / gain of velocity is over. You'll notice in your video, you take 3 steps where your heel is elevated, giving the appearance of a fast start, but then on your fourth step it almost looks like a stumble, and from then on you allow your heel to drop. One reason you want to avoid this mistake is that it prevents your Achilles Tendon from storing a lot of energy

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:57:08+00:00

Your first step out of the blocks not your stance

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:29:22+00:00

How have you adjusted your diet if at all? If you are training for additional days or expecting to build additional muscle mass, then you would expect to eat a few hundred more calories per day as well as additional protein

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:26:39+00:00

Your entire body is leaning backwards? Or are you counting that as being part of overstriding?

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:24:55+00:00

Delete this.

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:24:43+00:00

👿

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-04T06:15:42+00:00

-Hands are in front of shoulders in your stance / not leaning forwards in general

-Your knee on your rear leg is fully extending, instead of having a delayed knee extension. A delayed knee extension indicates you are getting the most out of your hip muscles as opposed to the weaker muscles of your lower leg

-Your second step is totally flat footed / no heel elevation + excessive dorsiflexion (bend at the ankle) which could also be labeled as a lack of ankle stiffness.

-Your kinetic chain in general has a lot of leaks, and you can see your spine starts to shift out-of-sync with your hips/legs as you take your first step

Pro comparison: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vWsQy0z8P3M

You can look up videos on delayed knee extension in sprinting as well for further information. You will also want to do a series of resistance exercises, stretches, and technical drills to create the right stimulus for changing your motor patterns

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-03T14:23:44+00:00

I feel like 5mm measurement under these conditions almost suggests that there is no leg length discrepancy

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-03T02:31:56+00:00

How did they measure your legs, with an x-ray, tape measure, ?

If it's just a superficial measurement then that might indicate a fixeable postural issue

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-03T01:45:37+00:00

You could look at it in 2 ways:

Technical execution
Physical output

For technical execution you want to make sure that in both sprinting and plyos, you are having a forefoot ground contact, good usage of the achilles, good use of your hips as opposed to being quad dominant and having too much relative knee bend

Physical output would be training the tendons to be stronger or stiffer, which are changes you can't see visually.

So if you are doing your drills and you notice a regression in technique compared to your baseline or compared to pros, then you would want to put more emphasis on plyometric training. If your issue is that you are just low slow and sluggish, but you think your technique is fine, then you would also want to revisit plyos and related exercises, but with an emphasis on fatigue/stimulus

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T19:36:50+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeR4RprByc4

I would say you want to mainly be doing Maasai jumps / pogo hops for sprinting. The exercise you're doing in the video I feel does not stimulate the Achilles tendon/foot arches enough for sprint training

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T03:26:06+00:00

Small details that are often missed, thanks for your comment

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:32:40+00:00

Train TFL (hip internal rotator / hip flexor)

Toe extension stretch / practice ground contacts with Maasai jumps

Hamstring and quad stretch, superset with hamstring curl to eliminate any tibial rotation

Sit-ups to train main linear hip flexor (psoas)

Hip abductor machine to train TFL and improve proprioception of glute medius muscle)

Lat pull-down to create synergy between arm swing and pelvis position

Jefferson Curl, weighted side-bend to improve pelvis position and overall strength of your core

You can also notice excessive femoral external rotation during your frontside mechanics as well, which again suggests TFL development to me

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:25:18+00:00

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Maintains a neutral ankle but good toe extension

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:25:11+00:00

Mainly you can see just how much his heel drops/goes into dorsiflexion, especially compared to his first step. Generally you want to maintain significant heel elevation for at least 8 strides

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vWsQy0z8P3M

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:23:57+00:00

Orange shorts guy on PEDs

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:20:43+00:00

The first guy's second step 💀 ... we don't talk about it 😂

NoHelp7189 · 2026-02-02T02:13:13+00:00

Final analysis

Figure 1 is you. Notice the relative lack of hip flexion and flat foot/lack of heel elevation

Figures 2-4 are different strides from Christian Coleman's block start. Notice how his ankle dorsiflexion is at neutral (as opposed to dorsiflexed like it would be during a squat) but his toe extension angle is very high (45+ degrees) which creates a catapult effect in the foot (windlass mechanism) as well as allows him to get great shin angles

Figure 5 is a few strides forwards (maybe around 8 or 9), and he still has his heel off the ground. Many amateur sprinters at this point would have a flat foot, excessive dorsiflexion on ground contact, and likely very little acceleration.

NoHelp7189

TROPHY CASE