If you want to run faster, mastering the start is non-negotiable. In this post, we´ll uncover the crucial techniques of pushing with the front leg and pulling with the back leg to achieve triple extension, a quick first step and optimal separation right from the get-go. This foundational strategy is key to unleashing explosive power and efficiency during your sprint’s initial phase. It also applies to everything from 2 point starts all the way down to block starts.

Running fast is about maintaining acceleration as long as possible. It’s not about running as fast as you can or as quick as you can for a short amount of time. So Ken Harnden´s had some questions about the initial setup in acceleration and how you propel yourself from a stationary start, whether that be a 2-point, a 3-point or a block start.

His personal feeling is that:

• 90% of your power comes from your front foot.
• 10% of your power comes from the back foot.

Coaches coach a number of different ways. Ken Harnden´s rationale for this is your front leg is at 90°. Whether you´re in a 2-point, you´re in a 3-point or you´re in a 4-point you´re at 90° on the front leg. So if we work our way back to the weight room, when you squat down to 90º, that’s when you have the most power. So your front foot is obviously going to do most of the work because it’s at 90º. The back leg is at 120°, and it´s much harder to push from back there. So first, that’s simple. We know that that’s math. 90° get the most power, so your front leg is going to do the most work.

• Front leg is at 90º.
• Back leg is at 120º.

What you´re looking for the back leg is to do less work for two reasons:

1. You want it to be fast and able to pull through. You want that step to be quick.
2. If you push off the back foot you’ve now moved your weight onto the back foot and you can’t run from this position. So if you push off the back foot and it reaches and lands in front of the hip, you’ve created negative energy when what you want is to create positive energy.

• Back leg has to move fast.
• Push off the back foot puts athlete in a bad position.

So you want to be able to get 90º angle with your front leg, you want to push off the front foot, create triple extension and pull that back foot off the ground, and be able to push down the track.

1. 90% push off front foot with quick back foot pull.
2. Triple extension.
3. Land under hips.

Ken Harnden doesn’t know that you can gauge 90%. He thinks that’s a number that he´s coming up with. He thinks as a coach what you’re gauging is not what the percentage separation is, but more where your athlete is positioned when they come off that next step.

For Ken Harnden everything is about positions. So if you set your athlete up and they push off the front leg and you say: “You want 90% of your power here” and they say “Well, it feels like I’ve only got 50%”, but on the first step that foot landed underneath the hip and they created triple extension off it, you don’t care what you feel like it is. So long as you´re hitting the right positions and the power is going down on the track, you´re a happy camper as a coach.

Experimentation with that particular athlete’s important. Ken Harnden’s done a series with four different athletes that are built very differently. They’re all world-class athletes. None of them run the same as the next one. Ken can’t coach Favor the way he coaches Azeem. They’re very different athletes. Favor can squat the house. Azeem’s never been in the weight room. Favor weighs 180 pounds. Azeem weighs 137. These are very different people. So as a coach you’re continuously working on that particular athlete and you’re experimenting with it.

So take the feet, set it up and tell your athlete: “OK, I want you to push off both feet.” And what you’re going to happen is they’re going to jump and land with their feet together. Now we want to create separation. So you want to be able to push off the front foot and drive and then pull the back foot and put it on the ground. So as a coach we always be experimenting. Take your athlete, make simple adjustments, put them in positions that they can be successful but understand that your timing for those adjustments is more important than what the adjustment is. In other words don’t show up at the track meet, warm up and tell your athlete: “We’re going to change your block starts” 5 minutes before the race. This should be done in the preseason when we have time and and we have the ability to make adjustments and then come back from them and talk about them.

Bibliographic references:

• Outperform. (2024). RUN FASTER With This Proven Technique [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/sM0ZZBx3WkA?si=cspYwhDZBH9LsB9O