Learn how to sprint faster by maximizing ground contact and developing a proper foot strike. A common mistake many sprinters make is striking the ground on their toes resulting in massive ankle amortization and increased ground contact times. The goal of these drills is to get the athlete to develop a flat foot strike by overemphasizing landing flat on the heel. The result will be a flat foot strike during sprinting (landing on the forefoot or where the track spikes are).

During upright sprinting elite athletes generate between 5 and 10 times more vertical force compared to horizontal force (Seagrave, Mouchbahani, & O’Donnell, 2009). Large forces, applied in a short time, in the right direction, and through the optimal range of motion allow fast sprinters to cover 69% more ground per stride than their slower counterparts.

In this lesson I´m going to teach you based on the teachings of coach Karim Abdel Wahab the correct technique to maximize force application to the ground and I´m going to share some key sprinting drills to help develop a correct foot strike.

One of the biggest common mistakes during upright sprinting is for the athletes to be toesy. This is what they call “landing on the toes” or “landing only on the ball of the foot”. We want to land flat-footed, meaning getting a dorsiflex movement with the foot before you hit the ground. The heel barely misses the ground. They´re landing flat. Our way of fixing it is to use forced mechanics drills versus only talking about things.

Ground contact in upright sprinting:

• Wrong: Landing on toe
• Right: Dorsiflexed movement before hitting the ground

A-Skips (Landing On The Heel)

You´re going to do A-Skips (a 2-stroke movement: 1) up to the “Z”; 2) down), but now you’re going to land on your heel. So you can just get your foot up, hit your heel a little bit, and just get some kinesthetic awareness to remind yourself of the part of the foot that will be hit in the ground. This is very safe and very appropriate. So come up to the “Z”, land on the heel, very controlled. Just feel landing on the heel. Just a regular A-Skip on the heel, the part that you hit.

We’re really teaching the dorsiflex movement and getting them to land on the heel to really get their toes up. A little exaggeration to make sure that they´re getting the concept.

A-Skips:

• Calf close to hamstring → Forming the “Z”
• Foot pushes straight down → Landing on the heel

B-Skips (Landing On The Heel)

Hit your heels one more time just to remind yourself this is the contact of the point to the ground. You’re going to do B-Skips landing on the heel.

Before you go get your toe up, just get your foot up, and dangle your toe down. Your foot is coming to the ground. Now your leg is so long. We want to make sure that the leg is short so it can swing quicker to the ground, because the faster it comes down to the ground, the more force you get out of the ground, the more productive you’ll be during the air mechanics (the flight phase of the sprinting). In baseball, if you have a hitter that’s swinging the bat and they’re slow, what they do is they bring them a shorter bat to be able to swing quicker. In sprinting, a longer leg will swing slow, produces less force, thus sprints slower.

A longer foot/leg swings slower = Less force = Less speed

Now we want to make sure that that leg is shorter by getting dorsiflexion and make sure that we’re landing flat-footed to take advantage of our powerful calf muscles. So do B-Skips landing on the heel. Calves close to the hamstring on the way up, and then land on the heel.

B-skips:

• Foot is dorsiflexed → Toe close to the shin
• Calves close to hamstrings on way up
• Landing on heel

This is what we’re looking for in recovery mechanics. It makes their leg shorter, thus can swing up faster, and thus you’ll be faster. If that angle is too open, looking not like a “Z”, but like an “L”, that’s a longer lever and will make the thigh swing slower coming up. This is not what we’re looking for. We want to come up quick (calf to the “Z”), and then push directly down. This is what we’re looking for.

Recovery mechanics:

• Should be the “Z”
• The “L” is a longer lever → Makes thigh swing slower

A-Skips (with Arms Overhead Landing On The Heel)

We´re going to add A-Skips on the heel stretching your arms up.

If the athletes are slacky, that is to say, if they’re broken at the hips, they’re basically losing a lot of force. It’s as if you’re trying to shoot a cannon out of a canoe. Your force is going all over the place. We want to have a stable posture because this is our platform to apply force.

Breaking at the hips decreases force production

So stick your arms up, making sure that you´re tall at the hips, knees, and ankles. Come up to the “Z” and land. Just A-Skip movement. Land on the heel. Stay tall and land on the heel. Staying tall and landing on the dorsiflexion, getting the heel close to the butt on the way up to make sure that we have a shorter lever at recovery, which will make it fast.

Technique breakdown:

• Tall posture → Not breaking at the waist
• Calf close to hamstring → Forming the “Z”
• Foot dorsiflexed → Lands flat on heel

B-Skips (with Arms Overhead Landing On The Heel)

Now we’re going to do B-Skips, stretching the arm up, making sure that we’re stiff and tall, so we’re not wasting force. Land on the heel as well.

So stretch your arm up. Calf close to the hamstring on the way up (shorter recovery), and land on the heel. Great dorsiflexion. Great tall body. Stable body posture. Now we´re really efficient in applying our force.

Sprinting technique breakdown:

• Tall posture → Not breaking at the waist
• Calf close to hamstring → Forming the “Z”
• Foot dorsiflexed → Lands flat

Bibliographic references:

• Outperform. (2019). Sprinting Technique – Sprint Faster with a Proper Foot Strike [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/-Ot-dP1xST4?si=V4z5OGHeiRH0w0WS
• Seagrave, L., Mouchbahani, R., & O’Donnell, K. (2009). Neuro-biomechanics of maximum velocity sprinting. New Studies in Athletics, 24(1), 19–29.