Dorsiflexion is one of the most important aspects of proper sprinting form and developing speed. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the body is doing. If you don’t have correct ground contact, you won’t sprint fast. In this post you’ll learn why running on your toes dramatically reduces speed.

I´ll share with you 3 problems that coach Ken Harden observes in his sprinters when they run on their toes and why you should strike the ground with the ball of the foot. I´ll also show you some drills coach Harnden´s athletes perform to develop correct ground contact. Great sprinters “move like athletes”, and athletes don’t run on their toes.

Lastly, there´s a section in whichs Olympian Cejhae Greene explains about how he learned dorsiflexion and developed his sprinting technique.

MOVE LIKE AN ATHLETE

We´re going to talk about dorsiflexion and how to correctly run. There’s a lot of people out there that believe that running on their toes is the correct way to run. Unfortunately, when you run on your toes a couple of things happen, in general on impact to the ground.

If you’re running on your toe, you’re forcing the hip out of position. You’re contacting the ground too early. It’s happening out in front of the hip, which then creates a breaking motion or a slowing down motion.

Running on your toes:

1. Forces hip out of position
2. Ground contact too early
3. Creates a breaking motion

So, the dorsiflexion and attack of the ground using the ball of the foot is where we want to be. You can tell the foot’s landing under the hip. The hip is at the same time passing across and on top of the ball of the foot, allowing us to drive down the track and create momentum in the direction we want to go.

Anytime we have a young athlete, the very first thing we teach is dorsiflexion in any drill we do, whether it’s a plyometric drill, it’s a running drill, it’s a drill in the weight room. We don’t want people lifting on their toes. We want them on the balls of their feet and moving like an athlete. That’s what we call it: “move like an athlete”. You’ve never seen anyone run on their toes that look like an athlete. So attack the ground with the ball of your foot. Put the foot down, drive it into the ground and create motion down the track.

Anytime we have an athlete that toe is out and points their toe*, we spend an inordinate amount of time working on pulling the foot down to the ground. We can do this from a stationary position starting with wall or poles and driving the foot in this way. Then, we can progress into all our drills (A-Skip, B-Skip and things like that).

* This happens a lot with gymnasts that come over to track and field.

1. Dorsiflexion → Toe is pulled up towards shin helping foot to land flat
2. Foot lands underneath hip → Ground contact is on ball of foot, no toes

CEJHAE GREENE´S INSIGHT ABOUT LEARNING DORSIFLEXION AND GROUND CONTACT

Coach always used to remind us and try to show us, but honestly, it was watching probably all of like the greats do it, honestly. For me, I used to watch a lot of film. I would look for athletes with my build and obviously the person who was the world record holder at the time (Usain Bolt). So I would look at those athletes and see how they accomplish it, because obviously to be that fast, you have to be doing it right. I try to mimic them as much as I can in my own way. And that’s how I’d get better, trying to figure out what thought process they probably had to get there.

Cejhae Greene:

• 2016 Olympian
• 100M PR: 10.01

Bibliographic references:

• Outperform. (2020). Why Running On Your Toes is Killing Your Speed (and what to do instead). [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/NzAMb33EYlQ?si=cyTugqgMtSj7n38X