Blog
Straight answers to the questions coaches actually ask, including the ones where the answer is not flattering.
Which foot goes in front in the starting blocks?
The popular rules of thumb contradict each other, which is why the only answer worth trusting is a timed one.
Read →Should the lead leg be straight over a hurdle?
Nearly, for an instant, but how the leg gets there matters far more than how straight it ends up.
Read →Which foot should a high jumper take off from?
The foot decides which side the run starts from, and most athletes have already shown you their jumping foot somewhere other than the high jump.
Read →How to coach shot put when you have never thrown one
Most of what a first-year throws coach needs is safety, the order the body moves in, and the patience to leave the spin for later.
Read →How far forward should a sprinter lean?
A lot out of the blocks, very little at top speed, and never by bending at the waist, which is the version that gets taught by accident.
Read →Speed training, and how to tell whether it worked
There is no shortage of speed sessions to copy. The hard part is knowing whether the last eight weeks of them did anything.
Read →How to time a flying 30 without buying timing gates
The test is the standard one. The timing is where most squads either spend $400 or give up and use a stopwatch.
Read →Where does your sprinter actually hit top speed?
Most young athletes reach it somewhere between 20 and 30 metres, and they can only hold it for about eight steps, which changes where you should be testing.
Read →Acceleration or top speed — which is your athlete missing?
Two athletes with the same 100 time can need opposite training. One test session separates them.
Read →Why your 40 times keep dropping and nobody is faster
If the whole squad improved by two tenths this month, the thing that changed was probably the timing.
Read →How often should you test speed?
Weekly testing tells you about the weather. Once a season tells you nothing useful in time to act on it.
Read →Why your hurdler stutters before the hurdle
A chopped last stride is almost never a problem at the barrier. It is a problem three strides earlier.
Read →Your thrower got stronger and didn't throw further
A winter in the weight room, twenty kilos on the bench, and the same distance in April: where the strength is leaking out.
Read →Is 180 steps a minute the right cadence?
The number came from counting Olympic finalists, and it is standing in for something you can measure directly.
Read →Can you use the Film Room for pole vault?
Partly, and the part it cannot do is most of the vault, which is worth knowing before you rely on it.
Read →Why your long jumper keeps fouling
Three red flags in a row is rarely carelessness at the board. It is a run-up that was never the same length twice.
Read →Why your trail leg keeps clipping the hurdle
The knee that catches the barrier is usually paying for a mistake the lead leg made a tenth of a second earlier.
Read →Is heel striking actually bad?
Where the foot lands matters enormously. Which part of it touches down first matters far less than the internet suggests.
Read →Why your high jumper clears 1.60 and then misses 1.65 three times
The bar went up five centimetres. Almost nothing about the jump should have changed, and a phone can show you what did.
Read →Where your triple jump step went
When the middle phase is the short one, the fault is nearly always in the phase before it.
Read →One clip per athlete: what to look at first
With forty athletes and one practice, the order you look in matters more than how closely you look.
Read →Why you stand up too early out of the blocks
Standing up does not slow you down on the spot. It ends your acceleration early, and that is the part nobody feels.
Read →Why your shot put goes high but not far
A throw that looks impressive in the air is often a throw with the speed taken out of it.
Read →How to film an athlete so the video is worth analysing
Most unusable clips are unusable for the same four reasons, and none of them are the phone.
Read →Why your arms cross your body when you sprint
The arms are usually the symptom. Fixing them without fixing what they are balancing rarely holds past ten metres.
Read →Why your high jump approach falls apart in the last three steps
The run looks fine until it does not, and the plant inherits every mistake made before it.
Read →Why your long jump takeoff feels flat
The takeoff angle is decided on the step before the board, not on the board, and you can measure it from a phone.
Read →How to stop overstriding when you sprint
Reaching in front of your hips brakes every single step. Here is how to see it on video and what actually fixes it.
Read →Fast on the flat, slow over hurdles
If your hurdle times do not match your 100m, you are probably jumping the barrier rather than running over it.
Read →Why your triple jump hop is too big
A tall first phase feels powerful and leaves nothing for the step and the jump.
Read →What a good high jump takeoff looks like
The height comes from the plant, and the plant is made possible by the approach, which is where most of it goes wrong.
Read →How accurate is phone timing, really?
An honest answer, including where it is worse than a hand time and why that still beats a stopwatch.
Read →What it costs to time a meet
Hiring a timer, buying a system, or using the phones already in your pocket, with the actual numbers.
Read →Why your athletes can't find their own results
Results that live in a PDF, a group chat or a whiteboard are invisible to parents, to recruiters, and to the athlete a year later.
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