Blog
Straight answers to the questions coaches actually ask, including the ones where the answer is not flattering.
What frame rate do you need to film a sprinter?
Ordinary video is fine for checking posture. Ground contact time and cadence need enough frames to actually catch the foot going on and off the track.
Read →Is a steeplechase barrier the same as a hurdle?
The clearance looks almost identical to a flat hurdle from the side. The barrier not falling, and the water jump at the end of it, are what actually make the event different.
Read →How do you coach an athlete through the heptathlon or decathlon?
Most coaches know one or two of the seven or ten events well. The job is less about teaching every event yourself and more about deciding where limited practice hours actually pay off.
Read →Why does my jumper's approach run look different from their flat sprint?
A long or triple jump approach is not just a shorter sprint. The last two steps are built on purpose to set up a takeoff rather than to keep accelerating.
Read →Why does my high jumper clear more at home than at away meets?
The runway is not the same everywhere. A jumper who has only ever felt their steps on one surface finds that out at the worst possible meet.
Read →Why does my sprinter run a different split on every rep of the same workout?
A spread of times across a set of reps is usually more useful than the fastest time in it, and logging the whole set is how you find out which.
Read →What age should a kid start learning hurdles?
There is no right birthday for it. What matters is whether a kid's sprint stride and coordination can already survive an obstacle without breaking.
Read →How do you know when a thrower is ready to move up to a heavier implement?
Being strong enough to lift the next implement and being ready to throw it are two different questions, and coaches who only ask the first one get it wrong.
Read →Why does my runner's cadence drop in the second half of a race?
Pace is cadence times stride length, and when a runner tires it is usually the turnover that goes first, not the stride.
Read →How many warm-up jumps should a high jumper take before a meet?
Too few and the opening height is cold. Too many and the legs are spent before the height that actually decides the meet.
Read →Does the angle of the block pedals matter, or just how far apart they are?
Pedal angle decides which direction the first push actually goes, and it is set separately from how far apart the two blocks sit.
Read →How far apart are the hurdles, and does that change with age?
The spacing between hurdles is fixed by rule for each race, not chosen by feel, and age group is what actually moves the numbers.
Read →How do you coach a left-handed thrower when every cue you know is for a right-hander?
Every throwing cue flips for a left-handed athlete, but the number the Film Room reports does not, because it was never built to care which way the athlete faces.
Read →Can you check a sprinter's form on a treadmill with the Film Room?
Most of what the Film Room measures does not care whether the ground is moving, but the one number that needs real distance is the one thing a treadmill never gives up.
Read →How is indoor high jump different from outdoor?
Three things change when a high jumper moves inside for the winter, and the technique is usually not one of them.
Read →Why does my relay team keep getting disqualified for an early handoff?
A handoff that looked perfectly clean from the stands can still be a violation, because the rule is judging the baton, not the runners.
Read →Why does my hurdler clear the hurdle with way more height than they need?
Every extra inch of air over the barrier is time spent in flight instead of time spent running, and most hurdlers who do it have no idea they are doing it.
Read →How do you decide which athletes to film every practice and which once a week?
A roster of thirty does not get thirty clips a day, so the camera has to go where it will actually change what you coach next.
Read →Why does my runner's foot land on the outside edge instead of flat?
A foot that rolls onto its outside edge on every stride is usually invisible from the side, which is the angle almost everyone defaults to filming from.
Read →Why does my high jumper bail out at the last step instead of taking off?
A clean approach that ends in a dead stop at the bar is almost never a technique problem, which is why coaching the technique does not fix it.
Read →Why do runners start in staggered positions for the 200m and 400m?
The stagger is not an advantage given to the outside lanes, it is the only way to make eight different arcs add up to the same distance.
Read →How is indoor hurdles different from outdoor?
The hurdles themselves barely change, the race around them changes a lot.
Read →How do you taper a sprinter's training before the championship meet?
A taper is not a reward for a hard season, it is the two weeks where the hard season actually turns into a fast time.
Read →Why does my sprinter's ankle collapse inward at ground contact?
An ankle that rolls inward on landing is a side-view blind spot, which is exactly why it usually gets noticed too late.
Read →Why does my high jumper keep slipping on the curve of the approach?
A curve run upright puts sideways load on the foot that the surface cannot always grip, and the slip usually happens before anyone is looking at the plant.
Read →Does arm action out of the blocks matter as much as leg drive?
Loose or early arm swing can pull a sprinter upright before the drive phase is finished, which makes this an arm problem with a leg-shaped symptom.
Read →Should a hurdler count steps out loud, or just feel the rhythm?
Counting is a scaffold for a pattern that is not yet automatic, and the point of hurdling well is to take the scaffold away.
Read →What should you actually write in a Film Room comment so it still makes sense a week later?
A note that only makes sense while you still remember the rep is not a note, it is a reminder to yourself that expires in about a day.
Read →Why does my distance runner's arm swing get bigger as they fatigue?
Wide, flailing arms late in a race usually mean the legs have stopped producing enough force on their own, and the arms are trying to make up the difference.
Read →Is more approach speed always better for a high jumper?
Speed that cannot be converted into a fast, firm plant does not turn into height, it turns into a jumper running under the bar instead of over it.
Read →Why does my sprinter's stride get longer but their time doesn't improve?
A longer stride on video is not the same thing as a faster stride, and the gap between the two usually shows up in ground contact time, not in the tape measure.
Read →How do you know if your hurdler's problem is speed or technique?
A hurdler who looks slow between the barriers might just be slow, or might be paying a technique tax at every hurdle that a flat sprint would never charge them.
Read →How do you tell a real improvement from one lucky race?
A season-best time is one data point, and a tailwind, a weak field, or a generous watch can produce one without anything about the athlete actually changing.
Read →Why does my runner's posture collapse in the final strides of a race?
The fade in the last fifteen metres usually starts in the trunk, not the legs, and it costs more speed than it looks like from the stands.
Read →How many attempts in one high jump meet is too many before fatigue costs more than it's worth?
A jumper who cleared cleanly early can start missing heights they have cleared before by attempt five or six, and the plant usually shows it before the miss does.
Read →How long should a sprinter hold the set position?
The honest answer is that the sprinter does not choose it, the starter does, so the real question is how to train for a hold that will not be the same length twice.
Read →How many hurdle reps before technique starts to break down?
There is no universal number, but there are signs that show up on film well before an athlete says they are tired.
Read →How do you bring a thrower back after a long off-season?
A thrower who has not picked up an implement in three months is not the same athlete who hit a personal best in May, and treating week one like week two of last season is how backs get hurt.
Read →Is it a problem if my runner's head tilts to one side?
Sometimes it is nothing, sometimes it is the visible end of an asymmetry that starts somewhere else entirely, and the only way to tell is to look from more than one angle.
Read →Why does my high jumper's trail leg clip the bar?
The lead leg clears clean and the bar comes down anyway, usually because the leg that was still on the ground a moment earlier never got tucked or turned in time.
Read →Which foot lands during the step phase of a triple jump?
The hop, step and jump follow a strict alternating pattern, and getting it backwards wrecks the whole sequence.
Read →Why does my hurdler's lead-leg hamstring always feel tight, but never the trail leg?
The two legs do different jobs over a hurdle, and only one of them gets stretched near its limit on every single rep.
Read →Why does my athlete say a rep felt perfect when the Film Room says it wasn't?
Feel and film measure two different things, and assuming the athlete is wrong, or lying, is the fast way to lose their trust in both.
Read →What's the difference between front-side and back-side running mechanics?
One happens in front of the hip and drives the stride forward, the other happens behind it and mostly just costs time.
Read →Should a high jumper's last two steps speed up or slow down?
Neither sprinting flat through the plant nor stomping on the brakes works, and film is one of the few ways to actually see which one is happening.
Read →Why does my sprinter's recovery leg swing out wide instead of folding under the hip?
A wide recovery swing is almost always a hip problem wearing a knee costume, and it shows up clearly in a side-on clip.
Read →Can you time the splits between each hurdle, not just the whole race?
A finish time tells you the result. The splits between hurdles tell you where the race was actually won or lost.
Read →Should you show an athlete their film right after the rep, or wait until practice is over?
Both timings work. Picking the wrong one for the moment is how a good piece of feedback gets ignored.
Read →Why does my runner's shoulders rotate opposite to their hips when they run?
It looks like a fault. In a normal running stride, the shoulders and hips are supposed to counter-rotate against each other.
Read →Is it bad if my high jumper's plant foot lands heel first?
Sprinters are told never to land on the heel. A high jumper's plant foot has a different job, and heel first is often exactly right.
Read →Why does my sprinter slow down at the same point in every race?
A repeatable fade point is a data problem, not a toughness problem, and a camera can show you exactly where it starts.
Read →Why do coaches say to run over a hurdle, not jump it?
The instruction sounds like a cliche until you see what jumping actually costs a hurdler on the clock.
Read →What actually belongs in the highlight video you send a college coach?
A college coach watches a clip for about ninety seconds, and most recruiting videos waste every one of them.
Read →Why does my triple jumper's stride completely change between the hop and the step?
A triple jump is one run-up followed by three different jumps, and the hop and the step are not supposed to feel the same.
Read →How do you know if a high jump miss was nerves or technique?
The bar coming down looks the same either way, and the difference changes what you say to the athlete next.
Read →How do you decide relay order: fastest leadoff or fastest anchor?
The fastest four people run a slower relay than the right four people in the right order, because a baton exchange rewards different things on each leg.
Read →Does hurdling make a sprinter faster in the open 100?
Hurdle work sharpens the pieces a flat sprinter also needs, and leaves the one piece, top-end speed, that it was never built to train.
Read →How do you handle a parent who disagrees with your coaching decisions?
The argument is rarely really about the event entry. It is about whether the parent has anywhere to see what the coach is seeing.
Read →Why does my runner bounce up and down instead of covering ground?
Extra vertical bounce is effort spent fighting gravity instead of moving forward, and it is most costly in the distance runners who can least afford to waste it.
Read →What does filming your high jumper from the front show that a side-on clip won't?
Hip rise and takeoff angle come from a side-on clip because they happen forward and back. Drift, a crooked plant and an off-centre landing happen across the body, and a side-on camera cannot see across.
Read →Does a strong wind affect what the Film Room's numbers actually mean?
A gusty day changes the clock and the jump, but not most of what a side-on camera is actually reading off the body.
Read →Should a hurdler come up out of the blocks the same way a sprinter does?
A sprint block start and a hurdles block start are judged against the same drive-phase number, and coaching them identically is where it goes wrong.
Read →Should parents see every Film Room clip, or just the ones worth seeing?
Sending every clip builds trust until it doesn't, and the honest answer depends on whether the clip is from a meet or from a Tuesday fixing a fault.
Read →Why does my runner's feet cross an imaginary line down the middle when they run?
Crossover gait is a sideways fault, which is exactly why a side-on video of it so often looks fine.
Read →Can the Film Room tell you how high your jumper actually cleared?
The high jump setting reports hip rise and takeoff angle, not centimetres off the bar, and the reason is worth knowing before you expect the other thing.
Read →Should a sprinter's hands sit under the shoulders in the blocks, or further forward?
Hands under the shoulders is the safer default, forward is a real option for an athlete strong enough to hold it, and the first step out tells you which one is working.
Read →Why does my hurdler's hips rotate open over the barrier?
Rotating hips and drifting sideways look alike from the stands but come from different faults, and only one of them shows up on a side-on camera.
Read →How do you coach throws when your team shares one circle with another sport?
Forty minutes on a shared ring twice a week changes what a throws practice should even try to do, and most of the fix happens off the circle.
Read →Why does my runner's forward lean come from the waist instead of the ankles?
The lean coaches ask for and the lean most runners actually produce come from two different joints, and only one of them helps.
Read →Should a high jumper's approach run at the same speed on every attempt?
A slower approach on one attempt can be a tactic or a drift, and checking takeoff angle across attempts is how you tell which.
Read →Does it matter which side of the bar a high jumper approaches from?
The side of the curve is decided by which foot takes off, not by preference, and swapping it is closer to starting over than flipping a drill.
Read →Should a sprinter dip at the finish line?
A dip gets the torso across sooner only if it is timed to the very last stride, and the same forward lean that wins a close finish can also cost a whole stride of speed if it starts too early.
Read →What's actually different between the 100m hurdles and the 110m hurdles?
The height is the change everyone names, but the spacing moves by more, proportionally, and a stride pattern built for one race does not transfer to the other.
Read →How many events should one athlete enter at a single meet?
The schedule, not the athlete's talent, is usually what decides whether a fourth event helps the team or quietly costs the athlete their best one.
Read →Why does my runner look like they're sitting down when they run?
A hip that never fully opens leaves the foot landing out in front of the body on every single step, which reads on film as a braking force, not just an odd-looking posture.
Read →Bunch, medium, or elongated: which sprint start should you use?
The distance between the two blocks changes the start more than which foot goes where, and the right spacing is found by testing, not by rule.
Read →Why does my hurdler's trail leg knee swing out to the side?
A trail leg that sweeps around the hip instead of folding under it costs width and time at every single hurdle, and it rarely starts with the trail leg itself.
Read →How do you run one practice when half your team has a meet Saturday and half doesn't?
A single practice plan rarely fits a taper group and a full-training group at once, and the part that actually breaks is not the workout, it is keeping track of who did what.
Read →Why does my runner sway side to side instead of running in a straight line?
A trunk that rocks left and right with every stride usually starts at the hip, not the shoulders, and it is the one running fault a side-on camera cannot see at all.
Read →Why does my high jumper drop their head before they clear the bar?
Looking down to find the bar a half second early pulls the arch down with it, and the fix is rarely about the back at all.
Read →Why does my triple jumper's landing come up short even when it looks fine?
A triple jump mark is measured from where the body touches sand closest to the board, and a clean-looking landing can still cost you that distance.
Read →Which leg should a beginner hurdler lead with?
The honest answer is to test it in five minutes rather than guess, and then commit, because indecision costs more than picking the 'wrong' leg ever will.
Read →How do you know if an athlete is overtraining or just having a bad week?
One slow session is noise. A few weeks of slow sessions despite more work is a pattern, and the training log is what turns a vague feeling into something you can actually see.
Read →Why does my sprinter's arm angle open up in the last part of a race?
A tight elbow angle takes active effort to hold, and most athletes have never been taught to keep holding it once they get tired.
Read →Why does my high jumper's plant leg buckle instead of staying firm?
The plant has to resist a sudden load almost instantly, and that is a different kind of strength from the one that lets an athlete jump high at all.
Read →Why does my sprinter's hips sit too high in the set position?
Hip height on "set" decides how much push is still available when the gun goes, and too high is the quieter version of this mistake nobody checks for.
Read →Why does my hurdler's stride pattern fall apart on a windy day?
The steps between hurdles are built for still air, and wind changes the one variable a hurdler cannot adjust for mid-race: how far each stride actually carries.
Read →How many steps back should a triple jumper's run-up be?
Longer is not better in triple jump the way it is in long jump, because a faster approach only helps if the hop, step and jump can still absorb the speed.
Read →Why does my runner's foot slap the ground on every stride?
A loud footstrike is the ankle giving up on a job the hip was supposed to hand it, and it costs time well before it ever causes an injury.
Read →Should a high jumper pass a height to save jumps for a later attempt?
Every miss at a cheap height uses up one of three tries that a jumper might need later, and passing is a real tool, not just a way to look confident.
Read →Why does my relay team lose time on a clean baton exchange?
A clean handoff and a fast handoff are not the same thing, and the gap between them is almost always standing still, not a dropped baton.
Read →Why does my 400 hurdler's stride pattern fall apart on the curve hurdles?
A stride pattern that holds over flat hurdles can come apart on a curve for a reason that has nothing to do with fitness.
Read →How do you coach a javelin thrower if you've never thrown one?
The checklist is shorter than shot or discus, and most of what goes wrong happens in the run-up, five steps before anyone looks at the arm.
Read →Why does my long jumper's arm swing stop right before takeoff?
The arms are supposed to finish the jump, not start it, and when they stall a beat early the hips stall with them.
Read →Why does my high jumper's free leg not pull them over the bar?
The free leg is supposed to do work at takeoff, and when it just comes along for the ride the jumper is clearing the bar on the plant leg alone.
Read →How do you know if a slow start is reaction or drive?
A slow 40 time out of the blocks has two different causes and they need opposite fixes.
Read →Should a hurdler look at the hurdle or straight ahead?
Staring at the barrier is a beginner habit that quietly causes the dip and duck coaches then try to fix separately.
Read →How many throws in one practice before technique stops meaning anything?
There's no fixed number. There's a point where every rep after it is training fatigue, not technique, and it comes sooner than most practice plans assume.
Read →Why does my sprinter's form look clean but their times aren't dropping?
Good technique numbers and no improvement usually means the limiter isn't technique at all.
Read →Does a high jumper's height decide how high they can jump?
Standing reach sets a floor, not a ceiling, and most of the clearance above it comes from the approach and the plant.
Read →Does a banked track change what the Film Room can tell you?
A curve and a bank both bend a straight-line measurement, and a flat camera cannot tell a lean built by the turn from a lean that is a fault.
Read →Why does my hurdler's technique fall apart by the fourth rep in a drill set?
It is rarely about the hurdle itself. More often the limiter is how much rest sits between one rep and the next.
Read →How do you know a thrower is ready for full-effort throws after a back strain?
A thrower who says they feel fine is not the same test as a trunk that actually moves the way it did before the injury.
Read →Should a runner match their breathing to a fixed number of steps?
Locking a breath to a stride count is a real pattern distance runners fall into on their own, and coaching a different one rarely survives the first hard rep.
Read →How do you choose a high jumper's opening height at a meet?
Open too low and a jumper burns attempts on heights they never needed; open too high and three misses can end the competition before they ever found their rhythm.
Read →Which muscles actually make a sprinter fast?
Hip extension does most of the propulsive work in a sprint stride, and the muscles coaches usually point to first are not always the ones carrying the biggest share.
Read →Which muscles matter most for a long jumper's takeoff?
The board asks the jump leg to do a different job than the approach just finished doing, and the muscles that matter most shift in the final two steps.
Read →Which muscles matter most in a high jumper's plant leg?
The plant leg takes a split-second load well above body weight, and the muscle that actually gives way there is rarely the one a parent would guess.
Read →Do throwers need strong legs or a strong arm?
The arm releases the implement, but almost all the speed on it was built by the legs and hips before the arm ever moved, and training the wrong half shows up as distance left on the table.
Read →Which core muscles actually matter for running form?
'Core' gets used as one word for several different muscle groups with different jobs, and the one that actually keeps a runner's trunk lean honest is rarely the one sit-ups train.
Read →Why does my sprinter drift sideways out of the blocks?
Side-on video can confirm the drive phase looks fine and still miss the one plane where this fault actually lives.
Read →Why does my hurdler struggle at the same hurdle, every race?
A fault that shows up at the same hurdle every time is rhythm breaking on a schedule, not bad luck.
Read →Why do athletes stop logging their workouts after week one?
The training log dies the same way most seasons: heavy use for a few days, then nobody opens it once the novelty wears off.
Read →Why does my sprinter's form look fine from the side but off from behind?
Most of what gets measured on video is filmed from one angle, and a whole category of fault lives in the angle nobody is filming.
Read →Why does my high jumper land wrong on the mat?
A jumper who lands on their side or slides off the mat usually went wrong well before they ever reached the bar.
Read →Why does my sprinter react fast off the gun but still lose the first ten metres?
A quick reaction out of the blocks and a strong drive phase are two different skills, and the block start setting only grades the second one.
Read →Why does my hurdler land so far past the hurdle?
A long landing burns a stride before the next push even starts, and it is usually decided in the air, not at the ground.
Read →How do you coach a shot putter who's switching to discus?
The two throws share a circle and a double-leg turn, but the arm, the release and the band you coach against are different enough that old shot cues can work against a new discus thrower.
Read →Why does my distance runner's form fall apart on hills?
The same runner who looks smooth on the flat often breaks down on a hill, and uphill and downhill break down in different ways.
Read →Why does my high jumper always miss the first attempt at a new height but clear the second?
The first jump at a new height almost never looks like the jumps that cleared the height before it, and the gap between the miss and the clear is usually small enough to film.
Read →Why does my long jumper land and then fall backward in the pit?
A hard landing that pitches an athlete back onto their heels usually loses more distance than a slightly worse takeoff ever will.
Read →Is my hurdler losing time in the air or on the ground?
Two different problems produce the same slow split between hurdles, and they need opposite fixes.
Read →How do you know if an athlete should try triple jump?
The best long jumpers are not always the best triple jumpers, and the real test is rhythm across three landings, not raw speed.
Read →Should a sprinter run with clenched fists or relaxed hands?
A tight fist locks up the whole arm before it locks anything else, and the fix usually starts at the hand, not the shoulder.
Read →How many jumps at one height is too many in high jump practice?
The bar rarely tells you an athlete is fatigued until after the technique has already broken down, and film usually catches it earlier.
Read →Why does my 400m runner die harder than everyone else in the last 100 metres?
A runner who leads at 300 metres and finishes fourth is not unfit, they are decelerating faster than the field, and that shows up on film before it shows up on the clock.
Read →How do you know when a hurdler is ready to go from eight steps to seven between hurdles?
The step count between hurdles is decided by speed and stride length, not by age or grade, and film is a better test of readiness than a coach's gut feel on race day.
Read →How many faults from one film session should you actually coach in a week?
A single clip of a shot putter can flag three separate things worth fixing, and trying to fix all three at once usually fixes none of them.
Read →Why does my sprinter's knee cross toward the other leg instead of driving straight?
A knee that drifts inward on the recovery leg is a different fault from arms crossing the body, and it is one a side-on camera is poorly placed to catch at all.
Read →Why does my high jumper lean away from the bar before they even reach the plant?
Some inward lean on the curve approach is correct high jump technique, the fault is starting it too many steps out, and film shows exactly when it begins.
Read →Why does my long jumper look off balance right before the board?
The wobble usually starts two strides before the board, not on it, and the Film Room can show you exactly where.
Read →Why does my hurdler's hip flexor keep getting sore?
The lead leg does the same violent, one-sided job hundreds of times a season, and that is a workload question before it is a technique one.
Read →Should you compare an athlete's numbers to their teammates or to themselves?
Film Room numbers are only as useful as the baseline you read them against, and for most athletes that baseline is their own history, not the kid next to them.
Read →Why doesn't my sprinter's heel come up on recovery?
A heel that never comes up behind the athlete is swinging a longer lever than it needs to, and it costs speed before the foot ever lands.
Read →Why does my high jumper clear more in practice than at meets?
The approach that works in an empty gym still has to survive a full runway, a crowd and only three attempts that count.
Read →Why don't my sprinter's practice times match their meet times?
Practice reps and meet races are started differently, timed differently and run under different pressure, so comparing them directly invents a slump that was never there.
Read →Why does my hurdler duck so low over the barrier that it slows them down?
Dropping the chest low over the hurdle feels like the safe way to clear it, but the extra dip costs the exact forward drive a hurdler needs on landing.
Read →How do you run one practice for sprinters, jumpers and throwers at once?
One coach, three event groups and one field is a real constraint, and stations plus film are what keep a group moving when nobody can stand next to it.
Read →Why does my runner's stride get shorter while their cadence stays the same?
A steady step count can hide a stride that is quietly getting shorter as a runner tires, and cadence alone will not tell a coach the difference.
Read →Why does my high jumper's plant foot point away from the bar?
A plant foot that turns away from the bar instead of pointing down the runway usually still clears, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed for seasons.
Read →Why does my sprinter slow down on the curve but not on the straight?
Running a bend costs speed for reasons that have nothing to do with fitness, and most of them are mechanical.
Read →Can you time a hurdles race the same way you time a sprint?
The timing side of StatLap only watches a sound and a line, so ten barriers between them change nothing about how it works.
Read →Should you change an athlete's training after one bad meet?
One result is one data point, and a training log is where a coach finds out whether it was noise or a pattern.
Read →Why does my sprinter's knee lift look good in drills and disappear in the blocks?
A high knee in an A-skip and a high knee in the first two steps out of the blocks are asking two different amounts of the same muscle.
Read →How do you know if a high jumper is taking off too close to the bar?
Crashing into the bar on the way up and clearing it with room to spare are both approach problems, and they are opposite ones.
Read →How do you know a sprinter is ready to start in blocks?
Age is not the test. Three things you can actually check are.
Read →How do you decide when to move a hurdler up in height?
The hurdle height should follow the stride pattern, not the calendar or the age group.
Read →How do you know when an athlete is ready to specialize in one event?
A season or two of history across events tells you more than any single test in week one.
Read →Why does my distance runner's form fall apart in the last lap?
The mechanics that hold up for three laps are usually the first thing fatigue takes in the fourth.
Read →Why does my high jumper always miss to one side of the bar?
Missing wide or short is usually a height problem. Missing to one side is usually a line problem.
Read →Why does my long jumper land shorter than their speed says they should?
A fast approach and a short landing usually means the speed never converted at the board, not that the athlete stopped being fast.
Read →Why does my hurdler lose speed between the hurdles even though the clearance looks clean?
Clearing every barrier well does not guarantee the three steps in between are still sprinting, and that is where the time usually goes.
Read →How do you coach a thrower whose Film Room numbers look fine but the throw still comes up short?
Clean technique on film and a short throw are not a contradiction. It usually means the next few feet live somewhere the camera cannot see.
Read →Why does my sprinter's stride look longer on one leg than the other?
A true side-to-side stride difference almost always traces back to one of a handful of causes, and they are not interchangeable.
Read →Why does my high jumper's takeoff leg stay bent instead of straightening at the top of the jump?
The takeoff leg is meant to snap straight in a fraction of a second, and whatever extension goes missing there, height goes missing with it.
Read →Why does my sprinter run faster in a relay than in the open 100?
A flying handoff removes the one phase of a sprint an open 100 cannot skip, and that is most of the gap.
Read →How do you adjust a hurdler's rhythm when the hurdle height goes up?
Same steps, same speed, a few extra centimetres of bar, and the rhythm that used to be automatic stops working.
Read →Should athletes message you directly, or only in the team group chat?
A group chat is efficient for announcements and close to useless for the one question an individual athlete actually needs answered.
Read →Why does my sprinter take short, choppy strides even though they're fast?
A fast sprinter with a short stride is usually winning on turnover, and turnover has a ceiling a longer stride does not.
Read →Does a high jumper need to be fast, or just powerful?
Height comes from what the plant converts, not from what the approach carries, and a very fast approach can outrun what the leg can redirect.
Read →Why is my triple jumper fast on the runway but short in the pit?
A fast approach that does not turn into distance almost always means the speed is being spent going up instead of out.
Read →Why does my hurdler fade in the back half of the race?
Clean hurdles early and a chopped, slowing stride pattern late is usually fatigue finding the exact technical fault good conditioning was hiding.
Read →Why do your throwers throw further in warm-ups than in the circle?
The usual explanation is nerves, but the mechanism is almost always the same thing: the legs stop leading and the arm starts leading.
Read →Why does my sprinter's arm swing look so wide?
Wide, flapping arms are usually a symptom of tension somewhere else, and it is a fault a side-on camera is not even positioned to measure.
Read →Why does my high jumper's lead leg stay bent going over the bar?
A free leg that never straightens usually costs height that a good plant already paid for, and it is a hard fault to see once the athlete is rotating.
Read →Why does my sprinter keep false starting?
It is rarely a speed problem out of the blocks, it is a guess in the tenth of a second before the gun even lands.
Read →How far from the hurdle should my athlete take off?
Too close and the hurdle gets jumped, too far and the athlete stalls reaching for it, and a tape measure settles the argument faster than an opinion does.
Read →Why do parents keep texting you for times you already posted?
A coach who is the only place results live becomes the relay for every question about them, and that is a structural problem, not a parent one.
Read →Why do my sprinter's shoulders creep up around their ears?
Tight shoulders do not make anybody faster, they burn effort the legs needed and shorten the arm swing that was driving the stride.
Read →Why doesn't my high jumper's back arch over the bar?
A flat clearance over the bar usually starts well before the bar, in a plant and a shoulder position that never gave the arch anywhere to happen.
Read →How many strides does it take to reach top speed out of the blocks?
The honest range coaches actually use, why it moves with the athlete, and how to look for the answer on your own film instead of a textbook number.
Read →Why does my hurdler drift sideways over the hurdle?
A lead leg cutting across the body is usually the cause, and it is also the one hurdles fault a side-on camera cannot actually show you.
Read →How do you coach triple jump if you've never done it yourself?
Most of what a first-year jumps coach needs is the phase order, a short run-up, and the patience to keep the hop low.
Read →Why is my sprinter's ground contact time longer on one side?
It might be a real limp worth checking. It might also be a question the Film Room cannot currently answer, because the number it reports is not split left from right.
Read →Why does my high jumper clear the bar without their hips getting above it?
It is usually the arch working the way it is supposed to, and it is also the exact moment the Film Room already admits it cannot measure well.
Read →Which leg should a triple jumper take off from?
The leg choice happens once, at the board, and the rest of the sequence follows from it rather than being decided again at each phase.
Read →How do you teach hurdles to a complete beginner?
Technique comes after the fear does, and rushing the order produces a hurdler who is fast at cones and frightened of an actual barrier.
Read →What should actually go in an athlete's training log?
A number without a sentence next to it is unreadable in six months, and a sentence without a number is unusable for spotting a trend.
Read →Why does my sprinter's head bob up and down when they run?
A visible bounce is usually the same fault as overstriding, seen from a different angle, and it is fixable with the same two drills.
Read →Why does a high jump approach always have an odd number of steps?
It is not superstition. An odd step count is what falls out of alternating feet meeting a fixed requirement at the plant.
Read →Why your sprinter's back leg never fully extends out of the blocks
The rear leg is supposed to finish straight at clearance, and when it does not, the fix is almost never in the leg itself.
Read →Why your hurdler's lead arm collapses across their body
The lead arm is meant to punch straight at the lead foot, and when it swings across instead the next stride pays for it.
Read →Why nobody updates the training log
A log that only the coach touches goes stale within a month, and the fix is closing the gap between running the rep and writing it down.
Read →Why your sprinter's hips drop on one side
A hip that dips every time one particular foot lands is a stability fault, and it happens in the one plane a side-on camera cannot see.
Read →Does arm drive matter in the high jump?
It matters at the margin, and it is one of the few things happening at takeoff that the Film Room genuinely does not measure.
Read →How do you know if your sprinter is anticipating the gun?
World Athletics calls a false start under 100 milliseconds for a reason, and a slow-motion clip will tell you roughly where your sprinter actually sits against it.
Read →Why does your hurdler take a different number of strides between each hurdle?
The step count between hurdles is a symptom, not the problem, and Film Room's overstride number usually moves before the pattern actually breaks.
Read →What do you do when the Film Room and your own eyes disagree?
The Film Room reads one angle from one phone, your eyes were at the whole practice, and knowing which one to believe is a skill of its own.
Read →Why does your sprinter's foot turn out when they run?
A side-on camera cannot see which way a foot points, and from where most coaches film, neither can you.
Read →Why does your high jumper's plant foot never land in the same spot?
A side-on camera reads the vertical arc of a jump well and has no idea where the plant foot actually landed on the ground, which is usually the real question.
Read →Why do your interval times never make it past practice?
A split shouted across the infield and scrawled on a clipboard is a time that exists for about a day, and the fix costs nothing.
Read →Why does your hurdler clear clean in practice and chop at meets?
The technique did not disappear between Tuesday and Saturday. The spacing, the pace into hurdle one, and the nerves did.
Read →Should you let an athlete see their own Film Room numbers?
A number can turn a vague cue into something an athlete fixes alone between sessions, or turn them into someone running for the camera instead of the clock.
Read →Why does one of your sprinter's arms swing more than the other?
An uneven arm swing usually is not an arm problem. It is a report on which side of the trunk is doing more work.
Read →Why does your high jumper rotate too early over the bar?
Turning the shoulders before the feet have left the ground is usually the approach cashing a cheque the plant cannot cover.
Read →How far apart should you set the blocks?
Bunch, medium and elongated block settings are not a matter of taste, they trade power against time, and most blocks on a track are set the way they have always been set.
Read →How many steps should a hurdler take to the first hurdle?
Seven and eight both show up at the highest level of the sport, so the number that matters is not tradition, it is whether the athlete arrives at the mark running over the barrier rather than jumping it.
Read →When should you leave a technique fault alone?
A number reading outside the usual band is information, not an order, and knowing when not to act on it is as much a skill as knowing what to fix.
Read →Why doesn't my sprinter's knee come up in recovery?
A trailing recovery leg is a longer lever that takes longer to swing through, and the cause is rarely the knee itself.
Read →Should a high jumper run a J-curve or a straight approach?
The curve does part of the takeoff's job before the athlete ever leaves the ground, and a straight approach is easier to teach a beginner who has not earned that yet.
Read →StatLap vs sprintTimer: photo finish on a phone
Both time a race from a phone camera. One is a single app on one phone; the other is a gun phone, a finish phone and a results site.
Read →StatLap vs Freelap: when you need transponders and when a phone will do
Freelap is the reference for flying sprints. Here is what it does that phones cannot, and what a phone does that a chip never will.
Read →StatLap vs Squad Timing: thumb times or camera times
Squad Timing makes hand timing a team fast and tidy. StatLap replaces the thumb with a camera and a gun phone. The difference is the tenth you cannot see.
Read →StatLap vs OnForm: drawing tools or measurements
OnForm is the video analysis app coaches already know. The Film Room borrows its shape and adds the numbers. Here is what that gains and what it gives up.
Read →StatLap vs Ochy: running gait or track events
Ochy scores a runner from a phone clip and shows the trend over weeks. StatLap does that for sprinters and adds the jumps, the hurdles and the timing. Different runners, different tools.
Read →Why your sprinter's first step out of the blocks goes nowhere
A short, flat first step usually means the front leg never got the chance to push, not that the athlete is slow off the gun.
Read →Why your hurdler slows down after the last hurdle
The run-in to the line gets almost no practice time, and in a race decided by hundredths that is where a lot of it goes.
Read →How do you coach an athlete you only see twice a week?
Most of an athlete's training happens away from you, so the job becomes building a record you can actually coach from.
Read →Why your sprinter's form falls apart in the last 20 metres
Every sprinter slows down late in a race. The question worth answering is whether the posture is failing on top of that, and costing more.
Read →How long should a high jumper's approach be?
The honest answer is set by how many strides it takes an athlete to reach a speed they can still control on the curve, not a number to copy.
Read →Why your hurdler can't three-step
Three-stepping is a speed problem wearing a stride-length costume, and the fix is almost always the spacing rather than the athlete.
Read →Should a high school shot putter glide or spin?
The glide is easier to teach, easier to repeat and good enough to win most high school meets; the spin is worth it only if somebody can genuinely coach it.
Read →Why your athlete runs a good 100 and a bad 200
A 200 is not two 100s, and the two usual culprits are the bend and the last sixty metres.
Read →Should you switch a high jumper from scissors to the flop?
Yes, if the pit is right and the athlete has an approach, and no in the middle of a season if either is missing.
Read →How to run a track practice when you're the only coach
With forty athletes and seven events you cannot watch anybody properly in real time, so stop trying and build the session around that fact.
Read →Can you measure sprint speed from a phone video?
You can, to about the accuracy of the two marks you put on the ground, which is better than it sounds and worse than a pair of gates.
Read →Should your 300 hurdler learn to lead with both legs?
Yes, and the time to start was the part of the season where it cost nothing, which is never the week you discover you need it.
Read →Which events should a new athlete try?
Two measurements and a fortnight of letting everybody try everything will place most first-year athletes better than a season of guessing.
Read →How long should a long jump run-up be?
Long enough to reach the speed the athlete can still take off from, and not one stride longer.
Read →Why your high jumper knocks the bar off on the way down
Legs taking the bar after the hips have cleared is a timing fault at the top, and usually a takeoff point that drifted before it.
Read →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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