How do you know a sprinter is ready to start in blocks?
Age is not the test. Three things you can actually check are.
Every coach gets this question from a parent, usually about a fast twelve or thirteen year old: when do we put them in blocks? The honest answer has nothing to do with age. Some fourteen year olds are not ready and some eleven year olds are, and going by a birthday is how an athlete ends up false starting out of a set position they cannot actually hold.
Three things to check before block one
- Can they hold a set position, weight forward, for three full seconds without their hips drifting up or their front leg shaking?
- From a standing start, do their first steps come out low and long, or do they pop straight up in the first stride?
- Have they reacted to a start signal cleanly, several times in a row, without flinching early or waiting late?
If any of those three is a no, blocks will not fix it. Blocks make a good start faster and a bad one worse, because they take away the option of shuffling the feet into a better position once the gun goes.
What rushing it usually produces
The most common result is a sprinter who stands up in the first two steps because the set position was never stable enough to push out of low in the first place. It looks like a strength problem. Usually it is a readiness problem that strength training will not solve on its own.
What the block start setting actually shows
Once an athlete is in blocks, the Film Room's start setting reports drive-phase trunk lean, whether the hips climb instead of driving out, and back-leg extension at clearance. Run the same athlete through it from a standing start first, then from blocks, and a coach can see whether blocks improved the first six steps or just made an existing fault happen faster.
A single side-on camera can tell you the trunk angle and how the hips travel. It cannot tell you how much force went into the pads, only what the body did as a result, so two athletes can produce the same trunk-lean number for very different reasons: one pushing hard and one just staying low. That distinction still needs a coach standing behind the blocks.
Time your next meet with the phones you already have
Timing, the Film Room and the speed gates are free forever. Publishing results to your own page starts at $59 a month.
Related
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 →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 →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 →Try it: Sprint timer app: 40-yard dash and flying sprints with one phone