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.
Watch the first step on its own, not the whole start. On a good drive the front foot lands well out in front of where it left the block. On a weak one it lands almost underneath the hips, the athlete looks like they stood up out of the set position, and the next six steps spend themselves catching up for ground that was never covered.
The step is short because the push went the wrong way
A block start works by pushing the ground away at an angle, mostly forward and only a little up. If that angle drifts towards vertical, the athlete still gets a real push, but sends it upward instead of forward, and an upward push does not turn into distance. The first step looks short because it is short. The force was real. It just went somewhere that does not count on the track.
Three places to look, in order
- The front shin angle in the set position. If it is close to vertical before the gun even fires, the push is already aimed more up than out, no matter how hard the athlete drives.
- Whether the hips rise before the first foot lands. A hip that climbs early is the same fault a fraction of a second later: the athlete has stood up rather than driven out.
- Back-leg extension at clearance. A back leg that leaves the block still bent has push left in it that never got used.
All three tend to travel together. Fix the shin angle in the set position and the other two usually improve on their own, because a shin aimed forward gives the hips somewhere to drive to.
Drills that work on this specifically
- Wall drives, held for a three count, to groove the shin-and-trunk line the drive phase needs before adding speed.
- Falling starts into the first ten metres, which force a horizontal push because there is nothing else available.
- Sled or partner-resisted pushes, which keep the hips low without the athlete having to think about it.
StatLap's Film Room reads the first six steps out of the blocks and reports the drive-phase trunk lean, whether the athlete stands up early, whether the hips climb instead of driving out, and back-leg extension at clearance. That covers the shin-and-hip picture well. It does not measure how far the first step actually landed, or how hard the foot pushed against the block. Those need a tape measure and a set of marked blocks, not a camera.
Film side-on and low, close to track level, or the drive-phase angles read wrong. A camera up at head height flattens exactly the lean you are trying to measure.
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Related
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 →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 →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 →Try it: Sprint timer app: 40-yard dash and flying sprints with one phone