THE TECHNIQUE OF THE SPRINT

START
By E. Ozolin

An efficient start can be an important part in winning sprint races. The following
text looks at some aspects that influence the start, including the reaction time,
acceleration from the blocks and the transfer to normal sprinting action. The
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Moscow, No. 7, July 1986. Re-printed with permission from Modern Athlete and
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Sprinting results are determined by several components of which the most

important is the maximum running speed. However, a sprint race can often be
won or lost already at the starting line, as losses in the start are rather difficult to
make up during the rest of the distance. An efficient and economic start is
therefore another important factor.

REACTION TIME

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action of the athlete after a time lapse, known as the reaction time. This is the
time taken to transfer the sound waves to nerve impulses that activate muscle
fibers. The reaction time of well qualified athletes ranges between 0.10 to 0.18
sec.

Observations indicate that the reaction time of the same athlete can have certain
variations, affected by the functional state of the athlete, fatigue during large
training loads and sometimes the development of illness. The reaction time
naturally also depends on the training level of an athlete and decreases
considerably over several years of specific training. It allows experienced
athletes in awaiting the starting signal to develop pretension in the muscle groups
supported by the starting blocks, thus decreasing the time required to begin
motor action.

The time taken from the beginning of the pressure applied to the starting blocks
until leaving them is known as the motor component of the start. This interaction
takes about 0.22 to 0.45 sec. and depends on the movement speed of the legs
and arms, starting technique and the power applied for the drive from the blocks.
A mean motor component of a sprinter is made up from the following segments
in the start:

 Signal from the gun — 0.00 sec.

 Reaction time — 0.14 sec.

 Hands leaving the track — 0.15 sec.

 Leaving the rear block — 0.25 sec.

 Leaving the front block -— 0.38 sec.

Ascanbes een,i ttakesaspr inter0.3to0. 4s ec.of“ onthes pot ”act i

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corresponds to approximately 3 to 4% of the total l00m running time.

APPLICATION OF FORCES

The forces applied during the motor component of the start have been studied by
using special tensiometric starting blocks. The recordings of such devices are in
a simplified form shown in fig. 1. It indicates that the largest forces are applied on
the rear block, reaching up to 100kg in a maximal effort, compared with up to
70kg maximum forces applied to the front block.

Nevertheless, the efficiency of a start does not always depend on the maximum
forces. It appears that the basic task of the sprinter is to apply forces in an
optimal time. A fast break from the blocks could give an advantage in the first few
movements but this can be quickly lost when the athlete has been hurrying and
has failed to apply force impulses over the required time, resulting in a poor initial
speed.
The effectiveness of a start does to a large extent depend on an individually
preferred starting position of an athlete, found by experimental methods. Without
going into the details of the already well documented finer points of the starting
position, some interesting aspects should nevertheless be noted.

Statistics indicates that almost all Olympic winners and world record holders
place their take-off leg on the rear block. The effectiveness of this placement can
be explained by the need of an explosive drive from the blocks, as well as the
execution of the drive from the stronger leg in the first stride, when the athlete
has not yet achieved significant speed.

Inthegener allyaccept ed“ set”posi t

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the ground with the centre of gravity about 0.65m above the track level. Some
sprinters, like Borzov, lift their hips much higher. This is because the centre of
gravity is raised up to one meter over the acceleration phase of the first five
meters, which corresponds roughly to running uphill at a 50° angle of lean. A
higher initial hip position will somewhat reduce the amount of lean required.

ACCELERATION

Basically the acceleration in the start takes place over the first 30m of the
distance, during which the athlete reaches around 90 to 95% of the maximal
speed. During this phase the total time of the running stride remains virtually
steady. However, the duration of the support and flight phases change rapidly in
the process of acceleration, as the sprinter increases the duration of the flight
and reduces that of the support phases. A conscious effort is required to shorten
the flight phases as movement speed can only be increased by an active contact
with the track surface.

The transition from the starting acceleration to normal sprinting action appears to
be a weak link for many sprinters. This transition is characterized by a change in
the rhythmic structure of the running stride. It is a period where the motor action
is re-structured to a maximally fast upward and forward movement of the
swinging leg and the take-off drive from the support leg.

A study into the transition processes to normal sprinting action by Kolesnikov

(1984) showed that strict attention is necessary to develop this phase in training.
Work must be allocated to the initial starting acceleration phase (15 to 20m), as
well as to the following transition phase in training.

Film analyses of top level sprinters show how an effectively organized starting
and acceleration phase can succeed in performance. It starts with the movement
of the rear leg, in which the lower leg moves parallel to the ground to execute a
powerful forward swing for a fast placement into the support. The flight phase of
this first stride is minimal, ideally striving towards zero.
The movement characteristics during the support phase of the first stride are
similar to the action from the starting blocks. It is only in the following strides that
the sprinter gradually shortens the contacts with the track in the support phases
as running speed increases. As this takes place, the flight time of each stride
cycle becomes longer. Studies show that the structure of the running technique
should be close to the normal sprinting action in the fifth or sixth stride from the
blocks.