The phases of springing and how to train your body to sprint

As the weather is getting nice, there has been an influx of “training like an athlete” taking the fitness industry by storm. One of the biggest components of training like an athlete is sprinting.

Sprinting should be a huge part of your training if you actively participate in sports and it can even help you prepare for the demands of living in New York City!

Imagine a train or bus was coming in a minute and you were a few blocks away…you’ll have to sprint to get on.

Sprinting can be as simple and complicated as you want to make it. Before we dive into how to train sprints, let’s go into some principles of sprinting and how we typically navigate them when introducing sprinting to a training plan. 

Principles of Sprinting

Sprinting broken down to its core is speed - measuring how fast an individual can cover a short distance.

Breaking it down further speed consists of three main factors:

• Stride length is the distance between consecutive points of contact of the same foot

• Stride frequency is how quickly you turn over your strides after both feet hit the ground

• Ground contact time is how much time you spend on the ground

The ability to generate more force and spend less time on the ground is what makes you more efficient at sprinting. These two factors allow you to spend more time in the air travel which allow you to travel a greater distance with each stride.

Phases of Sprinting 

There are four main phases to take a peek at - the start, acceleration, maximal velocity, and deceleration[1,3].

• Start

  • Most people don’t start in a very upright position, they begin in a crouched and forward position that allows them to produce horizontally oriented force to start the sprint.

• Acceleration

  • This is the first phase of the sprint where you spend a little more time on the ground because you are actively pushing to project yourself more horizontally until you become upright and into the next phase.

• Maximal Velocity

  • This is the next phase where you are more upright and focused on maintaining the speed that you’ve built from the previous face. You’ll be producing the largest amount of vertically oriented force here.

• Deceleration

  • You aren’t slowing down. This phase is the point where you have to resist fatigue and continue the power output from your maximal velocity phase. The arm drive, the high knees, and remaining relaxed are huge here. 

Programming/Exercise Selection

Now that you understand what sprinting is, let’s break down how to train it.

The best way to get better at sprinting is to sprint - no matter what. Varying drills are great to incorporate but will never replicate the patterns completely so you won’t reap the same positive outcomes that sprinting allows the body to achieve.

The accessory work that you should perform depends on the phase of sprinting you’re trying to improve.

This is an example of what you might focus on to improve the maximal velocity phase[2,4]:

• Speed work

  • Starting the workout with warm-ups and submaximal sprints before going into full sprints

  • It is vital to modify the volume or intensity to meet you where you are at in your sprinting journey.

• Plyometric and power development

  • We want to pick exercises that mimic the nature of the phase so this means high-velocity exercises that produce vertical force and plyometrics with shorter ground contacts.

  • High-velocity vertical force production exercises

    • Push presses

    • Overhead medball throws

  • Plyometric exercises with shorter ground contacts

    • Depth jump

    • Continuous single-leg hops

Strength training

• Focus is on short ranges of motion to mimic the joint angles, forces, and velocity needed for efficient and effective springing.

  • Weighted step ups

  • Quarter squats 

Sprinting is a high-intensity exercise that should not be done every single day.

We typically allow our athletes to rest 48-72 hours between higher intensity sprint sessions. We also give them 1-minute rest for every 10m of distance covered which means a 30m sprint will require 3 minutes of full rest.

Although we have provided some sample exercises, this is NOT where all people will begin and your sprint programming may look 100% different than the person next to you. 

If you have any questions or are interested in getting after some sprinting in the coming beautiful summer months, our team can help.

Schedule an evaluation with us today to help navigate your nagging injuries and/or help you perform at your highest!

Citations:

1. Haugen, Thomas, David McGhie, and Gertjan Ettema. "Sprint running: From fundamental mechanics to practice—A review." European journal of applied physiology 119.6 (2019): 1273-1287.

2. Haugen, Thomas, et al. "The training and development of elite sprint performance: an integration of scientific and best practice literature." Sports medicine-open 5 (2019): 1-16.

3. Rabita, Giuseppe, et al. "Sprint mechanics in world‐class athletes: a new insight into the limits of human locomotion." Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 25.5 (2015): 583-594.

4. Young, Michael, and C. Choice. "Maximal velocity sprint mechanics." Track Coach 179 (2007): 5723-5729.