The longer the race, there is less need for a “knees up” style of running, and trying to emulate such a style will lead to poor times. In addition, some coaches (and usually parents) don’t understand the mechanical differences between running something like a 60m dash, and a 400m dash. These athletes need to be put in a place where they can use their athleticism to achieve the desired result, such as various wicket and cone-run drill scenarios.
Many team sport athletes who are asked to consciously lift their knees in sprinting will run slower simply because this method isn’t how they are wired to run (many team sport athletes, such as football will instinctively run with a lower knee action to make quicker cuts on the field). Another compensation an athlete could do to lift/drive their knee more is increase their stride length beyond what they are ready for, or what is biomechanically optimal and in the process induce braking forces, and/or reduce their stride frequency to the point where they are overall, running slower (even though they might “look” better running). Cutting the power in the hip extension to more quickly/easily reposition the swing leg farther in front, but all this does is reduce an athlete’s vertical force production. Tell an athlete who generally runs with initially poor front-side mechanics to “lift their knees more”, and it is often-times a guarantee that they will need to make a muscular or technical compensation to achieve this task. The nice knee lift is the icing on the cake of proper hip action, and it’s done in context of their technique without forcing it. Give an athlete this cue in practice who struggles to maintain his or her speed, and you’ll quickly see them forget about it in the meet.Īthletes who run with good knee lift and frontside mechanics do so because their trunk/hip strength and function, as well as the rest of their running mechanics are in good working order. In these practices, you don’t just cue and think “oh that looks a little better”, because you’ll notice that the effect the cue you just gave has on the stopwatch. This is the beauty of having practices that are focused on measured maximal speed efforts, something that I’ve learned from coaches like Tony Holler and Chris Korfist (I’m now doing flying 10’s with my Freelap system at my youth track club, one of the best things you can possibly do for early development with a group of wily 8-14 year olds). 
(Knees up is probably the most ignored cue in all of sprinting ESPECIALLY when it is cued mid-race) Using this cue alone to cure the frontside mechanic problem doesn’t work.
Gives an athlete room to have a better ground contact. Gives an athlete room to produce more negative footspeed. Helps maximize the crossed extensor reflex action. Having good frontside mechanics is important for a variety of reasons: A weaker (or de-activated) athlete could not hit these sprint positions. The winners have great frontside/backside mechanical balance.Ĭarmelita Jeter has a great knee drive, but this is also a function of her great position and power at touchdown. Well, if you look at technically good sprinters, why yes, they all run with a decent balance of front and backside mechanics, and good knee lift. Why use This Cue?įirst of all, why cue “knees up”. Let’s talk about why coaches traditionally like to use this particular cue, and why (just like so many things in government) something that was well intentioned manages to backfire and hold back individuals to their highest potential. 
The great Charlie Francis has been known to say that many older sprinters have flaws in their technique because, in their youth, some coach told them to run a particular way (which was completely wrong for them, and in the process of adapting that conscious technical “fix”, created a rigid aspect of their running that holds them back from their highest form).įor edition #1 of this series, we’ll start with one of my all time favorite cues that is probably the bane of most young (or old) athletes running down the track, because they have heard it so much: Welcome to the first edition of “controversial sprint cues” (and what to do instead), where I’ll chat briefly regarding common coaching cues, and why they are not helpful (often the reverse) to sprint athletes and their performance.
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