hey what's up everyone what across here and today we're gonna be going over the two main things to
help improve your leg cycle when sprinting and we're gonna hop in the video right now
all right so i'm really excited to make this video just because i think it could be really helpful in
understanding the two main things that will help you in improving that leg cycle and so before we
get too much into it i do want to say if you like the information click that thumbs up down below
subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and if any questions comments or recommendations
you can go ahead and leave those down below and so you know when i've been working with athletes the
big thing that you know seems to come over time and time again is just the ability to cycle the
legs properly and all the different implications that come from you know not being able to do that
in the most optimal way so we are going to be looking at usain bolt here just because you
know greatest ever so why not look at and be able to try to at least as somebody said replicate his
you know like cycle everybody has their own way of doing it so you're not going to be able to do
your or run exactly like you say bolt but you know being able to implement some of these key
elements are going to be important to be able to actually improve your own speed and your own leg
cycle so um you know big thing that i most commonly see has to do with the front side
mechanics and i've made videos that talk about the front side mechanics that i'll put here
but essentially frontside mechanics is going to be once that knee crosses that midline right so
this whole time with that left leg he's in the front side mechanism and notice first is going
to be the knee height and you know most people are able to get this but the main thing that people
struggle with is being able to get that foot to be able to really lengthen and straighten out
right before the foot actually contacts the ground okay and so you can see that as he's striding
through he gets that shin angle or that shin to be kind of straight through and then from here it
ends up really being a knee pull down to be able to allow that foot to come and strike with the leg
basically straight when that that foot's striking the ground okay again everybody's going to be a
little bit different how they do this some people are going to get keep their knees up a little bit
higher he is really tall so he needs to be able to kind of pull that leg back underneath a little
bit sooner but this ends up being such a critical part of being able to improve your speed is just
being able to you know work out the ability to create the necessary length needed at the
end range of motion because you know really that you're going into the two main issues one is not
enough length right so the stride cycle you know the length of the cycle is too short the stride
is too short it's just you know too choppy uh and then the other thing ends up being not fast enough
right and so those are the two mistakes that i see with the leg cycle i know it's already starting to
get into one there uh which has to do with with just the length uh and that just ends up being
the the range of motion right so you know we'll continue to work on that look at that left side
so you see how he goes and once that foot ends up getting back behind him being able to push right
back off and being able to you know cycle the leg and a lot of the length ends up having to do with
how well you're able to reach okay because because what ends up happening is that there's a lot of
people that get that just spend way too much time with the foot back behind them which is going to
negatively impact how much range they get with the foot out in front of that front side mechanic
so as soon as your foot passes that you know your hip and gets behind you you do want to be able to
push off and pushing you know off with getting to the end range of like the big toe so you can see
he's really pushing off that big toe there and then immediately cycling the leg right through
not getting the foot too high and maintaining a good upright position within the spine the posture
but then you know really getting the necessary length by being able to reach that foot up and
getting that toe to be facing upwards that ends up being a big cue that i talk about is being able to
get that toe to be facing up and then pulling that leg back underneath from there because as we all
know the amount of force created into the ground is a critical component of actually achieving a
elite level performance when it comes to sprinting right so the elite level sprinters are able to
create the largest amount of force in the ground and are also able to do that very efficiently over
a long period of time right so it's a consistent thing where there's you know not for only a few
steps are they putting a ton of force in the ground they're doing it over the course of
60 meters 70 meters whatever the case may be uh in terms of the the length of the race but
it's important to be able to notice how well he's reaching with the front side mechanics in order to
really optimize your own performance and a lot of the big reason as well why people i think struggle
is just not having the necessary range within the arms right so the better we can optimize our arm
range getting that hand about six to eight inches behind the hip as well as getting the hand up to
at least you know about chin to mouth level right you know he's he's a little bit crunched with his
uh fingers so he's not as extended but you can see he brings that fist up to about his hand and then
pulls all the way back so we need to have the right range of motion within the arms in order
to also have the right range of motion within the legs and the other thing is just not having enough
speed there so when it comes to the actual speed you know this goes more into strength and power
right because we got to have the necessary both of those in order to actually have
the ability to get a fast leg cycle okay the strength comes from core hip flexor
and and really like ankle slash calf
and then being able to effectively utilize the cycle where your foot is able to strike the ground
with a lot of force and be able to stabilize that has more to do with the home calf
and then the hip flexor and core have to do with the actual leg cycle when you're driving that
foot forward and keeping that knee up right because right here it does create a lot of
hip flexor strength to be able to keep the spine up and also being able to keep that
foot up off the ground as you initiate the pull and then you know there's obviously a hamstring
that has to do with being able to pull that leg back behind but this ends up being you know a
stretch an eccentric stretch to the hamstring and then a concentric activation of the hamstring
uh and when you're eccentrically stretching that hamstring right here you're also concentrically
stretching the hip flexor which is why that spine slightly bends forward at that moment
right and so being able to just strengthen through the core straight through the hip flexors is a
critical part of being able to maintain a lot of speed when it comes to the leg cycle and
then when it comes to power right that's going to be you know the the type of exercises where it's
you know broad jumps depth jumps just things that you're able to do consistently so now when you're
able to sprint you could really apply the biomechanical force application into the ground
right so we want to be able to optimize force and and in order to optimize force we have to be able
to understand how to utilize power and that's where you know the broad jumps the depth jumps
um even like lateral jumps all that type of stuff really makes a big difference because now we can
understand how to use power to our advantage when it comes to cycling the legs quickly so
you know once our body understands how to use the ground and how to maximize how to push
off the ground how to land on the ground now we can utilize that information to then be able to
generate force into the ground properly and that will also help us in being able to cycle the leg
more effectively because if we're not properly putting force down into the ground then we're
gonna be spending too much time on the ground we're not gonna be pushing off with the right
type of biomechanics and now that ends up making a huge impact on how well we can move the legs
fast as well as even how well we can even cycle with the legs so it ends up going into both but
you know that i want to really go into the two main things that i see with the leg cycle that i
think really makes a big difference when it comes to sprinting i know this could end up being a long
video that you know goes in depth in a lot of different ways and hopefully it ends up applying
to what it is that you're looking for when you clicked on the video but you know really main
thing is being able to understand how to utilize the lake cycle and keep on working on it guys i
really really highly recommend you know just putting a big focus and when you're doing it
you know you want to be able to get as much video footage of you 90 plus right in order to really
understand how you can make improvement i'd even say you know 95 plus potentially uh in order to
really understand how to make improvement because i get guys that send me videos all the time
that the running form looks great they're like oh hey how does this like cycle work or look
and you could tell they're going like 70 to 80 and it's like yeah it looks great because you're only
running it 70 so that's not really like a great video to be able to actually send over to get a
breakdown on because you're not really getting a good understanding of where you're at you know a
lot of you guys have a great understanding of what it takes to be able to have a great leg cycle but
don't actually achieve it at 100 because you don't run at 100 enough so being able to really push
the amount of effort that you're putting within the body is going to make it so now you can
make the necessary changes to actually improve your mechanics but if you're just not willing
to push your body in the mechanics there then you're not going to be able to get the results
and yeah you need to stretch you need to warm up you need to do all you know you need to have rest
days you need to have great nutrition all those things matter to make it so you can continue to
push yourself but you know if you're not doing all those things you're not pushing yourself you're
not going to get the improvement you have to be able to consistently put in the work to be able to
get the results of having great lake cycle great for contact time great posture great arm mechanics
and making it so you day by day they're always improving again you're not going to get that if
you just do sprinting you know one day a week or two days a week you have to be able to do it four
or five days a week and be able to do that for a long period of time in order to really make some
big results so hopefully that really connects with you guys hopefully he's able to make some sense
and you can apply it i will say that if you want to get coaching we'd love to be able to help you
out we do have custom programming available we have you know four-week program i mean there's
so many different things that i offer for you guys that will provide so much value to you
and you know obviously i hope these videos are helping as well but nothing like being
able to actually get some coaching on it and once you're able to apply some of these biomechanical
principles to your actual running form it's going to really make a big difference and being able to
get some coaching on the start the drive phase of top end speed is going to be critical to
actually make it so you get there so as always guys let me know if you like the information
you got any questions leave those down in the comments and you know click that thumbs up if
you've gotten to this point and still watching the video still getting to get information that
means you definitely learn from this and should be able to improve in your actual ability to
sprint faster so again thanks for watching thanks for the support and we'll talk to you soon