Hey guys it's Dr. JP and today we're going to analyze the running form of
USAIN BOLT!!! He's widely considered the greatest
sprinter ever! He currently holds the world record for the 100m and
200-meter race. In this video, we will go over different aspects of his running
form during the 100m and take a peek at what makes him so fast! First,
let's take a look at the start. Now, you Usain Bolt has been criticized for having a
weak start, but it's definitely not as bad as some people say. To analyze it,
let's take a look at Usain Bolt's famous 100-meter race where he broke the
100m world record. First, let's simply look at path deviation during the
start. As you can see, he actually maintains a relatively straight path
when sprinting. This is key, especially during a sprint. As path deviation can lead
to slightly increased distance to travel, resulting in slower times. Next, let's
take a look at his steps as he comes off the blocks. As you can see, compared to
the other runners, the step rate itself is nothing special and the rate is actually
slower than some of the other runners here. Now what makes him stand out is his
tall stature. Longer legs do help cover more ground; however, it was much harder
to maintain a high step rate, so it's amazing he's somewhat keeping up in this
aspect. Taller sprinters, like Usain Bolt, are usually at a disadvantage, especially
during the drive phase; however, as you can see, he's staying up with the front.
Basically, if bolt is already up in the front during this phase of the race, he's
most likely coming out on top! Now we have looked at more quantitative aspects
of this start, but let's take a look at the quality of his run as he takes his
first steps. As you can see, he presents with inward rotation of those hips as
the knees drive forward and a lot of lateral weight shifting. What most people
look for in an ideal sprinter is to maintain a powerful compact running
form when running; however, Bolt does not follow this mold. Actually, he would have
a difficult time doing that because of his stature. Bolt instead uses
compensatory strategies to maximize the rate of force production during the
start. Many people usually think of muscles acting in one plane which is
forward and backward; however, there is also the frontal plane, which is
side-to-side movement as well as the transverse plane, which incorporates the
rotational movement. When Bolt pushes off the ground, you can tell he really uses
that rotational component. You can see that as when he drives the leg forward
the knee goes inward. But then when he pushes off
the ground, you can see it quickly straighten out... showing that he's pushing
through the hips with some external rotation to balance it out. This little
twist allows for more force produced from the legs allowing for a stronger
drive forward. Now this type of movement affects the whole chain of the body,
including the upper body because he basically pushes off the ground backward
and slightly out. It also adds a lot of lateral weight shift side to side as
well as increased trunk rotation to counteract that huge amount of
rotational force coming from the legs. Now, would this type of movement
significantly limit his potential? Probably not... even with the huge
side-to-side movement he still maintains a straight narrow path when running as
we mentioned earlier. Would slightly decreasing the lateral trunk movement
leads to improved efficiency in terms of biomechanics? Maybe, but the improvements
may not be as game-changing as people would have originally thought. Now before
we move on to look at specific components of his running form after he
transitions from the drive phase. Let's quickly take a look at overall
components of speed, which is stride frequency and stride length. Now, speed is
never constant throughout the entire race and differ during different
portions of the race. In this cas,e we will look at when Usain Bolt
approaches top speed at the 60 to 70 meter segment at 12.19
meters per second. During this segment, he presents with a step rate of around 270
steps per minute. This is pretty decent, but at the most elite levels, it doesn't
really stick out. He makes up for this with his step length. Based on a few
calculations, he presents with a step length of 2.7 meters. That is probably
one of the longest steps taken in this type of event. This has to do with him
being one of the tallest sprinters participating at this world elite level
as well as having incredible force production through those legs.
Multiplying this amazing step length with his decent step rate leads to his
record-breaking speeds!! Now, let's take a closer look at different aspects of his
running form after the drive phase. I would love to use the same footage when
he broke the 100m world record, but unfortunately, if you take a look at
this footage, the feet are blurry. So the footage we will be using is during the
London 2012 semi-finals. Here he finishes the 100m race
in 9.87 seconds. This isn't his best time, but we get the
best side view of his form here. First, let's take a look at the landing.
As you can see, he lands around the forefoot area. His heel actually barely
even touches the ground throughout the entire race and if it does it's for a
very very short amount of time. Reason for landing around the forefoot is it
allows for the least amount of time for the foot to roll over the ground compared to
rear foot and mid foot landing. This minimal contact time on the ground is
key to maintain a quick step rate. Minimal contact time coupled with the forefoot
landing also means increased force production through the legs...
meaning increased work on the muscles; therefore, the muscles need to be able to
handle this force, which is one of the reasons why strength training is vital
for sprinters. We will stay on this frame because the next thing we will look at
is positioning of the foot relative to the body center of mass. As you can see,
the foot just lands slightly in front of where the body center of mass should be.
For Bolt, he may been able to bring the foot slightly closer to the body center
of mass when he broke the 100m world record during this phase; however,
he most likely did not get it under the center of mass. The only time that it is
possible is when you are accelerating, which is in the drive phase. Anyway, this is
important to look at because the closer the foot lands to the body center of
mass, the quicker the person is able to go through the running cycle leading to
faster times. Next, we will look at how the foot moves from when it first makes
contact on the ground till when it pushes off. Besides appreciating how much
movement he's able to do in such a short amount of time, what I'm looking at now
is how far he's able to bring back those hips before the foot pushes off the
ground. Reason why I look at this is sometimes sprinters overemphasize
step rate and they sacrifice back side movement of the hips in order to achieve
a certain step rate. When this happens, power is lost during push off decreasing
step length and it may actually affect step rate as well as the lost power
could have translated to increase speed to bring the leg forward. For Bolt, you
can see he brings his hips into extension prior to push off; therefore,
he optimizes power generation from each stride. Now, we will look at vertical
oscillation, which means the amount of up and down movement that occurs as he runs.
As you can see, contrary to the lateral movement we talked about earlier, he
actually does not present with much vertical movement at all as he runs. This
is good as minimal vertical oscillation usually leads to decreased stress on the
joints and improved efficiency during running; however, the
cause of this may be more predicated to the quick step rate he's able to
maintain throughout the race... as usually the quicker the step rate, the decreased
vertical oscillation that is seen. Now, let's take a look at hip mobility. Here's
where he presents with peak hip flexion and then peak hip extension. As you can
see, he really optimizes usage of his legs during running. This allows for that
smooth cyclic motion of the legs as we saw earlier. One reason for being able to
extend those hips like that also has to do with his ability to maintain a slight
forward tilt. I don't mean forward bending the trunk, but rather the whole
body. As you can see, he presents with a pretty decent forward body total of 22
degrees. This aids in slightly improved momentum forward as well as positioning
for improved activation of the hip extensors leading to increased force
generated. Next, let's move on to the trunk! I already mentioned that he keeps
it upright as he runs but let's take a look at the front view... this time from
when he broke the 100m world record. As I mentioned earlier, he does
present with lateral side-to-side movement, but now, we will take a closer
look at it as he runs down the track. If you look closely, he actually presents
with more push off from the left leg causing a more lateral trunk shift to
the right. This is most likely due to the left leg actually being a half inch
longer than the right leg due to his scoliosis. From a biomechanical
standpoint, this technically leads to decreased efficiency, but I am so happy
this didn't discourage Bolt from running. Even with this, Usain Bolt proves that
you can still become the fastest man in the world!! Moving up to the arms, let's
take a look at shoulder mobility. By placing some markers to show the range
of how far his shoulders moves when he runs, you can see he has great shoulder
mobility. This is important, especially in sprinting... as this type of arm movement
is needed to help counter the high amounts of rotational forces produced by
the legs. Now, taking a look at the front view, you can see that he also keeps his
arms relatively close to his body and his arms barely cross midline. Finally,
moving up to the head, you can see from this view that there is very little
forward and backward movement going on. He keeps it relatively stabilized in a
neutral position. This allows for improved core stability to help maximize
force produced from the legs with minimal energy leakage; however,
as everyone knows, he never maintains this position as he starts looking at his
times and celebrating toward the end of the race. Honestly, I would do the same
thing if I ran those times too!!! And that's it for the quick analysis of
Usain Bolt running 100-meter race. This was definitely a bit longer than my
previous videos, but I really hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, please like
the video and leave a comment on what you thought. If you want more content ,you
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Anyway, as always... THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!!!