Hey guys!
Its Dr JP, and today we are going to take a look at running form of Justin Gatlin, who
is one of the fastest sprinters in the world.
There is definitely lots of controversy around him, but he has proven to have world class
sprinting mechanics.
Now, we already made a sprinting analysis on Usain Bolt; however, his build and form
is pretty unique and adapted to different factors, like his stature.
It will be interesting to analyze Justin Gatlin's running form as he has a different body frame
and see how that impacts the way he runs!
Sprinters, especially those that may be built more like Justin Gatlin or just want to learn
more about running mechanics, may be able to learn how to tune their form to go even
faster!
Now, lets get into the analysis!
First, we will take a look at the start.
The footage we will be taking a look at is when Justin Gatlin ran the 100m in 9.74 seconds
in 2015.
Ultimately, the speed during the start is based on how quick and hard you can take steps.
I wish we can take a look at the force he produces as his foot hits the ground, but
unfortunately, there are no force plates in the ground, so we cant measure that...so First,
lets take a look his step rate during the start.
You can see that Gatlin takes quicker steps than the rest of the group, giving him an
edge during this phase of the race.
Now, generating high amounts of force in a short duration is important; however, if that
force is not directed toward the desired direction, such as when sprinters deviate toward the
side of the lanes when running, then you are losing out on speed.
Therefore, the next thing we will look at is path deviation, which is basically seeing
how well Gatlin is able to maintain a straight line without deviating to the sides.
As you can see, he does maintain a relatively straight path when running, which allows him
to optimize force directed forward!
Now, we will take a look at the quality of his form as he takes his first steps off the
blocks, and you can definitely see the unique differences of his form compared to when I
analyzed Bolt.
Unlike Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin focuses on stabilizing the upper body to minimize energy
leakage.
His form is compact and focuses on taking quick steps, which is a different focus compared
to Bolt.
Now, would I say one approach is clearly superior than the other?
Definitely not.
These sprinters have adapted their sprinting mechanics based on the unique characteristics
of their body and have further honed it through training.
Next, we will move on to looking at Justin Gatlin's running form as he comes out of the
drive phase.
Before we go into specific components of his running we will first take a look at overall
components of speed, which are stride frequency and stride length.
We will be basing this off of when he ran the 100m during the 2017 World Championships.
First, we will look at stride frequency, which is basically the rate that someone takes steps.
As he approached the mid part of the race, he presented with a step rate of about 280
steps per minute.
As you know this is very fast; and this is a cadence seen with the top elite sprinters.
With this quick rate, he also still manages to maintain a pretty large step length of
2.27m This was actually the differentiating factor during this specific race.
The only person who presented with a bigger step was Usain Bolt, which makes sense as
he probably has the largest step length compared to other top elite sprinters.
Anyway, lets take a closer look at specific aspects of Justin Gatlin's running form and
see how his mechanics allow him to maintain both a quick stride frequency and large step
length.
The clip we will now be looking at is when he ran the 100m in 9.94 seconds.
This is definitely not his best time, but this footage gives the best view to really
take a look at his running mechanics.
As we always do, lets first take a look at the way his foot lands as it touches the ground.
Similiar to many elite sprinters, he lands on the forefoot.
And you'll also notice that his heel never really touches the ground as he sprints during
this phase.
This decreases foot contact time leading to a faster rate of steps.
Now, what may impact his ability to take quick steps even more is actually where the foot
lands in relation to the body's center of mass.
This isnt a completely accurate depiction as this isnt a perfect side view; however,
you can see that Justin Gatlin's foot lands very close to the body's estimated center
of mass.
Usually the closer the foot lands to the center of mass, the faster the person is able to
complete the running cycle, which leads to improved speed.
Next, we will take a look at vertical oscillation, which is basically the amount of bounce Justin
Gatlin has as he runs.
Typically in elite level sprinters, even when producing high amounts of force through the
legs, they present with very little bounce when sprinting at full speed.
This usually has to do with the high step rate during these speeds as the higher step
rate is, the less vertical oscillation that is usually seen.
With Gatlin, you can see this to be the case, but I'd say he stands out more in this aspect compared
to other elite sprinters we have analyzed before as you can barely see much of it going
on.
Theorectically, by minimizing vertical oscillation, this maximizes force directed forward, further
increasing step length.
Now, lets take a closer look at the hips and see the peak movement of the hips as it goes
through hip flexion, then into hip extension.
I check these areas to see if there are any obvious deficits in hip movement.
For Gatlin, he seems to have enough hip motion to maintain an optimal stride.
Now instead, lets take a look at the hip movement ranging from when the foot first touches the
ground to when it pushes off.
I take a look at this frame as this shows how Gatlin effectively uses his hip mobility.
This could show whether an athlete is reaching too far forward, or they are not pushing back
enough with the hips prior to push off.
Based on this frame, I can see that there is no excessive reaching forward, which could
lead to a braking effect, which would hamper speed.
Now, taking a look at push off, he does present with decent enough hip extension prior to
push off for sprinting.
This is important as I've found that some sprinters over emphasize step rate and dont
extend the hips enough before pushing off the ground.
This leads to decreased force production from the legs, which may limit step length and
could actually impact step rate as well as the decreased force could lead to a slightly
slower swing.
Now, lets look at that arm swing, specificially shoulder movement as he runs.
I placed markers to see the range of this movement and as you can see ...their is a
lot of it.
Typically with increased speed, runners tend to increase arm swing as well.
One of the main purposes of arm movement is to counteract the high levels of angular force
from the legs.
With increased speed, increased force is produced in the legs, requiring more arm swing to counteract
it.
This helps the runner stabilize this force and maintain a relatively straight path during
running.
However, in Gatlin's case, he does present with a bit more shoulder movement than other
sprinter's I've analyzed.
One possible reason for this is because he stiffens up his trunk a whole lot during running.
Usually trunk rotation also aids to countering that angular force from the legs, but since
there is little movement of the trunk seen, this is compensated by a bigger arm swing.
Moving on, lets take a look at the head.
You can see that he keeps it in a pretty neutral position as he runs.
Now, we will take a look at his head movement during the 2017 world championships so we
can get a good view of the front of his body.
Like I said earlier, Gatlin tends to stabilize the upper body, and you could really see that
from the front of the body.
He doesnt even present with much side to side movement of the head either.
Anyway, while we are in this view, we could also take a look at both the arms and legs
as he runs.
He presents with pretty good symmetry from both sides of the body.
I dont really see much differences when comparing the right and left side.
Symmetry is important as running requires both sides of the body to work in unison.
And thats it for the quick analysis on Justin Gatlin.
I hope you enjoyed the video!
If you did, I'd really appreciate it if you shared it with your friends.
Also, let me know what you thought about the video.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
And as always, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!