hey what's up everyone this is Morey Croson from the performance lab of California and we are doing
another speed breakdown here today today it will be on Ben Johnson one of the best sprinters of all
time his career got got a little bit tarnished just because he got caught with you know taking
steroids and and things of that nature and you know that at the end of the day you know he's
still able to accomplish a lot of the everything he was able to accomplish so he still has good
things that we can learn from you know he might have you know you used some performance enhancers
to make it so he was able to to get better numbers then what you know maybe potentially would have
gotten but either way again he's still achieved what he achieved so I mean there's still some good
things that we can get from his running technique again or he's laying or where he is is right here
and I think one of the big things that we can take from his overall sprinting is his start okay he
has a really really good start and so and first I think an interesting thing to look at is he has a
pretty wide arm placement and he is a little bit shorter of a guide and that could be a reason but
if you look at to the other guys you know he has a pretty these guys all have pretty short
hand placements compared to him and one of the big things that I think we can we could take from is
how fast he gets kind of his feet down how quick he gets out of that acceleration phase and just
gets riding top speed on this Carl Lewis here too so you can kind of compare him to Carl Lewis as
well so when he comes through initially I think it's interesting he goes with both of his arms
back right so you could see some of these other guys they go one arm forward one arm back and
that's traditionally what I see but he goes both arms back flings them both back and he really is
trying to get that hip through but he gets that first foot down pretty quickly his foot his leg
is in a good amount of external rotation which means his toes kind of pushing out to the side
and he's out to the side and he's using that to really drive into his second step here and he
gets his second step down you could see how fast that second foots touching the ground and where
everybody else is second step is not it and one other person is touching the ground he's almost
touching the ground and he's already on the ground there okay so it's interesting to see I think it's
the same type of thing with that third step see that third steps already down and this guy over
here has also got that third step down but these other guys still don't have there's a third step
down so his ability to get his steps down are are really quite amazing and part of the reason
why he's able to do that is because he right away just flings those arms back gets those
hips all the way into it and gets that right foot down right away and because of that now he's at
an advantage compared to everybody else and you know how many steps he's taken and how fast he's
getting everything going so now we'll continue to see bends start to take off here and you know
one of the things that I thought was unique about him is and we'll see this a little bit better from
the front as he creates a large amount of external rotation the entire time that he's running and it
seems like that makes it so we can get that foot really underneath him and behind pretty quick he
does a great job of getting those hips all the way through as he's running okay he does a good job
getting that knee you know having a good solid knee drive but again it seems like really what
he does extremely well is get that foot back into external rotation and back around really quickly
and think that's what is driving forces I mean I've heard rumors about him having some of the
stronger hamstrings of any sprinting athlete that that people have seen and I think that's partially
what what it comes from speeding up here just to show you kind of what he looks like from the front
so you can see big step here he turns that foot all the way into a lot of external rotation and
it seems like you know the the more that I look at these guys with their starts it seems like that
beginning valgus and really driving that knee in is something that is really a critical movement so
you need to have a lot of ability to move your hip both from an internally rotated position which is
where it is now to be able to externally rotate as a lot as well where he does there and be able to
do that very quickly and with a lot of force and you can see that he has a lot of range of motion
to be able to do that and a lot of overall force production to be able to do that but you can see
again as he's running notice how and as they go here they gets a little bit clearer you could see
how he goes and he tries that knee all the way up and in and then he gets into that external
rotation and gets that foot down again really quickly and then it's all about getting that that
healed up to button that driving it right straight through he doesn't really even get that heel all
the way up to his butt before he starts just that that straight knee drive and that's me and so he's
not spending very much time off the ground that's one of the key things that we talk about is we
your feet want to be on the on the ground for a lot a large portion of the race and that doesn't
mean that your foot contact time so you can see how quick he's his foot touches I'll move this
here see how quick that left foot touches and gets it off the ground but then that right foot needs
to come back onto the ground pretty quickly you don't want to spend a lot of time just kind of
hanging out in the air you want to be able to you know as soon as that left foot gets off the ground
get that right foot down really quickly and one of the things that he does to help him do that
is he goes from that knee being straight to kind of getting into that external rotation that begins
that that drive phase okay one of the things that I was recently asked was for from an ankle
standpoint is it okay for that that foot to turn out you can see how Ben Johnson's feet do turn
out as he's running let me get some more of that there so his feet do turn out when he's running as
it and he's as he's coming down but notice how his his his ankle doesn't collapse in his heel kind of
turns out to the side when he lands so see how his his heel kind of comes in there but it what
doesn't happen is this ankle doesn't collapse downward okay and that just means that his feet
are really strong and that's a big part of this is you need to have strong feet we'll see the same
thing here see how it's more of a foot turn as you pressing off the ground instead of that ankle
collapsing I see a lot of guys who are sprinters who are trying to get more speed which when they
land that foot collapses down and if you could see yourself I mean you could this is not near as good
of qualities that you can get on on an iPhone now so and we could see it here plenty good when when
you see yourself with an iPhone you'll be able to see if that that ankle is really collapsing down
as as you're beginning to trains that leg from that landing phase this would be more landing
phase he's good you know has a good strong foot and then as you go to here that's critical to make
sure that that foot stays strong this is where the lot of people will start to collapse even in
the landing phase you'll see a lot of guys when they land here their foot will start to collapse
that's all in efficient movement that's all made and so you're not gonna be able to you know get
that foot right back off the ground and really get a large amount of or the extension and forceful
extension so very important point there I think again would Bend we really take away from is that
start to bend Johnson did study that you know be able to see that I think that too one thing is it
was really interesting I think how fast he's able to get from his first second third step is very
interesting there's another race that I almost did the breakdown on it was just a little bit too far
away and we didn't get the front angle too but it was him against Carl Lewis and you know really the
the big takeaway from that race was that Ben Johnson got out to a much better start right
as soon as they were both at top speed you know I would say Carl Lewis might have even been a little
bit faster than Ben Johnson but Ben Johnson jumped out to Libya you know two million or lead because
of this start and and when you get that start now you can you know go and and really transform
the racer that's the same type of thing here you know he gets out until we can get a good view here
you know see how he gets that he's got ahead in his start and that's what made it and then he
was able to to end up winning the race one thing I wanted to touch on too is he look at how little
time he spends in acceleration phase I mean he takes three steps one two three and even in his
second step he's already beginning to look up and I know a lot of guys you know they started
to keep their head down and keep looking down you can see Carlos doing that not necessarily
a bad thing but it is interesting how fast he's able to just get into that that top-end speed
and you know what that ended up doing in his race I don't necessarily think that one way is better
than the other way I just you know it's food for thought things that are interesting that
that show you know what what Ben Johnson did would you is again one of the best starters I think you
know ever and so you could take away some of that information utilizing your own sprint you have any
questions please reach out to me morey m-o-r-e-y at your performance lab dot-com also we check out
our membership we have a cool membership page that makes it so you can get a little bit more
information on how you can sprint better you know what our exercises you can do to prevent
injury how you can how you can throw better we do individual speed breakdowns too you have to you
know inquire to us it does it does cost money for but it's a really cool thing we do the same type
of write down for you except we had exercises as well we'll have a sit down you know you can give
me a call we'll talk or I'll give you a call we'll talk about what went over what are some
exercises you can even start doing you know maybe even from a lifting perspective inside the weight
room on the track whatever the case may be we'll be able to help you and better understanding what
are the things that are gonna help you get faster so you know I'd love to it love to be able to hear
from you and be able to help you become a better version in yourself yeah as always thanks for
watching these video guys I love doing them I like I love the people are able to take a lot from this
information I will be able to do another breakdown here pretty soon and let me know if you have any
questions or if you have any recommendations for people to to break down thank you and we'll see