Running the turn

[Swiftyer]

I was recently taught by my sprint coach on how to run the indoor track curves.
He had us running a series of cufves and he noticed that we all hugged the inside of the lane. He explained to me that by trying to hug the inside of the curve the whole way, Im expending alot of energy trying to stay on the inside. In conclusion to this statement, he taught me the method of "apexing" the curve.
Basically, you start on teh outside of the lane and you start running intowards the inside. Once your foot hits the inside, you should start running back towards the outside(At this stage, you'll be halfway). Once u hit the oustide, you go for the inside once more time and come out touching the outside. By doing this, I found that I was able to relax more coming out of the turn and "slingshot" so to say,a metre or so.

Can someone clarify if this method is correct?

[Charlie Francis]

Now what about indoor 200 meter tracks?

Problem there is the turns are various with differing banking heights. If you get an outer lane on a banked track, you run like hell down the first bank- it's too late if you wait to move on the flat, then run straight for the wall and let the banking take you through the turn. If you try to set up for the second corner, you'll end up straightening up and will find yourself sitting and losing your speed.

[nanny69]

charlie you mentioned "One key here is not to raise your head up before you're completely out of the corner, otherwise you'll drift out to the outside of the lane and waste distance"

Q is this for the developing 200m sprinter one of the main faults in not being able to hold the turn???

and
"keep legs moving up and down and dont push" & keep hands moving from face to hips"

Q
for the novice or developing 200m sprinter what is the best way to describe what they should be feeling with leg action and in the arm axction are you recommending shortened action on the bend behind the body???

[Charlie Francis]

charlie you mentioned "One key here is not to raise your head up before you're completely out of the corner, otherwise you'll drift out to the outside of the lane and waste distance"

Q is this for the developing 200m sprinter one of the main faults in not being able to hold the turn???

and
"keep legs moving up and down and dont push" & keep hands moving from face to hips"

Q
for the novice or developing 200m sprinter what is the best way to describe what they should be feeling with leg action and in the arm axction are you recommending shortened action on the bend behind the body???

1: It's prob the main reason.
2: Yes, the legs drive up and down.

[nanny69]

charlie

have been working on your formula for bend running over the past few weeks...

mixed success some athletes nailed it first time and found it easier to hold speed both on and off the bend then when they had the left shoulder turned out around the bend..

but had problems with some of them shortening their stride to much when trying to get a feel for the up and down action of the legs.

but well keep at it and also can you pour some light on the "keep hands moving from face level to hips" statement is this a shortened arm action aroud the bend????

[Charlie Francis]

charlie

have been working on your formula for bend running over the past few weeks...

mixed success some athletes nailed it first time and found it easier to hold speed both on and off the bend then when they had the left shoulder turned out around the bend..

but had problems with some of them shortening their stride to much when trying to get a feel for the up and down action of the legs.

but well keep at it and also can you pour some light on the "keep hands moving from face level to hips" statement is this a shortened arm action aroud the bend????

Maybe the arm action is in too tight. I keep the arm action at right angles at the elbow on the way up and back to the hip. The arm action may open a bit more on the straight. I assume you're talking about outdoor curves?? I'm interested to hear how anyone feels energy-wise with this technique outdoors. I suspect youll find it more energy-efficient.
Indoors, you just run for the wall with as normal a stride as possible and you let the curve/banking take care of the rest.

[nanny69]

yeah charlie definately working outdoors not much snow in australia this time of the year.

will let you know the feedback on the bend technique tomorrow when we test it out in a comp.

its our first real hit out of the season so bustin to see if what we have done has served them well.

[nanny69]

Charlie

had our first hit out in a comp working under your 200m race model and bend running tech of head slightly down and to the left.

results
2 x 200m pb's
1 x 200m season best

all 3 felt that it was the easiest bend they have ever run and that it felt to easy.
the arms tended to still come to far behind the body on the bend but something to work on in coming weeks.

even the 400m f, executed it well on the bottom bend and ran a 3 year pb in her first real race of the season.

[Charlie Francis]

Charlie

had our first hit out in a comp working under your 200m race model and bend running tech of head slightly down and to the left.

results
2 x 200m pb's
1 x 200m season best

all 3 felt that it was the easiest bend they have ever run and that it felt to easy.
the arms tended to still come to far behind the body on the bend but something to work on in coming weeks.

even the 400m f, executed it well on the bottom bend and ran a 3 year pb in her first real race of the season.

That's terrific! Glad to hear things are going well. Certainly, I found my 200m dropped bigtime when I started working on this. I think you'll find more to come in the near future.

[nanny69]

charlie

i have a question in regards to coaching the hand from face to hip action on the bend...

did you feel this restricted you when you first used that action.

and what cues did you feel made you get a feel for it