Sprinting skills
18 skills, beginner to advanced. 16 of them you can film on a phone and get measured. No fake scores.
Skills by level
You can film16 of 18 skills
Beginner 5
- Sprint PosturePosture is the foundation of sprinting — everything else is built on it. A tall, stacked body sends your force straight down into the track; a slouched or hunched body leaks that force and robs you of speed.
- Arm ActionYour arms set your rhythm and balance your sprint, and your legs follow what your arms do. The agreed essentials: elbows bent around 90 degrees, driving from the shoulders, moving straight front-to-back — never across your body — with relaxed hands.
- Knee DrivePowerful knee drive is what creates a long, forceful sprint stride. The cue is 'knee-up, toe-up': drive your knee forward and up in front of your body using your hip flexors, recover your heel up underneath you, and then strike the ground with force.
- Forefoot StrikeHere's an important contrast with distance running: at sprint speed, landing on the ball of your foot IS correct. Where distance running says no single foot strike is best, sprinting genuinely calls for a forefoot strike with a stiff, dorsiflexed ankle — your foot acts like a springboard.
- Relax at SpeedTension is the enemy of speed. It sounds backwards, but staying relaxed at full effort is what lets you reach and hold top speed — tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, and white-knuckle fists all create resistance and break your rhythm.
Intermediate 5
- The Drive PhaseThe drive phase is the powerful acceleration right after the start — roughly the first 20-30 meters, when you're building from a standstill toward top speed. Here you push the ground back hard with long, forceful contacts, your body stays leaned forward, and you rise gradually toward upright.
- Acceleration LeanDuring acceleration, a strong forward lean points your force backward into the ground so it can propel you forward. The key is that the lean is a single straight line from your ankles through your hips to your head — roughly 45 degrees out of the start — NOT a bend at the waist.
- Triple ExtensionTriple extension is the full, explosive straightening of your hip, knee, and ankle all at once as you push off the ground — it's how you put maximum force into each stride. Powerful sprinters fully extend that drive leg behind them at toe-off.
- Front-Side MechanicsFront-side mechanics means keeping your leg action in FRONT of your body: the knee drives forward and up, the foot recovers high underneath you, and everything happens ahead of your hips rather than trailing behind. Fast sprinters spend their energy in front; slow runners let their legs cycle out behind them…
- Strike-BackStrike-back (often called 'pawing' or 'clawing') is the active downward-and-backward motion of your foot just before and during ground contact. Instead of letting your foot land passively out in front, you actively sweep it down and back so it's already moving backward relative to your body when it lands — which…
Advanced 5
- Max-Velocity PostureAt top speed your posture flips from the leaning drive phase to nearly vertical. Once you've finished accelerating (around 50-70 m in a 100 m), the goal is no longer to push horizontally but to apply force straight DOWN — so you run tall and upright, stacked head-over-hips-over-foot, with your force going…
- Quick Ground ContactAt top speed, the single biggest difference between elite and recreational sprinters is how briefly they touch the ground. Elite sprinters spend roughly 80-100 milliseconds on the ground per step; recreational runners spend 120-140.
- The Block StartThe block start (or a 2-point stance for team sports) is the explosive launch that sets up your whole acceleration. In the 'set' position you coil like a spring with your weight forward over the line, ready to drive horizontally out of the blocks.
- Block ClearanceBlock clearance is the first one or two steps as you leave the blocks — the bridge between the start and the drive phase. The keys: your body catapults out as one aligned line (not folded at the hips), your front leg extends powerfully, and your first foot lands UNDER or just behind your center of mass so you can…
- Stride vs FrequencyYour speed is simply your stride length multiplied by your stride frequency (how long each step is times how many you take per second). Both matter, and here's the honest truth: research shows top sprinters max out their speed through different individual blends — some are stride-length dominant, some frequency…
Insane 3
- Curve SprintingSprinting a bend (the 200 m, relays, and most field/court running) adds a sideways force you have to manage. You lean INTO the curve from the ankles and hips — not the waist — so your body balances the centripetal force, and your inside arm and leg work differently from the outside ones.
- Top-End FloatOnce you've hit top speed you literally cannot accelerate anymore — so the elite skill is maintaining that speed with maximum relaxation, often called 'float.' It doesn't mean slowing down or coasting; it means holding powerful, efficient mechanics while staying completely relaxed, so you lose as little speed as…
- Deceleration & CuttingFor field and court sports, stopping and changing direction is as important as accelerating — and it's where a lot of knee injuries happen. The key to decelerating and cutting safely is to lower your center of mass and bend your ankles, knees, and hips as each foot contacts, which spreads the braking force over…