When you sprint, your foot should touch down first on the ball of the foot, under your hips, with a stiff ankle that springs you off the ground fast. Up on your toes is wrong, and so is landing heel-first out in front. At top speed most sprinters' heels lightly brush the track after the ball lands, and that is normal. Filmed from the side in slow motion, a camera can show where your foot lands and roughly which part touches first.
Land on the ball
Touch down first on the ball of your foot, not your heel and not the tips of your toes. Aim for the back part of the ball. Most athletes who think they land on the ball actually feel the front of it.
a firm, quick touch just behind the base of your toes.
At top speed, let your heel lightly brush the track after the ball lands, if it wants to. Don't force it down and don't fight to stay up on your toes. In one study of 100 m race film, most sprinters who landed on the forefoot at 60 m also had the heel touch the track during that contact.
ball first, then a brief kiss of the heel, then gone.
Keep the ankle stiff
Pull your toes up toward your shin while the foot is in the air, so it arrives ready for the ground instead of pointed and reaching.
toes up, foot cocked like a hammer before it strikes.
Keep the ankle firm when the foot hits. The heel should not sink a long way toward the ground. A stiffer ankle and leg means a shorter contact and a faster push off through the ball of the foot.
a springy bounce off the ground, not a soft squash.
Land under you
Drive the foot down so it lands under your hips, not out in front. A flat or heel-first foot landing well in front of the hip brakes you and loads the hamstrings.
you hit the ground underneath you and push it back.
In the first steps of a start, stay on the ball and keep the steps low and quick. Land under or just behind your hips and push the ground back. As you rise to upright running, keep landing ball first; the heel brush only shows up near top speed.
"trim the grass with your toes" for the first few steps.
Feel it
Quick, light, springy contacts directly under your hips. The ball of the foot hits first, the ankle stays firm, and at full speed the heel may just kiss the track before you're off it. If you feel a heel thud or a slap out in front, you're reaching. If your calves burn and you feel perched on your toes, you're forcing it; let the foot land on the back of the ball.
Fix-its
- You land heel-first or flat-footed, out in front of your hips This is overstriding. Shorten the reach and drive the foot down under the hip so the ball of the foot lands first.
- You run up on the tips of your toes Toe running tends to make you reach out in front and strains the hamstrings and lower leg. Land on the back part of the ball and let the heel brush at top speed.
- Your heel sinks hard into the ground on every step Firm up the ankle before contact (toes up in the air) and build ankle stiffness with ankling and low pogo hops.
- Your toes are pointed down as the foot lands Pull the toes up toward your shin during recovery so the foot strikes down and back instead of reaching.
Drill
- Ankling: walk then jog forward with small, quick steps, cycling each ankle over and just in front of the other, landing on the ball of the foot under you. Do it in your warm-up.
- Pogo hops: small two-footed bounces on the balls of your feet with firm ankles and very short contacts. Start with a few short sets; this loads the Achilles, so build volume gradually and stop if the Achilles or calf hurts.
- Build-up runs: jog into a gradual build to fast, upright running. Focus only on ball-first contact under your hips.
- Film a build-up run from the side in slow motion (120 to 240 fps) with your feet in frame. Check that the ball lands first, under your hips, and that any heel touch comes after it.
Sources
- Loren Landow & Chris Jarmon — All-Pro Performance Training, Human Kinetics (excerpt: "This Is the Secret to Becoming a Better Athlete")
- Rugby Football League — Straight Line Sprint (coaching assessment card)
- Arai — An exploratory study of forefoot strike patterns in sprinters, Master's thesis, Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of Sport and Health Science (2023)
- Bezodis, Trewartha & Salo — Understanding the effect of touchdown distance and ankle joint kinematics on sprint acceleration performance through computer simulation, Sports Biomechanics (2015)
- Clark, Meng & Stearne — 'Whip from the hip': thigh angular motion, ground contact mechanics, and running speed, Biology Open (2020)
- Haugen, Seiler, Sandbakk & Tønnessen — The Training and Development of Elite Sprint Performance, Sports Medicine – Open (2019)
- Surf Life Saving SA — Beach Sprinting Coaching Manual, 5th Edition
- Athletics Ireland — Run Jump Throw Series: Sprints, Leg Action (2025)
Last checked 2026-10-25.