⚡️SSL #023: 3 Olympians Told Me This

Jan 08, 2023

Today, I’m going to share some insights from a recent conversation I had with a few Olympians.

Combined these guys have nearly 100 years of experience developing speed at the highest level.

Specifically, I’m going to discuss:

Stride Frequency vs Stride Length
Maximizing Your Airtime
The Power of Running Tall
How To Properly Use Wickets

Let’s dive in.

#1 Stride Frequency vs Stride Length

Richard James (Jamaican Olympic Team, World Champ, D1 Coach) :

“I look to see whether or not they're power-based, which is they're floating a lot, or they're ... quickness based, making a lot of ground contact.”

“There's that sliding scale between frequency and power. And I try to put them into that, that little space to see where things are.”

Matthias Bühler (2x German Olympic Team, 8x National Champ) :

”Many athletes think that, ‘I have to have very good stride length’, like Usain Bolt, but, not everybody has the same body, not the same height. I think first you have to look that the frequency is pretty high as always. If your frequency is good, you can definitely work on the stride length too.”

#2 Maximizing Your Airtime

Wyndell Dickinson (U.S. Virgin Island Olympic Team, Coaches Pro Athletes) :

“You can't have the same angle in the front that you have in the back. If you want to be super-efficient, something has to change. You wanna have something that's going to give you more push, so when you bring it up so you can get that power position, that power position is your foot hitting the ground.”

#3 The Power of Running Tall

Wyndell Dickenson:

“As you lean forward, your knee drops. Come from a higher position. You can hit the ground harder. A nice tall, straight body leaning forward that's gonna give you more bang for your buck.”

#4 How To Properly Use Wickets

Matthias Bühler:

“In my career, I did a lot of, wicket runs and, big advantage of wicket runs are that you can set it up like, you need it. So in the beginning it was 1.80m, 1.90m, between every wicket. We did wicket runs all year long, like with flats or spikes.”

Richard James:

“We start from tape on the ground, then we go into a little cone, and from the cone we move up to a three inch to six inch little mini hurdles. Those are ways we get to improve stride length and stride frequency. Now to be specific, my standard for some of my athletes is two meters.

I try to get them to have a two meter set up and, would have a 10 to 15 meter runup. Then from there, based on, I see from that I either reduce the width, or I increase the width of the wicket to increase that stride length.

If I want get real good stride length. I'm gonna open it up, if I wanted to get stride frequency. I'm gonna close it.”

TL;DR

“There's that sliding scale between frequency and power. “
”Many athletes think that, ‘I have to have very good stride length’, like Usain Bolt, but, not everybody has the same body, not the same height. I think first you have to look that the frequency is pretty high.”
“As you lean forward, your knee drops.“
“I either reduce the width, or I increase the width of the wicket to increase that stride length. If I want get real good stride length. I'm gonna open it up, if I wanted to get stride frequency. I'm gonna close it.”

Stay Fast,

Cesar

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