Q&A with Josh Hurlebaus on what NOT to say when coaching sprint technique
There are things that you should NEVER tell your sprinters when coaching them.
I am thrilled to post some material by my go-to guy when it comes to questions about sprinting and sprint training. There are a lot of things that coaches can do right, and wrong, when it comes to sprint training, so in order to cut through the fog I go straight to Josh. In this article, Josh shares his thoughts on how to (and how not to) cue and instruct sprint athletes.
Question: What are some of the worst sprint cues coaches give to their athletes and why?
Josh’s Answer:
Given enough situations there is probably a time and a place for any cue, the problem lies in using blanket cues for all athletes and expecting the same results. For example, I could spend a couple weeks working with an athlete changing acceleration mechanics and emphasizing both staying linear (no side to side movement) and long and strong initial pushes. Maybe this athlete also loves ham and cheese sandwiches, so now I draw the parallel that keeping the start straight, long and strong goes together like ham and cheese. Now “ham and cheese” can be a cue when he’s getting into blocks to remind him of what we have been working on.
That’s just a silly example of how cues should be used and created but it highlights a key factor: knowing the athlete. Cues should have meaning to the athletes… not just the coach. Otherwise the coach is busy yammering about sandwiches and the athlete is getting pissed and calling up their high school coach asking for help because their college coach needs to be institutionalized. This is not good times.
Some of the cues that I have problems with are anything having to do with being more aggressive with whatever movement you are working on. Aggression is, in my experience, the result of confidence meeting desire. Remove either of those and you can scream “BE AGGRESSIVE!” as much as you want: nothing will change. As a coach, if your athlete is not being aggressive you have to figure out whether it is a confidence issue or an issue of desire. Both of those are your job as a coach and both require knowledge of the athlete. The blanket cue doesn’t cut it.
Another traditional cue that I’m not a fan of is the “knees up” cue. Getting the knees up is certainly the end point in which we would like our athletes to achieve during maximal velocity, but the means of achieving it are very different. When a novice athlete hears “knees up”, what often happens is an overemphasis on hip flexion to the point of short changing extension and ruining any sort of rhythm you are attempting to have while at maxV.
I much prefer the “drive the knee forward” cue, or depending on athlete background something akin to a front knee strike or other martial art term because it solves many problems at once for max V. It creates a powerful hip pop/projection forward due to hip oscillation (conversely increasing extensive power of the support leg), it creates a target for person to aim for down the track which can clean up form problems, it emphasizes front side mechanics without ham-fistedly telling the athlete that front side mechanics are the goal (leading to over emphasis), and It will create that nice parallel thigh that all the coaches are raving about.
But again, these are what I use because they work for my athletes. Cues are just a means to get a desired effect. Often times I will just not say anything and I’ll just ask questions. “How did that feel?” “What didn’t you like about that?” etc and then give them a hint at what the next attempt should feel like. By allowing them to discover what it takes to get that feeling rather than telling them, I feel like the learning that takes place takes a deeper root.
About Josh:
Josh Hurlebaus is the sprints coach at CarrollUniversity and recently coached LJ Hyland to an All-America finish and school record (dropping a full second off of his PR) in his inaugural year in charge of the Carroll sprinters. Josh has been an Elitetrack member since 2005 and is actively involved in many sprint discussions. He has also consulted various All-American sprinters post-collegiately.
A former Carroll athlete himself, Josh was a 4x All-American and continued to set personal records post-collegiately. He was a 1x USATF Indoor Qualifier. Below are his personal bests.
60m- 6.73
100m-10.38
200- 20.97 (21.47indoor)
Find his blog at yourunlikecrap.com
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