Arm Action in Sprinting

FEBRUARY 5, 2014 BY JIMSON LEE1 COMMENT

Ever notice the arm action in the 200m curve is different than on the straightaway? And
how it slightly differed compared to the last 40 meters of the 100 meters?
This brings up the topic of arm action in sprinting.
Famous Canadian Track Coach Geoff Gowan would say, You run with your arms on
your legs.
To study arm mechanics properly, you really need 2 video cameras from 2 different
angles one from the front and one from the side.
Arm Action Basics
It doesnt take a lot of arm strength to maintain form for proper arm angles. Bench
Press and body weight exercises will generally suffice.
Your arm strokes from the shoulders, thus your hands play a vital role in maintaining the
balance.
The hand comes up to face level in front, and you pull down (not back) from there,
usually from the elbows or even the hands.
I remember another Coach teaching us to make a circle with your thumb & first finger
(like the Rodney Dangerfield expression A-okay), or as if you are grasping an empty
roll of toilet paper, and as you run, you should see through the hole. While this may
work for youth athletes to teach basic fundamentals, it doesnt work for elite speeds of
10m/s or greater.
When we teach youth sprinters, we use simplistic numbers such as 90 degrees (or right
angles) on the front-swing, and 90 degrees on the down-swing. I purposely dont use
the words back-swing. With good arm mechanics, the PULL action is down and not
back. Why? Because with leg mechanics, you are pulling down, not back. Thats my
logic.
Elite athletes arm angles differ slightly with ~85 degrees in front-swing to ~95 to 100
degrees on the down-swing. The opening up of the elbow will come naturally as your
top speed increases. You cant help it.
The Arm Bone is connected to the Hip Bone song
The arms will come towards, but not cross, the mid line thus initiating the shoulder
rotation required to compensate for the slight counter-rotation of the hip.
You need a view from above to see this properly. I am going to use Wallace
Spearmons 200m Olympic final in Beijing, since they had nice overhead photos from
the Bird Nest Stadium. In the example below, the red line marks the plane for the
shoulders, and the green lines marks the hips.

The difference between slight counter-rotation of the hip and no counter-rotation (i.e
hips locked, square plane) is about 3-4 cm. Its not much, but coupled that with about
30 strides in a full upright position (on a 100m sprint), and we are talking a gain of
almost 1 full meter. Charlie Francis used to say, How would you like to gain a free
meter in the 100m?
In my opinion, one example of hip over-rotation would be Cathy Freeman of Australia. If
you take a look at her side view, youll see a very open and extended arm, and hence
slight over-rotation of the shoulder which leads to a slight over-rotation of the hip. But it
works for her, so why change it. I am merely using her as an example as I feel her
counter-rotation of the hip seems visually excessive. Also, her body anatomy may find
this optimal.
One of the reasons you want optimal arm swings is to maintain proper hip rotation.
Arms too close to the torso in the front-swing may limit hip rotation. If it is too open,
then that may change the center of balance, and in effect, change your frequency
pattern.