One of the keys to running fast is staying relaxed and effortless. In order to do this you need to know the cues to relax when sprinting. It is a hard thing to understand because to go fast you can’t try to go fast. The harder you work, the slower you often go. I have never come across anything on the internet talking about this aspect of running. By the end of this article, you will have some things you can think about and try to relax when sprinting.
Relaxed Face
The cheek bounce is personally my favorite cue. A tense face is a sign that you are trying too hard. The picture above is one of Usain Bolts few losses in the 100m dash throughout his career. Here is the thing, he was so tight in the race, and he was tight in his last 100m race as well. When he pulled his hamstring in his final race, do you think he was trying? You bet he was!No think of all of his Olympic wins, do you think he was relaxed? You bet he was! My point is that you can do this in a lot of races. In a competition between two talented people, it is the one who relaxes the most that will win.One of the first places we look for relaxation cues is the face. The feeling you need to have when you are sprinting is that your face is relaxed and it is bouncing all over the place with each step that you take. That is a sign that you are doing this right.Showing teeth is a sign that you are doing this all wrong. Showing teeth meet your neck is tight, and your shoulders are tight, and everything will crumble from there. Another sign that you are doing this right is that your relaxation moment comes in sequence with controlled breathing.
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Open Hands
When you are about to fight someone you clench your fist because you need to be tense and hard in that situation. Sprinting represents the other half of flight or fight. If you need to be stiff to fight, it means you need to be relaxed to run.By closing your hands you add tension to your forearms, and that tension finds its way to your shoulders. By the time you get tense in your shoulders, there is not much you can do to recover.By opening your hands when you run it gives you a cue that you can visually see whereas the others you can’t see. You can apply this to all sprinting no matter how tired you are. Many people will get tired in a 400 for example and at the end close their hands to finish, but that is when you want to keep your hands open the most.It is tough to relax with a clenched fist yet every day sprinters try and do it. The best thing you can do to make your sprinting feel more natural and to run faster is to let the jaw relax while opening up your hands. It will keep your arms loose, which leads us nicely to the next point.
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Shoulders Down
Enter your textThe shoulders are one of the easiest ways to tell whether someone is tight or not. When shoulders begin to raise up to the ears, the neck starts to disappear; everything goes downhill from here. It starts a chain reaction of tense muscles from the jaw right down to your legs. You end up moving like a stiff robot, and you go nowhere. When the shoulders rise, the arms do not swing naturally or adequately. Try it where you are right now. Swing the arms with your shoulders down and relaxed, and then swing them again with your shoulders high. Right away you notice a huge difference. Your arms feel weird when you pump with your shoulders high. You also open the door to injury when you do this. Since you run with your arms on your legs, if your arms are not functioning correctly, neither will your legs. You want to use these three forms or relaxation all on top of each other. If you mess one up, you will mess them all up. – Relax the face and feel your cheeks jiggle – Keep your hands open and not clenched – Then lastly make sure you drop your shouldersThe critical thing to consider now is how do you make this all happen? If you are running as fast as you can, it is a lot to think about. In the next point, I am going to give you the critical cue that will trigger all of this to happen in one smooth step.
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Controlled Breathe
Enter your texTo make this all come together, you need to control your breathing in one instance. It just takes one quick exhale to initiate the entire relaxation process. It takes some practice to get this down though. I learned this as a young child. Doing a speed endurance workout called “in and outs.” My coach would always tell me that to speed up in the last section; I would need to relax. I would still try and speed up by working harder, and he said the words that changed the game for me. “Ian, all you have to do is take one quick exhale, and the body will know what to do.”Think about it for a second. When you’re stressed, and you want to relax you usually exhale and make noise. You want to do the same thing but quickly. The second you do this, your shoulders will drop, your jaw and face will loosen up, and you can open your hands easily because there is less tension. t here…
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The Perfect Scenario
University of Oklahoma — (L-R) Daniel Prioleau of Kansas, Dan Steen of Kansas State, Evan Pierson of Oklahoma, Ian Warner of Iowa State and Prezel Hardy Jr. of Texas A&M compete in the Men’s 100 Meter Dash at the Big 12 Track & Field Championships at the R.V. Christian Track Complex in Manhattan, Kansas.
You might be thinking when would this ever be used in a race or an actual game. There are plenty of times! One of the best races I ever ran, I had a decent start, and I was in third place at 60m, and I took that quick breath, relaxed my body and I just breezed by the other two athletes so easily! It was amazing! You can use this anytime you need a speed burst because speed need demands relaxation. As long as you are relaxed and not forcing speed, you will be in an excellent position to strike and to excel.ur text here…
What About the Lower Body?
The lower body a lot harder to control when sprinting then the upper body is. The lower body often just responds to what the upper body is doing. If you don’t believe me, go and run and pump your arms slow and lean your upper body forward, or lean back and watch how it changes what your legs do. There is no way to relax your lower body without first working on the upper body. You will not just start running and relax your calf muscle. You run on your legs, but you run with your arms, The focus for all of your relaxation needs comes down to your upper body.
Relax Your Mind
Eugene, Oregon – July 9, 2016: After all he had gone through, two kidney surgeries and very little time to train, Aries Merritt would only come up short of making the Olympic team by .01 seconds in the 110 meter hurdle finals during day nine of the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. (Bill Frakes for ESPN)
The last step to this all is going to sprinting and games with a relaxed mind. The relax mind is the last of the cues to relax when sprinting. Your mind cannot be overactive and expected to perform. A relaxed mind is not thinking about the present, nor does it think about the future. The relaxed mind is focused on the present. The best cue for your mind to relax when sprinting is your breath, but even that will not work if your mind will not allow it. You can’t be anxious or frazzled mentally and expect to perform at your best. It just will not work. The best way to practice having a relaxed mind is to get in the habit of meditating. Even if it is just for a little bit every day. Meditation will help you to practice just being in the moment and taking life for what it is at that moment.
Summary of Cues to Relax When Sprinting
- 1Let your face be loose and jiggle
- 2Open your hands
- 3Allow your shoulders to drop
- 4Control your breath
- 5Forget about your legs
- 6Relax your mind
You do these five things the next time you sprint, and you will have a great session. The cues to relax when sprinting will keep you fast and healthy! The best compliment you can get is when people tell you that your sprinting looked easy! That means you are so relaxed that it does not even look like you are trying to be fast. The next thing you can do is avoid these speed training myths!
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
