Improving speed.

What to Think About in the Starting Position

Getting off the mark isn't as important as getting into full stride

Coaches of explosive, fast-reacting sports are constantly being challenged to get their athletes to react as fast as possible to an external stimulus. Sprinters, swimmers, wrestlers, baseball and football players are all required to respond rapidly to such stimuli.

Numerous drills have been designed to achieve better reaction time, explosion, and quickness from a static starting position. Bruno Pauletto (in Scholastic Coach) emphasized the importance of rapid starts and explosiveness through several technique drills and plyometrics.

Often overlooked, however, is the importance of attentional focus immediately prior to the starting signal. What, if anything, should an athlete be thinking of while awaiting the signal to go? Is one focus more beneficial than the others? How much of a difference will it make?

Let us see how such factors can assist the less experienceed athletes.

FOCUS POINT

Beginning athletes in the starting position have to decide whether to focus on the gun, the initiation of the impending movement, or a technical cue of the initial movement.

While most are taught to focus on the gun, others choose to focus on: 1) the explosive movement from the starting position, 2) a technique cue (e.g., "drive back hand forward"), or 3) a "blank" focus.

Most coaches agree that success is measured in split-second differences. For example, milliseconds separate sprinters and swimmers in short races. In sports such as football and baseball, we'll often hear of a player being "a half step too slow."

To achieve a faster start, the athlete may be required to train not only to move faster, but to move more efficiently - a concept that the resourceful coach will utilize for any skill in which every second (or millisecond) counts.

Reaction time and movement time must be combined in order to achieve a rapid movement. [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE OMITTED]. The combination will give the athlete the quickness and speed we seek, both of which can be impacted by attentional focus.

REACTION TIME

Reaction time (RT) is often viewed as the critical element in any explosive activity with an external starting signal, such as sprinting. It is the amount of time between the signal (gun) and the athlete's first movement.

The tendency in coaching is to work on the athlete's RT, as any quickening of the reaction time (shortening of the delay between the signal and the initial movement) will provide an advantage in most activities.

RT depends upon how the athlete, prior to the starting signal, selects and plans his or her initial movement. Early research cautioned against focusing on a technique cue, especially among less experienced athletes. Since it called for an athlete to plan a movement, listen for the signal, and react, it could increase both the complexity of the start and produce a slower reaction time.

That is why coaches wanted their athletes to focus on the starting signal rather than on any aspect of the movement.

The next logical question might be: Does it matter whether athletes think about the starting signal or a more simple, general explosion from the starting position? For beginner or intermediate athletes, the answer appears to be no. It apparently makes little difference in RT whether they focus on the signal or simply "explode."

This conclusion must, however, be put into a realistic context. RT is only the time between the external signal and the first movement of the sprinter. Research surprisingly substantiates the fact that RT is not directly correlated to total response time. The improvement of RT rarely predicts improvement in total speed.

MOVEMENT TIME

Perhaps more important to coaches is the time period from the initiation of the first movement to the completion of the activity. Movement time usually correlates well with total time, or speed. Thus, the improvement of this aspect of starting speed may prove more valuable.

Several studies have attempted to determine an optimal attentional focus for movement time. The results have varied, but the common conclusion is that a focus on the starting signal can shorten the movement time.

But is this the best strategy for the less experienced sprinter? The most recent research has suggested otherwise. It indicates that beginning athletes who have been forced to focus on a critical technique element may actually produce faster movement times!

This obviously contradicts the research finding we delineated earlier in this paper (under "Reaction Time"). It appears that the coach would be well-served to teach a technique focus.

Why is this so? Wouldn't a technique focus slow the athlete down, since the added complexity would produce a slower reaction? This actually is true, but the technique focus would also have an advantage: It would serve to pre-plan either a part or all of the movement, and a more efficiently planned movement would serve to reduce the movement time.

Remember, however, athletes who use a general explosion focus cannot plan any of the movement. As a result, the movement part of activity is likely to be less efficient, despite the fact that the RT may be shorter.

Conclusion: Focusing on a technique element (pre-planning) might produce a slower reaction times, but this sacrifice is often traded off for the faster times achieved during the movement.

RT VS MOVEMENT TIME

The coach must ask himself the question: What's more important, reaction or movement time? The common conception that faster RT leads to faster movement times is not necessarily true.

As stated earlier, research has shown that reaction time does not correlate well with total speed (Coker & Darden). The athlete with the fastest RT is not necessarily the first to cross the finish line. Coaches might do well to re-evaluate the importance of reaction time in the overall movement.

This is not to say that reacting speedily out of the start is not important; only that other factors (such as pre-planning critical elements and being in a good running position) are of greater importance.

For the less experienced athlete (e.g., high school), it is more critical to shorten the movement time via a technique emphasis. To quote R.E. May in Scholastic Coach: "The key to better sprinting lies in getting into full stride, rather than just getting off the mark, as quickly as possible."

Asking athletes to focus on critical elements of the stride offers a more efficient means of achieving full stride, while responding to general rapid movement cues will result in faster speed off the mark.

Coaches must ask themselves what they hope to achieve with a particular athlete; and the answer may depend on the coach's objectives and the experience of the athlete.

COACHING STRATEGIES

Coaches can apply these research finding to the starting and overall speed of their athletes. Since advanced athletes and beginners process information differently, the experience level of the performer remains an important consideration.

Beginners must have their movement pre-planned for them in the form of technique cues. Though this may lengthen their RT, it will ultimately shorten their movement and total times. Remember, the goal is to get the athlete to the finish line as fast as possible.

As the performer becomes more experienced, the ideal attentional focus may change. High level athletes tend to have their own built-in program that can be run off automatically without any attentional focus to the details or technique of the movement.

At this time, research cannot make any statements about the optimal attentional focus for elite performers.

By determining and manipulating the attentional focus of your athletes, you can take advantage of the information-processing abilities of your athletes and, more importantly, provide them with a competitive edge in their training and performance.

As coaches, we may find many things out of our control. But we can have direct control over what an athlete thinks about in the starting position. This control, when properly applied, may prove to be the missing link in our speed training regimens.

The following guidelines should serve coaches and athletes well:

* Have the inexperienced performers focus on a key technique element of the impending movement.

* Teach the athlete to optimize movement time rather than reaction time.

* Identify the most critical elements of an efficient start or movement an require the performer to focus on one cue over several trials.

* Teach an appropriate focus in the starting position and require your athletes to re-adjust their focus whenever necessary.

Gib Darden, Asst. Professor, Motor Learning/Performance, Radford University (VA) and Cheryl Coker, Asst. Professor, Biomechanics, New Mexico State University