Stride Length

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Clover

Proud Parent
Jul 28, 2011
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My DD (Level 4) is a faster than average runner, but not significantly so. Both my hubby and I have noticed that her stride when she is running is much longer than most of the girls. I think that it is hurting her on vault. I've asked her if the coaches ever work on running technique and she says "no". Anyone with track/sprinting experience have thoughts on whether or not this is a problem for gymnastics? If so, it seems that now is the time to fix it rather than waiting until she is farther along.

Thanks!
 
Here is an article on stride length.

http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/the-holy-grail-in-speed-training/default.aspx

She needs to find her number of steps and start point and make it consistent.

Our girls at the gym I was at in 2011 did these things. I coached the L4s on Vault and most of the time, the L5s unless I was on Bars or Floor. However, this programming was done by our Ukranian former Olympian coach who came over from another gym. One of his girls went to UCLA so he was doing something right.

Leg/foot for the hurdle onto the vaulting board and into Round-off was the same foot. This is because of Yurchenko vaulting later on. Ideally, a gymnast hurdles the same for RO and FHS but I do see that being opposite on occasion.

6 steps on one foot, 7 on the other. I want to say it was 6 on the take off leg. Don't quote me on that till I find my notes somewhere.

For instance, my hurdle is on my right leg lunging but I am actually taking off my left leg as I am swinging my right leg. It was the same for Polevault in HS.

Number of steps is incredibly important for Polevault and I think Long Jump. I never did Triple Jump but one of our L4 coaches who was a triple jumper said they took steps for it. While I was coaching our 4s on V most of the time, she coached them some of the time if we split into 2 groups or I could not because she understood the vaulting program and was a triple jumper and said Ukranian said she was our next pick after me.

I can't exactly remember but I don't think the number of steps for the 100, 200, 400 were discussed much back in my days. Possibly in the 100. No idea about hurdles as I am short so I laughed when they said try hurdles on the varsity height hurdles.

Having a correct step was something Mark Young out of West Valley and Amy Chow stresses during his vault clinics at Congress. He has all sorts of drills for it.

Once I could find the correct number of steps with some of the girls and the starting point I only had to flush away stuttering approaching to the board, decelerating and the right hurdle length for each girl (but this is sort of dependent on how fast they are and how powerful they can jump).
 
Hmmm. Thanks for the info - very interesting. So, it seems that runners with longer strides are not necessarily slower sprinters. It could go either way. I guess to me a girl with a longer stride just looks slower compared to a girl with a very short, quick stride. However, DD is faster than average for her age (if you use TOPS 20m sprint as a measurement - and let's not start a TOPS discussion). I know that she does have a specific starting point (not sure what it is, but I don't need to know :-) not sure how they came up with that, but maybe based upon # of steps.

Dunno - I am not a poster of videos of DD - just not my thing, but thanks so much for offering to look at one.

I'll ask the vault coach what she thinks of DDs run next time I see her.

Thanks to you both!
 
Well, there is a difference between over striding and slow turnover.

Slow turnover could be poor mechanics or just being weak. Is she driving the knee forward and up quickly and pushing through the foot (ball/mid-foot) and recovering the leg into the knee drive effectively?
 
Wow. Running sure if more complicated than I realized. Not having any track experience I really wouldn't be able to evaluate these things. I think what you've convinced me to do is have her run evaluated - something we were thinking about anyway. There is a place nearby that trains athletes to run faster, jump higher, etc. Although I am not inclined to enroll her in any program there (she does enough as it is) they do offer an evaluation (for a fee). It would be interesting to see what they say. If they identify any issues with her run then we can see where to go from there (I'd talk to her head coach if that is the case).

Thanks again for all of your help.
 
Maybe.

Do you know what she runs in 20m TOPS test?

I want to say my best L4 in 2011 probably ran between 3.5 and 4.0. Probably 3.75. The rest probably could have been timed with an eggtimer or hourglass. I remember testing them but I just don't remember their times as well as when I tested the L5s. Most of my 8yo boys could break 4s to 3.7/8. Well strike that, Andrew could break 3.5 as his brother who was 10yo and was roughly the same height (and the funny thing is neither kid were really that strong or powerful but they were very new gymnasts).

A L4 roughly 6 or 7yo might run between 4-4.5 seconds. They just tend to be tiny at that age with much less training under their belt.


Bare in mind most of the L5s were a bit older or bigger though one was 8 and another 10yo was the same size as the 8yo which means they were the same size or smaller than most of the L4s (but with more training under the belt and/or talent as those two were very talented).
 
She's 6 (but considered 7 for TOPS), so she won't officially test until this coming summer. However, testing at the gym in the 20 Meter she runs about 3.4 (I don't always know what she runs, but her coach happened to have the sheets last time and that is what she had for DD)- but not sure if they test exactly the same as the official TOPS.
 
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According to this, it's pretty good. Link Removed If she is running that fast, she shouldn't really be having problems with a L4 vault unless it has to do with hurdle or if she is out of control and/or speed limiting herself or starting to use longer than necessary strides right before the hurdle.
 
She's not THAT fast, so I must have made a mistake somewhere.
Thanks.
 
Well, bare in mind, hand-timing has a margin of error even at it's best. Again, as Dunno said, without video, it's hard to judge what exactly is going on. Ask her coach if she thinks she is overstriding on her approach to hurdling onto the board.
 

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