Note: The full video covering all three drills is available at the bottom of this article - skip right to it if you learn best by watching!

Drill One

The Wall Drill

(See it in action from 1:16)
This is the first drill, useful for teaching the athlete the correct posture, dorsiflexion, knee drive, and foot strike during the acceleration phase. It is important for athletes to master this drill to embed the correct neuromuscular patterns and develop an understanding of how the body should feel during acceleration.

The coach should pay attention to ensure the athlete is ‘punching their knee forward’ rather than bringing their heel up to their glutes. The coach should also ensure that the thigh is being driven to 90 degrees to the angle of the athlete’s forward lean (e.g. the blue line is 90 degrees to the yellow line on the diagram).

The coach can help by holding their hand in front of the athlete’s knee hand to help them punch their knee forward into the coach’s hand without overextending or over-flexing in their hips.

Drill Two

Partner-Resisted A-March Drill

(See it in action from 2:12)
This drill is a progression that develops the same coaching points as the previous drill (forward lean, knee driving forwards, dorsiflexion in the foot, ball of the foot landing), but in a more dynamic and transferable way to the sprint acceleration.

Landow warns that there are two common faults with this drill:

• The athlete leans from the hips rather than from the ankles. Look for a straight line from the athlete’s ankles to their head with no ‘folding’ in the hips.

• The athlete brings their heels to their glutes, reducing the athlete’s forward lean. Encourage the athlete to ‘punch forward’ with the knee and use your hand as a guide if required.

Drill Three

Resisted Run with Sled

(See it in action from 3:20)

The final progression of this series is a resisted acceleration using a weighted sled. Once again, the focus should be on the same elements as the previous drills but challenge is added with the introduction of speed and additional resistance.

Based on what you have learnt about Landow’s approach to acceleration and his coaching points, what do you notice about how the athlete performs this drill in the video?

TIP: You can use the , and . keys to watch frame-by-frame on Youtube.

Have you tried these drills? Do you have any advice for other coaches? Let us know in the comments below.