This video shows the various sprinting style trends among the past eras of 100m sprinting and the sprinters that dominated in their respective eras Music: • Video Composer: Deltacount Title: The Varlet's Blade
“Front-side mechanics” refers to keeping the leg action mostly in front of the body. It is achieved by maintaining a neutral (or even slightly rounded) torso, a neutral hip position (to allow sufficient knee lift), and focusing on the hammer action of the feet against the ground to make toe-off occur as early as possible. The key theoretical advantage of using excessive front-side mechanics is that it gives you the greatest amount of distance & time over which to accelerate the foot, and thus might allow for the highest speeds (*if* foot acceleration is a limiting factor… which it may or may not be). The two paragons of front-side mechanics are Asafa Powell and Marcel Jacobs. (I wouldn’t call Usain Bolt an “excessive” front-side guy. Bolt is more well-rounded.)
Marcel Jacobs is probably the best example of someone who *might* be running with too much frontside action. Incidentally, too much frontside leg action makes acceleration nearly impossible, and this may be one of the reasons that Jacobs comes on so late in 100m races.
