I don’t really believe in coincidences, so when ’step over,
drive down’ was brought up on 3 separate occasions this week
I knew I shouldn’t ignore it.

But in each instance it was brought up, the people mentioning
it had gotten some basic information wrong.

So let’s talk about this term so we can all get a better
understanding of it’s role in helping our athletes to run
faster.

First, ’step over, drive down’ is not a ‘training theory’.

It is a coaching cue that I picked up while at a track and field
coaching conference. The truth is I can’t remember whether I
first heard it while attending USATF Level II school or from
John Smith at the New England Track and Field clinic.

Either way, it’s a great *cue* for teaching athletes they need
to focus on stepping over the opposite knee and driving the foot
down into the ground.

Want some other cues for teaching good running mechanics?

Here are a couple that I like, but not nearly as much as
’step over,drive down’:

- Run through tall grass
- Run through knee high water

Like I said, they’re decent, but not great.

Now in terms of what ’step over, drive down’ does or doesn’t
do from a scientific stand point, I could go off on a big rant
about force curves, vectors, ground force calculations based
on limb speed, horizontal vs. vertical forces and many other
$6 words out of some of the text books and journals sitting
on the shelves of my training library, but I won’t.

Because my opinion is still going to be the same.

(If you want to, however, I suggest you start here:

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/89/5/1991.pdf)

The bottom line is if athletes want to run faster, they need
to apply more force to the ground.

But if their mechanics are terrible, they’re not going to
create the ground forces that will get them from Point A to
Point B in an acceptable amount of time.

I’ve worked with athletes in just about every sport.

And I will tell you this:

Most kids’ running technique is *horrible*. It hurts to watch
sometimes.

So how do I fix it?

Well there are a lot of ways:

- Develop general movement skills
- Get stronger
- Improve coordination
- Improve general strength and work capacity
- Develop greater dynamic flexibility and range of motion
- Address specific running mechanics issues

…among others…

And of course we could break each of those down into more
detail, but that is not today’s topic.

But, like ’step over, drive down’ these are all pieces of the
overall training puzzle, not mutually exclusive solutions to
your speed training needs and questions.

Because I can go out and preach ’step over, drive down’ until
I’m blue in the face, but if the above issues are not addressed,
my athletes will still be slow.

At the same time, I don’t think running mechanics are going
to be magically fixed by only focusing on one area of improvement.

An athlete may be able to squat 800 pounds, but if they have
extremely tight hip flexors and can’t walk and chew gum at the
same time, I’m willing to bet they can’t run too fast for too
long.

But if the same athlete has the above areas covered but has poor
running form (i.e., they don’t understand or apply the action
of ’step over, drive down’) they won’t be fast either.

Why?

Because an athlete who is all backside mechanics, runs with
a pronounced braking action (over strides) or takes little
choppy steps isn’t applying force to the ground
like they could be.

They’re not stepping over and driving down.

They’re not developing overall athletic ability.

So don’t think of ’step over, drive down’ as the fundamental
principle of any training theory.

It’s a cue that reminds inexperienced athletes *how* they
should think about running from a mechanical standpoint.

Because if they can apply more force to the ground, they’ll
run faster.

And ’step over, drive down’ is just one of many tools you
should use to develop faster athletes, along with all the
other training components that go into a well designed
program.

In my next email, I get into more of the mechanics of this
cue and why many of you are still getting it all wrong…

Latif Thomas

P.S. To see how I teach speed from A to Z, click here:
http://athletesacceleration.com./completespeedtraining.html

And if you like the article I directed you to earlier, you
should check this program out:
 

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/fasterrunning.html

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 9:18 am and is filed under Speed Training . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.