Salo et al published an article in the June issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise attempting to determine whether stride frequency or stride length is more important for 100 meter sprinters.
As background, speed is frequently expressed as the product of stride length times stride frequency, the idea being in you can improve one (or both) then you will improve speed. This leads to a number of drills, exercises, and training tools designed to improve each. Philosophically, some coaches feel that stride frequency is next-to-impossible to increase and that the emphasis should be on stride length.
The authors examined the 100 meter sprint performances at 52 elite level races ranging from National Championships to IAAF races to World/European Championships to Olympic Games, both semifinal and final heats. A total of 11 athletes, who ran in at least 10 of these races had their performance analyzed. Mean times ranged from 10.02 to 10.18 seconds, so these are pretty good 100 meter sprinters.
Of the 11 athletes studied; one was stride frequency reliant. This means that there was a very strong negative correlation between their stride frequency and their race time (greater stride frequency meant faster time). This is the athlete with the slowest mean time on the 100 meter races analyzed (10.18 seconds).
Three athletes had very strong negative correlations between stride length and race time (i.e. they were primarily stride length reliant). These three athletes had “average” 100 meter times times (10.17, 10.17, and 10.12).
The rest of the athletes were somewhere in between, thiswere the fastest athletes (average 100 meter times ranging from 10.02 to 10.16).
The authors have several interesting observations. First, reliance on stride frequency or stride length is probably due to individual preference. Second, once this has been established this is something that can guide the athlete’s training. Stride length means exerting more force against the ground, stride frequency means faster leg turnover – i.e. training means can be chosen with this in mind.
Reading this study, I noted the relationship between overreliance on one aspect and having the poorer times (it’s not statistically significant and was not noted by the authors), but it sticks out. The slowest athletes either relied on stride frequency or stride length and lacked balance. It makes me wonder if overreliance on one or the other is a hindrance to being faster and if this is the knowledge that should drive training.
Salo, A.I.T., Bezodis, I.N., Batterham, A.M., and Kerwin, D.G. (2011). Elite sprinting: Are athletes individually step-frequency or step-length reliant? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 43(6), 1055-1062.
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