How To Stay Low When Sprinting | Horizontal Force Production

Nearly every sprinter has heard or been told that a key to faster acceleration sprinting is to “get low”. Learn why in this video on sprinting and speed training.

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How To Train To Get Low In Sprinting
In my opinion, there are a few aspects of training to consider as it relates to achieving lower angles during acceleration sprinting. Here we will discuss both physical aspects of development, as well as skill and technique development.

Sleds & Strength Development
From a physical training perspective, resisted sprinting with sled towing and getting stronger in the gym are foundational if you want to make significant changes in your ability to get low.

Using sled sprints in your training will help you achieve greater trunk and knee flexion angles if performed with the intent to do so, meaning that you need to both use the sled and also intend to sprint with more aggressive angles while pulling the sled. You can use either a waist or sled harness, but a waist harness might be preferred.

The study titled Impact of Harness Attachment Point on Kinetics and Kinematics During Sled Towing by Bentley, Atkins, Edmundson, Metcalfe and Sinclair stated:

“Previous researchers have highlighted net horizontal impulses and propulsive force as being key to achieving high acceleration, as such it would be seen that the waist harness is more suitable when training for the acceleration phase of sprinting. It seems apparent that the kinematic alterations caused by the waist harness made the line of action more horizontal, resulting in greater net horizontal impulse.” - IMPACT OF HARNESS ATTACHMENT POINT ON KINETICS AND KINEMATICS DURING SLED TOWING

By using a sled with a load that causes around a 20% velocity decrement and a waist harness, we can create an environmental constraint that encourages us to generate our force production in a more horizontal manner, while also allowing for us to feel what it is like to sprint with greater hip and knee flexion.

Over time, we might be able to achieve both physical and skill oriented adaptations that can help us sprint faster without resistance. From a physical standpoint, we know that sled towing can improve power output and countermovement jump, and I personally believe that sleds can cause tissue adaptations in the muscles and tendons of the legs.

In the gym, getting stronger in large ranges of motion will help lay a foundation of strength that can support your body as you sprint in these more aggressive positions. Considering knee flexion angle at touch-down is related to one’s ability to direct force horizontally into the ground, building strength in positions with an acute knee angle makes logical sense as a general stimulus that should be included. This could be done with a deep squat, a high box push step up or rack step up, as well as performing lunges with maximal knee flexion. While these general exercises might not cause any direct improvement in your ability to sprint, they will help lay a foundation of strength and range of motion access which can then set you up to perform sled sprints more effectively.

References
Relationships between ground reaction impulse and sprint acceleration performance in team sport athletes, Naoki Kawamori, Kazunori Nosaka, Robert U Newton; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22531...
Technical ability of force application as a determinant factor of sprint performance, Jean-Benoît Morin, Pascal Edouard, Pierre Samozino; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21364...
Effect of Velocity-Based Loading on Acceleration Kinetics and Kinematics During Sled Towing, Bentley, Ian; Sinclair, Jonathan K.; Atkins, Steve J.; Metcalfe, John; Edmundson, Christopher J; https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Ab...
Impact of Harness Attachment Point on Kinetics and Kinematics During Sled Towing, I. Bentley, S. Atkins, C. Edmundson, J. Metcalfe, J. Sinclair; https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper...