Hello! Do you have any tips on how i can improve my acceleration?

Question

Hi! so this is my situation: I am a 15 year old sophomore in highschool, and i am a sprinter. I just got back from a track meet, and i ran a 22.92 in the 200m dash. One thing that i really need to work on is acceleration...do you have any tips that i could use to improve over this upcoming winter? thanks!

Answer 1

well I'm in 8th grade and i normally run the 200m dash in 23.15 to 23.20

I normally warm up with a lap or two and them i will do some deceleration sprints which are where you start out 100% and the after 50 meters slow down to about 85% and 10 more meters at that the 70% the just finish by striding it out.

Also i do acceleration sprints which are the oposite of deceleration sprints.

Also making shere you are hidrated and streched out will help tons and will help you be abel to practice way harder and longer

BUT YOU ARE FAST AND I HOPE YOU MAKE THE 4x200 RELAY

Answer 2

You need more than acceleration. thats a great time and would be improved with both endurance to keep ur top speed longer and improve your top speed.

1.)endurance holding your top speed

various workout consisting of lengths longer than 200m. suggestively 250 or 300m workouts that vary.

2.)acceleration

the ONLY way to REALLY improve your acceleration and speed is to increase the strength of your natural quick twitch fiber.

to do this several small exercises will do. 10 meters of quick steps(knees not high), when i say quick i mean quick. short steps very fast. And 10 meters of High knees VERY quickly. in that 10 meters your should be able to get those knees up literally 100 times.

A coach associated with our team shared this with us who works as a track official for the university of florida and the UF sprinters says its honestly the best way to improve acceleration

Answer 3

try this exercise.

theres a football or a soccer field or just a park u run around.

sprint half the lap.jog the rest 1/2

sprint a whole lap. jog another lap

sprint 2 whole laps and jog 2 more laps do more if u wanna.

make sure u got good shoes for running

Answer 4

that is a great time for a sophomore, but i'm wondering how you start, cause their is not much to do if u start off blocks, the only thing to do is keep practicing your block starts until your starts are great. Otherwise run about 150's at 90% 3x and do them as accelerations, progressively getting faster.

Answer 5

Working on acceleration won't be a good idea if you're just focusing on the 200. Sure, it will help lower your time a bit, but this isn't the most efficient thing you can be doing.. plus, accelerating too much quickly on a 200m around the turn can cause injuries (I've pulled a few hamstrings going out too fast and angling myself wrong in this race).

This winter, I'd recommend doing a combination of plyometrics, lifting, and sprint endurance training (do a lot of intervals, 300m/400m workouts). At your age, there's a good chance that you'll be in the 22.6-22.7 range next year just naturally, and probably 22.4 or even lower if you stick to your workouts and do them correctly.

You could also probably lower your time just by approaching the race differently. Don't focus on going out too hard right on the gun.. sure, it's a sprint race, but I usually go out 90-95% (a relaxed sprint, you should be breathing normally but running as fast as you can while doing this) until I reach the top of the turn (about 50m in), then I turn it on and head for home. Doing this will help prevent injury problems, running the curve isn't natural.

This will help you run faster on the straightaway, whereas others will be using their maximum speed in the middle of the turn (and will be slower simply because of the turn).

Answer 6

resistance training coming out of the blocks is assume. If you or your school has the bungee cords or a parachute use it. Set up in the blocks and keep doing repeats. You will get a heck of a lot better in the start. After doing about 20 repeats and than don't use the cords or the chute you will notice a huge difference.

Answer 7

The 200m is honestly not an acceleration race.  For acceleration increase, get in the weight room and do squats.  ....  The best workout (and the most painful workout - trust me) for the 200m is to line up at the 300m hurdles mark in practice, and just sprint the whole thing.  Your last 100m will be 14 seconds long, and it should be.  You can't go all out for 300m, but you can for 200m.  Do this, and next time you run the 200 you'll have better stamina within your fast-twitch muscles.  "Sprinter stamina" is what the 200m is all about.

BTW if you run 22.9 in your sophomore year, we should be taking advice from you.  You'll be at state senior year.  Guaranteed.

Answer 8

Pretty fast. The way people train to make their accelaration faster is, they run a lap or 2 at almost full speed, then they just take off as fast as they can for about 10 secs, then they start jogging again and then takeoff again.