Sprinting Improvements
Hi guys, this year is my daughter's (12) first year running track. We are in a extremely small school district so advanced coaching is limited. I have been working with her at home by going over videos and breaking them down for her to help her understand different techniques. (I am not and have never been a runner in any stretch of the imagination). For her age group she is doing exceptionally well in her events where she is top 35 in Kansas for 6th grade.
Things we have worked on include:
Her launch, by having her shift her weight forward.
Focusing on just her lane and not looking around.
Helping her understand that in the 200m and 400m when she is starting in lane 1 that she is not running farther than the other girls (this took a good while and drawing it on paper for her to understand)
I attached her current times for this year and she knocked 2 seconds off of her PR for the 400m after I told her to try and pace herself for the first 250m or so and then crush it for the last 150m. Doing this she was able to knock of nearly 4 seconds from her previous time.
Her biggest problem right now is her running form, specifically how her feet land. She is horrible about going heel first and I know this is killing her times. She also knows this but we do not know how to correct it. Her coaches just tell her to stay on her toes but are not showing her any techniques on how to keep it that way.
Can I get some pointers on some drills or something that she can work on that will help her running form? She has her final meet coming up and she desperately wants to outperform the kids that have been beating her all year.
I know it is a bit cliché to say that my daughter has something special, but I know that she does and coaches from other schools are even noticing at this point.
Also one of, if not the biggest, problem she has is self confident. That is killing her and she doesn't realize it. We are slowly getting better as the season progresses as she realizes that's she's the only scoring any points for her team and has racked up a respectable amount of medals for her first year.
Thanks for any input.
TLDR;
My daughter needs tips on improving sprinting form.