Deepen your track and field technique across disciplines: running posture at speed, converting run-up into height and closing the throwing force chain cleanly.
If you want to deepen your fundamental technique, one single idea helps across all disciplines: your force is created at the ground and travels from the bottom up through the kinetic chain — legs, hips, trunk, arm. When running you drive it into the track, when jumping you direct it up and forward, when throwing you channel it through a firm trunk into the implement. Understand this one chain and you don't improve three separate techniques but one shared foundation.
In your first steps you learned to drive powerfully into the ground. Now you go a level deeper: running posture at top speed, converting run-up speed into height and distance, and a clean force chain in the throw. And yes — here too, details like "claw the ground" are overrated; what matters is where your force points and how powerful it is.
At top speed you straighten up: high hip, upright trunk, eyes ahead, arms relaxed at a 90-degree angle. More important than the look is how short and powerful your ground contact is. Fast runners don't move their legs through the air faster — they put more force into the ground per contact. Your goal: short contact time, foot under the hip, no braking from a strike in front of the body.
The key to propulsion is where your force points: down and back, so it pushes you forward. The highest horizontal force is created when the hamstrings work hard just before ground contact. Classic "pawing" cues — quickly scratching the foot — demonstrably do nothing. Train the powerful backward push instead of cosmetic foot details.
A jump is converted run-up speed. The faster and more controlled your run-up, the more energy is available at take-off — provided you put it compactly into the ground at the take-off point. Reactive strength, meaning how quickly you can call up force, is the engine here: plyometric jump training clearly improves jump height (effect size 0.49). Practise short, controlled take-offs before you lengthen the run-up.
In throwing the force comes not from the arm but from the ground — via legs and hips, through the trunk, finally into the arm. If this chain breaks somewhere (usually a soft trunk), your force fizzles out. A stable core passes it on without loss. Practise the chain with light medicine-ball throws: first extend the legs, then open the hip, then the arm — never the other way round.
When practising, give yourself cues as an outward effect ("push the ground away", "throw through the target") rather than self-observation — that measurably improves movements. Film yourself from the side and check one point per session: foot strike, take-off angle or hip opening. One focus per session beats five at once.
Deepening technique means higher speeds and more explosive movements — so more load. Warm up fully and build jump and throw volume slowly; the hamstrings and Achilles tendon especially punish too-much-too-soon with irritation. Only throw on open, secured ground and never towards others. Stop immediately if you feel a pulling pain.
Use the medicine ball as an "honesty check" for your force chain: throw it once from the arm alone, once from the whole chain (legs, hips, arm). The difference in distance shows you physically how much force sits in the trunk and legs — and why a soft trunk is your biggest leak.
Straighten up at top speed: high hip, upright trunk, relaxed arms at a 90-degree angle. But what matters isn't the look, it's a short, powerful ground contact with the foot under the hip. Avoid landing the foot in front of the body — that brakes you. Pushing powerfully down and back beats any cosmetic detail.
Convert run-up speed into a compact, powerful take-off. The engine is your reactive strength — how quickly you put force into the ground. Plyometric jump training clearly improves jump height. Practise short, controlled take-offs first and only lengthen the run-up once the take-off is solid.
From the ground, not the arm. The force travels via legs and hips through the trunk into the arm — that's the kinetic chain. A stable core passes it on without loss; a soft trunk is the biggest leak. Practise the order legs, hips, arm with light medicine-ball throws, never the other way round.
Better not. An external focus on the effect ("push the ground away", "throw through the target") beats self-observation of individual body parts. Also take only one point per session — foot strike, take-off or hip opening. One focus at a time achieves more than five.
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