Athletics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to further understand the biomechanical differences between the standing and crouch starting methods, and to investigate whether one of the starting styles provides better acceleration and proves to be faster. Six university track team sprinters performed 2 x 3 x 50m trials. Digitised video, photocell timing, and velocity data revealed that during the first steps of the performance the standing start produced higher body centre of mass horizontal velocity than the crouch start. This may be due to the longer distance between the feet in the standing start, which caused longer push‐off phases, and the work against gravity in the crouch start. However, this advantage in horizontal velocity disappeared by the 10m mark, where similar velocities were recorded with both start styles. Further, there was no statistically significant difference between the two starting styles in horizontal velocity at the 25 m mark, nor in the time to reach the 25m or 50m mark. Regarding relay running, where athletes need to decide to adopt either a crouch start without starting blocks or a standing start, there seems to be no specific reason for outgoing athletes to use a crouch start, although this area warrants further investigation.

Keywords:

• sprint start
• 2‐dimensional
• digitising
• photocell
• relay running