Track coach thumbs up mandatory crouch start

The mandatory use of the crouch start and the starting blocks in the sprint events at this year’s inter-schools athletics championships has been given the thumbs up by physical education teacher assigned to the Buccament Bay Secondary School, Alrick Wright.{{more}}

Prospective athletes for the annual marquee event on the schools’ calendar, were, last Saturday morning, taught the correct use of the equipment and the start method during mini meet number four, put on by Team Athletics SVG at the Victoria Park.

Wright is all for the efforts to ensure that the local athletes get with it prior to next month’s meet.

“You ought to know the proper way of starting… The better you start is the better the chances of you of doing well in an event”, Wright emphasized to SEARCHLIGHT on Saturday.

Wright, drawing an analogy, said: “When you compare an athlete with an aeroplane going down an airstrip, it does not go down the strip and take off, it actually builds up speed and goes up in an angle; the same principle is applied to the starting blocks”.

In further explaining, Wright stated “If you come up straight, you are making yourself big in the wind, hence you are slowed down; if you begin from that crouch start or from the blocks, you are coming up from an angle, which gives you a chance to accelerate, and from 30 to 40 metres, you then get into your maximum speed, which can result in better times”.

Wright noted that it is important the starts are here at home, as when the athletes are selected for overseas engagements and it is a compulsory requirement at these meets.

In reiterating his position for the need for such continuous training, Wright, who is also an IAAF certified jumps coach, advised, “It is now for them to go back and practise it, either during their PE sessions or during their training sessions for track and field”.

Last Saturday’s training session was conducted by Rawlson Morgan – the Games Secretary of Team Athletics SVG, and following, athletes were involved in competitive action on the track, ranging from the 100 m to the 1,500 m.

Immediately, the competitors in the 100 and 200 m made good use of their new knowledge of the correct crouch start and the employment of the starting blocks. (RT)