Today’s guest is track and field coach, and inventor, Adarian Barr. Adarian Barr is based out of Woodland, California. His collegiate track and field coaching stops have included UW-Superior, Indiana State, and UNC Pembroke. He has written a number of sprint articles for Speedendurance.com.
Adarian has invented 9 devices from footwear to sleds to exercise devices. He is a USATF Level II coach in the sprints, jumps, hurdles, and relays. Adarian’s unique coaching style gets results, and his work on speed and biomechanics is being adapted by many coaches who want a deeper understanding of the innate function of the body.
I’ve spent the last year talking to Adarian, as well as learning from him in person, so I’m excited to have him as a guest on the podcast for today. His perspective on human movement is extremely unique, insightful and intelligent. I haven’t met any coach like him in my 12 years in the field, and I can say that, when watching elite athletes in action, what he says makes perfect sense. His work has changed my coaching for the better, and I’m excited to share some of that with you for the podcast today.
Topics for this chat will include Adarian’s background, his ideas on sprinting and timing, why a variety of modern coaching cues and ideas on sprinting don’t work (and how athletes often revert to their innate form when going 100%), sprint posture and breathing, foot strike, and more. This is a great chat for the coach with the hungry mind, and since it goes against the grain, it also promotes good thinking and questions.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Key Points
- Adarian’s background as a coach and athlete
- What makes Adarian different as a coach
- Concepts on sprinting and timing
- Why coaching “high knees” doesn’t work
- Coaching the arms correctly for sprinting and jumping
- Ideal sprinting posture, and breathing applications
- Foot-strike, dorsiflexion and proper lower limb mechanics
“One of the first things I try to understand is “what is technique”… one of the biggest components is the timing of it”
“To me, one of the critical timing factors is, “where is your weight when you push?” (in a sprint cycle)
“Triple extension is a result of the push, but a lot of people think of triple extension as the push. If you interpret triple extension as the push, your timing is off… well off”
“The match-up is not high knees, the match-up is stride length and stride frequency”
“We have a visual bias, we always tend to copy the losers”
“From me, I try to get away from cueing, and actually give instructions”
“One of the truths we know is that we can use the arms to control what’s going on in the legs”
“If I don’t understand how to create vertical lift with my arms, then I’ll probably be a good sprinter, but not a good long jumper”
“Wrist flap of the arms doesn’t work if your posture is not set up for it”
“That’s how I coach now, setting the body up so it will do something you want to do, rather than trying to force the body to do something it doesn’t understand”
“If you run with arms at 90 degrees, with wrists locked, with the fingers pointed, that’s a longer lever. It takes longer to bring that hand back to the front with the fingers pointed, than with the wrist flexed”
“I see people doing what I call “toe raises” as they run to get the vertical impulse, you get the vertical impulse, but then you don’t go forward, you go up and down. You gotta set the foot up”
“I want to go from torque to force, if I can create the torque, I can apply the force”
Show Notes
Christian Coleman’s Fast Arms
Wrist Flap in An Elite Sprinter
More Adarian Barr Episodes:
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