Mach Sprint Drills
Vern Gambetta provides an overview of the Mach sprint technical drills.
I am going to try to lend a bit of a historical perspective on the Mach drills. I must emphasize that this is my perspective and opinion based on discussion, observation, as well as my coaching experience. I was first introduced to the Mach drills in 1975 by a group of Canadian athletes training in Santa Barbara Calif. They showed me the drills and gave me an article on the drills written by the originator of the drills, Gerard Mach, who was the National Sprint & Hurdle coach of Canada. I was immediately attracted to the drills because I could see the logic and system of their application. (This logic and systematic approach to their application has been lost over the years, even in Canada). They did not appear that different from the drills that Bud Winter (Coach at San Jose State University and the coach of Tommy Smith, Lee Evans, et al.) had taught for years, but after reading Mach's article, there was a logical sequence that was not there with the winter drills.
I began to use the drills with good results, but I felt that I needed to find out more about the drills and how they fit into the whole system of sprint development. In 1976 the Canadians had a training camp in Southern California where I was able to see Mach coach firsthand for several days. This gave me a better depth of understanding of the drills and their application.
I also saw how they were applied in hamstring rehab when I watched Coach Mach work with a 400 Meter runner who had pulled his hamstring three days previously. In 1977 I met Dr. Al Biancani, who at the time was the coach at Cal State University Stanislaus, he had apprenticed under Mach. Al was very generous to share his knowledge of the Mach system and his interpretation with me. This was a tremendous help in understanding the correct technique on the drills, coaching cues as well as their place in the whole system.
In January 1978 I was able to attend a presentation by Gerard Mach where he spent three hours detailing the development of the Mach Polish Sprint School from his experimentation as an athlete to the application with athletes like Andzej Badenski and Irena Szewinska. It was an epiphany. It was an incredible system, as I look back; he was far ahead of his time. The system and concepts that he had articulated in the 1950s are those concepts that every good sprint coach uses today.
A cornerstone of his system was the A B & C drill series. The drills were also designed to enable the sprinter to get the repetition of work necessary to prepare to sprint in the adverse weather conditions that occurred in the winter in Poland. In presentations, he always pointed out that he did not have the good weather that the American sprint coaches in the west and south enjoyed, so he had to come up with alternatives.
Mach broke the stride into its parts, knee lift, foreleg action, and the push-off through the drills.
- The "A" Drills were designed to work the knee lift component
- The "B" Drills were designed to work on foreleg reach or pawing action. According to Mach (1997)[1] "All exercises with leg extension and active down are special exercises to strengthen the hamstrings. The marching and skipping exercises were designed to develop the technique required for body lean, arm action, high knee lift, leg extension, and keeping the centre of gravity high. Still, they did not emphasize the strong driving forward or push forward action."
- The "C" Drills were designed to work on push off and extension
My interpretation, from discussions with Gerard Mach and Biancani, as well as my extensive use of these drills over the years is that their primary benefit is not as technique drills. They are drills that specifically strengthen the muscles in postures and actions that are similar to those that occur during the sprint action. It is through strengthening in the specific positions that technique is improved. I consider them posture drills, specific strength drills, and functional flexibility drills. The technical benefit is ancillary. These drills do have a place in a sprint training program if they are correctly taught and coached continuously. Incorrect execution and repetition can ingrain bad habits.
One of the biggest faults of the "A" series of exercises is the emphasis on knee lift at the expense of impulse off the ground. The knee lift occurs because of what happens on the ground. In the drills, the knee should not be pulled off the ground but driven down to create a quick strike on the ground which will result in a knee lift.
Another fault that I see in the execution of the drills is the rate of execution. Mach emphasized that the drill should be executed at three steps per meter. He also emphasized the necessity of correct arm action in the drills. Too many times, I see athletes doing the drills with very passive arm action, which is incorrect.
Each drill is subdivided into a marching action, a skip action, and a run action. This was designated by the subscript as follows:
- A1 = Marching
- A2 = Skipping
- A3 = Running
- B1 = Marching
- B2 = Skipping
- B3 = Running
The progression was from marching to skipping to running. The drills were used daily as part of the warm-up. They were used at workouts to emphasize either power speed or strength endurance. They were also used for rehab after hamstring pulls. For workouts, the drills could be done at less than ten repetitions, less than ten meters, or less than ten seconds. This was termed "Power Speed." Mach would also add resistance to the drills in the form of a sandbag or a weight vest. If this was the case, then the drills were designated as "Power Speed Mixed." If the drills were done longer than 20 meters, more than ten repetitions, and more than ten seconds in duration, they were designated as "Strength Endurance." If resistance was added to this, then it was termed "Strength Endurance Mixed." Irena Szewinska was reported to have executed a series of 200-meter A2's. I have used A2 and A 3 for 4 to 6 x 50 meters with a weight vest (10 % body weight) with developmental athletes.
The drills are a great lead to teaching hurdles. The lead leg action is a "B" action, and the trail leg is a "C" action closely coupled with an "A" action. Another aspect of the drills that picked up from Mach that I do not see applied very often is to link the drills to acceleration. For example, execute an A3 for 10 Meter and change it over to an acceleration of 30 meters. The goal here is to work a particular component of the stride and to place it into the context of the whole action immediately
Summary
In summary, I feel Mach was a genius. His work has stood the test of time. If we understand that the drills are part of a complex system used to develop the sprinter, hurdler, and jumper, then they do have a place in the daily preparation of the athlete. As a side comment, it is interesting to note that Tom Tellez, coach of Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell, did not believe in the use of drills. The bottom line is that there are many roads to Rome!
Article Reference
This article first appeared in:
- GAMBETTA, V. (2007) Mach Sprint Drills. Brian Mackenzie's Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 40/ March), p. 4-5
References
- MACH, G. (1997) Sprinting & Hurdling School
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- GAMBETTA, V. (2007) Mach Sprint Drills [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni40a4.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Vern Gambetta is a conditioning coach for several teams in Major League Soccer as well as a conditioning consultant to the USA Men`s World Cup Soccer team. He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe. Vern`s coaching experience spans 34 years at all levels of competition.