STARTING TIPS BY DICK RICHARDS

Dick Richards of California, the gold medal winner in the M65 100 and 200 (shown above) at the 1999 World Veterans Athletic Championships in Gateshead, England, and inventor of the new Vers-A-Bloc, offers the following advice:

Having just returned from an excellent sprinting forum conducted by Olympic Training Center coach Dixon Farmer and with all due respect for sprint authorities past and present, may I offer some additional suggestions to masters athletes for the conventional four-point start. I believe these few ideas helped considerably in achieving my goals and winning the gold. The sprint start is very exciting and could be considered an event of its own. In fact, sprinters could benefit from a timing device placed at the 40-yard interval of 100-meter races. (We know what a good 40-yard time means in all sports.) Data could be used to analyze what works best in competition.

I have found the following do work to improve starts: (This assumes you are in good shape and ready to compete.)

1. Reduce your weight; become lean and mean. You may have power, but too
much weight will pull muscles and tendons.

2. Reduce the gravity load on your legs when in the set position. Approximately 80 percent of your weight should be on your arms and hands, not your legs.

3. In order to do the above easily, move your lead block further back from the start line than you may now have it. I suggest using your own feet to measure approximately two and half shoe lengths and adjust from there. The most important factor is to be comfortable. Since you are now further back, close up the rear block so you don't have so far to go with your trailing leg in order to get it on the ground in the first step. This adjustment will make the set position more natural for the master sprinter by reducing strain and the cramped feeling and increasing the power needed to push off. One should lean well forward at the set command.

4. Use your gears. Don't start off in high gear. Shorten and quicken your initial steps. Come out of the blocks naturally, holding your breath on the gun and rise to about a 45-degree angle. Hold that angle while driving hard into transition.

5. Keep training in spikes to a minimum. Try soccer shoes on grass or the new lightweight cross country shoes.

6. As in all sports, track and field equipment keeps improving. I feel my new lightweight and convenient Vers-A-Blocs will help all sprinters practice to improve their starts. Vers-A-Blocs have the widest range of angle adjustment and can even be used for the standing start. They are individual units so they can be utilized to widen one's stance, if so desired. They are really handy for training anywhere, any time.