In a 100m race, the start and drive phase make up the first 20-30 metres but account for a disproportionate share of the time difference between two athletes of similar top speed. Most club sprinters never train this phase deliberately — they jog up to the line, react to "go," and stand up far too early. Fixing that costs nothing and pays back immediately.
The three phases of a sprint start
A start is really three short phases stitched together, and most technical faults happen at the seam between two of them.
- Set position — your body is loaded and angled forward, ready to apply force backward and down.
- Drive phase — the first 6-10 steps, low and powerful, where you're building speed faster than at any other point in the race.
- Transition — gradually rising from that low drive position into upright sprint mechanics, usually somewhere between step 8 and step 15.
Set position: loading the spring
Whether you're using blocks or a standing start, the goal is the same: get your weight forward over your hands or front foot, with your hips high enough that your back leg can apply real force, but not so high that you're just folded at the waist.
For a standing start without blocks: stagger your feet roughly one and a half foot-lengths apart, front knee bent close to 90°, back leg straighter and providing balance. Lean your shoulders ahead of your hands or your front foot — if you feel stable, you're not leaning far enough forward.
The drive phase: where most speed is won or lost
The single biggest fault at this level is standing up too early. Your first several steps should stay low, with a straight line running roughly from your back heel through your hip to your head — sprinters call this a "fixed shin angle," and it's the clearest visual sign of a good drive phase.
Other common faults at this stage:
- Looking up too soon — the head follows the eyes, and an early upright head pulls the whole body up with it.
- Overstriding — reaching for long steps before you've built speed, which kills the forward lean and stalls acceleration.
- Weak arm drive — the arms should drive aggressively front-to-back in the opposite rhythm to the legs; lazy arms cost real ground force.
Drills that actually fix these faults
You don't need a coach standing over you for most of this — you need the right drills, done with attention, on video where possible.
- Wall drills — lean into a wall at the same angle as your set position and drive your knees up and down explosively, one leg at a time, to groove the shin angle without worrying about balance.
- Falling starts — lean forward from a standing position until you have to step to catch yourself, then drive out of that first step. This forces the forward lean the drive phase needs.
- Resisted starts — a partner holding a light resistance band around your waist, or a light sled, for the first 10-15m. This exaggerates the low, powerful position and makes standing up early physically harder.
- Short build-ups — 20-30m sprints where you deliberately count how many steps you take before standing tall, then try to add one more low step each session.
How to program start work
Start work is a skill session, not a conditioning session — the value comes from quality, not volume. Keep reps short (10-30m), keep rest long enough that you're not slowing down from fatigue (3-5 minutes is typical), and stop the session once your technique starts to break down, even if that's earlier than planned. Two start-focused sessions a week is plenty for most athletes; more than that tends to just add fatigue without adding skill.
Want feedback on your own start? Sprint Faster AI's video analysis checks your shin angle, head position and arm drive frame by frame, and gives you cues specific to what it sees — not generic advice.
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