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This is the practice that I had today. I am first seen performing a drill given to me by ladyvolspvcoach (and recommended by dj). The cones are 5'3" apart. The idea is to get up as much speed as you can in a certain number of steps (this is 3) and then hit each cone. The cones are tough to see when the camera moves back, but you can then see my whole run. Maybe I'll get some better footage tomorrow. Then we move to the sand. I decided that we both need to work on our plants. Tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeHDz_owT64

Hey, for the pole runs, do you have lines taped down at each mark? could be helpful

It looks like your striding out on your last or maybe last 2 - 3 steps. The foot goes past the knees

also if you pause right before the last step, you can see that the bottom of your foot is at an angle with the track. The heel is hitting the ground before your toes, which is going to slow down your speed. I think the reason you do this (I'm also struggling with this) is that you want to jump as high as you can at the take off. It's almost like a high jumping, where the jumper takes a last long stride and in order to stop forward movement to get maximum vertical height (I'm not sure if this is a completely accurate description of high jump technique). So maybe, instead of focusing on just trying to jump vertically high, focus on accelerating and have a smooth and fluid takeoff.

good luck1

edit: also at the take off, try to keep your head up. I think this really helps in having an explosive takeoff