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Kirby Lee/Image of Sport

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techniquesMay 2009 25

Head Track Coach at San Jose StateUniversity. But after reading Machsarticle, I saw a clear, logical sequencethat was not apparent with Wintersdrills. (For an excellent description ofWinters drills, find a library copy ofSo You Want to Be a Sprinter, whichwas originally published in 1956.)

Each drill had a specific place inMachs system, and each drill couldeither be prescribed to address individ-ual weaknesses or modified to focuson performance in specific events. Ibegan to use the drills with my highschool athletes, and quickly achievedgood results.

At the time, I still thought the drillswere about technique. But in fact, theimprovements in technique and per-formance occurred because of gainsin specific strength, which significant-ly improved posture, leg action, andground contact.

Athletes on our team bought intothe drills and were very diligent intheir technical execution. This dili-gence is also essential: Mach drills

must be executed with precision andrhythm. Because of their repetitiousnature, the drills can become quitemundane, which can result in athletesjust going through the motions.

By the end of my first season usingMach drills, I was still missing somekey elements, especially the drillsrhythm emphasis. So I attended theCanadian training camp in SouthernCalifornia, where I spent several dayswith Coach Mach. By watching himwork with a 400-meter runner who

had pulled his hamstring three days

In 40 years of coaching, I have seenthe number and the complexity ofsprint drills grow. In observingthis phenomenon, I have ques-tioned whether athletes are justdoing drills for drills sake or if

the drills actually transfer to improve-ments in running technique or specificstrength.

I feel strongly that most drills donetoday are just fillerfluff, ineffec-tive at improving either technique orspecific strength. They look good, butwhat do they do? What is the purposeof these drills? Are we teaching sprint-ers to drill or teaching them to sprint?

Early in my career, I was profound-ly influenced by Mach drills, which arepart of a comprehensive system that islargely missing today. Over the years,as Mach drills reached greater accep-tance, they have often been used outof context.

I am not sure current coaches knowthe origin of the drills and how theywere intended to be used. The purposeof this article is to lend a historical

perspective to Mach drills and clarifytheir application as part of a system.

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

In 1975, I was introduced to Machdrills by a group of Canadian athletestraining in Santa Barbara, Calif. Theygave me an article written by the origi-nator of the drills, Gerard Mach, whocoached sprinters and hurdlers on theCanadian national team.

At first glance, the drills did notappear to be significantly different

from those used by Bud Winter, former

To help sprinters,hurdlers, and jump-

ers reach theirpotential, coachesshould revisit theMach system in itsoriginal context.

BY VERN GAMBETTA

DirectorGambetta Sports Training Systems

OLD SCHOOL

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earlier, I gained greater insight into thesystems applications for rehab. The useof the drills for rehab was aggressiveand criteria-driven, and within threeweeks, the runner ran a personal best.

In 1977, I met Dr. Al Biancani,who was Head Coach at Cal StateStanislaus and had apprenticed under

Mach. Al was very generous in shar-ing his knowledge of the Mach system,which greatly helped me understandcorrect technique as well as the place ofcoaching cues in the system.

The next year, I attended a clinicwhere Mach spent three hours detailingthe development of the Polish SprintSchool, beginning with his experimen-tation as an athlete and continuing withthe application of his system to ath-letes like Andzej Badenski and IrenaSzewinska.

The pieces finally came togetheritwas an epiphany. Mach was far aheadof his time, and the concepts he articu-lated in the 1950s are the foundationsevery good sprint coach uses today.

THE FOUNDATIONS

The cornerstone of Machs system is theA, B, and C drill series. Mach initiallydesigned the drills to help sprinters getthe repetitions they needed during thelong Polish winters. In presentations,he always pointed out that he did nothave the good weather American sprint

coaches enjoyed, so he had to come upwith alternatives to build a foundationof strength.

Mach broke the sprint stride intothree component parts: knee lift, fore-leg action, and push-off. Each drill wasdesigned to work one component of thesprint stride. The A drills develop theknee lift. The B drills work on forelegreach or pawing action. The C drillsfocus on push-off and extension to cre-ate vertical velocity.

According to Mach, all exercises

with leg extension and active down arespecial exercises to strengthen the ham-strings. The marching and skippingexercises were designed to develop thetechnique required for body lean, armaction, high knee lift, leg extension,and keeping the center of gravity high,but did not emphasize the strong driv-ing forward or push forward action.(From subsequent biomechanical anal-ysis, we know sprinters do not paw thetrack, but that this action works thehamstring eccentrically to decelerate

the foreleg.)

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport

My understanding, taken fromdiscussions with Mach andBiancani as well as my ownextensive use of the systemover the years, is that the drillsprimary benefit is for specificstrengthening, not technique.

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Most of the time, drills are current-ly incorporated into a daily warmup.One application that has largely beenforgotten is the use of the drills as

actual workouts.They can be used to emphasize

either power speed or strength endur-ance and for rehab after hamstringpulls. For power speed workouts,drills should be executed in less than10 repetitions, 10 meters, and 10 sec-onds. Mach used sandbags or weightedvests to add resistance to the exer-cises, which he then called powerspeed mixed drills. If the drills weredone longer than 20 meters with morethan 10 reps of more than 10 seconds,

he designated them strength endur-ance. With added resistance, Machtermed these drills strength endur-ance mi xed.

Szewinska was reported to haveexecuted a series of 200-meter A2s.With developmental athletes, I haveused A2 and A3 for 4 to 6 x 50 meterswith a weighted vest at 10 percent ofbody weight. Another effective appli-cation to build specific strength andreinforce posture at the end of a race isfor athletes to finish a repeat and then

execute 20 meters of a particular drill.

My understanding, taken from dis-cussions with Mach and Biancani aswell as my own extensive use of thesystem over the years, is that the drillsprimary benefit is for specific strength-ening, not technique. They specificallystrengthen the muscles in postures andactions similar to those occurring in

the sprint action.

STRENGTH SPECIFIC

Strengthening specific positions occursby repetition through a full rangeof motion. The result is that sprintmechanics are improved. I considerthe Mach system to be a set of pos-ture drills, specific strength drills, andfunctional flexibility drills. The tech-nical benefit is ancillary.

If the drills are not taught properlyand coached carefully, they can lead toincorrect execution, and repetition caningrain bad habits. Correct execution atthe precise rhythm and tempo througha full range of motion are paramount toensure positive transfer. Posture mustbe emphasized constantly. Hips tall!

One of the biggest faults in the Aseries is its emphasis on knee lift at theexpense of impulse off the ground. Inthe drills, the knee is not pulled off theground to achieve high knees. Instead,the swing leg is driven down to createa quick strike on the ground, whichresults in knee lift due to ground reac-

tion forces.I never heard Mach or anyone who

worked closely with him emphasizedorsiflexion of the foot, which hasbecome a fixation today. If athletesput force into the ground, the foot willreact and dorsiflex to the necessarydegree. In the sprint stride, everythinghappens too fast to cognitively executethis movement.

Perhaps the biggest fault in the waythe drills are currently conducted is therate and rhythm of execution. When

I observe these drills today, athletesoften appear to be exercising in slowmotion. Mach emphasized that thedrills should be executed at three stepsper meter and should use the correctarm action. Too often, athletes do thedrills with very passive arm action,which is incorrect.

Each drill is subdivided into a march-ing (walking) action, a skipping action,and a running action, which are num-bered. For example, A1 is high-kneemarching, A2 is high-knee skipping,

and A3 is high-knee running.

The dril ls are a great lead into teach-ing hurdles. The lead leg is actually a Baction, and the trail leg is a C actionclosely coupled with an A action.

Another aspect of the system Ido not see applied often is its abilityto link the drills to acceleration. Forexample, athletes can execute an A3 for10 meters and then shift gears to accel-erate over the next 30 meters. The goalis to work a particular component ofthe stride and then immediately place itinto the context of the whole action.

Gerard Mach was a genius, and hiswork has stood the test of time. Hisdrills continue to have a special place inthe daily preparation of track athletes.

I strongly recommend that coachesstudy the work of Mach, truly under-stand the context of the drills, and useall the systems components to helpathletes reach their potential. K

A highly sought-after lecturer world-wide, Vern Gambetta is consideredby many to be one of the pioneersin the field of functional sports train-ing. In addition to extensive experiencecoaching track and field, Gambetta hasworked with professional baseball, bas-

ketball, soccer, and hockey teams.

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport