Our friend Jamie Carruthers recently forwarded this to me.It is from an interview with Jon Goodwin.

Check it out:  http://optimumsportsperformance.com/blog/?p=1453

Here is just a sample from that interview:

3. Coaches are always looking for ways to make their athletes faster.  Some coaches teach “quick feet drills” and other coaches work on starts and more technical aspects of the drive phase.  You have been critical of these types of drills for speed development stating that, “Technique is only important if it produces greater ground force production”.  Can you please explain your stance on these drills and what you recommend coaches do instead?

I’ve never thought of myself of being critical of anything, but I guess I have been just a little! Certainly I’m always looking to understand what adaptation/responses we are likely to see in response to different drills to allow us to cut potentially ineffective elements. 
 
I guess my central point is, the only way we can travel at faster velocities is through the way in which we affect ground force production and therein the equation given above. Therefore understanding good technique, good coaching cues and effective drills is about seeing how these things are related to ground force production.
 
Fast feet drills have an outcome of focussing attention on getting the foot off the ground quick, but this isn’t how we reduce ground contact time in sport. In sport we reduce ground contact time by expressing our forces more quickly to enable the acceleration job to be done in less time and so the athlete to move off the ground into their next movement skill. Fast feet drills are therefore cueing an inappropriate pre-activation pattern which results in low ground force production on contact.

Drive phase coaching I believe I often see go wrong as coaches cue their sprinters to stay in a drive phase for longer when in fact they don’t have the leg extension strength capabilities to allow this mechanically. Athletes then just try and achieve the outcome of ‘staying low’ by folding through the torso and losing effective body position. Weaker athletes should not be coached to stay down for longer until they are given the strength capacity to do so. To stay in a drive position they need to be able to apply enough leg extension force, in the ground time available, to overcome gravity vertically and then have plenty of force ‘left over’ to be directed horizontally. i.e. the strength ability to accelerate at a high rate is what enables a low drive position. Athletes who are too weak to accelerate at a high rate need to come upright much sooner. If you want your sprinter to stay down longer, get them stronger.
 

Much of this reflects the insights we've gained in the nearly ten years we've been associated with those who are researching human location, what things change mechanically as athletes increase their speed, and how coaches might use this information to construct training protocols.