Race starts and starting signals

1Why this matters

In a school 100 m final, the winner and the runner-up are often separated by less than a quarter of a second, and a good part of that gap is made in the first few metres. How you set up, how fast you react to the signal and how you drive out of the start can win or lose the race before you reach full speed. The start is also the part of a race with the strictest rules.

2The crouch start (100 m to 400 m)

Sprints up to 400 m, and the first leg of relays, begin from a crouch start, usually in starting blocks: two adjustable foot plates fixed to a rail. There are three commands.

1. "On your marks"

• Walk forward and place your feet against the blocks: the front foot about one and a half to two foot-lengths behind the line, and the rear foot about one foot-length behind that.
• Kneel on your back knee. Put your hands just behind the line, shoulder-width apart, with your thumb and fingers forming a high bridge.
• Keep your arms straight, your head in line with your spine and your eyes looking down. Then keep still.
• Your hands and feet must not touch the line or the ground in front of it.

2. "Set"

• Raise your hips slightly above your shoulders. Your front knee is at about 90° and your rear knee at about 120° to 135°.
• Shift your weight forward onto your hands and freeze.

3. The gun (or clapper)

• Drive hard against both blocks. The rear leg swings through first and the opposite arm punches forward.
• Stay low for the first strides (the drive phase) and rise gradually to upright running.

3The standing start (800 m and longer)

For longer races there is no "Set". After "On your marks" the runners stand behind the line with one foot forward and one back, knees bent, leaning forward, the arm opposite the front foot forward. The gun follows.

4Rules at the start

• False start: once in the final "set" position, you must not begin your starting movement until the gun. At top-level meetings a false start means immediate disqualification. The blocks contain sensors, and a reaction faster than 0.100 seconds after the gun counts as a false start, because tests show that a human cannot hear and respond to the sound any faster than that. A runner who reacts in under 0.1 s must have been guessing.
• Staggered starts: in the 200 m and 400 m, runners in the outer lanes start further forward, because their curve is longer. That way every lane covers exactly the same distance.
• Lanes: sprinters stay in their own lane for the whole race.

5Different starting signals

Races are started by a sound (a gun, clapper or whistle) or, where a sound cannot be heard, by a visual signal such as a flag or arm dropped by the starter, or a light. Deaf athletes, for example, can start from a light. In training, practising with many different signals sharpens your reaction and your concentration.

Reaction games (in pairs, over 10 to 15 m):

• Start on a clap, then on a whistle, then on a dropped hand. The starter varies the pause so that you cannot guess.
• Start from unusual positions: lying face down, sitting, or facing backwards.
• "Go and no-go": one clap means go and two claps means stay. Anyone who moves on two claps has "false-started".

Worked example: why a better start matters

A 0.2 s gap looks tiny on a stopwatch, but it is a metre and a half on the track. Improving your reaction and drive phase can close much of it.

Practice

Solution. (a) crouch start; (b) standing start; (c) crouch start.

Solution. 0.094 s is below 0.100 s, so it is recorded as a false start.

Solution. Hips raised slightly above the shoulders, front knee at about 90°, rear knee at about 120° to 135°, weight forward over straight arms, head in line with the spine, completely still.

Solution. Keza's speed = 100 ÷ 14.5 ≈ 6.90 m/s. The gap is 0.5 s, so the distance ≈ 6.90 × 0.5 ≈ 3.4 m.