maratoolLinear 3-Part Start Technique
How to do the linear 3-part start technique
- This drill helps you accelerate as quickly as possible into a sprint from a dead stop. It helps to use a line to start from. Begin with two feet on the line. Place your left foot with the toe next to your right ankle. Place your right foot 4-6 inches behind the left.
- Place your right hand onto the line, and thing bring your nose close to your left knee.
- Squat down as you lean foward, your head being lower than your hips and your weight loaded onto the left leg. This will be your starting position.
- Take your left hand up so that it is parallel to the ground, pointing behind you, and explode out when ready.
Muscles worked
The force comes from the hamstrings, which extend the hip and bend the knee, frequently at both joints in the same repetition.
A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so they have to produce that force immediately on contact.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the quadriceps straighten the knee and take load on the descent.
Every exercise for:HamstringsCalvesQuadriceps
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.
What you need
These train the hamstrings too, using equipment this one does not:
- Lunge Pass Throughkettlebell
- Lying Leg Curl Machinemachine
- Muscle Snatchbarbell
- Natural Glute Ham Raisebody only
- Stiff-Legged Dumbbell Deadliftdumbbell
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 86 hamstrings exercises in this database, 37 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.