What is overstriding in sprinting?

Overstriding is landing with your foot too far ahead of your center of mass. The foot hits the ground while still moving forward, which creates a braking force and a longer ground contact on every step.

Should my foot land directly under my hips when I sprint?

Not at top speed. Published values put the foot about 28–48cm ahead of the center of mass at touchdown, and in a 2025 simulation landing 6cm short of the best spot cost 7.3% of top speed. "Under the hips" is a cue to reduce reaching. In the first steps of acceleration the foot lands close under or just behind you.

How do I stop overstriding?

Film from the side to see where your foot lands, then use wicket runs, A-skips, ankling and straight-leg bounds before top-speed work and wall drives or sled pushes before acceleration. Focus on pushing the ground behind you and re-film to check the change.

How to stop overstriding when you sprint

Q: Does overstriding slow you down?

Yes. In a 2025 simulation of an international-level sprinter, moving the foot 6cm further ahead at touchdown increased braking, added 15 milliseconds to each contact and cut top speed by 1.6%.

By the Sprint University coaching team

Overstriding in sprinting means your foot lands too far in front of your center of mass, so each contact brakes you and keeps you on the ground longer. To stop overstriding, film your sprints from the side, check where the foot touches down, and use wicket runs, A-skips and a "push behind you" focus to bring it back closer under your body.

Some reach is normal. At top speed every sprinter's foot lands ahead of the body, and a 2025 simulation found that pulling the foot in too far cost more speed than landing a little long. The goal is your best landing spot, which is nearer than a reach and further than directly under your hips.

What is overstriding?

Biomechanists measure it as horizontal touchdown distance: how far in front of your center of mass your foot is when it first touches the track. Your center of mass sits around your hips, so on video you can use the hips as a stand-in. Overstriding means that distance is longer than it needs to be, usually with a straight knee and the foot still traveling forward when it lands.

During acceleration you can also read it from the shin. In a study of the first four steps, sub-elite sprinters landed with more vertical shins than elite sprinters, whose shins angled further forward along with their body lean. The sprint form guide covers both positions.

Why overstriding slows you down

When your foot lands ahead of you, the ground pushes back against your motion for the first part of the contact. Sprint biomechanists call that the braking phase, and you have to win the lost speed back before you can add any.

In 36 athletes filmed and measured on a force plate at 16m, lower braking went with a shorter touchdown distance and a more active touchdown, meaning the foot was already moving back toward the body when it landed. Push mattered more: propulsive impulse explained 57% of the differences in speed and braking only 7%. A study that measured 18 sprinters on every step over the first 50m of a 60m sprint found braking became a factor in how well they accelerated once they passed 75% of top speed.

A Stanford simulation of an international-level sprinter showed the cost at top speed. Moving the foot 6cm further ahead at touchdown increased braking, added 15 milliseconds to each ground contact and cut top speed by 1.6%.

Where should your foot land?

It depends on the phase. In the first steps out of the blocks, a model built from a sprinter with a 10.28 100m best lost horizontal power with every centimeter the foot moved forward. Putting it slightly further back helped, by 0.7% at its best when the foot was 2cm further back, and moving it back past that point cost power again.

At top speed the foot always lands in front. Published touchdown distances run from about 28 to 48cm, and the simulated sprinter's best spot was 32.9cm. Shortening that distance by 6cm cost 7.3% of top speed, far more than the 1.6% lost by landing 6cm long. Fix a reach by bringing the foot down and back sooner, and stop short of jamming it underneath you.

The Sprint University app

Film the reps that show your landing

Every Sprint University program includes a filmed week-4 retest. Freeze the frame where your foot lands and compare it with your earlier clips.

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How to spot overstriding on video

Film from the side with the camera level with your hips and square to the lane, far enough back that you stay in frame for several steps. Use slow motion if your phone has it. Film one rep in the first 10m and one flying 20m, then step through to the frame where the foot first touches the track.

Draw an imaginary line straight down from your hip and see how far ahead of it the foot lands.
Check the knee. A reach looks like a nearly straight knee with the foot well out in front of it.
Look at the shin in the first steps of acceleration. It should lean forward with your body.
Watch the frames before contact. You want the foot already moving back toward you as the ball of the foot lands.

A phone can't measure a few centimeters reliably, so compare clips of yourself from the same camera spot week to week.

What makes sprinters overstride

Reaching to lengthen your stride causes it directly. Step length at top speed comes from force into the ground, and putting the foot further out in front swaps that for braking. The stride length vs stride frequency guide explains where length comes from.

Towing and other assisted sprints can do it too. An elite sprint training review notes that being pulled faster than you can run may increase touchdown distance, and recommends setting the towing force for each athlete.

Drills and cues that fix it

The training review lists hurdle drills, high knees, skips and straight-leg bounding among the drills practitioners use to reinforce technique, with attention on posture, high hips and the position at touchdown. These six come from the sprint drills guide with the same doses:

Wicket runs

4 × 20m @ 95–100%, 3 min rest

Sprint over a row of low mini-hurdles set about one of your steps apart. The wickets cap how far you can reach and reward a foot that comes down and back under you.

A-skip

2 × 15m

Drive the knee up in rhythm, then punch the foot straight down under your hip. You rehearse a foot that lands moving down and back.

Ankling

2 × 15–20m

Short, fast steps on nearly straight legs, striking with the ball of the foot just ahead of you. The contact is small and stiff, with no room to reach.

Straight-leg bounds

2 × 20m

Bound forward on locked knees and pull the ground back under you. It teaches a foot that is already sweeping backward when it lands.

Wall drives

3 × 10 seconds per leg

For acceleration. Lean into a wall at about 45° with your body in one line, drive one knee up and hold it, then switch. The hold locks in your acceleration body angle and knee position.

Sled push

3–4 × 10–20m at about 10–20% bodyweight, about 2 min rest

Also for acceleration. Push a light sled with a long body lean, extending fully behind you on every step.

For cues, use "strike down and back" and "run tall, hips high" at top speed and "push the track behind you" when accelerating. Coaches also teach bringing the knees together at touchdown, but in the Stanford simulation the gap between the knees made no difference to speed. Judge any cue by where your foot lands on the next video.

Over-correcting: Jamming the foot straight under the hips shortens the step and cost the simulated sprinter more speed than a slight reach.
Fixing it only in drills: Drills rehearse the position at low speed. Follow them with flying sprints and film those, because the sprint is where the landing counts.
Reaching late in a rep: When your hips drop and your feet start to sound heavy, end the rep. Finish each rep with posture, as the sprint form guide puts it.

The wicket drills guide shows how to set the spacing from your own stride.