Squats and ankle flexibility

[Guest guest]

I have been coaching sprinters/hurdlers for almost 20 years by now.

Doing so I have noticed that many of these athletes very often the

lack necessary flexibility in the ankle joint to perform a full or an

overhead squat without a heel lift. If not, the forward lean tends to

create an unwanted stress on the lower back and less involvement of

the knee extensors. It's fairly common to use a 1-2cm piece of wood

or to use weightlifting shoes with a slight heel to solve this

problem.

The observation that many sprinters and jumpers have limited range of movement

in

their ankle joint has led to a discussion with some of my colleagues as to

whether this

is part of normal anthropometrical characteristic among some fast sprinters and

good jumpers…..

Comments, please.

Håkan Andersson

Sundsvall, Sweden