2d • Ask Coach
The Coaches Ear
Back to the track for this one — a review tool that costs nothing and still works when the phone's flat.
Next session, pick one athlete's rep and just listen. Turn away from the track if you have to.
What you're after is a light, quick tap-tap-tap – the sound of a stiff ankle and a foot getting off the ground fast.
A heavy slap or a dragging scuff tells you the foot's landing out in front and sitting on the ground too long – and you'll usually hear it before you'd spot it on video.
Then I hand it straight to the athlete: "Run that again and make it sound quieter and quicker."
No body-part cue needed – the ear finds the fix. Quieter contacts almost always mean the foot's landing closer under the hips, and the athlete owns the change because they found it themselves.
Three places it earns its keep for me: wickets (the drill's built for it), ankling and dribbles, and the back end of a fly when fatigue starts making contacts long and loud. It's also the one review tool that scales to a group – you can hear eight athletes at once but you can only film one.
What's a sound on the track that's become a cue for you – foot contact, breathing, spikes on the surface – and how do you use it with your athletes?
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The Coaches Ear
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