“Punch the ground” or “strike the ground” is a cue you hear all the...
Fred Duncan@Fred__Duncan
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Feb 05, 2026
~1 min read
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“Punch the ground” or “strike the ground” is a cue you hear all the time in sprinting.
On the other side, Tom Tellez used to tell athletes to press the ground, not strike it…emphasizing force transfer over contact time rather than impact.
Neither cue is universally right or
On the other side, Tom Tellez used to tell athletes to press the ground, not strike it…emphasizing force transfer over contact time rather than impact.
Neither cue is universally right or
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wrong.
Context matters. The athlete matters. The constraint matters.
Sometimes a cue is useful to create an effect. Once that effect shows up, you don’t keep hammering the same words. You move on. That’s coaching.
There’s no best cue. No favorite cue. No dogma.
Just better
Context matters. The athlete matters. The constraint matters.
Sometimes a cue is useful to create an effect. Once that effect shows up, you don’t keep hammering the same words. You move on. That’s coaching.
There’s no best cue. No favorite cue. No dogma.
Just better
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solutions for the athlete in front of you.
This way of thinking, cues, force application, motor learning, and how it all fits into real programming from acceleration to max velocity, is exactly what my program/ebook Speed Kills dives into.
This way of thinking, cues, force application, motor learning, and how it all fits into real programming from acceleration to max velocity, is exactly what my program/ebook Speed Kills dives into.
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If you want the logic behind speed development, that’s what I built it for.
fredduncantraining.com/product/speed-…
fredduncantraining.com/product/speed-…