Sprint Running Coordination: A Dynamical Systems Perspective

Sprinting is a complex skill required in many team and individual sports, with practitioners placing an emphasis on enhancing this aspect of performance to improve sporting success. The task of sprinting involves patterns of inter- and intra-limb coordination and control, which emerge as the athlete accelerates to their maximal velocity. Traditionally, practitioners have attempted to modify sprint coordination patterns from a reductionist or cognitive perspective, decomposing performance to individual component parts using knowledge of coaching literature, biomechanics and skill acquisition theory. However, this approach widely neglects the dynamic and complex interactions that shape sprinting more holistically. This perspective article presents sprint coordination within a dynamical systems theory framework, emphasising how sprint performance emerges from constantly varying internal and/or external boundary conditions that regulate patterns of coordination by controlling mechanical, metabolic and neurophysiological degrees of freedom within the limits of the system. Thereby, movement variability is viewed as an essential component of coordination rather than simply 'noise'. We also review classification schemes that identify stable sprint coordination patterns or strategies, with an emphasis on the acceleration and maximal velocity phases. We then examine practices towards "optimal" sprint technique, plus consider coordinative processes including self-organisation, phase transition and shifts in attractor states, alongside skill acquisition approaches used to establish functional sprint coordination patterns. Ultimately, we aim to present an alternative view for sprint practitioners to consider the complexities of sprint coordination and performance through a dynamical systems lens.