The Saga of the UpSweep Relay Handoff and Why I CELEBRATE the Japanese Victory over the USA in the 4x100m Relay

Slide Credit -- Brian Fitzgerald, Rio Mesa High School

We are a long way from track season, but today because of the Japanese defeat of the US 4x100m relay team last night in teh Olympic final, I am going to write about track. This might not be a popular post because I will criticize some Americans. But think of the Japanese Relay squad as Milan High School in Hoosiers and the USA as LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers. That may be an overstatement but how does a country -- Japan -- that has no sprinter that can break 10 seconds in 100m defeat a country  -- the USA -- whose team's slowest sprinter runs 9.93? (I know the US was eventually DQ'd on a technicality but the Japanese still beat them fair and square even without the DQ).

The answer is practice, coaching and being open minded to look for an edge -- something US sprinters and relay coaches I believe -- with many others -- struggle to do. After all -- the depth of the US sprint corp is 2nd to none in the World, and the US men have not won a medal in the 4x100m relay in a dozen years.

Occasionally I am asked either why I coach track & field at a school with no track or better yet how I coach track and field at a school with no track. Now entering my 23rd year of doing it, I really don't think about it much. Every day I have plan A, B and C and based on the weather and the facility we have available to us and I adjust. That's what I think most coaches do.

However, I know I would coach differently if I had a track. And, I actually believe now, the constraint of not having a track has forced me to figure things out for our athletes to gain an edge. I believe it has made me more open to ways of competing and training that others with a track might never consider. And this is where I get to the Up Swing Handoff for sprint relays.

There are sacred cows in every sport and in the USA in track and field sprint relays, the Sacred Cow is that everyone should use a Overhand Down Sweep Pass or its slight variation the Push Pass. For my first 15 years of coaching I taught the Overhand Down Sweep Pass. Then I attended a USA Track and Field Level 3 Clinic and Coach Brian Fitzgerald of Rio Mesa High School in California presented on the advantages of the Up Sweep Handoff.

Although experts may say I am oversimplifying this explanation, the Overhand Down Sweep Handoff is used by most high schools and colleges and our national team partly because of something called "free space". The Myth of "free space" is the distance between the two exchanging relay runners measured by the distance between their outstretched hands. The greater the "free space" the better the handoff -- the thought being you were gaining ground on your opponents by fully extended hands. This is how a good one looks.

I began to question the benefit of a down sweep or push pass when in the spring of 2003, we had one of our best track teams ever and on our first handoff at our conference meet, senior Aaron Morris dove and became perpendicular to the track when our 2nd runner left early. Aaron created the most Free Space I have ever seen, cut himself up in the process when he hit the track and completed the pass. But we did not win the race despite the best anchor man we have ever had in school history -- Seyamack Afazali. That is because our second runner slowed to get the baton from Aaron. That slowing led to us falling behind and despite our superior sprinters, we did not win our conference 4x100m relay.

When I heard Coach Frederick later that summer discuss the Up Sweep Handoff I decided to change and now for 12 seasons we have only taught the Up Sweep Handoff at North Shore. Here's the basic reason why. Because the Up Sweep Handoff better emphasizes the speed of the baton around the track which is the ultimate determinant of success.

Raiders Working on their pass -- Picture Art Jessen '70

Here are the three main advantages of the Up Sweep Handoff.
1) It does not require precise timing or precise spacing -- making it perfect for a team without a track and maybe even a team like the US 4x100m team that has little time to practice.
2) A Missed Initial attempt does not Compromise sprint speed.
3) The Palm Down is a better target and more naturally leads to maintaining sprint technique and speed.

Mid Race Handoff -- Picture Art Jessen '70

Although I may have oversimplified this post as most of you are not track nuts like I am, here's what is going on in US track and field. Despite the fact that the US Men have not won a relay Olympic medal since 2000 -- they won silver in 2012 but then DQ'd for doping -- coaches and athletes won't re-think their behavior. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results. The United States is the home of the greatest sprinters in the world. But the rest of the world has beaten them in the sprint relay basically every Olympics this millennium. Technical and tactical coaching and practicing as a team only matters once you make the Olympic track team only matters in the 4x100m relay. Clearly its time to get some new thinkers overseeing our sprint relays. Maybe its time for the US to turn to an innovator like Brian Fitzgerald or maybe we should hire the Japanese.

Enjoy the last moments of last nights unexpected silver for the Japanese Final Handoff and finish of the 4x100m Relay