Now that we have had a few days to lick our wounds and bemoan the recurring, regrettable state of US relay teams baton passing skills, I hope you all will humor and old T&F luddite dinosauer with a moment to pontificate:
Stuff happens in the relays, especially the 4 x 1. IMO, it would not happen so often if they would simply revert to the blind, upsweep pass into the inverted V of the extended right hand of the outgoing runner. It worked very well sixty years ago and will work today. KISS.
There are opposing schools of thought on which hand to carry and pass with and whether to change hands with the baton. IMO, either is acceptable depending on the preference of the individual runners and probably offsets the theoretical advantage of one method. But, they must know which method they are using on each exchange.
Ideally, lead off would start and, to minimize chance of dropped baton or lost momentum, carry in left hand and pass into right hand of 2nd leg, who has positioned him/herself on the inside of the lane a pre-determined distance outside the rear of the passing zone that enables outgoing to turn and start running when incoming hits a pre-determined mark and match the speed of incoming as they hit the zone, at which time, and not before, he/she extends right hand back and holds arm/hand as still as possible, to receive upsweep pass from left hand of incoming. Out going is already facing and running down track without turning to receive baton. Perfectly timed, this all happens in one stride with extended arm, incoming does not "run up" on outgoing and they have 20 meters to complete the exchange if there is a bobble.
I don't, in truth, ascribe to the comcept of incoming "running up" on outgoing. Incoming is not supposed to slow down to facilitate the pass. It is outgoing's job to get up to speed but not outrun incoming if incoming does not slow down for pass. Outgoing stays to inside of lane so there is room for incoming to run up beside him/her inside the lane if outgoing does not perfectly match incoming speed. And, they are passing near hand to near hand.
I have never understood the logic of outgoing twisting body to the left and reaching back with an elevated left hand to take the baton from the (usually) right hand of incoming who is in driving sprint phase with arms relatively low. I believe this contribued to Muna's misfortune. ( Also, did anyone else notice that, because Bolt is so tall, average size incoming have trouble reaching his elevated hand?)
Second leg, ideally, switches baton to left hand on first stride after receiving it and repeats the process at second handoff to third leg, who repeats it to anchor. There is no need for anchor to switch hands.
As someone said, this is not rocket science. It just takes practice and execution.
At risk of being immodest and forfeiting anonymity, I offer as credentials that I ran on a national champion 440 relay team back in the Cretaceous Period and that is the way we did it, even though we only had one of the fastest guys in the country (Admittedly, not me) but, dang, we were slick with that stick. :!: .
At least that is the way I remember it. Of course, my kids say I also remember walking to school uphill both ways.
Stuff happens in the relays, especially the 4 x 1. IMO, it would not happen so often if they would simply revert to the blind, upsweep pass into the inverted V of the extended right hand of the outgoing runner. It worked very well sixty years ago and will work today. KISS.
There are opposing schools of thought on which hand to carry and pass with and whether to change hands with the baton. IMO, either is acceptable depending on the preference of the individual runners and probably offsets the theoretical advantage of one method. But, they must know which method they are using on each exchange.
Ideally, lead off would start and, to minimize chance of dropped baton or lost momentum, carry in left hand and pass into right hand of 2nd leg, who has positioned him/herself on the inside of the lane a pre-determined distance outside the rear of the passing zone that enables outgoing to turn and start running when incoming hits a pre-determined mark and match the speed of incoming as they hit the zone, at which time, and not before, he/she extends right hand back and holds arm/hand as still as possible, to receive upsweep pass from left hand of incoming. Out going is already facing and running down track without turning to receive baton. Perfectly timed, this all happens in one stride with extended arm, incoming does not "run up" on outgoing and they have 20 meters to complete the exchange if there is a bobble.
I don't, in truth, ascribe to the comcept of incoming "running up" on outgoing. Incoming is not supposed to slow down to facilitate the pass. It is outgoing's job to get up to speed but not outrun incoming if incoming does not slow down for pass. Outgoing stays to inside of lane so there is room for incoming to run up beside him/her inside the lane if outgoing does not perfectly match incoming speed. And, they are passing near hand to near hand.
I have never understood the logic of outgoing twisting body to the left and reaching back with an elevated left hand to take the baton from the (usually) right hand of incoming who is in driving sprint phase with arms relatively low. I believe this contribued to Muna's misfortune. ( Also, did anyone else notice that, because Bolt is so tall, average size incoming have trouble reaching his elevated hand?)
Second leg, ideally, switches baton to left hand on first stride after receiving it and repeats the process at second handoff to third leg, who repeats it to anchor. There is no need for anchor to switch hands.
As someone said, this is not rocket science. It just takes practice and execution.
At risk of being immodest and forfeiting anonymity, I offer as credentials that I ran on a national champion 440 relay team back in the Cretaceous Period and that is the way we did it, even though we only had one of the fastest guys in the country (Admittedly, not me) but, dang, we were slick with that stick. :!: .
At least that is the way I remember it. Of course, my kids say I also remember walking to school uphill both ways.

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