We have a recent habit of poor mechanics in baton exchanges. In the 4x400 finals our last exchange was horrible. Poor mechanics. Coach Henry has got to get these guys to pay attention. I hope they coach that. They do such a good job on other things.

The #3 runner had the baton in the center of his hand and at the moment of exchange it was pointing straight up, and he did not extend his run with a good reach to assure a good exchange.


Solution: incoming runner must carry the baton in his right hand 25% near the back. That leaves the other 75% of the length available to the next runner. The baton is laid down into the receiving hand of the next runner to assure a positive exchange. The incoming runner approaches from the inside of the lane to the left. The next runner starts his run on the rt. side of the lane then turns back with his left hand. In this way the incoming runner can run through without stepping on the next runner . It is always this way for all runners in this race.


4x100 next. If interested.

I am an expert at this from personal good experience. We beat teams we were not supposed to beat just due to baton exchanges.

I watched the exchange.

The third leg just got flat out tired and lazy at the end of his run.

With that said that may have been the most impressive relay I ever seen in my life. The anchor, Tabarie Henry, didn't sulk about the dropped baton. He located it, picked it up and took off. I'm sure I am exaggerating, but he look to be about 1/5th of a lap behind when he finally got back up to speed. He nearly ran down the leader and he had the entire stadium going nuts. His comeback was so impressive that IMO there was as much buzz in that stadium as there was when Bolt was running earlier in the day.

We have a lot of drops at the exchanges. Most of the time IMO its b/c the sprinters are trying to set CR/WR's. They are no longer challenged by the other schools out there. There margins of victory are too large. They look for competition now from the best to have ever run and often they take risks in the exchanges to better those marks.

[This message has been edited by HOLDEN, M. D. (edited 4/25/2010 10:15a).]

Tabarie's anchor was a sight to behold. I've never seen someone drop a batton in a race of that quality and nearly make it up. I loved his quote afterwards about how he can't stand to lose.

To the OP, unfortunately your insight into the relay exchange is not anything that the team doesn't already know. You have to remember that relays are Coach Henry's specialty as he has not only won many, many national championships, but he has also been asked multiple times to coach the Olympic and World Championship teams. He is probably one of the most experienced coaches in the US in regards to relay exchanges.

Yes, our 3rd leg (Curtis Mitchell, NCAA 200m Champ) was holding the baton in the center which makes for a very difficult exchange. But if you watch the 3rd exchange again, you will notice that the biggest issue was that Tabarie reached for the baton and turned to start running. He just simply took his eye off of the baton and didn't fully have it in his hands. He should know better as he is the most experienced and accomplished 400m runner on our team. These things just happen some times.

You have to give him a lot of credit for his effort though. Once he picked up the baton his anchor leg was amazing.

One of the other posters was also correct in the reasoning for so many of the dropped batons during races. Our athletes are competing against time, due to the fact that they are much better than the competition. They stretch their exchanges so far in an effort to get a flyer (perfect exchange). When they do get their exchanges correct we see things like their women's 4x100m Collegiate Record.

The ancho leg effort was incredible but the dropped baton was not ALL his fault. It is the technique and the poor hand postion on the batorn. The baton was 90 degrees stratight up. They need to run through the exhangealso to assure it is layed into the receiving hand.

I have not comment on the coach for he is great. This is on the runners.

I have, however will stand by my technique that they will have lighting smooth fast exchanges. We did it in both the mile and 440 relays. Shows my age; but I know the method like I did it yesterday. In four years there was one drop. Four years!!! Many records and golds. The best realy was a bronze when we were not even supposed to be there and surprised everybody with what these young pups could do. It was the hand offs. That is what got us there.

It is a great comeback and with another 10 meters we very likely win. I'm impressed with Henry because he didn't give up when he easily could have and nobody would've faulted him. This may actually be a good learning example for them heading into the NCAA championship because it takes a simple drop in attention to lose yourself a race, especially when you're against competition like this.

here is the video

I agree. Great effort. I like his toughness. This mistake will make them all pay better attention.

There are opportunities that arise in meets that give a team the chance do something good. Like break world records, NCAA, etc. Team members are feeling good, a fast track, weather, etc. When a team drops the baton it blows that opportunity forever. It is gone. Take advantage of that opportunity and deliver the bacon when it is your time.