Sprint Start Pose Reference
Sprint Start: a sprint start pose reference of the set position, hands bridged on the line, arms vertical, hips just above the shoulders, knees loaded.
- Running Poses
- running
- sprint start
- set position
- athletics
- track
Free for personal and commercial use (CC0). License details
How to draw the Sprint Start pose
Everything in the set position is about to unwind. The sprinter has lifted the hips from the kneeling first stage and now hangs between hands and toes, a coiled triangle waiting for the gun. The figure is low, with the head only about 62 cm off the ground, so the silhouette is long and wedge-shaped rather than tall.
Build it from the supports. The hands sit on the line about shoulder-width apart, fingers bridged so the weight rests on fingertips and thumbs, and the arms are straight and vertical, stacked under the shoulders. The hips rise slightly higher than the shoulders, giving the back a gentle downhill slope toward the head. The front knee bends to roughly a right angle and the back knee opens to around 120 degrees; both feet are up on the toes, pressing against blocks that are not shown in the image. The head hangs in line with the spine, eyes on the track a little ahead of the hands.
The side view is the one to study, since it shows both knee angles, the hip height and the vertical arms in one clean profile. The front view looks straight into the bridged hands and the foreshortened back, a strong choice for a sports poster, and the low angle pushes that effect further. Common mistakes show up quickly in profile: hips dropped so low the athlete seems to be kneeling, hips pushed so high the legs straighten, bent arms that sag the shoulders, and a head lifted to stare down the track, which kinks the neck and breaks the line.
Athletics illustrations, school sports day scenes, anime races and any panel that needs the half second before an explosion of movement can start here. In Edit this pose, swap which foot is forward to match the starter you are drawing, or lower the hips toward the kneeling position to show the moment just before the set.
Sprint Start pose prompt
Copy a prompt for your AI image generator. Pair it with the OpenPose skeleton in ControlNet so the generated character matches this exact pose.
General prompt
A sprinter in the set position at the start line, hands shoulder-width apart with fingers bridged on the ground, arms straight and vertical, hips slightly above the shoulders, front knee bent near ninety degrees, back knee more open, up on the toes, head in line with the spine, plain background.
Midjourney
full body track sprinter in set position, fingertips bridged on the start line, straight vertical arms, hips raised just above shoulders, front knee at ninety degrees, back knee open, on the toes, head neutral, coiled tension, plain background --ar 3:2 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, sprinter, sprint start, set position, crouching start, hands on ground, fingertips, straight arms, hips raised, bent knees, on toes, head down, athletics, track and field, sportswear, side view, plain background, simple background
Negative prompt
hips too low, hips too high, bent arms, head raised looking forward, kneeling, standing upright, flat feet, running, extra limbs, deformed hands, extra fingers, bad anatomy, blurry
OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet
Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.
Free to use (CC0)
The pose images on this page are released under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication). Use them for drawing practice, commercial illustration, reference sheets or AI image generation; no attribution is required. A credit to PoseMaker is appreciated but optional.
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