Sprinting Knockback Increase

Something which was present in 1.8 and greatly benefited the combat mechanics was the huge knockback you would give while sprinting. I believe that bringing back the old knockback mechanics would greatly benefit the game as it allowed for good comboing and benefited a good player when fighting multiple opponents. In 1.8 I could consistently knock back an entity while sprinting across a 4 block gap while in current versions I can only knock them over a 2 block gap maximum.