One of the senior masters at my secondary school used to take one or two side on shuffle steps before delivering each stroke. We used to call this his run up, but it wasn’t really that.
He had a curious sort of straight arm technique, with no attempt to flick the cane that others used. The result was a deeper pain with much less sting but bruising that lasted significantly longer.
I don’t think this “run up” added much to the punishment, other than putting the fear of God into us, adding to the time between strokes and making him wheeze from his exertions.