I like this thread because the OP took the time to check out the site and dig a little before saying WTF with the backwards skipping. The OP has a sense of what goes on in a week or a month and a bit of backwards skipping (which looks even weirder in person then on tape) isn't the whole picture, but sure does raise eyebrows. IMHO that is a fair question when someone has taken the time to do the research I think it's reasonable for me to respond. I doubt the Flotrack posters took the time to dig into the site when they made the following comments:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/play/316943-uphill-strides-backwards-skipping
One irony between the OP and the subsequent posts is that someone - who, by the way, sounds much smarter than I and likely has some letters behind their name - raises the issue of OCD and in distance running. Love the connection and concept and I've been thinking about it in the last few days, even mentioning it to an Olympic triathlete today. Obviously there is a book to be written on this topic.
That said, my first thought was " While I need to read the study yet no doubt the 'digging of the hole' concept will have to do with the nervous system and neurotransmitters, repeating patterns creating a stereotype in the human." The backwards skipping is done to get the human how has spent hours and hours in the sagital plane, moving forward, out of their stereotyped (and inefficient? crappy looking'? ungly?) mechanics. Yes, the backwards skipping is still 90% sagital plane (with a bit of transverse plane, just as in forward running), yet 50% of the skips are done with the shoulder and hip in the Opposite/Wrong/Other orientation when you run. So on every other stance the hip that is "pointed back" is on the same side as the shoulder that's "pointing back" and that is the opposite what we do when we run. I want a runner who runs 100-120 miles a week to spend some of those miles outside of their normal mechanics as a way to prevent injury and as a way to remind the nervous system that we want the person to be athletic (yes, we count this as part of the mileage; if you run up 200m at 32 then and skip backwards 60m, then run 140m we count the circuit as 400m…and yes, I know that Lydiard would only count the 200m uphill). I love the comment that we should play basketball (which Brent asks about weekly) yet we won't because I'm scared of torn knee cartilage, an issue someone else brought up today. And that brings us to the most important point....
only Brent and I know what we do. Renee, Sara, Hatch, even Dr. Richey (@ARTSportsChiro on twitter - good stuff) don't really know what we do because they don't do it themselves and/or they don't see all of it; today Brent was dying doing some new "skipping stuff" at the end of the workout; he had a solid workout prior to the new skipping stuff, yet it was the skipping stuff that had him cursing under his breath.* Plus, Brent is the only one who asks a question every workout day and he's the one I spend the most hours with. He ran a mile clockwise in just 5:20 the other day and said, "That was horrible - it was hard to run such an easy pace" and I said "well, I don't know why, but I bet it has to do with CNS and PNS and I bet it has to do with your ankle injury history - likely harder for you to do something novel at pace than Jorge or Steve Slattery, even if your engine is big.
Again, I hope to come back and make some other comments because this is a great mental exercise in becoming a better coach...and the the spirit of the first post is great IMHO and I want to honor that (and obviously will give Mark Flo some shit about "being above the fray" - you can code the site to try to guilt an Anonymous Coward into logging in, yet you run the risk of people feeling less comfortable talking to you about what they do - i.e. Jerry Rassmussen does a great interview after Bizzari wins NCAA cross, yet the majority of the comments below the video are about how he's done a poor job).
Obviously I'm a JV post-collegiate coach who is trying to be a varsity post-collegiate coach in the coming years. I work with a big talent in Brent, yet The Truth and The Light are Rupp, Jager and Wheating** are tall skinny boys coached by Jerry and Alberto and Vin, coaches who have no reason to use an opportunity like this to grow as a coach. While there is pressure and expectation from you guys (it's like 97% men on the board, right Higgins?) it's less than Brent and I have for ourselves and for that reason I really appreciate the OP and the "why not run more." I will think about it in the coming days and try to put together some video (though wife is overseas on business and I'm in charge of the kid; fun but fatiguing…good thing the child and I both love Chipotle, green Odwalla and avocados - mom doesn't read LR so the child and I can pretend we had a balanced diet in her absence).
Little bit of homework. I'll reference three LR items when I respond: Greg Brock interview from this summer (text, not audio), Gothcher/McMillan podcast and Cook podcast. I reference one of them daily with athletes and if you have the time I highly recommend them.
I don't have time to go back and see if I still agree with this series of videos, I'm pretty sure I agree with it since we've not done one thing that most LR posters would consider Plyos, though we do try to run fast and the quick eccentric/concentric coupling that occurs (must occur?) may meet the text book definition of plyometric.
http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2009/03/to-plyo-or-not-to-plyo-part-i/
Final thought. If you ever wanted to post with your name and email I would recommend it. I know that in the last 18 months (since our kid was born) I've read LR's board 3-4 times a week (staring when the kid was a few weeks old and I was up at 10 pm, 4 am and 6 am trying to rocking her to sleep, reading this board was as great mindless activity); I only post with my name and email and while it may not matter to anyone else, it's the reason none of you can accuse me of saying other things on this board. Right now there is a post on CU. I've read it and I think it's stupid - analyzing a program that values XC and Outdoor track on it's indoor track performance - but I'm sure as hell not going to chime in there. Nothing positive I could say will be construed that way. The flip side is backwards skipping many not be something I employ in the future, but I do now and if we distill it down to one reason, it's because I think it will lead to us to running more miles and running those miles harder. If you disagree with me, that's fine - you can post here anonymously, you can introduce yourself at Mt. Sac or email me - but what really matters to me is that for the next few years I'll likely read this board a few times a week (though it's nuts how often I only want to read one or two threads on the first page of the board, but that must just be me getting old and grumpy and simply a no fun adult who thinks) to see what college kid is running fast or to see if some old Oregon runner is talking about Kenny Moore's training or Malmo is explaining his summer plan to a HS kid who's never heard of it. Anyway, obviously I may be taking the fun out of this and to be honest, if I post one or two more times on this tread then I'll have meet my quota until the fall, yet I just want to thank the OP and I want others to consider doing the same.
...or maybe I should start posting as Anonymous Coward when talking about all of the non-running stuff with runners - that's and option too.
*It's hard to quantify this type of work, but it's difficult metabolically, it's getting near the realm of classic ploys and it's got him working in all three planes of motion. If we could easily quantify it as miles or meters run at race pace or asplyometric contacts la way Gary Winkler then it might be easier to understand. Plus, if I value the running over all of this extra stuff then you now know why I like to put it after the running; if you've done the workout must you do the others stuff? Can you skip it? I learned this from my mentor and his implementation/removal of OMNI.
**I wrote this this weekend; please add the UVA kid to the list; haven't seen the race but it sounds likes he's the Truth and the Light too.