Fixitive wrote:
...if you are operating under the theory, which Salazar apparently believes, that you can intentionally change form to reduce energy cost, I still can't see anything you would change about Rowbury's form. She has no obvious flailing, head bobbing, excess rotation, hunching or any of the other things people normally try to "fix."
There is a lot to change. Noted below (just saw this thread after starting another, so I'll post here instead.)
Here's some advice to Ms. Rowbury regarding her form.
- Hands are being carried too low
- Hands swing too far back
- Elbow angle is much too obtuse
- Feet are not coming up high enough on back kick, especially the left foot
- Calves are lazy; toes not pointing back properly after toe-off (see below)
- Part of the reason the leg is not folding properly is due to the weak calves not holding the lower leg high and tight on the return phase, in addition to torse being too upright
- Upper body too upright; need to lean forward a degree or two minimum, which will help with back kick and proper return
- Left leg specifically has an issue with back kick and then folding properly on return phase; either due to past injury, lack of coordination, lack of strength, lack of intent/awareness or some combination of that
- Hip flexors are either too tight, or can't extend properly due to torso being too upright, probably the latter due to next bulleted point
- General static flexibility is too high; being able to do the splits and all sorts of otherwise-great yoga postures is not efficient. The desired muscle tension in the sagittal plane is being lost with too much flexibility in the coronal plane.
That's probably enough form advice for now, but to say the least, there is a ton of room for improvement. Salazar wouldn't have picked her up otherwise.
In addition to her form, and I know this is a touchy subject, but it's paramount at her level, is addressing weight.
If you typically race at 52kgs, shoot for 51kgs. With the same energetic output, and not reducing your energetic demand with any of the form advice above, you would run the following.
800M - 1:58.4 @ 51kg vs. 2:00.2 @ 52kg
1500M - 3:56.9 @ 51kg vs. 4:00.4 @ 52kg
5000M - 14:46 @ 51kg vs. 15:00 @ 52kg
To be competitive globally in the 5000M would take a further reduction of weight by 1kg (14:32 @ 50kg) in addition to form work to reduce the demand side of the equation. Spending all your energy trying to increase the supply side of the equation is a waste of time; the fitness is already there.