I already have the book of Romanov, Pose Method of Running. There is a lot of book I see on amazon but looks like there too less about sprinting biomechanics.
Any suggestion to a sprinter or sprint coach?
I already have the book of Romanov, Pose Method of Running. There is a lot of book I see on amazon but looks like there too less about sprinting biomechanics.
Any suggestion to a sprinter or sprint coach?
one possiblility: 138,336 Feet to Pure Bliss: What I Learned about Life, Women (and Running) in My First 100 Marathons
- by extreme athlete Dane Rauschenberg
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15038921-138-336-feet-to-pure-bliss
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Perhaps a different perspective, but you might want to check out Running Science by Steve Magness. He has a whole chapter on biomechanics. Good stuff, if you like analytical material.
study the movement of the celestial bodies. we are built and move in the same fashion.
alternatively, study how animals move. start with the kangaroo, then the ostrich, then snakes, then the cats, the apes, and then be prepared to be shocked out how poorly most humans move.
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The lost art of running by Shane Benzie is an excellent book, though depends what you're after.
More relevant for long distance and teaches through understanding principles rather than specific drills.
While I don't think there is one right way to run, all his points resonated with me.
These two are the best for sprinters.
"Running: Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology in Practice" by Frans Bosh.
"The Mechanics of Sprinting and Hurdling" by Ralph Mann.
More for distance runners, but maybe also good for sprinzters:
Running Form: How to Run Faster and Prevent Injury by Owen Anderson.
The most important thing to learn about running mechanics is not to think of it as constantly pushing the ground backwards. Once you're past acceleration phase, all you have to do is have your foot moving backwards the same speed as the ground when it strikes. Then there is no braking force and your own inertia keeps you moving, as if the ground were ice.
This is true for both distance and sprinting, though sprint coaches will teach you how. Distance coaches mostly focus on effort and fitness, not form.
Bad Wigins wrote:
The most important thing to learn about running mechanics is not to think of it as constantly pushing the ground backwards. Once you're past acceleration phase, all you have to do is have your foot moving backwards the same speed as the ground when it strikes. Then there is no braking force and your own inertia keeps you moving, as if the ground were ice.
This is true for both distance and sprinting, though sprint coaches will teach you how. Distance coaches mostly focus on effort and fitness, not form.
That is an interesting perspective. One can think like this or actually try to push off.
Running is about efficient power, meaning producing a force in the available ground contact time. When we land the stretch-shortening processes stores the impact energy in muscles and ligaments and releases this back again. This is a very important part of running economy. In addition we add more active power. think of jumping up and down, then we both bound and add an effort to jump as high we aim at.
Cadence and power of each step together form the work we do. We can have a higher or lower cadence and a lower or higher power in each step. Research has shown that runners tend to be more efficient if they have a little higher cadence than a little lower than the natural cadence. A higher cadence would probably mean a little less contact time and a little less time to apply the force, which again leads to a little lower power per step, but this is counteracted by more steps, keeping the work the same. Work is what gives the forward pace.
A long text, but back to push off or not. I would guess that pushing off would mean MORE force and power and possibly a longer stride. If the push do not increase the contact time it would probably not reduce the cadence, so we would run faster. If we do not conciously push harder, but on the other side focus on quicker turnover and more springy movements, we could either be forced to use less power (cause we have not time) or actually increase power to maintain the same rythm and feel. We would run faster.
Maybe there are several ways to the same. What we feel is not the same as what we actually do. To push hard off the ground, leading to a lower cadence and powerful long strides is maybe not the most efficient, but can be working when kicking. To push harder while maintaining the ration btw stride length and cadence sounds right. To try to increase turnover but loosing stride length seems bad for large changes, but mighth be good for small turnover changes.
A quick, springy step might be the best. But look at different runners. Mo Farah has a somewhat powerful gait and have no problems with running efficiency, Kipchoge has a less "powerful" expression, but runs beautifully.
I guess focus could be to push off slightly if that is done "right". we actually both bounds and pushes off since running is a form of controlled falling...but it happens regardless if you focus on it or not.
Running ques are maybe the important thing. What do you focus on to get the best running form?
Bad Wigins wrote:
... Once you're past acceleration phase, all you have to do is have your foot moving backwards the same speed as the ground when it strikes. ....
After the acceleration phase there is the flight phase.
Derpost wrote:
I already have the book of Romanov, Pose Method of Running. There is a lot of book I see on amazon but looks like there too less about sprinting biomechanics.
Any suggestion to a sprinter or sprint coach?
Romanov just expanded on the Grant Robison method.
Try Tom Tellez’s book. The Science of Speed, The Art of the Sprint.
kepler, johannes wrote:
study the movement of the celestial bodies. we are built and move in the same fashion.
alternatively, study how animals move. start with the kangaroo, then the ostrich, then snakes, then the cats, the apes, and then be prepared to be shocked out how poorly most humans move.
Underrated comment
Bad Wigins wrote:
Once you're past acceleration phase, all you have to do is have your foot moving backwards the same speed as the ground when it strikes. Then there is no braking force and your own inertia keeps you moving, as if the ground were ice.
Does the ground move backwards where you run?
That's weird. Where do you live? Where I live, the ground doesn't move when I run. I usually have to do all the work of moving forwards.
Nineteen years ago, I dramatically changed my running form. At the time, the only book on the subject was the Pose Method. I bought the books and the DVD. It took months. I'd "Pose" for 30 seconds, then run normally. After about six months, I could do an entire run in the Pose, but I was slower than when I started. I then looked carefully at the Pose Method and discovered a major flaw in the biomechanics. In the Pose, the foot is picked up and set down. There is no push. Speed is mostly controlled by forward lean. The DVD used animals to show how this worked, but here was the flaw. In animals, the rear paw is not the equivalent of a human foot. It's the equivalent of a human forefoot. The "heel" of the rear leg is actually the lower leg joint. This joint does move when running. It provides a push that's missing in the Pose Method.
After fully adapting to the Pose Method, I added a push off to my stride... and immediately took 5 seconds/lap off my 400m intervals! It was amazing, but I couldn't even hold that pace for the entire 400m. So I started adding the push to my intervals, running about 20-30 seconds with the push until I could hold it for the entire 400m.
The reason, in my opinion, that the push works is that about half of the work in running is provided by the elasticity of the tendons. The push engages the calf muscles more, but it also allows full use of the elastic energy of the plantar fascia and the Achilles tendon.
The challenge becomes how do I train to optimize this elastic energy? Here is what I did.
1. I switched from extreme heel striker to forefoot striker. It took several months, but with today's better methods, most runners could transition in three months or so.
2. I switched to a lower heel to toe drop shoe.... going from the traditional 10mm drop to a 6 or 4mm drop. This made it much easier to forefoot strike.
3. I adapted my slow recovery runs to forefoot strike. Thus, my slow running form is inefficient. I bounce. I struggle to keep up with runners I could destroy in the 800-1500m. It's frustrating to get dropped, but my goal is not to run miles at 8 min/mile pace. My goal is to run the 400/800 at sub 5 minute/mile pace. Everything is geared towards that goal.
The problem with this approach is that I lost my long-distance running endurance. Faced with a decision, I gave up long-distance running and focused on the 800m. In retrospect, it was the right decision for me.
tl;dr
Everything you do should be geared towards helping you run faster and more efficiently at race pace, even if it is not running at race pace.
Thanks for sharing, I think I agree with your thoughts. Of course you should focus on the specific running form and economy even if that means you cannot endure a long run that well, but where you still target the endurance of the running form at 800/1500. Have not though about that, but I do target 800/1500 and rather think 15-30min.
Calf strength is also very important, and there is evidence that with age this is the thing that is lost first, leading to shorter stride lengths. Focusing on lower leg strength is therefore a long term winner
fisky wrote:
The challenge becomes how do I train to optimize this elastic energy? Here is what I did.
1. I switched from extreme heel striker to forefoot striker. It took several months, but with today's better methods, most runners could transition in three months or so.
If you can not hold the forefoot strike during the long run you are not completly transitioned or you do something wrong (e.g. not touching the heel after the forefoot lands, could be one reason)
I can only warn anyone here, if you change from heel to forefoot it takes time.
And don't give yourself any time pressure. It takes how long it takes.
There is a higher risk for an injury during that changing phase.
Tellez is the best for sprint mechanics, which carry over pretty well to distance running.
I'd also suggest both of Jay Dicharry's books. I like his approach because it's focused on identifying specific strength and mobility issues you may have and addressing them. Realistically, trying to improve running form while running is really hard, and most people who do it end up causing as many problems as they solve. Bad running form usually stems from physical limitations that you need to address with specific exercises. Once those issues are addressed, then you can pretty naturally find your ideal form.
Regarding the heel vs. forefoot thing, there's still no scientific consensus on how footstrike should happen, and lots of elites land heel first. I do think there's some real benefit to lower-drop, more minimal shoes, at least as one pair in your rotation, and you'll tend to land more forefoot in minimal shoes. It may be that mixing it up just prevents overuse injuries, but my current theory is that a small amount of barefoot/minimal running is sufficient to train the stride, and that you can take advantage of highly cushioned trainers the rest of the time as long as you don't rely on them always.
Two super-common errors I see from people who clearly are trying to exhibit "good" running form: Never touching the heel to the ground and trying to have footstrike underneath the center of gravity. The latter is actually impossible (you'll fall over), but people get into trouble by getting close. Both errors make it difficult to take advantage of the stretch shortening cycle, which stores a lot of elastic energy in your tendons. It's why you can jump higher if you take a hop first vs. jumping from a standing position.
800 dude wrote:
Regarding the heel vs. forefoot thing, there's still no scientific consensus on how footstrike should happen, and lots of elites land heel first. I do think there's some real benefit to lower-drop, more minimal shoes, at least as one pair in your rotation, and you'll tend to land more forefoot in minimal shoes. It may be that mixing it up just prevents overuse injuries, but my current theory is that a small amount of barefoot/minimal running is sufficient to train the stride, and that you can take advantage of highly cushioned trainers the rest of the time as long as you don't rely on them always.
One running form hint i gave me, during my shoed running, is to run like if i would run barefoot ...
Try it.