Mo Farah Marathon Foot Strike

KAV wrote:

It really matters whether he lands not too much in front of his hips or not.... and he doesnt.

Overstriding or not that is the question....

This does not make any sense. This is a bunch of pseudoscience nonsense. Over striding is largely a myth. And, is probably impossible to do at the at which he is running. In order to go forward your foot has to be out in front of you. This landing on your center of gravity nonsense is only possible if you are running in place. Watch Geoffrey Kirui vs Galen Rupp run. One is wasting much more energy the other is using much more energy going foward.

Here’s a slow motion clip I took at the Chicago Marathon about mile 9.

Pretty interesting to see the differences in posture, swing, strike, etc throughout the lead pack... Mo, Rupp, Kirui, Osako, ...

Spectacular clip. Thanks for that.

With YouTube anytime you want to watch something frame by frame just press pause and then press the . (period button) and the frame will advance one frame. Mo looks like a mid-foot striker; not heels and not toes.

If you want to watch a YouTube video backwards frame by frame press pause and then continually press , (the comma button).

footstrike

you don't want to "run" on your toes and you don't want to hit your heel first.

you want to cradle, your foot softly grips the ground, like a sucker cup, that releases in rhythm, where you push off.

shoes kind of destroy foot, toe, arch and ankle strength.

look at any and all great africans, and herb elliot is a good one, who must have not worn shoes so much as a kid.

basically you can work your feet and ankle through a program...

most people's feet are so messed up, they will never run properly.

and then there are the hips, which are another story.

You DO REALIZE that foot placement is relatively irrelevant, RIGHT? What IS important is landing under your center of mass, having proper hip extension, minimal upper-body movement, etc. Mo is very resilient to injury and has run VERY fast, he is doing great.

Oh wow, why didn't I know this? Super useful - thank you!

Yeppppp wrote:

https://youtu.be/tP0Uz1hVbWU

Here’s a slow motion clip I took at the Chicago Marathon about mile 9.

Pretty interesting to see the differences in posture, swing, strike, etc throughout the lead pack... Mo, Rupp, Kirui, Osako, ...

Thanks what do you think though?

In that vid, forefoot. And you can really see how super long their strides are, which (well duh) is how comes they runs so freakin fast. Yes of course stride rates vary, but that vid shows their efficiency.

codaayyee wrote:

You DO REALIZE that foot placement is relatively irrelevant, RIGHT? What IS important is landing under your center of mass, having proper hip extension, minimal upper-body movement, etc. Mo is very resilient to injury and has run VERY fast, he is doing great.

Finally somebody who gets it.... and infact Mo is almost never injured because he lands properly (or thereabout)....

I reckon about 90% of the runners overstride - as in, in layman terms, landing too much in front of you, the worse offenders with a straight leg, which besides the main braking effect, has also the nasty side effect of dissipating that energy through heels, joints, hips and up to the neck....

Most of runners' injuries are self inflicted...

Completely disagree KAV. Everyone learns to run when they are kids and develop their natural stride. What you are suggesting makes no sense. Look at videos of slow marathon runners, are they really doing what you say? No, it would be impossible to run that way.

drop the broscience wrote:

Completely disagree KAV. Everyone learns to run when they are kids and develop their natural stride. What you are suggesting makes no sense. Look at videos of slow marathon runners, are they really doing what you say? No, it would be impossible to run that way.

The only "natural stride" i see around is from the East African, most of whom land properly (it has maybe something to do with running barefoot and without gymmicks?). The rest not so much - if you are doing something wrong, especially as a kid, you can try to fix it. As you get old it is more and more difficult. You are stuck with a bad form, which apart from making you slower as you are braking with every step, it makes your running career short.

You think is impossible... well... even in more layman terms.... look at how a sprinter runs and try & replicate. Aint exactly rocket science.

Good luck...

Drop the broscience. Everyone "breaks with every step" it's a natural part of biomechanics.

And everyone has their own individual biomechanics.

You've read too many articles and posts written by people with very little knowledge of the subject.

Hey KAV, how do you explain this?

https://youtu.be/L2tHUPdjnnw

The only way that evil 4% shoe works correctly is if you land heel-first or flatfooted. Rupp's prancy-boy footstrike means those shoes are actually worse for him than overstriding (incorrectly called heelstriking around these parts).

So insofar as the Rupp fanboys around here always claim he's 2-3 minutes faster than he actually runs, they're somewhat correct. If Rupp wore Boost, or didn't run like Twinklebell, he'd had a faster PR.

Watch the video. Rupp lands forefoot, Farah does not. The speed of transition across the foot is confusing you all.

Most of those guys strike the outside edge from heel to midfoot practically simultaneously which is much more a heelstrike than anything else.