Salazar, Ritz, and the Perfect Stride

Ritz doesn't need his form tampering with. He just needs good training and racing. The tampering obviously isn't working. Just a few weeks ago he was beaten by three minutes by Gebreselassie in a half marathon. For all Salazar's overthinking of imaginary problems, Ritz has lost fitness.

What can you do to improve hip separation? If it was mentioned I missed it.. can't find any information on it.

Good art wrote:

Interesting, and seems to go a good job being fair to Salazar's personality, attitude and application to training athletes and himself.

The fact seems very well laid out that Salazar is relentlessly obsessing to find what he needs to meet his endgame. Seems his insatiable need and this relentlessness is matched by tireless searching through trial and error and occasionally reckless experimentation on self and others.

Prolific in his work, his path is littered with athletes wrecked from, in my opinion, simplistic interpretation of ideas born from his bias to find an edge.

His years of experience and focus ironically may have developed in him his acquired and keen wisdom and insight. Seemingly this has allowed for his later successes and contribution to the athletes named in the Article and that we all know.

This^

Salazar is obsessed! I found it eerie how Salazar would make his son protein shakes in the middle of the night.

Lots of Letsrunners are caught up in the confusing form jargon, which was kinda the point. Alberto obsesses over the minute details - "keep your thumbs down" - fighting for every edge.

Is it in vain? Ritz has since been constantly injured. The wise sage Gabe Jennings hints at the end that Alberto's approach may be in vain.

I was creeped out by the end of the article with the well-placed quote, making Alberto sound like he's constantly trying to re-live or redo his career.

Of course, it makes for a very good narrative

Here's the thing... I don't think AlSal is working on Ritz's form at the detriment to everything else. He is working on Ritz's form in addition to everything else. IF Ritz stays healthy, this will only help him.

From the article, it seems that Alberto's tinkering with Ritz's shoes, not changing his form, is what led to injury. Who in their right mind would go and cut a hole and apply some duct tape in a 12:56/60:00 bronze medalist's shoes when you have every Nike resource available to you to make a perfect shoe grounded in science and manufacturing excellence?

Guys, just take six months next year and change your own form. It takes patience and imagination. Just find out the answers for yourself. Make it your contribution to American running.

real heros wrote:

Just my opinion. I just don't think Ritz is a marathon runner.

I was there following in a car when he ran 22 miles on a wheel measured and marked hilly course at a pace that would have beaten Salazar's 208`13. This he did starting at 5:10 cutting down to 4:40. Not only was his time remarkable, he finished looking poised, strong and comfortable.

I was sure after that that London would go down under 208, but of course that didn't work out as hoped. Everyone was disappointed. Such the possibilities, especially at the Marathon.

So perhaps the g.p. have this impression that Ritz isn't a marathoner, but I know, Hudson and those close to him know, but most importantly Ritz knows he is a marathoner and has a greater potential to excel there over other distances. Beside that, I know Dathan loves it, the training and the race.

Better form, or more efficient form, is the result of years of running. Your stride becomes more efficient as you put the miles and hard workouts in. This is not a chicken/egg question. The running must come first.

No amount of tinkering to Ritz's form is going to turn him into an African. Ritz should focus on the bread and butter and forget this obsessive hyperanalysis. Someone mentioned how relaxed Bekele appears while running. Well, fixating on your own form while running will not foster relaxation, that's for sure.

I would have to firmly disagree. You watch any elite athlete from the 100m to 10000m and you will notice several similarities.

To me, form is more important to running than miles. To me, it makes much more sense to run 60milmes/week properly than 110miles/week improperly.

I think the Africans are so good is because they first learned how to run properly due to the liklihood that they started out barefoot (which, when you run barefoot, you will too notice that you strike the ground and "feel faster"). It was after this that they put on the miles to which were run correctly and hence, get very fast.

That's just my opinion.

insightful comment wrote:

Are you teaching 101? Because I'm hoping to become a professional coach, and though I already have an appointment set up to speak with Salazar, it seems you might know better than him. Perhaps we can schedule a time to talk about what it takes to coach world class athletes...

Funny as I have always wondered what is AS's college degree in (because of his science approach)? To simply choose KB's stride for DR is flawed because the exact stride kinematics ONLY work for KB. Not sure if you all know about gait recognition yet but our gait kinematics are as individual as our fingerprints!

To the person in the above quote you gotta be careful who you critique in the smart-ass tone cause you may be wrong!...Though you didn't critique me I have my Ph.D. in Biomechanics with all research focused on the economy of running gait. So do I think I know more than AS about running gait, RE, physiological principles, etc...? Without a doubt! Have I coached any "world class" runners? Only a 2:20 guy to 2:15 so no. I am more interested in research to help all runners not just the 10 in my stable.

Needless to say I think AS is doing a good job and is/seems interested in approaching the sport from a science perspective.

I wonder what AlSal would make of these two.

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=fRw0SYHQx24&feature=fvw

IMO wrote:

I would have to firmly disagree. You watch any elite athlete from the 100m to 10000m and you will notice several similarities.

To me, form is more important to running than miles. To me, it makes much more sense to run 60milmes/week properly than 110miles/week improperly.

I think the Africans are so good is because they first learned how to run properly due to the liklihood that they started out barefoot (which, when you run barefoot, you will too notice that you strike the ground and "feel faster"). It was after this that they put on the miles to which were run correctly and hence, get very fast.

That's just my opinion.

Come on, that is just silly. Some people will benefit by greater mileage, and others won't. Some have a need for greater "form" tinkering, others don't. It's that simple. If athletes are getting injured a lot (like Ritz), then perhaps tinkering might be useful, but there are no guarantees either way.

Bottomline, form is NOT more important than running miles, as it assumes that people benefit equally from either (form/miles) - they don't.

Africans don't "learn" to run with better form (in general), they just do it (like Nike says). Barefoot or not is really irrelevant as well - again some have biomechanically good form and others don't (and will be weeded out and/or injured a lot if it is too problematic). Otherwise why don't the great coaches over there (who are such "form" experts) come to the US where they would get paid a lot more for their coaching expertise.

Yeah Alberto--just find the perfect stride and we'll be whippin' the African's butts in no time---And this is America's great coach? Excepting Jack Daniels of course--Salazar really is clueless--exhibit A that former great runners do not necessarily make great coaches.

People--American males in the 5k and above being near the top of the world rankings like they were in say the '70's--is not going to happen--has anything happened in the last 20 yrs despite the funded teams--special "projects" etc,etc,etc,--the answer--pay incentives to have Africans become naturalized U.S. citizens--oh wait--we are doing that.

Aliens or Whatnot wrote:

Better form, or more efficient form, is the result of years of running. Your stride becomes more efficient as you put the miles and hard workouts in. This is not a chicken/egg question. The running must come first.

No amount of tinkering to Ritz's form is going to turn him into an African. Ritz should focus on the bread and butter and forget this obsessive hyperanalysis. Someone mentioned how relaxed Bekele appears while running. Well, fixating on your own form while running will not foster relaxation, that's for sure.

Wrong. Lots of running doesn't necessarily make for better form. And fixating on something in order to learn it well is natural. We all fixated for a period on learning to tie our shoes. We furrowed our brows, stuck out our tongues, and concentrated deeply. But now we can chew gum and talk while tying our shoes.

As Robert Fripp of King Crimson says, "We learn technique in order to forget it." What AlSal and Ritz have been doing is paying attention to technique. To say it's of no value is just plain dumb.

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I agree to a point. Acquiring or improving skill is constantly happening in any endeavor one decides to master over the years through deliberate practice. I think this happens consciously and unconsciously so long as the desire to meet the endgame is intact and the person is sensitive to recognize what works and what doesn't.

Any radical departure however from that which allowed for a person's mastery seems a mistake. New methods born from ideas or insight should always be on the table for an athlete to consider and apply, at the point that they make training more and not less efficient. That seems like common sense.

As an "expert" continues to develop and optimize his or her skill he or she may or may not become aware of subtitles in the process. At times I believe mastery goes beyond one's ability to talk about or even think about. Insight and skill happens, as almost by magic, but it takes thousands of hours of deliberate and purposeful repetition with the right balance of challenge and response always being evaluated and adjusted accordingly.

I might be repeating myself, but I think it worth my mention again, taking Dathan, a seasoned athlete that was truly flirting with the possibility of a world class marathon, that set an American record at 5 K was doing something right. Given that, why make a radical readjustment to the process based on some idea that someone thinks might work, no mater how attractive that idea.

I think that Alberto using his influence to persuade Dathan to take such a risk was doing Dathan a major disservice, assuming it was as per the context of the article, in my opinion.

Given his recent successes as a coach I really would like to believe and I should think and have thought it most plausible Alberto is a rational player, an interesting person and an admirable coach. That article in the New Yorker seemed to suggest otherwise, but for what ever reason, I realize people say things and do things quite differently. I would like to think he is sensitive to what works for Dathan, and that they have both been happy with the progress leading up to Sunday.

I've had hamstring problems for years now and went to see a running specialist who analyzed my form down to the smallest angles and movements. He was incredibly nit picky. He said that my feet were landing too far out in front of my body. Basically when my hamstring is at its longest point (and weakest), I am landing with full force of my body and then trying to drag all my body weight over my foot to take my next step. He taught me how to run differently and ever since I've been running differently my hamstring pain is almost gone. Also my easy run pace has definitely dropped- about 20 sec/ mile. I attribute this all to becoming more efficient with my form. I've been running only on grass and trails since the change because I am worried about the potential for stress fractures and other injuries since I have changed from less heel strike to more midfoot strike and am still learning how to do it, but I feel like you can't change these kind of things one thing at a time- you either go for it and overhaul the whole thing and notch back your training a lot, or you don't do it and continue on in pain.

Check out what somasports has to say about increasing hip angle: http://www.somaxsports.com/wanjiru.html

"Despite his injuries, Salazar still runs" What? the guy almost died -no mention that Alberto has heart disease and was literally brought back from dead following a heart attack. Hate to say it, but Salazar is a running time bomb. That's far more significant than a few orthopedic issues.

I think many/most of us would agree that the most important job a coach can do is put is in the mindset that we can exceed our expectations. To make us believe.

I think much of what Salazar is doing is to that end - sure he thinks that improving form will lead to faster times - but much much more than that - Salazar wants his athletes to BELIEVE that it will work. So when it is mile 24 and you feel like crap and it is go now or lose...you have a central core of belief that you can do it.

After a big race, I remember K Goucher saying something like 'I have the best coach in the world" and she said it two or three times. She believed in herself because of what Salazar was doing with her - that is more important than the actual science of changing gait.

So I think much of what Salazar is doing is to make his runners mentally strong.

I was reading this New Yorker article on bus commute this morning and found self getting annoyed when I realized that Peter Tegen had been focusing on mechanics, form and foot strike for more than 30 years before Salazar had his big epiphany, but while Tegen emphasized that runners focus on these elements of efficiency he wisely did not completely force runners to abandon natural styles. Another reason for annoyance--Salazar just creeps me out. This whole article just makes him seem creepier to me.