Running stride analysis from HS coach is pissing me off...

fisky wrote:

As you lift weights, run more, and run faster, running form improves naturally for many people. For those whose form doesn't improve, they get injured so often they quit the sport. Thus, those who say running form improves naturally are looking at a self selected sample of themselves and others who became good without any conscious effort to improve form. They (the people on this forum) are actually the minority of people who run. Many beginning, high school, and recreational runners could benefit greatly from improving their running form. If you doubt this, watch runners finishing from 20 minutes on back at your local 5k. You will see lots of form flaws that increase the risk of injury and limit the runners' potential to get faster.

I think your coach's explanation is confusing. You don't actually push from the ankle. Your ankle never touches the ground. To me, running from the ankle implies that the foot stays dorsiflexed throughout the entire foot strike. It does not. The foot is dorsiflexed at landing and plantar flexed at push off.

You actually push off from the forefoot, but it's too simplistic to just say "push off with the forefoot." "Push off" is a coordinated effort of driving the arms, extending the leg behind you, pushing off with the forefoot, keeping your pelvis tucked in so you get slightly more knee lift naturally with the forward leg, and slightly more forward lean. Oh, and keep your torso aligned and not bent forward. All of this together leads to a better push off.

You might be good at parts of the above and weak at others. We don't know. We haven't seen you run.

There's a lot more to good form. The above comments only address push off.

Lifting will help. Running drills like skips will help. Looking at slow motion videos of your own running form will help. Watching slow motion videos of top Kenyan runners will illustrate all the form components I outlined above.

Again, I haven't seen you run, but it's easier to coach some runners by showing them how to adjust their arm swing. For example, if you concentrate on extending your opposite elbow farther back, your trailing leg will also extend slightly farther back, giving you more of the push you are looking for. It's worth a try, but changing armswing is difficult for many runners. There are drills specifically for armswing, but that wasn't your question and this post is already too long. Good luck.

TurdQuiche wrote:

canuckboy wrote:

I understand what my coach wants me to do. He wants me to push off with the forefoot/push thru with the ankle, same idea. But I know this is wrong. We need to achieve a whole when we run. We need to run by feel not through some exaggerated focus or concentration exercise. This is simply a waste of our physical and mental energy. Mastering any skill is about relaxing and letting our natural rhythm take over. Playing a musical instrument, playing skilled sports, public speaking, acting all are examples. And even highly physical endeavours like running require that same relaxed demeanour.

I actually think theres not a lot to good form. I see it as the opposite Mr. fisky. Mo Farah and Galen Rupp make running look very easy, effortless, because for them, it is. They relax and run by feel. Not because some sort of conscious exercises have implanted each and every skill in their brains and has culminated to the perfect stride. That's just some "practice makes perfect" BS that has long been disproven.

I see a lot of runners, often females who are very deliberate in their style that just waste energy. You see things like wrist flicks like one already mentioned, pointy sprinter hands, and over striding/heel striking. The way to fix this junk is not to work on some concentration exercises, its to get them to understand that they need to run naturally on their forefoot(of course exercises can help them understand better but it shouldn't be overcomplicated) and run by feel. In this manner they wont overthink the stride, they will feel the natural feedback that their body gives them and you will see a proper stride take over. Exercises/weights might strengthen muscles and improve economy, but if you don't have the fitness you don't have anything.

Last thing I will add is that a lot of poor posture you see at the end of races is caused by mental suffering and not physical discomfort. Its the anxieties and the doubts that mess up our breathing and cause us to be begin to change ur running form, compensating for our difficulty getting in oxygen. Fatigue and pain are emotions. And therefore in my mind, the solution to poor form in the end of races is not concentrating on form, but toughening ones mind to allow them to stop fighting themselves and focus on the race. Not their form.

Just my two cents.

Um... judging from that post, you should probably listen to your coach.