What I find hilarious is the suggestions that she’s reached her ceiling, juxtaposed with the claims that her training is insufficient to maximize her potential. Both can’t be true. Make it make sense!
lol, good point, I agree!👍
I’m sure the matrix doesn’t know what to do with my posts, because I was a big Valby homer, but have recently been saying, in effect, “Houston, we have a problem.”
I have yet to find a pro runner at Valby’s level that displays such asymmetry between each leg’s recoil. She displays arm carriage asymmetry too, as some other pros do, to varying levels, but the leg recoil asymmetry is more troubling.
The reason it is more troubling is obviously, because she not only displaying such gross inefficiency, but she may actually have been running through a bit of an injury, and/or a more serious injury is lurking.
Valby said something in her post-race interview that I found a bit shocking (and I’m glad she shared it.). She said her coach told her to ‘get small’ when the pros pass her, and that she didn’t understand what they meant. I conclude we really are looking at a greenhorn situation, with regard to her, and the coach/athlete dynamic. I really wondered if that was Will Palmer saying that, or a different coach.
Her form has come a long way since high school, but Valby potentially has so much more capacity to improve with more extensive coaching and experience. They probably did the best they could with the ever increasing mileage and business of racing this past year.
The bolded part was not a knock on Palmer; it is hard to imagine how a Div I coach juggles all the athletes, while recruiting and everything else they do. Valby was just one of many of his athletes. Maybe if it was Palmer that gave the cue “ride the wave” when they pass and the more perplexing “get short”, the latter may have been a mantra he used with other athletes.
…but she is a fierce competitor, and I would not be at all surprised if she is dealing with a ‘niggle’ (injury?) and doesn’t want to reveal that.
But even if there currently is no pain with the leg recoil asymmetry, it nonetheless will manifest an inefficiency in running economy. And it always wasn’t there; this asymmetry is rather new, and with time and work, may eventually get rectified, and her times will start dropping again.
For example, possibly something dystonia related (e.g., Kara Goucher) might not manifest pain.
For some reason it almost pains me to talk about it, like casting pearls before swine, because she came so far, and gave us a very entertaining year. But unfortunately, if she actually does get to race Megan Keith this summer, I don’t think we will be seeing Parker’s best, unless a miracle happens, because as I said before, the abnormality that started showing up at Bryan Clay is still there. She has plateaued. Part of that is understandably due to the built up fatigue from a very long racing season, going back to cross-country, but the abnormality is also in-part cutting into her running economy.
I talked about it in a little more detail when someone also saw the abnormality in the Natty’s final. The custom paint job on her shoes really made it more apparent in that race.
I recently learned how to put together some little gif clips, so I’ll drop some here:
Parker Valby, 2024 Indoor Natty’s 5000m (in which she broke her collegiate record.) This clip is from the last 1600m she ran in 4:37.5.
The reason it is more troubling is obviously, because she not only displaying such gross inefficiency, but she may actually have been running through a bit of an injury, and/or a more serious injury is lurking.
Valby said something in her post-race interview that I found a bit shocking (and I’m glad she shared it.). She said her coach told her to ‘get small’ when the pros pass her, and that she didn’t understand what they meant. I conclude we really are looking at a greenhorn situation, with regard to her, and the coach/athlete dynamic. I really wondered if that was Will Palmer saying that, or a different coach.
Her form has come a long way since high school, but Valby potentially has so much more capacity to improve with more extensive coaching and experience. They probably did the best they could with the ever increasing mileage and business of racing this past year.
The bolded part was not a knock on Palmer; it is hard to imagine how a Div I coach juggles all the athletes, while recruiting and everything else they do. Valby was just one of many of his athletes. Maybe if it was Palmer that gave the cue “ride the wave” when they pass and the more perplexing “get short”, the latter may have been a mantra he used with other athletes.
I’ve heard the philosophy of shortening one’s stride late in a race. The theory is that a shorter stride with a faster turnover, is better than over striding.
The bolded part was not a knock on Palmer; it is hard to imagine how a Div I coach juggles all the athletes, while recruiting and everything else they do. Valby was just one of many of his athletes. Maybe if it was Palmer that gave the cue “ride the wave” when they pass and the more perplexing “get short”, the latter may have been a mantra he used with other athletes.
I’ve heard the philosophy of shortening one’s stride late in a race. The theory is that a shorter stride with a faster turnover, is better than over striding.
Maybe that is what the coach was wanting to convey. Thanks, that makes more sense. The exchange in the post-race interview went:
Q: It looked like you were starting to actually close the gap a little bit with 800 to go; you see that gap slowly inch back in; you know how hard is it to make sure you're just staying, keeping your form straight,… doing all the right things…
PV: Yeah, I was…my coach told me to “stay short and tall”, whatever that means? I was like “l'm already tall, I can't really be much shorter.” But I was just telling myself that, and to ‘ride the wave’.
