Why, God, Why? WHY WHY WHY Do People Insist On Passing On The Curve Indoors?!?!?!?

Sometimes it is the best choice, given the alternatives.

If you’re boxed in or out, (especially in the later stages of the race) why not make a move if people are running slower? Better to pass on the outside than to end up staying in the same place or running a slower time.

Passing on the outside of the curve can demoralize your opponents

Agree with u. I think some people go when they get the energy or the notion. somewhere pride and ego override good sense. unless it's impatience with traffic & u gotta take an opening.

Old coaches that think they know everything. You are allowed to pass on the turns. Happens quite often with success.

Savvy indoor runners will increase the pace on the straights, making a move to pass much more difficult...

My old roommate Ray Brown won USA Indoors in the 800m four times by going straight to the front and making it VERY difficult to pass him; he'd speed up on the straights and ease up slightly on the turns... Granted, much of his racing was done on 160yd tracks - which changes the dynamic to a certain extent.

The straight is only about 50 meters. If you're a few feet behind someone, and you want to make a pass and end up a few feet in front of them, it takes some time to go several feet further than them unless you accelerate really quickly, which is a good way to blow yourself up if it's not the end of a race. And if people can only pass on the straight it's fairly easy to just fend someone off on the straight and then slow up again on the curve so they can't pass, which again means your best opportunity is to pass on the curve after they slow down since they sped up to fend you off on the straight.

Because I think I have a better shot to win if I run ~152 meters over the last 3/4th of a lap instead of leaving it to the final 50 where I'd have to make up 2 meters.

Basic physics. Centrifugal force provides a "slingshot" action to pull you around the curve. Why would you not take advantage of this?

Actually 35m for a standard 200m indoor track. Doesn't leave much distance to back off slightly (so you don't get tangled up with the lead runners' stride), move out, throw in a surge (which the lead runner will probably respond to), get a full stride ahead, and move back in. It's better in many situations to start on the curve and use your momentum to complete the pass on the straight than start on the straight and get stuck trying to finish on the curve, when you're at a disadvantage. The ol' shake-n-bake.

1) What

Centrifugal force wants you to continue into the stands.

I raced most of my track races on a banked 200m track. The straights are very short, and most people speed up when you try to pass them. What happened a lot of the time is you'd try to pass someone on the straight, they'd speed up, and before you could get in front of them, you'd be on the turn again, where they'd immediately slow down.

I found what worked best for me was to go to the outside of lane 1 at the start of the curve, then into lane 2 when you were like 2/3 of the way around the curve, use the downhill part to get some free acceleration, pass whoever you can on the straight, and then tuck in before the curve.

Also if you ever run on a banked 200m track, you owe it to yourself to go out into lane 3 on a turn and fly down the other side. It's not a good racing strategy, but it's a completely different feeling to any other race you've run.

Because t's a 200m track. They don't have the luxury of time and space/distance.

I agree with you and it's the reason I don't think Bol is a total cinch in Glasgow, despite the time edge. She tried to pass on the curve and got stuck in lane 2 for the entirety of the semifinal in 2022 against Stephanie McPherson. When Bol gets nervous she has a tendency to tie up. The race looked very similar to the end of the mixed relay last year. It's just a matter of whether or not Alexis Holmes can get a good lane in the final and beat Bol to the break:

The straight is so short you'd have to accelerate (rate of increasing speed/pace) really hard to get by someone trying to hold you off passing only on the straight. As anyone who knows cars or bikes knows, you need power (measured in horsepower or kilowatts in cars, watts in cycling) to accelerate hard. Most people don't have that peak power, or if they do, it's their one move and then they are done. If you accelerate over a longer distance that takes you into the curves, so you are hoping your sustained power is good enough to pass someone because your peak power isn't high enough to do it quickly.

When you gotta move you gotta move. I agree that it’s inefficient, but sometimes it just has to happen. One of the best moves I ever made was in the middle of the turn. I remember the two leaders were pulling away as 400m to-go approached. I was in 5th and 3rd and 4th were doing the classic MJ moonwalk. I remember saying in my head F this, and went to race. Ended up with a win, had I waited any longer it would have been too much to make up. When you gotta move, go with everything.

That's not a force, that's inertia.

2 things:

1) Some of these takes don't make sense. "People speed up when you try to pass them" (on the straights). Okay, but they can do the same thing on the curve AND they get to go a shorter distance than the person trying to pass. It's the same idea but now they also have math in their favor.

2) Your whole second paragraph is exactly what I would do. Try to pass on the very beginning of the straight and get into lane 1 before the next curve. But that's not passing on the curve. I'm talking about when people try to go from behind someone to in front of someone in one curve. Like going into the curve they're already swinging out into lane 2. It almost never works unless you're just on a completely different level, like a 44 guy passing a 47 guy. Even then it might make the race way closer than it should be because you're giving the other guy an advantage.

Said the guy who obviously failed physics.