Steve Cram running form

Perfect from side view. Some ungainliness from sideview. But it worked! Nobody ever had PERFECT form.

The problem was from the front. See the photo on page 26 of "Better Training for Distance Runners," with his foot turned SIDEWAYS. Hurts even to look at.

Peter Coe: Cram had a basic biomechanical problem. His problem was foot placement. In motion, Cram looks marvellous from a side view, but often looks ungainly head-on, especially when he starts to roll like Zatopek. When he's fatigued, he's calling on other muscles to help take the strain, and this adds to the temporary impression of tiredness.

Jimmy Hedley: The problem with Steve is that, more than most, he runs off his toes. This means he has huge calf muscles, like a footballer. They're big because of the power he's developing. He gets more propulsion from his calf than others runners do, so ironically his strength is his weakness. He has regularly encountered muscle tears when running at his limit.

Thats one of the problems I had with that book. Coe's foot is NOT on the ground, is it? :) See Coe at the end of his 1:41.

what does it say on Steve Cram's shirt?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97MDSTmF_Cg

a 10 minute mile is just as far as a 6 minute mile

personally I think Seb Coe had the best form of anyone I've seen. Just watch him sprint at end of the 1980 1500 Olympic final. Pretty close to perfect.

If a human ever resembled a race horse...it is Steve Cram. Greatest combination of kneelift and leg turnover - ever???

Cram ran as if he was a high jumper. Incredible how fluid his form is despite the foot placement. Very similar to El G ,with just a touch more spring to his stride..

I agree that Cram had a very efficient stride.

In the same vein, did you notice how smooth El Gerrouj was in the last lap of the 1500 meters at the 2004 Olympics? He looked incredibly relaxed. I don't see how a guy can look that fluid over the last lap while in a desperate fight for the gold medal.

If we are talking about form, it's very hard to go past Wilson Kipketer when he's in full stride. I have never seen anyone as relaxed as he was when he won the World Champs in 1995. In 1997 his form was incredible in ever race, including his 5 WR's (yes I know one was just an =WR).

Guppy wrote:

personally I think Seb Coe had the best form of anyone I've seen. Just watch him sprint at end of the 1980 1500 Olympic final. Pretty close to perfect.

Ditto. Coe has (had?) the best running form of any middle distance runner in history IMHO.

Twice Oly 1500M champ & twice Oly 800M runner up speaks volumes in that regard.

nobody as smooth as Kipketer in his prime.

Guppy wrote:

personally I think Seb Coe had the best form of anyone I've seen. Just watch him sprint at end of the 1980 1500 Olympic final. Pretty close to perfect.

Who would have thought that considering he was nicknamed coathanger when he was young? Perhaps doing all those sprint drills was worthwhile after all.

Crammy looked great in full flow. I've got footage of his mile WR and going down the back straight he looked awesome - no wonder Coe couldn't close him down.

Coe was better.

But it has to be Kipketer everytime.

I concur. Wilson Kipketer, grace under pressure.

In the same leauge:

200 Wallace Spearmon, Allyson Felix

400 Wariner

800 Kipketer

1500 Hicham El Gerrouj

5k Tirunesh Dibaba

10k Haile G

XC Kenny Bekele

kempy wrote:

10k Haile G

XC Kenny Bekele

I totally agree with Geb & Bekele. Just awesome. You wanna see fluidity, watch the beginning of "Endurance" the movie, when Geb is running alongside the road being filmed from the truck (where they said it was difficult to film because he kept "racing" them :-) ). The terrain is very rough that he is running on, yet he flows over it as smoothly as running on even pavement.

I know that he runs with a lot of motion because he is so tall and lanky, but watching Tergat's powerful strides from the waist down when he is cooking along is a beautiful thing.