Will someone explain good form to me? I've heard so many different things.
Will someone explain good form to me? I've heard so many different things.
POSE
good form requires the following:
proper posture: Head, spine, pelvis aligned.
foot contacts: as close to under center of mass as possible, the further out in front the more braking that occurs. (long strides are indicative of how far the body flys per stride, not how far you can reach your foot in front of you). Heel toe striking is neither efficient nor strived for. Flat footed contacts in a rolling action are preferred. You won't see heel strikers winning medals in any event. Plus the faster you go the harder it is to heel strike.
force application (amount and direction): pushing on the ground (so the ground pushes back)directly related to the angle of the shin at touchdown. better force application is realized if posture and foot contact patterns are correct. force application (and force return) are enhanced by having stable joints and tendons so the force applied isn't lost while trying to move the body)
range of motion: dictated by quality of force application and speed of travel of center of mass. faster = larger amplitudes of movement. visualize a 100m runner vs an 800m runner vs marathoner.
arms mimic the relative range of motion of the legs.
lastly, keep the foot as close to under the COM at all times. No huge back kicks, and no huge reaches on the front side.
make yourself bounce!
More importantly, how to train to have good form...
Sprint. Sprint. Sprint.
Watch sprinters. They have almost no unecessary motion. Watch distance runners. You will see more unecessary motion. I knew a tallish runner who's lower limbs would flail out to either side.
Sprint to get your body to learn proper form.
Sprint uphill to get your body to learn proper form.
Watch Kenyan distance runners. Hill running has been a staple of their training since time began.
Alan
PIGGYBACKING ON DIS THREAD
My natural range of motion for my legs has my knees go a lot higher than most of my contemporaries, and as a result, I land my foot somewhat forward of my center of mass.
I though knee lift was good, but is landing under your center of mass better? Are you supposed to be able to have both?
good form is a minute or two faster in a 5km over someone who is strong, but never learned good form.
Some Coaches are too lazy to try to change you even if you have sloppy or wasteful form.
Find a coach with a good eye and a few decades of experience and ask them to analyze.
Put a camera on a tripod and videotape yourself, then go to youtube and watch videos of Bekele or Lagat. See the difference?
good observation.there are a lot of lazy and ignorant coaches out there who will not and can not begin to change poor form.i do not buy into the notion that your body will find its best most economical form. as a for instance, last week my wife and i spotted a guy running at a decent pace - the only way to describe his "form" is that he looked like he had a load of crap in his shorts. as we drove by, i told my wife about my observation - after busting up laughing, she agreed. any amount of form coaching for this guy would produce tremendous results.
older school wrote:
good form is a minute or two faster in a 5km over someone who is strong, but never learned good form.
Some Coaches are too lazy to try to change you even if you have sloppy or wasteful form.
Find a coach with a good eye and a few decades of experience and ask them to analyze.
Put a camera on a tripod and videotape yourself, then go to youtube and watch videos of Bekele or Lagat. See the difference?
Runningart2004 wrote:
More importantly, how to train to have good form...
Sprint. Sprint. Sprint.
Watch sprinters. They have almost no unecessary motion. Watch distance runners. You will see more unecessary motion. I knew a tallish runner who's lower limbs would flail out to either side.
Sprint to get your body to learn proper form.
Sprint uphill to get your body to learn proper form.
Watch Kenyan distance runners. Hill running has been a staple of their training since time began.
Alan
Very good post.
I'd go along with what he says. There are three key parts to this:
1. Watch world class runners. Watch how they are running. What is helping their performance (low shoulders, high posture etc). What is working against their performance (leaning forward, flappy arms, over-striding etc).
2. Get someone to watch you or even better video or take still photos with a motor drive. See what you are doing correctly and what you are doing incorrectly.
3. Practise. Get rid of the negative elements, introduce improvements. Recovery runs can be good times to work on both of these but you also need to think about them in your speed work as they must work under pressure. Get your coach or friend to point out things during speed sessions.
"PIGGYBACKING ON DIS THREAD
My natural range of motion for my legs has my knees go a lot higher than most of my contemporaries, and as a result, I land my foot somewhat forward of my center of mass.
I though knee lift was good, but is landing under your center of mass better? Are you supposed to be able to have both?"
If your foot is landing in front of your centre of gravity you are effectively putting the brakes on every step. However, I'd echo what others have said about getting a videocamera and a coach to confirm this is actually where your foot is striking.
And yes, knee lift is good, so long as you are getting it through mobility rather than leaning back - it's the angle between the front and back leg rather than te knee lift itself that's important.
For those advocating the use of video to view technique, I agree it will be useful - but for best effect have it either during a race or when the athlete in question does not know he/she is being filmed. Having the knowledge of being filmed means the athlete is likely to adjust stride mechanics for the video and not get the true picture of how their form usually is.
Good form is the form used by the guy who wins. Usually arrived at by running a hell of a lot and allowing the body to adjust on its own.
b.s. you are probably some lazy ass coach who doesn't know sh1t about proper mechanics. you majored in phys. ed. and the "professors" gave you the answers before the test ... there are too many guys like you out there coaching now. that crap doesn't work anymore.
Good form is Pat Petrerson..good form is Gary Romesser..
Get the film!
The problem is that we really don't know what good form is. Put that smooth looking guy in the lab and he might be less efficient than some guy that looks like he is all over the road.Studies have shown that fixing form does not lead to efficiency gains. Now that could be a study error (maybe it needed to track the person for a year instead of 12 weeks). But there is also a theory that a lot of the idiosyncrasy of runners are to correct for anatomical imbalances.Now there are a few things that help everyone (some core strength, running fast) but that is a bit different than trying to do a complete form overview.
Foot Fetish Family wrote:
b.s. you are probably some lazy ass coach who doesn't know sh1t about proper mechanics. you majored in phys. ed. and the "professors" gave you the answers before the test ... there are too many guys like you out there coaching now. that crap doesn't work anymore.
Studies have shown that HGH doesn't improve athletic performance. Which we all know is BS.
qaw wrote:
Good form is Pat Petrerson..good form is Gary Romesser..
Get the film!
I've never seen those guys run but I can add to this:
Good form is Sebastian Coe. Good form is Wilson Kipketer. Good form is Ibrahim Hussein
Good Form
me
Good Form
myself
Good Form
I
Good Form
Me Myself and I
ughhhhhhh wrote:
Will someone explain good form to me? I've heard so many different things.
Good form is the term for the precise running mechanics that move you from A to B more efficiently than any other variation of those mechanics.
It varies amongst individuals, but not as much as you would think. It's not a coincidence that most elite runners have similar form, and that most of them have form that "looks good".
My half-baked ideas on developing good form:
Rather than "think" of "good form" while you're running (e.g. "hips forward", etc.), it's better to learn to "feel" it.
Paraphrasing Malmo here: "You should "feel" Kung Fu, not "think" it".
In my experience, there are several key things that improve form/running efficiency/stride power/however you want to think of it:
-LOTS of easy-moderate running (practice makes perfect):
I say "easy-moderate" because I don't think it's ever good to go so slow that the mechanics no longer mimic those that you would use in an actual race.
-Drills, plyometrics, hills, body-weight exercises, and OTHER sports (casually, of course):
these will keep your musculature well-rounded and evenly balanced and help you avoid any extreme imbalances and therefore peculiarities in your form. IMO 99.99999% cases of poor form are due to some kind of muscular imbalance where one set of muscles is substantially weaker than it's antagonist set.
-Running at all paces. And when I say that I mean more pure speed. A lot of distance runners (or maybe just the ones I advise, who knows) get caught up in their "pure distance" image and refuse to do pure speed because they're "not speed guys". Well guess what, to be a good athlete you have to be good at, or at least work on, pretty much everything. Also, contrary to popular belief, you can't magically develop 51 second 400m speed in the last 4 weeks of the season as a distance runner. You gotta work on it all the time, which means some short fast stuff with full recovery at least once a week year round. Oh, and it improves your form too (alright!).
Don't even worry about good form. Do the proper training and high enough mileage, and your form will naturally adjust to its most efficient for your particular body.
You're welcome.
