Webb was also landing on his heel, in effect slowing himself down.
“We want to eliminate his braking motion,” Salazar says. “We want to no longer detect any forces coming back. With Galen, there are no forces going back. With Alan, there still are. It’s like having a tire with a nail in it.
That's good to hear. Anyone who heel strikes will eventually get some type of injury (possibly one that is debilitating and career ending).
I know from experience that anyone who is a forefoot striker will eventually get an injury like Achilles problems, PF, or possibly 2nd metatarsal stress fracture.
Four Horsemen wrote:
That's good to hear. Anyone who heel strikes will eventually get some type of injury (possibly one that is debilitating and career ending).
Nonsense. Typical letsrun biomechanics misinformation.
What Salazar is refering to is a normal reaction in running, which changes constantly. When you are tired, there are opposing muscle reactions (inhibitors) which slows you down to minimize increasing fatigue.
One of the skills we develop as we improve is the ability to minimize these opposing forces for longer and longer periods of time.
However, every runner is different. A point which is lost on the letsrun biomechanics wannabe gurus.
Wow, you've almost convinced me that heel striking is okay.
Four Horsemen wrote:
That's good to hear. Anyone who heel strikes will eventually get some type of injury (possibly one that is debilitating and career ending).
On second thoughts, looking at your name Four Horsemen, I can see you were being satirical.
Who nominated you as the expert? FYI, you are and sound like the rest of the wannabe letsrun gurus, expect worse because you feel it necessary to do it with EGO! Way to go EGO MAN!!
I debunk the nonsense. That's what I do, get over it.
wellnow wrote:
What Salazar is refering to is a normal reaction in running, which changes constantly. When you are tired, there are opposing muscle reactions (inhibitors) which slows you down to minimize increasing fatigue.
One of the skills we develop as we improve is the ability to minimize these opposing forces for longer and longer periods of time.
Could you expand on what you're saying here?
Depending on the pace, striking near the heel isn't so much of an issue. A pronounced heel strike would be a problem, as it would be symptomatic of the foot being far ahead of a runner's center of gravity (COG).
It seems to me (from what I've read) that he is focusing on moving Webb and Ritz's COG forward, as opposed to actively controlling their foot strike. Do you agree?
Changing Webb's bio-mechanics is just a bad idea. It will result in less efficiency and more injuries. Once someone gets a certain stride and form and has put in 1000s of hours of muscle memory to alter that is foolhardy.
Sad Sack wrote:
Changing Webb's bio-mechanics is just a bad idea. It will result in less efficiency and more injuries. Once someone gets a certain stride and form and has put in 1000s of hours of muscle memory to alter that is foolhardy.
He had achilles surgery... they may have no choice.
When your foot lands in front of your center of gravity then, as you know it exerts a braking force. The more accurate the movements, the less this will happen until eventually you get tired and the movement have to be altered to prevent/minimize muscle damage.
Runners who heel strike don't actually do a pronounced heel strike, it is really an extremly subtle movement of the foot positioning itself to roll forwards and inwards.
I think any such testing can only measure what is happening at that particular moment, but not necessarily what is happening in training and racing. Also, biomechanics are not the same from one surface to another, and they also obviously differ between flat running, uphill and downhill. They also change during a race and at different paces.
The bottom line is: we should aim improve running skills by doing the best training and racing program that we can. There are always improvements to be made.
I think Webb's problem is maybe a lack of confidence and motivation. He is surely the US middle and long distance runner of the last decade and it must be very hard for him to get those feeling back.
I doubt Salazar or Nike have any support backing up their science/results. I'd guess they are shooting from the hip on this one.
Besides, last I heard there is no way to test this stuff anyway! ;-)
To change or not: Salazar, Ritzenhein, and running form changes
flyswatta wrote:
“We want to eliminate his braking motion,” Salazar says. “We want to no longer detect any forces coming back. With Galen, there are no forces going back. With Alan, there still are. It’s like having a tire with a nail in it.
That is a mistake, because Salazar is talking about PUSHING BACK with the forefoot instead of landing and vaulting. The more into the landing, the more BEHIND the body is the foot.
Landing on the forefoot, instead of the heel, causes more force to be on the ground IN FRONT of the body. This force IN FRONT of the body causes braking, not landing with increasing pressure BEHIND.
This is not to be confused with shoes that have a high build of up heel materia, which of course should not be worn ever. Most improper landing/running comes from the badly made shoes.
Four Horsemen wrote:
That's good to hear. Anyone who heel strikes will eventually get some type of injury (possibly one that is debilitating and career ending).
Insightful post! Are you 12 years old, by any chance?
flash2pan wrote:
Besides, last I heard there is no way to test this stuff anyway! ;-)
Not true. I was a test subject in grad school for a biomechanics study. There are inserts that you can put into just about any normal size of athletic shoe, which are full of pressure sensors and accelerometers. Not only can they very easily see from stride to stride what parts of your foot exert the greatest forces against the ground (the bottom of the shoe), they can now tell the direction(s) of those forces. This can be mapped in 4d basically (3d and over time) to see what kinds of forces your feet are exerting throughout the stride. I did this back in about 1999. Technology must have moved WAY forward since then.
How far out from November 7 would you say the half-marathon might fall?
DR: Between a month and two months, somewhere in there.
Looks like Ritz will be running a half sometime in the next few weeks.
Incorrect.
Ryan hall talking about foot strike.... Interesting watch I guess