When a coach yells to their athlete "open up your stride" is that bad advice?

xfatfox wrote:

Are these other coaches wrong about opening up your stride? Is it a combination of stride length and rate? What should I be telling my kids at the final half mile of the race?

Look at whatever part of their form is falling apart. Common things: relax the shoulders, head down, drive the arms, lean forward, etc.

Or point out where they are against key competition: catch that blue jersey, we win the meet, etc.

Other than that, I don't know. I've always found the cheering for athletes thing to be a little rough. I can't be one of those guys who enthusiastically yells 'Go Bruce!' for 45 seconds straight, and I always feel weird with the 'Great job, Kathy, you're looking great, when they're obviously running terribly.' Maybe I should just say, 'you're running a little bit better than how bad you feel right now, but keep trucking, you've got more in you.' Except that they'd never hear all of that...

.. and I always feel weird with the 'Great job, Kathy, you're looking great,' when they're obviously running terribly.

I misplaced the quotation mark the first time around.

Personally I don't listen to things people say at all. There's a boost from hearing people cheering, and that's about it. I don't think anyone's "opening" their stride anyway and wouldn't know what that meant if my coach said it to me.

I think it's kind of irrelevant what a coach yells during the latter stages of a race, other than giving some form of encouragement. Certainly giving technical advice is misplaced, as that is appropriate during practice and not during a meet.

Furthermore, discussing opening up your stride, especially to young athletes most likely will cause them to over stride, so that they get squatty and pull their body forward instead of driving (pushing) their body forward. As discussed in some other threads a shorter, more compact stride will benefit a runner more than trying to reach out and take large strides.

Be thankful those coaches are not helping your athletes. I always loved it when a coach would show up the day before a meet and have his athletes run up the largest hill on the course 8-10 times to have them get used to the hills for the race. Did wonders for the team the next day....

As long as they don't yell "Pace yourself!" What does that even mean?

Although 90+% of the cheers are filtered out, I do appreciate the technical advice. If anything, it helps you draw connections to your former motivating thoughts and thus helps you focus.

Disagree, focusing on technical stuff makes you think too much. When racing, you focus on competing and not on how your form is, other than perhaps relaxing instead of pressing.

You are right, though, in that most yelling is a blur....

thebooyahmonkey wrote:

Look at whatever part of their form is falling apart. Common things: relax the shoulders, head down, drive the arms, lean forward, etc.

Good advice except for the "head down" part. Not a competitive stature. You're not racing the ground. Focus on who you are chasing!

A Skeptic wrote:

As long as they don't yell "Pace yourself!" What does that even mean?

Lol that's a good one but I hate it more when people yell "KEEP RUNING" like wtf else am I going to do?

As long as they're going downhill, it doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. lol

Nope, not so. Going down hill you want to make sure you keep your stride so you stay under your center of gravity. Opening up your stride will only cause you to brake, as you hit heal first.

not as bad... wrote:

Lol that's a good one but I hate it more when people yell "KEEP RUNING" like wtf else am I going to do?

You can dooo it...

At an XC meet once that I was watching, someone was yelling "Use your arms! Use your arms!"

So I yelled, "Use your legs! Use your legs!"

I think telling the runner to drive the knees is a good thing

vooooooooookjnk wrote:

I think telling the runner to drive the knees is a good thing

A distance runner? Maybe at the end of the race, but not otherwise.

hmmmmmm wrote:

vooooooooookjnk wrote:

I think telling the runner to drive the knees is a good thing

A distance runner? Maybe at the end of the race, but not otherwise.

"COME ON GET TOUGH CATCH THOSE TURKEYS!!!!"

I'm not a coach but I go to a lot of meets to watch. I like to tell runners they are "looking good" and that they can catch so many runners ahead of him. During the last mile,that is all you should be thinking about anyway.

False. You're going to brake nonetheless.

hmmmmmm wrote:

vooooooooookjnk wrote:

I think telling the runner to drive the knees is a good thing

A distance runner? Maybe at the end of the race, but not otherwise.

Isn't that what the original poster was talking about? At the end of the race...

If you watch Haile Geb close a 10k, he has a great stride and great knee lift. He almost looks like he's running a 100 meter sprint technique wise.