Should Mo Farah's stride be changed?

Yeah, holmes just sets the European HM record...let's change his stride.

form guy wrote:

More naturally means he's not concentrating on bouncing all the time. Right now he runs with a bounce each and every stride. I use the term concentration intentionally because the body wouldn't run like that if on its own. Mo is injecting his own style into his run which is, albeit to a small degree, hampering his efficiency. If he were to let go and let his body run without the bounce I'm certain that his times would increase and certainly his potential in the marathon would be better.

We all know what natural looks like. Its just looks right- it looks pretty and smooth as if their body is running for them. Think Bekele, Rupp, Jordan McNamara. Simple and smooth.

That's because he's RUNNING. You must be thinking of race walking.

I'm not sure why he would want to change and increase his times according to your suggestions. Most people are trying to decrease their times when running although some think there is a medal for being visually pleasing.

Dude, there's this thing called gravity. It exerts 9.8 N/kg on runners and they push back 9.8 N/kg, averaged throughout the course of their runs. No one wastes more or less energy than another Bouncing up and down or whatever. Mo's form is fine.

I'm getting a lot of hate for this and I'm going to consolidate my argument for the last time.

The original question that was posed was "SHOULD Mo Farah's be changed". I did not say it should be changed, I simply wanted to ask the question and have a mature discussion about this. I understand people think I am being a curmudgeon and picking on something that doesn't matter given the fact this runner has just come off a record breaking half marathon win. I am aware of this. It is simply a discussion as per my own curiosity.

Mo's stride is long. This is undoubtable. His turnover is slower than what is considered natural; that is, the way the body would run it it were a machine. The way it was exactly designed to move. If there no "being" inside that body how would it run? Would it run like Mo? I am saying it would not.

Does this matter? I don't know. Logically, I would think marginally- We don't control our breathing. Our brains breathe for us. If we were to control our breathing all day it would leave us feeling terrible. We'd be completely messing up our bodies natural levels of O2 and CO2. I think there something similar when mo runs. He looks like he is controlling his run rather than LETTING HIS BODY RUN. DOES THIS MATTER? PROBABLY NOT. It begs the question howeverwhen it comes to the half seconds NOP are trying to drop.

A great example of something similar to this happening is in cycling. This is an excerpt of an article found about Lance armstrong pedalling technique going from a masher to a spinner. He even managed to have success with a less than ideal technique (drugs were involved) eventually changing to a innovative spinning technique which changed the peloton forever:

"First, a "masher" can win the world championship road race, as Armstrong did in 1993 when he was notorious for his rough-but-powerful pedal stroke. Second, a ragged pedaler can learn to pedal smoothly. Armstrong changed his pedaling style from low-cadence and jerky to high-cadence and smooth in the 6 years between his World Championship and the first of his 7 Tour De France wins."

In the doping era of cycling, you would hear stories of athletes racing hills in the biggest ring mashing at 35 rpm- guys like Chris Froome now pedal at 100-120 rpm. Since EPO has become less of an issue, athletes have changed their biomechanics to a more "natural" high cadence technique.

So Mo Farah is a great runner- There is no debate there. Could he reap marginal gains from a mild change of stride, getting rid of his bounce- PLAUSIBLY.

There you go haters, let me have it...

Your a moran

Isaac Einstein wrote:

Dude, there's this thing called gravity. It exerts 9.8 N/kg on runners and they push back 9.8 N/kg, averaged throughout the course of their runs. No one wastes more or less energy than another Bouncing up and down or whatever. Mo's form is fine.

That amount of force is exerted when the runner is standing still. Jumping and landing higher involve more force.

Higher bounce also reduces cadence.

Isaac Einstein wrote:

Dude, there's this thing called gravity. It exerts 9.8 N/kg on runners and they push back 9.8 N/kg, averaged throughout the course of their runs. No one wastes more or less energy than another Bouncing up and down or whatever. Mo's form is fine.

Must not have taken a physics course yet. The acceleration due to gravity is 9.81m/s^2. The unit of force is a Newton(N) which is Mass*Acceleration whose unit is kg*m/s^2.

You're crazy. Yes mo has a bouncy style but that, like most things, brings both good and bad stuff.

Yes he 'wastes' energy. But that bouncy, sideways move also means he can create more power (energy). Usually that would be more suited to a shorter distance, but then again, his best time for now is in the 1500!

a guy like Ayanleh Souleiman has a style very similar to Mo, going a bit to the left, to the right, but still running incredibly, unbelievably fast.

HardLoper wrote:

What bouncing?

Do you want a definition?

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

sadfqw wrote:

His stride rate is lower than some of his competitors, and that is less efficient because you loose elastic return with too low a stride rate.

sure, maybe with very low stride, but Mo isn't near that low.

Rudisha has a very low stride rate for his event (similar to Mo's). About 180 spm

Komen did too. (about 180)

Mo is around this level too.

3 of the greatest runners ever. And you are worried his efficiency??? C'mon.

Covering a lot of ground with each stride, and having less impacts is not "inefficient" per se.

Utter BS.

Rmusings strides well over 200 spm. Count for yourself.

You're a liar wrote:

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

sure, maybe with very low stride, but Mo isn't near that low.

Rudisha has a very low stride rate for his event (similar to Mo's). About 180 spm

Komen did too. (about 180)

Mo is around this level too.

3 of the greatest runners ever. And you are worried his efficiency??? C'mon.

Covering a lot of ground with each stride, and having less impacts is not "inefficient" per se.

Utter BS.

Rmusings strides well over 200 spm. Count for yourself.

Excuse me? "Rmusings" ??? If you somehow meant Rudisha, guess what, I've counted several times, and midway through his 800's, he strides near 180 spm (not much more). Incredibly long stride.

So you're incorrect.

The fact pointed out on letsrun recently about how 50 people have broken one hour in the Half-Marathon and 35 have broken 3:30 in the 1,500 (those figures aren't right, but they're ballpark and I'm too lazy to look it up), and Mo Farah being the only person to do both, is as Impressive a stat as I've heard about a distance runner in a long, long time. So you want to question his funning FORM? Seriously... Some people...

Knower of form wrote:

You're crazy. Yes mo has a bouncy style but that, like most things, brings both good and bad stuff.

Yes he 'wastes' energy. But that bouncy, sideways move also means he can create more power (energy). Usually that would be more suited to a shorter distance, but then again, his best time for now is in the 1500!

a guy like Ayanleh Souleiman has a style very similar to Mo, going a bit to the left, to the right, but still running incredibly, unbelievably fast.

The reason Mo's stride is more bouncy is because it's a longer stride.

It should be obvious to anyone capable of logical thought.

2 Olympic Gold Medals ( So far) - I wish my form sucked as bad as Mo Farah's does.

No more medals for Mo'pe it seems.

Oh my god: "Rmusings." I'm at work...cracking up in my cubicle. "Rmusings!" I hope Trexing gets back to us about this.

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

You're a liar wrote:

Utter BS.

Rmusings strides well over 200 spm. Count for yourself.

Excuse me? "Rmusings" ??? If you somehow meant Rudisha, guess what, I've counted several times, and midway through his 800's, he strides near 180 spm (not much more). Incredibly long stride.

So you're incorrect.

You're a liar wrote:

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

sure, maybe with very low stride, but Mo isn't near that low.

Rudisha has a very low stride rate for his event (similar to Mo's). About 180 spm

Komen did too. (about 180)

Mo is around this level too.

3 of the greatest runners ever. And you are worried his efficiency??? C'mon.

Covering a lot of ground with each stride, and having less impacts is not "inefficient" per se.

Utter BS.

Rmusings strides well over 200 spm. Count for yourself.

I would also add that the 800 being almost a sprint makes it a little different. Komen is a legitimate comparison. Komen never ran a WR 10,000 or marathon. Maybe that's because of his crazy trajectory and short career, and maybe he wouldn't have been as fast at those distances.

To answer the OP's question, no, Mo should not change his stride. He's the best in the world, and it would be crazy to do so. However, I don't believe Mo's stride is conducive to setting a WR in the marathon like Haile G did. I'm not sure it's conducive to setting a WR in the 10,000 either. But who cares? He should keep doing what he's best at.

Does anyone think he should stop doing what he's best at? If so, would you also have liked to see Edwin Moses try the steeple?

form guy wrote:

Also interesting to note that as someone has already mentioned, many of the african runners run with an odd looking side tilt as if it this were created when they were children carrying a load to school.

Most Africans live in towns or villages within a short walk of a school. You really need to stop reading 1990s RW back issues.