K Bekele's Form: 180 degree inversion of foot

Bekele has a higher back-kick, and he rotates his foot relative to his lower leg. Those two result in the sole of the foot rotating 180.

Slow The F Down wrote:

This has little to do with sprinting mechanics v. distance mechanics. Watch Powells' foot after 3:00, doesn't go past 140 degrees:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRZvlQTTCMg

Bekele is just a freak of nature.

Powell [in the video] isn't run full stride. He is pulling his leg back down to get the next stride going as fast as possible. Other sprinters back legs raise much higher. Here is a slow-mo video of several sprinters with close to 180 degree foot rotations.

It's like a street fighter special attack, right?

Is this something a better high schooler/d1 athlete someone should look to work on some how? Foot inversion?

I'm fairly sure it all comes from the hips. It takes incredible hip flexor/quad flexibility to attain that sort of knee flexion and hip extension for such a prolonged period of time. Even during the marathon he was maintaining it.

Try standing up and raising your heel towards your butt. Don't cheat by bring your knee forward. Most people will barely get beyond 90 degrees of knee bend unless they reach back and grab their foot.

Google 'the couch stretch' by Kelly Starrett for a great hip opening stretch.

Hbwl wrote:

I think it's simply a matter of leg length/levers. He has very short, stout legs. Farah and Geb and Rupp, etc., all have longer legs. It is quite impressive, as I have not seen another athlete be able to have that mobility.

This. Duncan Kibet, 2:04 guy and the all-time daisy-clipper of elite marathoners, barely lifted his heels. There is great footage of him racing James Kwambai to the line in marathon, and Kwambai is more like Bekele, while Kibet has the Tergat lope.

lipstick on a pig wrote:

dfdsfsdf wrote:

Can someone explain to me what a "180 degree inversion of foot" means?

The article explains it but maybe I can clarify it: At the uppermost point of Bekele's back kick, his foot is facing upward and away from the surface he's running on, but at an angle close to, or actually parallel to said surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0jvxx55J_8

I had seen this before, but what is interesting is he is definitely a mid foot strikers but his left foot looks like the heel lands first sometimes.

What do you guys mean when you say Bekele has really good strength/power?

Does that mean he is really strong for his size and able to lift a lot at a gym for a runner?

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

he is definitely a mid foot strikers but his left foot looks like the heel lands first sometimes.

Only because of the heel lifts in the shoes.

miss these guys wrote:

Hbwl wrote:

I think it's simply a matter of leg length/levers. He has very short, stout legs. Farah and Geb and Rupp, etc., all have longer legs. It is quite impressive, as I have not seen another athlete be able to have that mobility.

This. Duncan Kibet, 2:04 guy and the all-time daisy-clipper of elite marathoners, barely lifted his heels. There is great footage of him racing James Kwambai to the line in marathon, and Kwambai is more like Bekele, while Kibet has the Tergat lope.

What on earth does "all-time daisy-clipper" mean? I find the term pretty amusing without knowing.

Duncan Kibet seems like a boss:

A daisy clipper is a term used for a racehorse with low action in front where the feet clip the heads off daisies rather than going up and over.

disgraceful_admin wrote:

miss these guys wrote:

This. Duncan Kibet, 2:04 guy and the all-time daisy-clipper of elite marathoners, barely lifted his heels. There is great footage of him racing James Kwambai to the line in marathon, and Kwambai is more like Bekele, while Kibet has the Tergat lope.

What on earth does "all-time daisy-clipper" mean? I find the term pretty amusing without knowing.

Duncan Kibet seems like a boss:

http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/1b9f4f86b2df4e6588a01503e9619b6e/epa01688746-duncan-kibet-of-kenya-arrives-at-the-finish-in-first-place-fnghfb.jpghttp://laxcrossfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/duncan-kibet-1rm-clean.jpghttp://www.runblogrun.com/images/Kibet_DuncanWall1-Berlin09-thumb.jpg

I just meant that even at speed his feet never appear to be more than inches of the ground (relative to a Bekele, who always looks to be sprinting). Crazy low/long trail leg mechanics.

Kibet is an all-time favorite. Solo trainer. Total oddball.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

lipstick on a pig wrote:

The article explains it but maybe I can clarify it: At the uppermost point of Bekele's back kick, his foot is facing upward and away from the surface he's running on, but at an angle close to, or actually parallel to said surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0jvxx55J_8

I had seen this before, but what is interesting is he is definitely a mid foot strikers but his left foot looks like the heel lands first sometimes.

Not only that, but it looks like only is left foot is fully "inverted" 180 degrees (if not more). His right foot doesn't look like it quite gets parallel to the ground, although it is close.

Unbridled's Song wrote:

A daisy clipper is a term used for a racehorse with low action in front where the feet clip the heads off daisies rather than going up and over.

Exactly.

Check the Kibet vs Kwambai finish, 2:04 in Rotterdam 2009. Amazing battle and great case study in completely different backside mechanics at the same speed.

When my daughter ran track there was a high school freshman on her team (10:30 2 mile as a freshman) who ran like this.

Further investigation wrote:

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

he is definitely a mid foot strikers but his left foot looks like the heel lands first sometimes.

Only because of the heel lifts in the shoes.

? This is before the London marathon.

If you evaluate Usain Bolt's stride...he has an uncannily similar high back kick as Bekele, even though he is about a foot taller, with much longer legs. Bekele somehow has ingrained this form and can sustain it through a marathon. I suspect the best was to "develop" Bekele's stride is to do a lot of sprint drills? Anyone have any idea what type of drills would someone like Usain Bolt does on a regular basis?

JohnnyUtah wrote:

If you evaluate Usain Bolt's stride...he has an uncannily similar high back kick as Bekele, even though he is about a foot taller, with much longer legs. Bekele somehow has ingrained this form and can sustain it through a marathon. I suspect the best was to "develop" Bekele's stride is to do a lot of sprint drills? Anyone have any idea what type of drills would someone like Usain Bolt does on a regular basis?

There is an article online (NY Times perhaps or the New Yorker) where Salazar commissioned MJ Performance to look at Bekele and they concluded that he ran distance races with a sprinters technique.

JohnnyUtah wrote:

If you evaluate Usain Bolt's stride...he has an uncannily similar high back kick as Bekele, even though he is about a foot taller, with much longer legs. Bekele somehow has ingrained this form and can sustain it through a marathon. I suspect the best was to "develop" Bekele's stride is to do a lot of sprint drills? Anyone have any idea what type of drills would someone like Usain Bolt does on a regular basis?

Maybe drills. Maybe hills.

You definitely wouldn't want to consciously try to change your stride to his. Specifically, I think a drill where you try to run with high foot inversion would actually make you worse at foot inversion while running and hinder proper biomechanics. So to get high foot inversion, forget about it while running and just train properly.

I suspect doing lots of drills including running/sprinting backwards and jumping forwards and backwards could strengthen the necessary musculature. Notice how you have to have high foot lift to run backwards, while at the same time it's almost impossible to practice inversion at the expense of useful movement and speed. Also, practicing running very very steep short hills until you can jog up them aerobically without muscle fatigue.

Mainly, developing and practicing a 90 minute circuit of drills including the above and doing this circuit most days a week might do the trick. There's a lot of potential for muscular strength that most runners don't tap into.

All of the above could be nonsense, I have no idea.