Why do Japanese women marathoners run with their arms down

So now I'm curious... wrote:

Is it at all related to the way characters run in anime?

I'm not even joking. Not that they emulate anime, that'd be ridiculous, but the other way around. Like, is this just the way they run?

Of course, it probably has something to do with ease of animation or it's simply a feature of the anime style (no different than angular hair, round eyes), but it *is* interesting that the nation of anime produces RL, professional runners with similar, ostensibly inefficient arm carriages.

Or like the Power Rangers. They always ran with their arms down, with one held slightly forward and one held slightly back.

Kid running after kipchoge wrote:

This is their coach who invented this technique

http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/thumb/8/8c/G1_cartoon_Rumble_piledrivers.JPG/220px-G1_cartoon_Rumble_piledrivers.JPG

Grad A stuff

As some guys have already explained (with Japan Running News quotation), it's Suzuki AC ï½° one of Japanese corp T&F team ï½° 's strategy. And yes, they do it to save energy. They call it Ninja style.

Those two women, Ando and Kiyota, run for Suzuki and train under same coach. While the other, Shigetomo, is from another team. This is why two of them ran like that and one didn't. So, no, not a trend among whole Japanese marathoners.

It is said they learnt that style from Ma's army. At least their running form seems legal :p

Eventually it'll lead to this. (Trust me).

https://imgur.com/c2vgJ6b

Ma's Army used normal arm carriage:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c6YZBpd2fs

Tokyo non-Japanese wrote:

As some guys have already explained (with Japan Running News quotation), it's Suzuki AC ï½° one of Japanese corp T&F team ï½° 's strategy. And yes, they do it to save energy. They call it Ninja style.

Those two women, Ando and Kiyota, run for Suzuki and train under same coach. While the other, Shigetomo, is from another team. This is why two of them ran like that and one didn't. So, no, not a trend among whole Japanese marathoners.

It is said they learnt that style from Ma's army. At least their running form seems legal :p

That is not natural. Watch any kid run from anywhere in the world.

underlying causes? wrote:

I think there must be some underlying structural difference that affects arm carriage. You have the high, tight across-the-body running form typical of east African women, the by-the-sides style of most Americans,this Japanese low arm carriage, and lots of variations in between and within different groups.

I wonder if it's not just training but underlying joint angles and bone lengths that make different arm carriages comfortable and perhaps more or less efficient for a given runner.

Soft Machine wrote:

Ma's Army used normal arm carriage

I love how they went right at it hard those last 2 laps, and super efficient fast strides all the way.

A coach who promulgated that zombie running style once tried to sell me on it with this spiel: "If I told you to go stand in the corner for a half hour, would it be easier to do that with your arms hanging down by your side, or with elbows bent at 90 degrees?"

That sounds good in theory, but when I tried that style out on the road and track it just didn't work for me; any alleged energy savings were more than offset by a loss of propulsion I usually got from bent (and slightly moving) arms.

Running form is highly idiosyncratic, and a style that works for one -or even several- won't necessarily work for another, no matter how "efficient" it may seem.

There is no way it's more efficient. 2 million years of ape evolution and suddenly the Japanese have found a better way to run. I don't think so. If anything it has to be less efficient. The arm swing serves as a counter balance to the leg stride. Without the arms, you have to use some other muscles to provide that balance. Inefficient.

Nothing more fun than running like an airplane ONCE in a while.

I think some marathon runners actually run like this after the 20th mile. (srs)

http://31.media.tumblr.com/8716861e2a0baa5ae77ce139f98c1614/tumblr_mwgb1bIZAe1qhcd6po1_r4_500.gif

underlying causes? wrote:

I think there must be some underlying structural difference that affects arm carriage. You have the high, tight across-the-body running form typical of east African women, the by-the-sides style of most Americans,this Japanese low arm carriage, and lots of variations in between and within different groups.

I wonder if it's not just training but underlying joint angles and bone lengths that make different arm carriages comfortable and perhaps more or less efficient for a given runner.

This might be crazy, but as a fourth-generation Japanese American, I've always noticed that I run with a lower arm swing/carriage than the average runner. When I see race photos, my arms tend to be downward. Until this thread, I thought it was just my deal. It feels totally natural to me. I've actually tried to run with a higher arm carriage more akin to the African marathoners, but I have to consciously do it to maintain it.

So I'd buy that there's some underlying physiological reason instead of the runners trying to run differently.

Pics of your arms?

Maybe there is some advantage or at least neutral. I know Wilson Kipsang carries his arms lower than other top runners. However, I cant figure out why (or whether) this is useful biomechanically