Kid with low cadence. Should we work on it?

as a high school girl with a cadence of 180 I'd say yes

Walmsley's cadence is 160.

cadence doesn't matter wrote:

Walmsley's cadence is 160.

Which is it? Cadence doesn't matter, or Walmsley's cadence is 160?

At that age I improved my cadence a lot by doing barefoot strides a few times a week. I think starting to do workouts in flats or spikes helped too, but you have to be more careful about injury.

And it was definitely worth while.

Yes. Don't force it, let it happen. Tell him to run as if hes running on hot coals. Quick feet baby.

Like Really Bro wrote:

Or is this something we should just leave be?

/thread

I wouldn't actively mention it to them. That would lead to them being self conscious about it. Instead, have them do strides several times a week.

We already do quite a bit of strides, and during the offseason we did our fair share of sprints during core / weight room day. His cadence has remained the same. I normally wouldn't bother with something like this but 150 is just super low.

This isn't the kind of kid who is going to get self conscious about it and let it bother him mentally. He wants to get better and is the one who brought it up in the first place. I know form gets better over time, but I'm thinking over the offseason we try and just get his average @ 160-165 instead, instead of waiting for another 1500 miles that may or may not help his form.

The biggest hint for me is how his cadence decreases as he gets tired. And when he is fresh and running well, his cadence is higher. I think it a good idea that we do some more barefoot strides over the summer as well, but I think it will need to be a conscious effort on his part.

Like Really Bro wrote:

I normally wouldn't bother with something like this but 150 is just super low.

At what pace?

Slower pace = lower cadence.

The biggest hint for me is how his cadence decreases as he gets tired. And when he is fresh and running well, his cadence is higher.

When he's tired he's probably moving more slowly, thus naturally his cadence is lower.

Filbert Bayi, who had a very high cadence when racing, had a 160 cadence at 6 minute mile pace.

As others have said, cadence will depend a lot on pace for most runners. What's his cadence at mile race pace (which I assume is somewhere around 5 minutes given you said he may get to 4:30s or 4:40s in the next year)?

More importantly, cadence can imply a lot of things that don't necessarily hold. So it's difficult to make any kind of judgment based solely on the cadence.

For probably most runners, low cadence will imply over-striding. Is that the issue here? Heel striker with dramatic over-stride? If not, I'd probably leave it alone.

His Cadence at mile pace is closer to 165, but as he tires, it goes to 160ish. His pace is not decreasing as he tires (usually), just his cadence. Yeah he definitely is a heel striker but it's nowhere near as bad in a mile race.

as he runs more his form (including cadence) will improve. The stronger you get, the more efficient your form will become. The most you should be doing is probably tell him to focus on turnover on strides or 200s. It will come with time.