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In article <[email hidden]>,
SwStudio said:I was reading some articles on pponline regarding various
subjects, and as I was reading about stride length I came
across this excellent quote:
"Rather than reaching out with the foreleg to increase
your stride length, think about pushing back as hard as
you can on each step. Use the buttocks and hamstrings to
do so, very much the way you might push out hard from a
set of starting blocks. Run from your hips - not from
your knees".
-Nancy Hamilton, University of Northern Iowa
I really like this visualization, and thought I'd bring it
to the attention of the group. The whole 'running from the
hips' thing is great, and newer runners that read this
will benefit from looking at it this way.
I think a lot of runners who are thinking about getting
faster for the first time tend to start overstriding
because of their idea of where the power is coming from is
incorrect. They get frustrated because they are upsetting
their center of gravity.
cheers,
Dave,
Really like what she has to say. I liked the research she
did about the slowing down that comes with age, mainly the
heel getting further and further away from the butt as the
knee pulls through.
For me the image of pushing back on the step is replaced
with the image of catapulting forward on each step from the
planted foot.
While picturing running from the hips, I like the image of
the legs starting below the rib cage. That way the hip and
knee of one side move forward as the other hip and knee move
equally in the opposite direction.
This way one begins to realize that the torquing of the
pelvis/hips forward and back add an inch to few inches to
one's stride.
Talking about running from the hips for some people doesn't
create the picture that the hips are rotating forward and
back similar to one of those clocks where the flywheel
rotate back and forth on the horizontal.
For me the overstriding occurs because runners don't lift
their knees up and forward. Rather as Hamilton says, in my
words, the lower leg pendulums forward. Also rather than
just lifting the knee, the jogger lifts their entire center
of gravity each step which aids in the overstriding.
So your comment of "upsetting their center of gravity" is
right on. The set up is of the upset. That is the up and
down beyond the normal vertical displacement of the pelvis
of a good runner.
Watching the men's winner of the Boston, his tucking of the
lower leg behind the thigh to bring it through faster was
still there at the end of the race. That tucking, that angle
between thigh and lower leg, from my reading of Hamilton
gets wider and wider with age.
A piece of that in my mind has to do with the quads
tightening, hamstrings tightening so the range of
motion lessens.
If you stand and lift your knee up, or observe someone lift
their knee and you'll notice that a good number have their
hamstring slightly contracted (spring loaded)
__
.../ rather than
__
...| so that when the leg come through
there's no knee lift so it looks more like
..\ ../ so as Hamilton says, the lower leg doesn't tuck
behind the upper leg, the lower leg swings back and forth
with little lifting of the knee rather it's lifting of the
entire center of gravity with each step.
In health and on the run, Ozzie Gontang Maintainer -
rec.running FAQ Director, San Diego Marathon Clinic, est.
1975
Mindful Running: mindfulness.commr.aspOpen ↗ faqs.orgrunningOpen ↗
faq/
