Alberto Salazar
I just finished reading an article about Alberto Salazar, a former competitive runner and now coach, who is a stickler for proper running form. If you're a running enthusiast, exercise scientist, or just curious about why you're slow (kidding, kidding) , then check out the article which discusses the scientific aspects of training and form.
The latter two thirds of the article talk a lot about running form, basically all of it referring to Pose running. Pose breaks running down into three simple parts: the running pose, the fall, and the pull. Pose --> Fall --> Pull. Even simpler, all you have to do to run is to change support from one leg to the other by pulling the support foot from the ground.
Here are a couple of excerpts that I found particularly interesting:
On the importance of form:
"In late 2005, Salazar began overhauling the Oregon Project. He recruited A-list racers, including Kara Goucher, while the members of the original team gradually left. He also abandoned the OmegaWave system and began to shift his emphasis from technology to form. The transformation was startling."
Salazar discovers Pose:
"Scrutinizing Bekele’s body on the screen, Salazar noticed that he didn’t arc his back leg up slowly between strides but instead retracted it sharply, like a piston. “While all these other runners had long, trailing legs, his foot was coming right up to his butt,” Salazar recalled. “I thought, Is that just coincidence? Or could that perhaps be part of why he’s so good?”
Heels striking causes a braking motion:
"Freezing the frame, Salazar targeted a wedge-shaped space between Ritzenhein’s thighs. That gap reflected both Ritzenhein’s tendency to heel-strike and the sluggish recovery of his trailing leg. “It’s only in slow motion that you can see it, but that’s braking him,” Salazar said."
More on braking:
"Salazar believes that a runner striking even slightly in front of his body will experience a momentary hesitation while the hamstring labors to pull his torso forward over the grounded foot. “It’s like having a square wheel on your car,” Salazar said. “Each time it comes around, there’s a moment where the car will lurch.”
Salazar gets the last part wrong here. Efficient runners fall forward, they don't push off:
“His hips are directly under his body, which is directly above his foot. So all that force is going up through his legs and hips into his upper body, to propel him forward. There’s nothing being lost there.”
Dr. Romanov, discoverer of the Pose Method, will get his due some day. Until then, coaches will just keep trying to recreate the wheel Romanov's already perfect
The latter two thirds of the article talk a lot about running form, basically all of it referring to Pose running. Pose breaks running down into three simple parts: the running pose, the fall, and the pull. Pose --> Fall --> Pull. Even simpler, all you have to do to run is to change support from one leg to the other by pulling the support foot from the ground.
Here are a couple of excerpts that I found particularly interesting:
On the importance of form:
"In late 2005, Salazar began overhauling the Oregon Project. He recruited A-list racers, including Kara Goucher, while the members of the original team gradually left. He also abandoned the OmegaWave system and began to shift his emphasis from technology to form. The transformation was startling."
Salazar discovers Pose:
"Scrutinizing Bekele’s body on the screen, Salazar noticed that he didn’t arc his back leg up slowly between strides but instead retracted it sharply, like a piston. “While all these other runners had long, trailing legs, his foot was coming right up to his butt,” Salazar recalled. “I thought, Is that just coincidence? Or could that perhaps be part of why he’s so good?”
Heels striking causes a braking motion:
"Freezing the frame, Salazar targeted a wedge-shaped space between Ritzenhein’s thighs. That gap reflected both Ritzenhein’s tendency to heel-strike and the sluggish recovery of his trailing leg. “It’s only in slow motion that you can see it, but that’s braking him,” Salazar said."
More on braking:
"Salazar believes that a runner striking even slightly in front of his body will experience a momentary hesitation while the hamstring labors to pull his torso forward over the grounded foot. “It’s like having a square wheel on your car,” Salazar said. “Each time it comes around, there’s a moment where the car will lurch.”
Salazar gets the last part wrong here. Efficient runners fall forward, they don't push off:
“His hips are directly under his body, which is directly above his foot. So all that force is going up through his legs and hips into his upper body, to propel him forward. There’s nothing being lost there.”
Dr. Romanov, discoverer of the Pose Method, will get his due some day. Until then, coaches will just keep trying to recreate the wheel Romanov's already perfect
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