(Music Playing)
Now, let us take form toward the rubber meets the road, the legs. Lower body mechanics allow the runner to maintain racing speed by maximizing two things. Stride length, the distance covered in each step and stride frequency. How fast the legs have turned over in a set period of time.
How the legs cycle in each running step affects efficiency and overall speed. Let us look at several examples.
Good foot plant. The best contact with the ground occurs when the center of gravity of the body is over the foot plant, above the middle of the foot from most all runners. Compact and driving arms lead this runner to strike in perfect position. His aggressive foot strike allows the runner to maximize ground contacts which drive him forward but minimize the length of those contacts which can slow him down. The best foot plant position is middle to forward allowing a gliding motion over the ground.
Bad foot plant. This athlete leans to far back on his heels forcing him to overcome in her shoe with each step and breaking his motion forward as his foot rolls.
Long arms and an exaggerated swing to them lead to the over striding in heel striking. Good perfect stride. The runner pictured combines good foot plant with a perfect balance, knee lift and efficient upper body. The foot plant is in the mid foot and ground contact time is minimized.
Enjoy an athlete with good basic form. Foot plant, stride length and stride frequency all in harmony allowing him to remain efficient. Stride frequency here comes form efficient arm swing. That efficient arm swing leading to perfect foot plant, stride length and stride form.
Bad long stride. This taller runner over swings his long levers, in this case his arms. Although he does have good stride length to do his height, he spends way too much time in contact with the ground and the push of phase of his stride due to a long and over swing set of arms.
Now we focus on what crossing and lazy arms can do to harm stride length and stride frequency. These arms crossed the midline, killing stride length and they swings lazily preventing stride repeatedly.
Let us now review what we have learned about the lower body mechanics that lead to speed. The foot plant should be at the mid foot, not the heel. Efficient arms drive efficient legs. Over striding comes from exaggerated arm swing and causes breaking at foot plant. Crossing arms or lazy arms produce stride length and repeatedly.
(Music Playing)
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services