This
week I took some video of a friend who is a runner. The video was revealing as
it usually is. I showed it to my wife and she challenged me to find one thing
that would help my friend the most. In the process I tried to duplicate what he
was doing in his running as she videoed me. I then did another video of myself
running. I did indeed show improvement over years ago. But I was surprised to
see myself doing some of the same things my friend was doing even if to a
lesser extent. I needed to go back to the basics of sensing and learning. How little we sense sometime and how much is
yet to be known. This article is for you
and also for me and anyone else who wants to continue the learning
process.
What
makes the difference between a great stride and an average one? Obviously there are a lot of differences
between one person and another. The kinesthetic sense, the ability to sense how
we are organizing ourselves, is the biggest factor. Good running requires that
we use our structure optimally. There is
also a difference between mechanical application or action controlled mainly be
conscious thought, and action that is entrusted and to and learned in the
unconscious motor control centers of the brain.
Let’s
begin a short lesson of sensing and learning. First stand and sense your weight
on your feet. Scan your body from head to foot. What can you notice about your
sense of your standing, your lightness or heaviness, your sense of balance, the
relationship of head, neck, hips and feet?
Do a short run, just enough to warm up. Notice
the quality of your run. Walk around a
bit and come back to standing in one place.
Evoke
curiosity
Your
ear is roughly in line with your spine. Your first rib forms a small circle
under the collar bone below the base of the neck. Many people do not stop to notice the
relationship between the head and neck and to feel it for themselves. Notice
the line between the center of the ear and the circle at the base of the neck,
and the hip joint. Is this a straight vertical line or is the head out in front
of you? Notice the line between the head at the center of the ear and the hip
joint and feet at the ankles. Is this a straight line? I am not suggesting that you hold a straight
line between these points at all times and for all movements in your life. But
I am suggesting that you notice your habitual arrangement.
Notice that using the skeletal alignment, the
arrangement of the bones supporting you against the pull of gravity is a key to
ease in standing and moving. The better the bones are arranged, the less effort
from the muscles is required. Accentuate your habitual pattern. Is there more
or less effort required to stand now.
Your center of gravity is generally somewhere in front of your spine and
below your navel. Notice the relationship of your feet, hips, head and neck to
your center of gravity.
Using your most powerful muscles to do
the largest share of the work
Using your smallest muscles to do small
amounts of work
Your
largest muscles are your buttocks muscles, your glutes. Try bending your knees and hips and doing a
vertical jump by straightening the legs but not fully straightening your hips.
You can extend. Now jump with a coordinated use of the hips and quads. You can
probably jump twice as high. It is important to note that the foot lands in
some relationship to your center of gravity, for balance and to be ready for
the next jump. Jump, balance into power. Jump, land on flexed joints, balance into power,
etc.
Arranging yourself for power
Stand
in a more or less vertical alignment, whatever is comfortable for you. Note the
straight line arrangement of the head, hips and feet. You did this before. But
you cannot run from this very vertical position.
Stand next to a wall in this alignment. Now
lean forward by maintaining the straight line relationship between the head and
feet but allowing the ankles to bend. Note that you have maintained the straight
postural line but you are not standing as vertically now. Place one foot, say the right foot a little in
front of the left. Use the right foot only for balance, keep as much weight as
you can on the left. Note that you can feel the glutes engage in this position.
The glutes engage as a mighty stabilizer in the middle and help you move
through this position of extension quickly in running.
Stand
vertically and this time place one foot quite a ways in front of the other with
a straight knee joint. Begin to make the forward straight leg the weight
bearing leg. If you try to bear all you weight on this forward straight leg you
will find it very difficult to do. If you were doing a walking lunge the front
knee would be bent as it started to bear weight, not straight. Yet this straight knee in front is the
classic over striding pattern. There is no power in this.
The
walking lunge uses first one glute, then the other. Notice that it is the rear leg that straightens and extends to take you forward. Practice
this without weights. Make it very, very smooth and only then increase your
speed a bit. Make this a practice in
learning, not exercise.
Over
striding, with the foot being advanced in front of the knee takes the timing of
the running movement out of the possibility of maximum ease and power. Look at
the pictures of over striding vs opening the stride at the top of this article.
See if you can imagine, actually take
the time to imagine how each pattern in the pictures might be executed.
Putting it together
Now comes the key to the whole process. How do
we put this all together? Practice the
experiments above, notice, notice , notice.
You have a lot of sensory information and perhaps you have more deeply
noticed your habits. Let some time pass, and then perhaps do a few light easy
small jumps. Now run. Do not make any attempt at all to consciously control all
your movements. Only let your practice exist in the very background. Search for
what is light, what is easy, what is easy yet more powerful, what is fun. Let
the learning take place in a deeper less mechanical place. Enjoy!
Scott
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