As I ran today some of my focus shifted to my arm swing. We run with the
whole body, not the parts. Running develops around our vertical axis as if
there were a straight line running somewhere down through the center of us. We
don’t run with the arms. We don’t run with the legs. We run as an integrated
whole. The legs have to be integrated with the upper body. The arms have to be
integrated with the torso and the legs. So if we draw our attention to any of
these parts, they give clues to the whole pattern we are developing and indeed
influence the whole pattern.
Arm carriage
should be somewhat compact.
Sometimes the arms are carried very low. I was
aware of this today and experimented with having at least a 90 degree bend.
Sometime we see the loose fists of the hand are carried into a position quite
far in front of the runner almost as if the runner is trying to pull themselves
forward with their hands. But this tends to throw the back out of alignment and
waste energy. Sometimes the arms are carried very wide to the sides, but this doesn't facilitate the spiralic use of the spine seen in the best runners. Sometimes the arms are not moved all that much, but are almost pinned to the
sides or chest causing the runner to rotate at the hips but loose a good
connection to the ground, dissipating the power of good hip extension and
failing the use the spine and back well.
Sometimes
the arm swing is out of balance because for instance there is a swing to the
front but not much back swing. This got my attention today. There should be a
neutral position of the arms and then a swing forward and backward from there
as you run, otherwise the position of the spine and even the head carriage are
effected.
It is best
to have a compact arm swing and one that is not purely side to side or purely
front to back, but one that has a forward and slight diagonal across the body
as the hand rises, without crossing the body’s center line. This way you are
congruent with the spiraling rotation of the spine when running.
The
important point:
The
important idea is this: The arm swing is not a minor detail that is tacked onto
the run but is a clue to everything we are doing in the whole running
movement. It influences everything in
our running. Look at the picture above for a good example of what we have been
talking about. Enjoy getting cues from
your arm swing about your use of energy, head carriage, balance, ground contact,
use of ground forces, hip extension and overall ease. Have fun looking back and
forth at the details of arm swing and the resultant whole pattern.
